What kind of small-battery flashlights (not keychains) you like the most?

Definitely 14500

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_Flashlight

Much imitated.

14500 for the same reason as everyone else - slim. I would’ve thought 18350 got more votes for drain rate and capacity but there you go…

14500 lights are my choice. I like the slim profile.

14500. Because its slim and the ability to swap out with a AA.

For the last few years, it’s been the EagleTac 2014 D-25 25 ti. clickly.

Chris

Ah, I thought they were all AAs.
I am looking for a really slim AA zoomie and this looked like one.

Yep as a clicky the eagle tac and the xeno es1 are the same size (small and thin ) Eagle tac takes either battery and the xeno only wants the AA..The old Eastwood / blf light modded with a nichia is still a very small nifty lil clicky.

In a twisty the old Thrunite T-10 and the jet beam are nice and small too .

Still love a plain old nichia 219B Lumintop tool at only 20 grams with a battery it's often found clipped to my collar .

Nice part of having lots of lights is they are what they are and if weight is an issue than leave it on the shelf . I still love some AA lights that are bigger than some 18650 lights ....just not all the time .

Don't need to bring a gun to a knife fight

I prefer the 14500 format because most of them can run also with regular AA battery.

i would say 16340 for me then, seems to be my fav i would have to vote.

Among these three, 18350 for sure. For me, capacity is everything, and it’s one reason why I have two 16340 torches and hate both of them.

But for real, I won’t go below 18650 and don’t plan to change that opinion anytime soon.

I agree.

18350 for capacity, but I don't even use those because 18650 cells have the most capacity per volume.

(Except for maybe 21700 cells.)

That and 18650 is just a nice compact format for a dude of my size. The heft and bulk are just enough to be noticeable without being overbearing.

Haven’t tried a 21700 yet, it’s a bit too exotic (so few options for lights on the platform) and expensive for my tastes, and the torches that fit it don’t have runtimes that seem to take enough advantage of its mAh like 18650 ones do. Maybe when it’s more mainstream and more picks are available on the market, I’ll pick one.

I feel the same about 21700 cells.

Not many choices so far, though it's probably the cell of the future.

There are other types of batteries, not as famous as the ones that have been talked above, that may deserve an attention, namely 18500 and 16650.

For the first, it shorter than 18650, has less capacity than those, but has more capacity than a 18350, being slightly bigger.
Emisar D4, Jaxman, and few more lights use it (stock, not modded).

For the second type, I only knew it some time ago when I started messing with my On The Road i3 and M1. Together I can make them use a 16650 battery.
Recently, I also saw that 4Sevens (by Prometheus Lights, aka Jason Hui) will also launch a 16650 flashlight:

Not too large, longer than a AA light, with capacity around 2200mAh, being this more than 14500/16340/18350.
Although these are different types of batteries, they can be considered for EDC use for sure!!

For me, the most compact 18650 lights are very hard to argue with. They compete with the more typically-sized 14500/18350 lights, and are easily small enough for me to carry daily. I can tolerate a maximum size of a Convoy S2+, though lately I've favored my smaller lights much more heavily.

If we're going to talk about the smallest examples of each battery-type light, I actually rather like the 16340. It is thinner than 18350 and shorter than 14500, so super pocketable. In fact my D25C Ti is not as small as a 16340 light could be made, but because it's 16340 it is so easy to carry. I compare it to my AA/14500 lights (of which I admittedly have very few) and I don't want to switch. I also compare many 14500 lights to my ZL SC62 and then take the Zebralight. It does compactness just that little bit better than the D4/FW3A.

So, the steps for a compact light:

  • Very short springs, don't support much extra battery length/width
  • Remove tail switch if possible
  • Triple/Quad TIR optics are usually going to be shorter than a reflector, but may be wider
  • Leave no empty space
  • Hard mode: Driver on the MCPCB (here's looking at Zebralight)

Olight s1r was my edc for about a year, and I still think the form factor is about perfect. But the battery began to be less than perfect on turbo, and the D4 came out. Now its the D4 with the 18350 tube, but if I could get a nice emitter, Anduril, a vapcell 16340 in my s1r, then I would be back to that for sure. I realize the emitter and vapcell are easy, but not so for Anduril.

Unno, I carried a Zanflare F1 and Nitefox UT20 and didn’t mind, and my current Nitecore MH20 seems much smaller in comparison. A bit weighty, but still disappears in my pocket.

In fact, a smaller light would have to have a really-deep-carry clip for me to use, and if not, it’d just get lost in my pocket and I’d probably have to empty the contents of my pocket to get to it. Not quite convenient.

I Bought a coupla 18350 cells for a torch earlier this yr.
They sit in drawer. Torch in cupboard.
The 14500’s and 18650 cover a90% of all I’ll ever need.

It was only bought as a novelty as it took several sizes of battery.

My Copper Olight I3T . Jetbeam Jet 1 Pro.
cover everything in that size.
with the 18650’s everything above to My L2/L6, 26650 size.
(My fav, holding, gripping, body size.)

I’d probably choose 14500 if it had more capacity and was easier to make good drivers for. That’s not much space though, and a lot of 14500 lights end up barely any smaller than a compact 18650 light.

I really like the Olight S-Mini, except for some of the overall Olight-ness of it, like only cool white except on the titanium version. The 16340 battery runs out of power fairly quickly and there’s no battery check or LVP. And the newer models aren’t as nice.

So I think I’ve gotta go with 18350. … even though I haven’t found any 18350 lights which are actually the size I want. Would be cool if someone made an 18350 version of the S-Mini though, with a good neutral high-CRI emitter and a BLF driver.