Meprolight MPO-DF Review: RMR for Regular Folks?

Part 1 – Unboxing, First Impressions, and Initial Thoughts Before Mounting

Apr 04, 2025

I finally accepted the inevitable and sent off my Glock 17 Gen5 police trade-in to get the slide milled for an optic. Being a practical overthinker, choosing which optic cut to have machined wasn’t (and still isn’t) an easy decision. I went with the safe bet—an RMR cut.

Cool. That’s the hard part, right?

Wrong.

Now comes the optic itself.

I went through every brand, open vs. closed emitter, red vs. green, and landed on what I thought would be ideal: the Trijicon RCR. It checks all the right boxes—for an apocalypse gun. But for my real-world use case, which is like most people’s, it’ll be living inside a quick-access safe, hoping it never has to earn its keep.

So that led me to one of my favorite obsessions: dissecting the market in search of value.

I ran through all the usual suspects, but kept circling back to one company—Meprolight. They’ve built battle-proven optics for the IDF and have a track record that flies a little under the radar in the U.S.

Naturally, I had eyes on the MPO-F—their full-size, enclosed “mailbox” optic. But I kept coming back to the styling (and price) of the MPO-DF—Mepro’s cheapest pistol optic, and their only one made in China. I figured I’d shoot my shot and reached out to Mepro for a sample to see how I’d fare in the gear review game.

They were down. Let’s get into it.

First Impressions

Unboxing

Packaging is legit. The optic sits center-stage in a clear hardware mount, displayed at the top of a hinged cardboard box. Simple, clean, premium-adjacent. A very enjoyable unboxing experience.

Accessories

Multiple screw lengths
Picatinny adapter
CR1632 battery
Allen keys
Rubber lens cover
Lens cloth
Instructions

Everything you need, no filler. No weird missing parts. Just solid.

Build Quality

The DF feels stout. No toy-like hollow housing here. Even the screws and Allen keys feel decent—not some bottom-barrel tier hardware. The button is tactile, clicky, and feels robust.

Glass

Window size is solid. Clarity is better than expected. There’s a noticeable blue tint, similar to an RMR—fine by me.

Features

Side-mount battery
Auto-adjust brightness (via sensor)
Manual brightness mode
Shake-awake
Direct RMR footprint (no plate needed)
Bonus: the emitter itself is protected by a tiny piece of glass—not something all budget optics include

The One Drawback

The friction-fit battery cap. It seats firmly and hasn’t moved, but I’d love to see a screw-retained design here. For the price, that’s really my only knock.

Final First Impressions

This thing feels right.

The price is around $150, and for that? You’re getting a feature-rich, well-built RMR-footprint optic that looks better than most budget-tier options and feels like it can hang.

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