The Sweet Spot in Thermal Optics?

 

Most of the guys here (and probably the girls, too) will be familiar with the "Crazy/Hot" Matrix. You know, the scale by which the acceptable level of crazy in a female must correlate with how hot she is.  The hotter she is, the crazier she's allowed to be, and vice versa. The "goal" is to find that girl in the sweet spot, ie really hot and not very crazy.

Pic unrelated

Well, there's a similar scale with thermal optics (and most products, really) called the price/performance ratio. As price increases, so too does performance. When you're trying to get the most bang for your buck, the goal is to find the sweet spot on that scale, too. I like to compare thermal optics to gaming consoles, as I think it's a useful analogy for guys under 50. The little-used (today) 144 sensor is the Playstation 1, the 256 PS2, the 380 PS3, the 640 PS4, and the newer 1280s are the PS5. If money is no object, by all means go ahead and spend $5000-10,000 on a 1280—the performance will be outstanding. For those of us without live-in butlers, though, spending that kind of money on a thermal optic is difficult or impossible. I believe that for most people, the 380-class of thermal optics is where the sweet spot is, as you can get a very usable optic in the $1000-1500 ballpark.

Here, we'll discuss the Goyojo GRL335 and see if it, as a 384 sensor thermal, qualifies. I previously reviewed their GRS225RF, a good range-finding 256 option, and they were kind enough to send this one out as well. First things first, we'll look at the outside, and as you can see, it looks a bit like a thermal ACOG. It mounts via a standard style QD lever and comes with a cantilever extension. I haven't tried this extension (I'm able to get a good sight picture with the standard mount thanks to using it on a build with the LAW ARIC), but it definitely does not strike me as the most solid way to mount an optic. As for the controls, you have 4 buttons on top to use. It should be noted that the power button is also used to activate the recording feature, which is slightly annoying, but in practice hasn't caused me any issues. The battery (18650) is mounted transversely and must be removed for charging. Battery life has been good, and I've been able to hunt 2 or 3 nights on one battery.

Durability has also been good, and I've had no issues either in the rain or cold weather. The GRL335 comes with a camera-lens style cover, which is difficult to remove with gloves on, but is otherwise fine. The other feature that can be difficult to use with gloves is the focus ring, which is set inside of the front objective shroud, and not an external ring like most other thermals I've used. The rear focus (for how the screen appears to your eyes) is a traditional ring, though.

Moving inside, the GRL335 is a 384 resolution thermal sensor with a 35mm objective lens and a 4x base magnification. Performance is very solid, and a noticeable step up from the GRS225RF. It was certainly easier to ID animals with, and also able to detect them further. It has a standard set of thermal scope features, like multiple profiles, multiple reticles, multiple color palettes, etc. Like the 225RF though, it does have a few technological glitches. First, if you watch my video review, you'll see that the reticle and reticle position in the recorded video files does not match what I'm actually seeing through the optic. Not a big deal if you don't plan to share your video with anyone, but worth pointing out. Secondly, the screen also does not recenter after you zero the optic, so your reticle is not in the center of the screen. Again, not a big deal, but definitely annoying. I'm told that an updated version of the GRL335 fixes these two issues, as well as adds audio recording, but I have not used it.

Reticle slightly off center of screen.

Also similar to the GRS225RF,  I disabled the Recoil Activated Video feature because I found that it would kick on while I was walking around, draining battery and SD card space. It would definitely be nice if this could be corrected, as there was at least one critter I shot where I forgot to manually activate the recording in the heat of the moment. Video is recorded and transferred via a Micro SD card, which I like, but there is not an app where you can access your videos, just a live stream of what the optic is looking at.

At its current $950 sale price, I think the GRL335 is a good value, especially if you can get the updated version (I currently don't know if there is a way to distinguish them). For just a few hundred more than a 256 class thermal, the GRL335 does find that sweet spot on the price/performance ratio. If you're trying to maximize bang for your buck on a thermal optic, you could do a lot worse than the GRL335.