Gear Review: Meprolight Foresight Augmented Red Dot Sight

If you are the type who doesn’t like smartphones, I’ll save you some valuable time and let you know this review won’t interest you. Part of the Meprolight Foresight‘s appeal is its ability to connect to a smartphone to download shooting dats.

But while the Meprolight Foresight can use a smartphone to take advantage of a few features, it isn’t essential to the sight’s operation. If you don’t have a smartphone, many of the great features of this optic won’t be available to you.

The Foresight’s connectivity to a smartphone gives you these options:

• The ability to switch weapon profiles. The Foresight can store ten different profiles with ten different reticle sets and ten different zeroes.
• A quick and easy means to zero the optic. The Foresight can be zeroed without the phone, but it’s much faster with the phone.
• The ability to change reticles. (You can choose a set of 5 out of 20 options)
• To update the optic’s software.

On manually zeroing the optic, there is no dial to spin up and down or left to right. Instead, you go through the optic’s menu and manipulate the up/down and left/right axis via the four buttons on the front of the weapon’s controls. It’s slower going compared to zeroing the site through a phone.

The Meprolight Foresight is also more than just a red dot optic. It’s green, too.

The Foresight provides a heads up display that is complete with the following as constant on features, a reticle, as well as a compass read in degrees, and a sight leveler.

On temporarily are a battery meter, a Bluetooth connection alert, and a number that indicates the optic’s brightness level. The next software release is promising a shot counter as well.

With the simple press of a button, you can switch to low battery mode, or what’s better described as battery sipper mode (the Foresight uses a USB-C rechargeable battery). This eliminates everything displayed but the reticle.

Connecting the Foresight

The first step is downloading the app to your smartphone. It works on Android and IOS. You need to ensure your phone’s Bluetooth is on and then wait for the optic to connect to the phone. It’s quick and easy to do.

Once you connect your optic your phone, you get the ability to create profiles. You can save up to ten named profiles for various weapon zeroes. The option for ten separate firearms is certainly appealing, but separate zeroes for the same weapon could be valuable as well.

For example, if I’m shooting 300 Blackout supersonics and want to switch to subsonic, I can simply switch from by SUPER profile to my SUB profile and be zeroed. The same could be said for different shotgun loads like Flitecontrol vs. standard buck or buck and slugs.

Zeroes can also swap between shooters if you share a certain gun. 

I love the idea and found it to be easy to set up and easy to switch between weapons. I zeroed a CZ Micro Scorpion, a standard 16-inch barrel AR-15, and a Benelli M4. I used nail polish to mark the spot where the optic is mounted on the rail of each gun to maintain consistent mounting.

Zeroing through the optic is simple. You’re given a grid, and you move the dot in the direction necessary to zero the weapon. It’s simple and very quick to do. It’s reliable and makes zeroing a truly tool-free experience.

Also, choosing the five reticles you want for each profile is nice. Some reticles are simple, and others are more complicated. Some are designed for rifles with a built-in BDC, and others work better for pistol caliber carbines and even shotguns.

The ability to update the optic’s software may allow for the introduction of more reticles in the future, which could be interesting.

Swapping between zeroes requires a simple push on the screen and the optic switches to a new profile. I rotated through the system numerous times between profiles and weapons and never saw a loss of zero between profiles and weapons once it was zeroed for a certain weapon. The Meprolight Foresight stayed zeroed and allowed for a quick and easy transition between weapons.

General Performance

The use of a green reticle isn’t just less eye-straining, but its more of a battery sipper. After using the optic for several hours between zeroing guns, swapping zeroes, and playing with the phone app, the battery was still at 97%. The Foresight has an auto-off and auto-on function to save battery life. 

At high noon in Florida, I had to jack the brightness level up to 9 out of 9 to get a good clear view of the optic. It would be acceptable at an 8, but 9 made it a little easier. After using it for several hours, I never felt any eye strain or discomfort. 

On and off is a quick button press, and the integral menu is accessed by hitting the center button twice. The menu allows you to zero the optic, as well as orient the compass, return to the factory settings and a few more options.

I have my own preferences for reticles on red dots and found quite a few I liked. Some seemed crowded and overly busy, others seemed too small to be so complicated. The Meprolight Foresight gives you plenty of choices, and that’s always a good thing.

Personally, R-11 (see below) is my favorite all-around reticle. It’s a circle within a circle and works well for every weapon I’ve used with this optic. 

For shotguns specifically, I like the box-shaped R-14 and patterning inside of the box. The R-03 and R-15 are perfect for AR-15 style rifles, and I tend to drift towards those two for rifles.

The only reticle I have an issue with is the actual single dot. It’s very small — maybe 1 MOA — and I like a bigger dot than that on a zero magnification sight. 

Swapping between reticles and changing brightness levels is done through the optic’s forward controls. They deliver tactile feedback and the screen immediately changes when the button is pressed. It seems like it would be complicated, but it honestly takes no time at all to learn. 

Pulling Triggers 

Finally, when it comes to shooting, the Meprolight Foresight works like any premium grade red dot reflex sight. The Foresight allows me to get shots on targets faster than irons and honestly makes shooting more fun.

Something about red dots makes me just have more fun at the range. I also tend to prefer a square-shaped window over a round optic. It gives me better peripheral vision and a wider viewing window. Unfortunately, the Foresight has a bit of perceptible purple tint that kills such a nice sight picture.

I took someone who’s relatively new shooting out armed with a 9mm PCC and the Meprolight Foresight, and for thirty rounds straight, she rang a 10-inch gong at 25 yards. While I’m sure anyone reading this can do the same, it was an excellent confidence booster for a new shooter.

The Foresight sits high enough to allow for a comfortable cheek weld on a variety of weapons. Its more or less AR height and will work with most modern guns. It seemed to work perfectly fine with the Benelli stock, a standard AR stock, and CZ Scorpion PDW brace.

Backing off to 50 yards with the Scorpion and 100 yards with the AR delivered excellent results on that same ten-inch gong.

Better yet, transitioning between a man-sized target and the gong was easy going. It allowed me to take a series of rapid shots on the man-sized target before slowing it down and taking more precise shots on the smaller target. It was a good representation of trying to shoot a target and then trying to shoot the same target when it takes cover. 

One hundred yards is as far as my home range goes, so to go further, I had to take a field trip. At two hundred yards in the prone position, I turned down the reticle’s brightness and used the R-15 reticle on an AR 500 IPSC target and made more positive hits than I missed.

This trip also served to remind me to get out and stretch my legs at different ranges more because I sucked hard at the standing at 200 yards. 

Color me impressed by the Foresight. I found it to be an awesome addition to a variety of weapons. It made me faster on target, faster to transition targets, and gave me the ability to engage big targets faster at range as well as slow down and engage small targets with precision.

The Meprolight Foresight red dot is beginner-friendly, and with newer, younger shooters, the phone interface makes it simple and quick to access. 

Specifications: Meprolight Foresight Augmented Red Dot Sight

Magnification: 1X
Brightness Levels: 9
Window Dimensions: 1.299″ x .787″
Overall Dimensions: 4.6” x 2.35” x 2.65”
Weight: 9.9 ounces
Price: about $650 retail

Ratings (out of five stars): 

Optics: * * * *
The glass appears to be quite clear, and the image displayed by the optic is crisp and non-grainy. Unfortunately, the purple tint pops up and seems most common when you are shooting in the shade at a target in the sun. (The photo above make it looks worse than it is.) 

Design: * * * *
This is a premium grade optic, and the quality of the build is in the same realm as an EOTech or Trijicon. It’s a bit bulky, and I ran into issues going over the Benelli M4 doing a port load. The 9.9-ounce weight makes it a little lighter than most professional-grade red dot or reflex sights. 

Options and Adjustments:  * * * * *
Adjustments are very simple to make on both the app and the optic itself. The controls on the optic make it easy, and the app makes it even easier to zero. It’s a simple system, but if you are in love with turrets, you won’t love the foresight. 

Features: * * * * * (with the app)  * * * (without the app)
Zeroing with the app is easier and much quicker than even a turret-style optic. Swapping out your five reticles, swapping profiles, and updating the sight is only accessible through the app. Without the app you lose a lot of features and ease of use. It’s still a good optic, but without the app, the Meprolight M5 is a cheaper option with the same rugged design. 

Overall: * * * * 1/2
The Meprolight Foresight is a unique optic that gives you an excellent interface between gun and optic and a piece of tech I have with me every day anyway. The ability to offer multiple weapon profiles is unique, and it’s damn handy. The Foresight is well built and a professional grade optic.