Review: Energizer Vision HD 2xAA Flashlight


Bought this from Harvey Norman store. With today's conversion rate, that's USD 16.29, a pretty good deal I would say, considering elsewhere these are going slightly higher. This is 2016 version though, as Energizer has updated the 2017 version from 300 to 400 lumens.

what prompted the spending was this...

everything else was blurred (like in the picture) until I parted my money... yea... you know that moment that things started to come clear one after another?


as usual, light is made in China while batteries in Singapore... and if you wanna check out the data sheet, the model number is PMHH21. Actually, Energizer's model number is anything but helpful especially when they updated the model... there is no revision number nor letter to indicate it's a different version or different make. Good luck figuring out the original specifications after a few years. and see below for the model number printed at the tailcap...


ok now, the main reason for this review...

do you see that beautiful Energizer's Daylight tint?! Yup! That's a beautiful neutral white tint! In fact, this isn't the first Energizer light that feature such a nice neutral white tint, approximately 2 months ago I bought an Energizer Hardcase PivotPlus 2xAA flashlight that features similar tint and I absolutely love it!


The only downside to this Vision HD 2xAA is the low mode that features really low frequency PWM. Even the slow strobe that's hidden (you need to press and hold for 2 seconds when flashlight is ON to activate the strobe) I consider as OK-design!

The UI is very simple mode cycling using the electronic switch: OFF > Click once to High Mode (300 lumens) > Click once to Low mode (85 lumens) > Click once to OFF. Again, strobe is hidden and can be activated by turning on the flashlight and press and hold the switch for 2 seconds. To turn off the strobe, click once and the light will be switch off.

Let's take a look at a few more pictures of the light...

the e-switch is quite small


the body knurling pattern looks smooth at first, but it does provide good grip in use. tailcap is smooth but I have no issue unscrewing the tailcap at all (in contrast to those comments from Amazon).


The positive contact point at the head... it's spring loaded although it doesn't appear at first. I had a surprised when first inserted the battery.


No spring contact at the tailcap, just a slightly raise washer type button to make the battery negative contact.


The tailcap threads and the O-ring comes pre-lube, no excessive amount of grease like other manufacturers, but just a nice lube around the thread and the O-ring.


The second AA battery is exposed and only cover upon screwing the tailcap back to the body.


This flashlight's wall is thick! and if you are into modding, you could shorten and enlarge the tube to fit single 18650 size and I don't think it will compromise the body integrity.
A bit of rattling when shaking the flashlight, but easily fix with a piece of rolled paper around the batteries.

and finally, the business end of the flashlight...

first time seeing this type of optics, 2 TIR + 1 diffused optics, weird but somehow it works! The beam profile is actually a good balance of throw and flood.

bykfixer coined a phrase: "even a bad flashlight aint bad these days", although I don't think this is a bad flashlight, but a consumer grade flashlight it is (probably budget range too), and bykfixer's phrase is equally relevant here especially given big name consumer product producer catches on with phrase like "DELIVERS A WIDE, POWERFUL BEAM TO IMPROVE HIGH-DEFINITION VISION"!

I guess Energizer may be on to something here... and we probably need to re-term High CRI flashlight to Full High Definition (Full-HD) like in Flat-screen TV to gain market traction...

Thanks for the review. This is the kind of flashlight I would have bought before finding BLF. I looked up the price on US Amazon ($19.99 versus approximately $19 for a BLF A6 in the recent banggood sale) and noticed that the Amazon details say the newer 400 lumen light has “One-press digital focus effortlessly transitions from a full spot light to a full flood light”

Thanks for the review. I think some Energizer lights are quite underrated.

Wow, I’m actually kinda impressed. :smiley:

Wonder what little beasties are under the TIRs. XP-G?

thanks for the kind words guys...


thanks for the heads-up, I was intrigued by those wording too, after googling around, I'm guessing the newer model could be referring to the same digital focusing control system that they used in the Vision HD + Digital Focus headlight where they control the focus by ramping the brightness up and down alternating between the 2xTIR and 1xDiffused optics. You can search in youtube for how that digital focus system works in their headlight.


I agree wholeheartedly.




sorry mate, can't tell without removing the optics... :P

bought a new 6AA 1300 lumens version...





comparison to 2AA...


this is a newer version (not talking about brightness nor number of batteries) as Energizer has put something called "digital focus" in the control circuit. It alternate between the lone flood optics and 2 TIR optics by holding down the switch when the light is on, as a result, you can somewhat have "variable brightness" while the light is alternating between the optics. An interesting idea indeed. Kudos to Energizer for creativity!

Had two of these, both stop being able to do high mode after the batteries have been used for like half hour - one hour. And theres a loud is humming noise on low mode, then after the batterie is used for for 1-2 hours it stops turning on at all. My dad and I both had one and they both did this, they sent us two replacements and they did the same.

Shame well made torch but terrible driver that cuts out far to early on used batteries…

Going to use one as a host as the shell and pill are good

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Energizer-630058-Hardworking-Hardcase-Batteries/dp/B001AXMKZY/ref=mp_s_a_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1537707059&sr=8-10&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=energizer+2aa

The hardcase one has the same modes and brightness but it’s 100% reliable in like the 2aa vision pro. Still nothing tops there 6 as double barrel from the early 90s, as you might have guessed I’m a bit of an enetgizer collecter

Hi there, out of curiosity, is your “PMHH21” still working?

If yes, does it suffer from the following?

  1. Random shut downs
  2. Flickering when held in a specific position
  3. At times, does not respond to the “on” button

I ask the above as I have 3 of the PMZH21’ (400 lumens) and have the same slanted positive terminals as shown in your picture above.

The Panasonic batteries per the picture is quite a battery, it is like steroids back in the day as it burned out many of my torchlights, granted they did make the incandescent bulbs shine brighter, any issues with the use of the Panasonic’ so far?

Hope to hear from you soon.

Thank you and warm regards.

I’m not sure if the newer version does the same but it does get warm and a sign of low battery would be when strobe mode only flashes once and power is cut or no longer able to continuously flash.

This is an absolute monster.

Does your tail cap “grind” the negative side of the batteries and even in some cases cut them?

So sorry for late reply…

  1. Nope. No random shut down on mine.
  2. No flickering either except when battery is really low in juice. That’s when the low frequency PWM kicks-in… very annoying…
  3. Yes, I did experienced it but only on the 400 lumens version that it does not respond to the ON click in rare occasion, I can’t reliably simulate it. It happens very intermittently…
  4. No issues with the Panasonic batteries, I’ve exhaust 5 sets of them in the 300 lumens version and 3 sets in the 400 lumens.
  5. The tailcap does grind the negative side of the batteries, but it doesn’t “cut” them. This is the main reason I don’t use NiMH rechargeable in these lights.

I have the 400 lumen version of the Metal Vision HD 2xAA and it’s been a love and hate relationship. The big issue is the faulty driver which will not allow to switch on the light when the voltage gets too low - in my measurements below about 2.3 V. With alkaline batteries after about 1 hour of continuous use it may be impossible to turn it on. Interestingly, once turned on it will run without problems even on lower voltage unless you turn it off and try turning on again. When these problems start to occur the torch still outputs quite a lot of light - for me it’s hard to guess that the batteries are depleted at this moment because there’s still a lot of light. The worst thing here is that you get taken by surprise and it appears as if the torch is broken and you are left with total darkness.

With alkalines it helps to wait for the chemistry to catch up and after a certain time it is possible to turn the light on again and you can get a lot of usable light for the next hour or so. Also, when the batteries are a little worn out you may end up with no light when you change the electronic focus with the switch because the driver will mark the two opposite focus settings with a short black blink - this blink behaves just like a short turn off and if the battery can’t supply voltage above 2.3 V you end up with darkness. This problem makes it problematic to fully use batteries since you have to replace them even though the light intensity is still perfectly fine. But this is too complicated for an average user to understand so people rightfully think the torch is broken.

This is a big fail on the part of Energizer because the torch itself is built quite well and the light and beam are powerful and look pretty nice. It’s not a quality torch but overall I enjoy the light it outputs while it lasts. Someone here said they got replacement units from Energizer and they perform the same - this only proves that even Energizer don’t know how their own equipment works otherwise it would not make sense for them to replace units that simply need premature battery replacement like all of them do.

However, the torch will work better with NiMh batteries. The critical voltage of less than 2.3 V should not happen until almost depleted and then we don’t have to worry about throwing away batteries which are still quite good. It also works better with primary lithium batteries since the voltage is higher and it’s easier to use their full capacity.

It’s really a shame because otherwise this torch is pretty nice and I would recommend it to any non flashoholics who want a powerful AA torch but because of the electronic switch issue I can’t. I really wish Energizer released a fixed version but I don’t hold my breath. It seems as though they outsource the production to some Chinese company that does what it does and the Energizer people won’t even take the time to test it and have no idea how it works and why it fails for so many people. Why a reputable brand like Energizer does this is beyond me. And in this case all it would take is a little bit of testing and quality control to avoid releasing a dud like this.

2 Thanks