[REVIEW] NITEFOX ES10 Stainless Steel AA Flashlight XPG2 PICS & VID [UPDATED] Now with 14500 support and 20% off Promo Code

NITEFOX ES10 Stainless Steel AA Flashlight Review

I got this one to give as a gift but did a little review before I send it off.

Hey everyone, I’m looking at the NITEFOX ES10 AA Stainless Steel Flashlight today. Main features include stainless steel construction, a warm cree xpg2 led, tail switch operation, powered by a single AA alkaline or rechargeable cell. 14500 cells work too, but be aware of heat and some protected 14500’s may be too long to fit. Comes with spare pocket clip, oring, diffuser in a nice compact tin. Outputs about 180 lumens on high and 80 on low. 3 modes High, Low, and strobe. It retails around $25 or $30 bucks depending on which flavor you choose. I bought this one on amazon here: Link: Amazon.com

There is a new Discount Code for the Nitefox ES10, the ES10K and other Nitefox lights.
ES10 and ES10K 20% discount, Code: ES10POMO

Other Nitefox lights current discount:
UW360, UW360M and UW360F, buy one 15, buy two 20 discount.
Both promotions start from May 18th 1am and ends on May 31th 23;59 PDT

YouTube Video rundown here: https://youtu.be/KGZP1umq9GM
Disclosures: I was not paid for this review.

The Nitefox ES10 arrived in this retail packaging in a box.

The Nitefox ES10 was neatly packed in this cool re-usable tin with the accessories and the flashlight.

Here it is everything in its place inside a foam padded tin. Battery not included. Flashlight, diffuser, lanyard, spare pocket clip and screws, keychain attachment and a manual.

The Nitefox ES10 came with a spare O-ring, Pocket clip and screws, a cone style diffuser to use the flashlight as a lamp. A keychain style lobster claw clasp. It even included an Allen wrench , a nice touch if you ever need to change the clip.

The Nitefox ES10 is operated by a nice solid feeling reverse tail switch and there are recesses machined into the tube to accommodate finger operation. The switch itself feels very solid and not mushy, there’s a real positive click sound and feel to it when operating. Light starts in high mode from off and a half press on the switch changes modes to low and then to strobe. No mode memory. Something else kinda cool I was able to do with it for a sort of a momentary feature was to turn the switch on and then unscrew the head from the body slightly. Then while pressing the two halves together it gave me a momentary feature.

There is a nice orange peel textured reflector embracing a neutral/warm tinted Cree XPG2 emitter. I did notice a very slight donut hole effect in the beam when white wall hunting indoors, but it was very slight. I’m not sure that it shows up in the beam shot pictures later, but I did want to make a note of it.

The Nitefox ES10 has a bit of weight to it, expected with stainless steel construction and comes in at about 2.8 ounces with an Eneloop AA cell in it. It is a bit under 3/4 inch in diameter and is just over 3.5 inches long. A great solid feel to the light and it feels good in the hand. There is no knurling for grip on this one, but they have one with it you can choose when purchasing. I had no problems holding on to it without knurling since it fit in my hand so well. I chose the smooth one specifically so that it would slide into pockets easier. The pocket clip offers a nice solid retention and it stayed in my pocket easily.

The tooling on the body and head is excellent and smooth, and the threading was lubed. The body and head is sealed with an O-ring. and the Tailcap end of the tube has a lanyard attachment point machined into it opposite the pocket clip.

The driver is firmly seated in the head of the light. I didn’t explore if it was pressed in or threaded in since I have no plans on operating on this one. The driver itself has a positive contact for the cell that is smooth and not really raised. It may be gold plated but I’m not certain, it is at least gold colored :wink: . The reflector and lens can also be unscrewed from the head and is sealed with an o-ring also.

There is a small spring in the tail end of the tube for the negative contact.

The Nitefox ES10 is a stylish classy looking light and I really like the lines of it. Pure speculation here but it reminds me of another light by Thr**e that I’ve seen before. The similarity this one and the K3 keychain light I reviewed before have to another brand have me wondering if there is some relationship, but that’s just me speculating.

The Nitefox ES10 came with this awesome little cone shaped diffuser so you can use the flashlight as a little lamp. Great feature for camping and such. Here the light is on high mode 180 lumens in the early evening on the porch.

And on low mode around 80 lumens here.

Side by side pics at night with the diffuser installed.

And without.

Overall I’m pretty happy with the Nitefox ES10 and like it.
This is the second or third light of theirs that I’ve gotten and so far all have been pretty decent. I look forward to more of their stuff in the future.
Here’s the YouTube for a little night stuff where I compare the tint to a BLF 348 towards the end. No run time graphs this time I had to send it off to a birthday brat.

Thanks for reading/watching!

Whoaa, looks nice. Tint is not so warm to me, though.
Thanks for review.

High low and strobe? Everything is suspiciously similar except for the best part.

@ desmondkun: Regarding the tint, It’s definitely warmer than the neutral blf 348 that’s 5000k. If I had to guess a kelvin number I would guess 4000-4500k, white balance on cam sort of makes it look cooler.

@Parametrek: sure looks like one to me too. UI excepted.

Support for 14500?

The manual says AA alkaline or NiMh and doesn’t say anything at all about 14500 compatibility so I was afraid to try it and get the dreaded magic puff of smoke…
I have sent a message to them to inquire and when I hear back from them I’ll post an update if 14500 cells will work safely.

Thnx for the review! Looks nice, but not to fond of the smaller bezel than tube.

Your welcome!

I heard back from Nitefox regarding support of the 14500 cell in the ES10

Yes, ES10 can work with 14500 battery but will be hot after 5 minutes on the head part, so we don’t recommend to use 14500 battery at high mode for long time to protect the light and avoid the injury from hot surface. Also accept unprotected 14500, with protection circuit 14500 battery may be too long

Thanks for the review mate!! And for the data from Nitefox :wink:

:+1:
Thanks, and you’re welcome.