While Magicshine has had their name on a bike rear radar with the co-branded Magene / Magicshine Seemee 508 the taillight design didn’t share much in common with Magicshine’s other lights. The Magicshine Seemee R300 is their latest radar and uses an all-new design with multi-element LEDs that incorporate some of the best features of Magicshine’s other lights. As with many Magicshine products, the Seemee R300 undercuts other radars on the market with a highly competitive $129.99 retail price. The radar has a claimed 140m detection range with a wide 20 degree horizontal range to detect approaching cars. Magicshine has gone all out with a multi-element LED design that combines a focused center LED along with COB side markers which achieve a maximum 300 lumen output. The Seemee R300 also features a separate button to control the radar status and a 100 hour runtime using only eco mode with no radar.
The Magicshine R300 combines a bright and highly visible LED taillight design with a reliable bike radar at a competitive price point.
| Retail Price | $129.99 |
| Rating | 9.0 / 10 |
| Measured Weight (in g) | 113 (radar), 13 (mount) |
| Likes | + Competitive pricing + Excellent visibility from any angle with multi-LED design + Multi-level battery status indicator |
| Dislikes | – Floppy seatpost mount with mini-Garmin mount – More false positives with parked cars or signs than other radars |
| Where to Buy (US) | Magicshine 15% OFF coupon code: “TheSweetCyclists” |
UNBOXING
The Magicshine Seemee R300 comes in a compact black cardboard box with a glossy graphic of the radar printed on it. Inside the box you’ll find:
- Seemee R300 radar
- Seatpost mount
- USB-C charging cable
- Instruction manual
- Warranty card
The packaging design feels high-end with a foam cutout holding the radar firmly in place and a cardboard divider hiding all the accessories underneath it.
MOUNTING
The Magicshine Seemee R300 uses Magicshine’s miniaturized Garmin quarter-turn mount. It is about half the size of a standard Garmin mount but has the same twist-on design that is easy to use and very secure. This mount is shared across all of the Seemee taillights so you can use their optional saddle rail mount if desired. Magicshine includes a simple rubber and plastic seatpost mount with an angled rubber backing to keep the radar parallel to the ground. When mounting the radar, you want to make sure the radar surface is above your rear wheel to ensure the radar has an optimal line of sight to cars behind you. With the heavier weight of this radar we found the mount has quite a bit of vibration which seems like it could affect the radar performance. We would have preferred to see the larger standard Garmin mount that the original Seemee 508 used as it allows you to use more third-party mounts.
FIT & FINISH
Visually, the Magicshine Seemee R300 looks quite similar to the Magicshine Seemee DV camera taillight. The radar uses a similar triangular profile with a focused LED on top with a round COB LED display around it. Below the main lighting element are two COB LED strips mounted on each side that sandwich a rather small radar surface. Compared to other radars like the Bryton Guardia, Trek CarBack, Magene L508 or Garmin Varia which have large flat radar surfaces, the Magicshine looks more like a standard taillight than a radar. All the tech does make the Seemee R300 fairly large and bulkier than other Magicshine Seemee taillights though as it’s nearly 3.75” in length and about 1.5” in depth. However, It is an attractive design with a gray lower section and dark black plastic upper. The USB-C charging port is hidden on the side of the radar underneath a rubber cover.
While the co-branded Magene x Magicshine Seemee 508 radar was a good radar for the price, the taillight design was always disappointing. With this new Seemee R300 it’s clear Magicshine has been able to design the lighting elements from scratch. Magicshine has added a bright and focused top LED that is similar to the Trek Flare RT and the Trek CarBack radar that gives the light long-distance visibility. An additional circular COB LED surrounds the LED and has an eye-catching spinning illumination pattern that is illuminated when the radar is on. Magicshine didn’t stop there though, to ensure the taillight is visible from side angles and closer distances there are two COB LED strips along the side. These create a uniform and even glow that ensures you’ll be visible at any angle without blinding other cyclists.
USER INTERFACE
As far as the user interface, the Seemee R300 has a two button design that lets you independently control the taillight and radar functionality. Both of the buttons are located on top of the radar and have a raised rubber texture with a large touch target. Holding the main power button turns both the radar and taillight on while a short press cycles through the five available modes (low / high / night / day flash / eco flash). Holding the radar button will turn the radar on and off which lets you use the R300 as a radar only or taillight only if desired. It’s a nice feature that lets you maximize the runtime of the device depending on where you are riding. Magicshine has also incorporated a lockout feature which lets you lock the user interface by holding the power button for about 3 seconds.
Both of the button’s backlights will illuminate red when the light is locked out, which lets you transport the R300 in a bag without worrying about it turning on accidentally. There is also an auto-sleep mode which will turn the Seemee R300 off if there are no vibrations detected for 5 minutes. To enable or disable the mode you have to hold both buttons down for 3 seconds until the taillight flashes or goes constant. Flashing indicates the mode is off while constant illumination indicates the auto-sleep mode is enabled. According to the manual, Magicshine also has an auto-sync feature which will put the taillight in a low output group-ride if two Seemee R300 come within close contact and are in the low output mode. We don’t have two taillights to test this feature, but it’s a cool concept if you ride in groups and can convince others to also buy the Seemee R300.
LIGHT OUTPUT
One of the best features of the Magicshine Seemee R300 is the taillight design. Magicshine has combined the lens design of lights like the Seemee 200 and Seemee 300 into this larger form factor. The Seemee R300 has six main output modes with two constant options and three flash options. There is a low steady mode (50 lumen and 14.5 hr runtime) and a high mode (100 lumen and 8 hr runtime). In steady mode all the LEDs are illuminated together at a constant power output. As far as flash modes there is night flash (60 lumen / 11.9 hr) which does a steady low to high pulsing, a battery conserving eco flash (10 lumen / 24 hr) and the impressive day flash (300 lumen / 16.2 hr). In all these modes the radar can be independently turned off which significantly increases the runtimes. Conversely, you can run the R300 in a radar only mode which still outputs 1 lumen due to the animated ring and has a runtime of 26.3 hours.
Thanks to the COB LED strips and the highly focused centered LED, the Seemee R300 is a bright light that keeps you visible during any conditions. The focused LED is similar to the Trek CarBack and ensures long distance visibility while the additional COB side LEDs provide side visibility. It’s a huge improvement over the Magicshine Seemee 508 and the Garmin Varia’s simple single LED side markers. The long strips have a uniform glow with a much larger illumination region that ensures the radar and rider are always visible. We were impressed with the visibility of the R300 and the long runtime it offers in all the modes. Even using the 300 lumen daytime flash mode we only had to recharge the light every few weeks instead of weekly like most radars.
RADAR
The Magicshine Seemee R300 radar claims are in line with other radars on the market with a 140m detection range and 20 degree side angle. On paper this gives you more than enough time to know a car is coming well before you hear it. We were able to seamlessly pair the Seemee R300 with our iGPSPORT BSC300 and other GPS computers to display alerts and vehicles. Where the initial software versions of the Magicshine Seemee 508 had initial hiccups, Magicshine has iterated the R300 design quite a few times to work out the kinks and improve the performance before putting the radar on the market.
With the final version we received, radar performance has been great with long range detection and multi-car detection. In heavy traffic the R300 does a good job tracking multiple vehicles and has separate alert levels for faster approaching vehicles. Our only issue is that the R300 does have false positives as it seems to pickup phantom vehicles when riding in neighborhood streets with parked cars or large road signs. Looking back at our riding footage we suspect this maybe a side-effect of the floppy mount which could cause the radar to deflect when going over big potholes or dips in the road. Aside from the more frequent false positives, the R300 has competitive detection ranges and reliability.
THE VERDICT
Overall, we found the Magicshine Seemee R300 to be a very well designed taillight with good radar performance. Magicshine has take their multi-LED design from the Seemee DV camera taillight and incorporated a small radar surface into the center. The result is one of the best taillight designs for a radar we’ve seen that combines a focused LED for long distance visibility and vertical COB LED strips for excellent side visibility and closer distances. With the current software, the radar performance is on par with the competition aside from more frequent false positives. The only other downside to this radar is that the mini-Garmin mount is floppy for the weight of this radar. That said, the Magicshine Seemee R300 offers an excellent taillight design and good radar performance at an affordable price point.
Disclaimer: The product for this review was provided by Magicshine. The views expressed on this website are solely those of the authors and are here to help people make an informed choice before a purchase. The authors or the blog itself does not get any monetary compensation from the product manufacturer or third-party websites/vendor links that are posted here.
I have to say it is really strange to me that you say nothing about how this works with a bike computer. I assumed it did but could only confirm that by looking at their web site. It looks pretty interesting but there is not enough in this review to tell me how it compares to other radar lights. I’ve been a avoiding buying a Varia even though I use a Garmin 840 because it still doesn’t use usb-charging which is pretty lazy of Garmin.
All the bike radars use the same standard communication protocols so they all should work the same way with the same alerts and slow or fast notifications for vehicles. We connected the Magicshine R300 to our Bryton and iGPSPORT computers with no issue. Garmin has definitely been lazy with the Varia, they had the entire market to themselves for years but were slow to innovate and add USB-C and other features. The Magicshine R300 has a much nice taillight design than the Varia and with a few more updates to the algorithm to reduce false-positives it should have very similar performance.
Ok thanks much for the reply. This light is on sale on their website site and with your discount code I think I’ll give it a try.
One other thing is I read the manual and I see no evidence that there will be any method of updating firmware so I wonder if this can get better over time.
Most of the Magicshine lights can connect with the Magicshine app so I would hope the R300 can do the same.
I replaced my failed varia with the seemee r300. The magicshine is of a superior design and quality. The only advantage of varia is the weight. The radar function is equally good or better than the varia, the light functions is night and day (seemee way better). It works fine with my garmin 1050 and can be controlled through the bike computer (on/off, beam control, illumination control, battery feedback etc). Overall very happy with the purchase