[Review] Nitecore Tube ~ A $10 daily beater

The flashlight was sent to me by Gearbest for review.
No additional compensation was received.
Here’s the product’s page (non affiliate link): Nitecore Tube Black

The tube comes in a elegant and minimal blister box.

As one would expect, the box includes the bare minimums.
Except from the keychain light, there are also two different sized keyrings.

The tube comes with a black, semi-transparent body.
Thanks to the multiple cuts and corners, the body has a futuristic look.
Of course, more color options are available as well.

The triangular metal piece that’s seen in the tail of the tube is used to attach the keyring.
The back side of the light has a ‘Tube’ engraved into it.

The operation of the light is accomplished through the side switch.
The switch is very tactile and creates a nice clicky sound once pressed.
In order to keep the Tube IP65 water/dust resistant, the switch is protected by a rubber piece.

Despite its low price, the light does sport an integrated rechargeable battery and a micro USB charging interface.
As previously, the micro USB port is protected by a rubber flap.

Once being plugged in, the Tube utilizes a blue colored indicator LED.
The indicator will stop shining after the battery has been fully charged.

Being a keychain light, the Tube’s dimensions are quite compact, while it weights practically nothing.
The place of such a light is next to your keys, so here’s a shot of it installed on my keychain.

User Interface

The Nitecore Tube uses a simple UI interface that utilizes a couple of quick access features as well as
an infinitely variable brightness mode.

  • Power ON / OFF : Single press. The light will go to low mode.
  • Momentary High : Constant press.
  • Jump to High: Double press
  • Infinitely Variable Brightness: Double press and constant press afterwards. Once in mode, the light will cycle through lots of increasingly brighter modes and go back to start after the maximum brightness is reached.

Output and Runtime

Here’s the output and runtime ratings that Nitecore provides.
I have personally only tested and confirmed the runtime on high mode, but Nitecore is known to be a reputable manufacturer that provides realistic ratings.

Mode - Output - Runtime
Low - 1 Lm - 48h
High - 45 Lm - 1h

The beam’s angle is pretty wide as there isn’t any kind of optics being used in front of the emitter.
The beam should be more than usable for indoor daily tasks.

Lastly, here’s a wall beamshot.
As seen, there isn’t a defined hotspot, but rather you get a nice floody beam.

The Tube is excellent for a backup light or for someone that doesn’t really need a powerful flashlgiht (e.g office worker) but does want to have something in handy.
For less than $10, you can’t really go wrong with it.

There are often flash sales for 5.99$

or coupons from 4.99$

easy to find in this forum

Really?
That’s even greater then :slight_smile:

The light will pay off its value even if you need to use it once…!