DR.ÖTEK MT6-PRO Pinpointer - Pro Performance At A Budget Price? Not Quite!

The market for Metal Detector Pinpointers has been more or less dominated by three brands over the past few years. Garrett, XP and Nokta. Of course, there are plenty of alternatives out there but they tend to be either really cheap copies that don’t work very well or from lesser-known brands that are too costly for what they are. The GP Pointer on Amazon for around £20 is pretty good though!

But what if you could get a top-quality pinpointer, with great features for a very reasonable price? The DR.ÖTEK MT6-PRO wants to be that pinpointer.

The MT6-PRO has now been released to the market but we had the opportunity to test one over the past few months. The design is quite interesting. From a distance, it reminds me of the XP Mi6/Mi4. I am not sure if that was deliberate but suffice it to say it looks good.

The rubberised hand grip is an attractive maroon flush/brick red colour. It has a very pleasant feel to it. The side-mounted controls are accompanied by an LCD display and speaker housing.

Specifications:

Operating Frequency: 10kHz
Waterproof: IP68 (submersible to a depth of 1.5 metres for max 30 minutes)
LCD Display: Signal strength
Weight: 170g (190g with battery and lanyard)
Battery: 1 x 9v
Max detection Depth: 12cm
Size: 25cm x 4cm
Operating Modes: Vibration & Sound, Vibration, Sound.
Interference Cancelation Button: Single Button Push Removes EMI.
Flashlight built-in.
Belt holster included.

Build Quality:

This is a well-made pinpointer. No cheap feel plastics in use here. It feels very robust in the hand and has a decent weight to it.

The single 9v battery is connected directly to the pinpointer via fixed contacts inside the battery housing. This makes the contact much more secure. Cheaper pinpointers often employ a wired battery connector and these can fail through constant use.

The battery compartment is sealed with a screw top cap which employs a rubber o-ring to keep the water out. It screws on smoothly and certainly feels like no water can get in there. This was put to the test in a rock pool on the beach and I can confirm that the MT6-PRO remained working and there was no water ingress.

The two control buttons are very easy to use however, they are also prone to activate when you push the pinpointer into the holster. They could do with being just a little bit stiffer.

The LCD signal strength meter is bright under certain conditions but almost invisible in strong sunshine. It is a good idea for night detecting, but it needs work to be of any use during the daylight hours. In truth, it is more of a gimmick than a useful feature.

The pinpointer probe part has a scraper blade on one side and there are also depth markings on the probe itself.

Performance:

We first carried out a simple set of air tests against two other pinpointers, the Nokta Pulse and Quest Xpointer.

DR.ÖTEK MT6-PRO:

£1 at 8cm
10p at 7cm
5p at 5.5cm

NOKTA PULSE:

£1 at 8.5cm
10p at 8cm
5p at 6cm

QUEST XPOINTER:

£1 at 7.5cm
10p at 4.5cm
5p at 4cm

As you can see, the MT6-PRO does well here, only slightly behind the Nokta and ahead of the Quest. Even more impressive is that the MT6-PRO results did not vary when detecting targets in the ground.

There are two controls on the MT6-PRO. The first button turns the pinpointer on and a quick press of the button also cycles through the three available modes. These are vibration with sound, vibration only and sound only. A long press turns the pinpointer off.

The other button, which DR.ÖTEK has called the “Noise Cancellation Button” is supposed to cancel out EMI from other electrical devices or detectors close by. In theory, a single press of this button is all that is required. The display then changes colour to let you know that you are in this mode. Another press takes you back into normal mode.

I must admit we had mixed results with the noise-cancelling feature. Using it with the Minelab X-TERRA PRO we had to keep moving the Minelab some distance away in order to avoid interference. However, we don’t think this is really a frequency shift, which is normally used to avoid EMI. It halves the detection distance when active so that leads us to believe that its only function is to reduce power and in doing so, hopefully, avoid interfering with your detector.

The other big problem we encountered was that the volume level is not very high. It was impossible to hear the MT6-PRO on the beach. The sound of the waves and wind completely masked the sound of the pinpointer. In contrast, the Nokta Pulse can most certainly be heard above the noise of the surf as can the Quest XPointer. I queried this with DR.ÖTEK and they said they could not make it louder because it would drain the battery too quickly. That may indeed be the case but nonetheless, I don’t think this pinpointer should be on sale with this flaw still present. Even a £20 GP Pointer is louder and that doesn’t seem to suffer from battery power issues.

The vibration mode was only really useful when not wearing gloves. It is not strong enough to be felt through the gloves that I normally wear when detecting.

Alternatives:

Quest Xpointer – Good Quality pinpointer. One of the very few to use Pulse Induction technology.
Nokta Pointer – This is the basic Nokta Pointer but it works well and has been very popular for years.
XP MI4 – A good quality pinpointer from XP. Well made, robust and works really well.
Minelab Pro-Find 20 – This is the mid-range pointer from Minelab. Basic but does the job.
Nokta PulseDive – Excellent pinpointer. Very well made. Built like a tank. Plenty of options. Quite heavy and the buttons are stiff.
Garrett Pro Pointer 2 – An industry standard. Works well. Quite expensive for what it is though.
GP Pointer – £15-£20 on Amazon or eBay. Buy from a trusted seller and you should be ok. Cheap but better than the MT6-PRO.

All of the above are more expensive than the DR.ÖTEK MT6-PRO however, given the volume issues and the visibility problems with the MT6-PRO display it is hard to recommend it right now. It is a cost vs benefits situation. And right now, there is no benefit to purchasing the MT6-PRO rather than one of the other pinpointers mentioned. A cheap GP Pointer would be a better buy.

Conclusions:

The MT6-PRO has a quality feel about it. And in use, it proved to have good depth and was very sensitive to the smallest of targets. The controls are simple but the essentials are there. The addition of the LCD strength meter is not really needed. But if it is going to be there it must be visible in daylight. The volume level issue definitely needs to be addressed and my personal opinion is that the MT6-PRO should be withdrawn from sale until these issues are addressed.

Pro performance at a budget price? Unfortunately not. It needs to be louder. The vibration function needs to be stronger so it can be felt through a gloved hand and the display should either be dropped or made much brighter. Oh and include a real, frequency shift function to eliminate EMI. As things stand, we cannot recommend the MT6-PRO.

Price & Availability

The list price is $69.99/€79.99 although this is normally discounted to $49.99/€54.99. DR.ÖTEK also runs regular deals to reduce the price even further. Check out their Facebook group and page for more details. Although please do take into account what we have said above.