The flashlight was gracefully provided to me by GearVita.com for review.
Here's the product's page: Nitecore EC23
The flashlight comes in a typical Nitecore themed box.
The sides of the box show a sneak peak of the light's features - 1800Lm, 16.2Kcd of throw and a maximum of 330h runtime.
The accessories includes are two replacement o-rings, a lanyard and an instruction manual.
Looking at the flashlight itself, it's easy to see that Nitecore has gone for a tactical look.
Matte black anodization, light knurling and anti-roll grooves and of course an e-switch.
Nothing exciting on the other half of the light.
An side mounted e-switch is used to control the operation of the flashlight.
The plastic boot of the switch is textured, while there's also an indicator LED integrated into it.
The tail is raised quite a bit, which allows the EC23 to tail stand.
There is also a couple of lanyard holes drilled into the raised portion.
The threads are square cut and arrived lubricated.
Due to them being anodized, the flashlight can be locked out by a slight twist of the tail cap.
The tail's spring is very thick in order to be able to cope with the high current requirements of the driver.
The driver is housed under a plastic protector.
The positive terminal is made out of a solid copper button.
The XHP35 CW emitter is housed inside a quite deep smooth reflector.
The alignment is perfect.
Along with the flashlight, there is also a Nitecore branded 18650 cell included in the package.
The cell is rated for 20A of continuous discharge (35A pulse) and 2500mAh of capacity.
According to my MiBoxer C4-12 charger, the IR of the battery is 39mΩ
// A Little Mod \\
Most of my EDC flashlights have a pocket clip installed to them.
Since the EC23 didn't come with one, I decided to utilize one I had available from my Rofis R3.
Its fitment is excellent, it matches with the color of the body and it even is a deep pocket carry one!
User Interface
The EC23 comes with a pretty straightforward firmware for an e-switch light.
Here's all the actions supported by the user interface.
Turn on/off: Single press.
Mode Cycle: Long press withing 3 seconds from turning on the light. The modes cycle in 1 second interval ( Ultralow > Low > Mid > High > Turbo )
Momentary Turbo: Long press after 3 seconds from turning on the light. After releasing the button, the light goes back to previous mode.
Ultralow: 0.5 second long press while off.
Turbo: >0.5 second long press while off.
Strobe: Triple press.
Blinkies: While in strobe, long press to cycle through SOS > Location Beacon > Strobe
The blue indicator LED that's integrated to the switch is used for monitoring the battery's status.
Once a battery is inserted, the indicator will blink several times. E.g for a voltage of 4.1V you would get the following blinks: 4 blinks - 1 second pause - 1 blink.
Also, the indicator shines once the flashlight is powered on: No Blink: Battery > 50%, Blink every 2 secs: < 50%, Quick blinking: Time to charge :)
Performance
Here's my measurements using the included 2500mAh 25A rated cell at full charge.
And here's Turbo compared to my other lights:
As seen, the EC23 should be pushing more than 1700 OTF Lumens, which is super impressive for a pocket carried light.
Of course the output is heat regulated, which means that it will decrease in order to keep the head 'cool'.
I believe that the EC23 is an excellent EDC and it will be entering my daily rotation!