[new release] Nitecore R40 review! (50 images)

Welcome everyone!

About a month ago I was doing my weekly browse of flashlight websites and came across the R40 which had recently been announced but was not yet available.

The specs were exactly what I was looking for and the renders looked beautiful so I was planning to buy it, but then I found out that you can apply to review a flashlight.
I'm not a professional flashlight reviewer with advanced runtime and output charts, but I have done flashlight and other product reviews on youtube so I was lucky to get the opportunity to review this light!
Nitecore provided the light for free, but everything in this review is an honest and personal opinion, and I would have bought the flashlight anyway even if I didn't get it for review (although I would have had to wait a few months to save up).
Thanks to Nitecore, I now have an extra $150 that can disappear into my tuition!

Hopefully you guys enjoy and let me know if you have any questions/concerns/suggestions! :)


Classic Nitecore black and yellow box, all information on it can be found on the R40 product page on their website.

Main specs:

Turbo: 1000lm - 1h30min

High: 420lm - 4h30min

Mid: 200lm - 10h30min

Low: 50lm - 32h

Ultra Low: 1lm - 1000h

Strobe, SOS, Signal modes

Beam distance: 520m

Intensity: 67700cd

Dimensions: 154mm long, 40mm diameter

Weight: 298g with battery

Battery: proprietary 26650 5000mAh

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The flashlight itself:


A beautiful piece of black anodized aluminum, probably the best looking flashlight of this size IMO.


The notches around the head look cool, but they do not prevent the flashlight from rolling because they are smaller than the head diameter.
Not sure if intended or a tiny oversight, but it does make the light more streamlined and easier to fit in a pocket without catching on clothing or feeling bumpy.


The light is made out of 3 main pieces, the body tube, tail cap, and head.


The body is a very thick aluminum, 2-3mm, and has the ideal trapezoidal threads on both ends for best durability.


There is a blue LED inside the power/mode switches which indicates many things. It shows:
-blinking = charging
-solid on = done charging
-some number of blinks, 1.5sec pause, another number of clicks = battery voltage (one of the best features I have seen in a flashlight)
-for example, 4 blinks, 1.5sec pause, 2 blinks = 4.2 volts :)

UI features:
-mode and power buttons have regular functionality when just pressed normally (no long press)
-hold mode+power buttons down together for 1 second = lockout mode, no buttons will activate anything, good for storing flashlight, exit lockout mode by doing the same
-hold mode button for 1 second = instant turbo
-hold down power for 1 second = instant ultralow mode
-(when light is on) hold down mode for 1 second = enter beacon mode, hold down another second to enter SOS, hold down another second for strobe, hold down another second for back to beacon, etc...
-(when light is on) hold power for 3 seconds = turn light off and enable positioning light (the blue light blinks once every 3 seconds to easily find flashlight, battery lasts 12 months in this mode)
-(when light is off) press mode button = check voltage as mentioned above


When off or in lockout mode, the battery lasts 2 months, so it seems like the light was factory tested to make sure there are no parasitic drain issues.


Flashlight weight and total weight with battery.


Size of the flashlight, and the proprietary battery is actually larger than a regular 26650.


The proprietary battery is one of the biggest down sides of this flashlight and will put off a lot of flashlight enthusiasts that like using their own 26650s.
The proprietary battery is necessary for the inductive charging from the tailcap to work, because it has both contacts on each side.
This is one of the issues with having charging come in the tail cap while the driver is in the head. This can be fixed by implementing charging in the head (like the new R25 from Nitecore)
OR
By doing what olight did with the R50 Pro Seeker and making the flashlight compatible with regular 26650s at the expense of not being able to use the tail cap charging.
I am in contact with Nitecore and sharing my ideas with them, so hopefully in the future they make their lights compatible with regular batteries if they need to use a proprietary battery for features like tail cap charging.
If you're the type of person to put a battery in a rechargeable flashlight and never take it out again, then this is not an issue! :)
Also, if anyone is wondering, the proprietary battery will be available for purchase individually if you want a spare one, but other accessories (like pouch or charging bases) will not.

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Accessories:


Good manual, not an overload of information but still has everything you need to know to operate the light.


Spare charging cap (in case you lose the one already on the flashlight), two spare o-rings, and a nice padded wrist strap.


Padded carrying pouch (unfortunately no belt clip)

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And now, one of the most unique features that you pretty much never see on a flashlight: INDUCTIVE CHARGING! (aka wireless charging)

Info on inductive charging: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inductive_charging

The light comes with two different bases, one for sitting on a desk, the other for mounting to a wall.
The desk base is very stable and has rubber pads on the bottom to keep it from slipping, and the wall mount has a strong plastic clip that keeps the light from unintentionally falling out.
Both are made from plastic, not aluminum, but still do their job. I would have liked more premium feeling aluminum though!


The bases also have a tiny switch on the bottom that shuts off the base charging when there is on flashlight on it.
Unfortunately that means that when the flashlight is done charging, you need to take it off the charger otherwise it will waste energy and keep the flashlight warm with waste heat.
It is not recommended to leave the flashlight on the charging base when finished charging for this reason.


The battery charging circuit does shut off charging when finished, but it would have been even better if the bases had a manual switch on the outside so you can shut the base off when finished to store the light on the base.
Currently you either need to take the light off of the base for the base to shut off (which wastes space) or you need to shut off the base with some power bar that has a switch.


The inductive charging works well, charges decently fast, about 10-20% capacity per hour, only gets warm and doesn't heat up too much, but a manual off switch would be the ideal way of storing the flashlight on the charger.
The power button on the flashlight blinks while charging, and stays on when finished charging reminding you to take it off the charging base, or shut off the charging base.


There are two cables for the charging bases, one is a wall plug and the other is a car 12v plug. The third cable is a USB to micro-USB cable, for the second method of charging.
If you want to use both charging bases, eg one at home and one at work, you will need to buy a second 12V 1A ac adapter, which is cheap and easy to find. It uses the standard 5.5mm 2.1mm barrel connector.

The micro USB cable plugs directly into the flashlight, charger a bit slower, but does not require any charging base. This is very useful if you want to bring the flashlight to places like work or camping and you don't want to carry around a base and wall/car plug. Since it is micro-USB, it is very likely you already carry one of these cables around with you for your phone, so you can use your own cable to charge the flashlight when away from home.


This is the charging cap that I mentioned above in the spare accessories.

So that's about it for the charging methods!

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Size comparisons:


It's almost the same size as my TK41 battery tube! And with farther throw and more lumens too :)


Here it is compared to the full TK41, and to my daily driver P5r.2 (which is 14500 size)


Here you can see the light is a very good handheld size, not too thick or skinny, not to long or short, and has the switches in the ideal spot.

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Ceiling shots of beam profile: (I can't set a static exposure on my cheap camera so the brighter the light is the dimmer the image gets, you can see the ceiling lights for reference)


The spot is not extremely sharp and has a pretty nice corona to blend it into the spill, likely due to the small diameter reflector used in the light.


The flood from this light is 60 degrees, slightly less than the P5r.2.


The reflector is excellent, and perfectly centered on the LED.


The LED used in this light is an XP-L HI of about 5000-6000k.


You can see the "lines" that some people were talking about in the P30 reflector, this is just how the reflector is manufactured, it works great so no complaints from me.

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Some tests:


Shallow underwater test to make sure all joints and caps (such as the micro USB plug on the tail cap) seal properly, and they do.
The flashlight is rated for IPX8 2m underwater, but I am not going to go swimming in this sub-0 weather, so no 2m test :C
Obviously the light does not float, so if you plan to use near a river/lake/ocean I suggest you use the wrist strap!

I also did a lux test, and got slightly over 68000cd, so it does match or exceed the candela and beam distance specs listed on the website. No fake advertising here.

I don't have an integration sphere to confirm the 1000 lumens, but it did seem brighter than my 800 lumen TK41 so that's a good sign.

At full brightness in a 24C ambient room the light gets hot but not too hot where you can't hold it. There is no turbo timer, so the light can operate on max with no problem indoors.
The light does have thermal protection that will prevent overheating, however it did not need to activate when I ran the light for 15 minutes on turbo indoors.

Also, during some recording and beamshot taking, the light was on turbo for 25 minutes and dropped from 4.2v to 4.0v which is ~1/4 capacity of a lipo battery.
This would indicate that 25*4=100 minutes of runtime on turbo, which is almost exactly the 1h30min stated in the specs, so no turbo runtime overestimates either.

I used a 240fps camera to record the light at all brightness levels, and there was 0 visible PWM strobing or flashlight.

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More flashlight pics:

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Beamshots with my not-so-amazing camera...:


Backyard, underexposed quite a bit.


Approx 300m to the tip of the antenna :)


Approx 50m+ distance^

Pretty impressive beam from a 1.5" diameter reflector!

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Conclusion:

Good:
-build quality
-looks (subjective)
-portability (size and weight)
-matches advertised specifications
-unique charging system
-usb charging method for when charging at places other than home, no need to carry around charging base
-no overheating or turbo timer necessary
-1lm mode works very well for long runtime in the dark, it is not too dim to not be able to see anything, I could actually walk around and see the ground a few feet ahead of me in 1lm mode.
-decent runtime on turbo
-great mode selection, instant-turbo, instant-moonlight, lockout mode, etc...
-tail stand!

Not-so-good:
-proprietary battery with no option for regular 26650 will be a put-off for flashlight enthusiasts
-bases made of plastic feel a bit cheap, would have preferred premium-feeling aluminum
-no manual shutoff for bases, either need to store the flashlight off of the base or use a power bar to shut off the base <- biggest down side for me
-rolls around when on its side
-$150* fairly high for a flashlight, unaffordable to many people, puts this light in a "professional use" class for more law enforcement, surveillance, night shifts, those kinds of jobs

Overall this is a very unique light, with excellent performance for it's size. The aesthetics of a cylindrical no-large-head flashlight really appeal to be, and being able to get 500m+ range out of it is great.
1000lm is definitely enough for me, although if you want more lumens you can find other XHP35/50/70 lights at the same size for less money.
The induction charging works as expected, with the main downside being that the base doesn't have a manual shutoff. I think I might mod a switch into the power cable going to the base so that I can shut it off when done charging and store the flashlight on the base (because it is convenient, and looks cool)

Is it worth $150*? That's something you will need to decide for yourself.
In my opinion, for all the features, functionality, and accessories it comes with, $150 is fair and I would not have been disappointed if I had bought it with my own money.
Any more than $150* and I would say it's not really worth it, if it was about $100 then I would say it's a bargain. A company does have to make profit from it's products though!

The convenience factor of never having to remove the battery outweighs the inconvenience of not being able to use regular 26650s for me personally, and I look forward to using this light when going on night hikes, camping, or doing work in dark places (eg. auditoriums) although it is a bit too large/heavy for me to use as an EDC flashlight.

Hopefully this review was informative for you, and let me know your thoughts or questions below!

Have a great day!
:D

* please send a PM to M4D M4X for info about a discounted price ;)

Additional outdoor pics from my vacation:

Very bright streetlight for comparison:

Great looking beam:

nice review!
clever using the ceiling lights as reference :+1:
thanks

Thank you :slight_smile:

Uploaded a video review, a little long, I’ll learn from this and improve in the future though :slight_smile:

Also, if anyone has any recommendations for a sub-$500 camera that can take good low-light video please let me know, as you can see at the end of the video my camera can take good low light pictures but not videos :confused:
Thanks!

Nice review Enderman, thanks! :THUMBS-UP: (but... "no thanks" for the $150 R40 :P )

Haha thank you :slight_smile: Yeah the price is a bit steep, especially for a “budget” light forum :stuck_out_tongue:
Just curious, at what price would you consider a light like this worth it to you?

Honestly, it would have to come in around half what they’re asking for me to even consider buying one. lol

Well, if you think that with less than $40 (total = flashlight and various parts) I can have my zoomie B158 moded to outrageous output, I wouldn't pay over $50 for another flashlight with similar performance, no matter how well built it could be. Let's say $60-$70 max... I could think it's a good price (cause it's a Fenix), but I still wouldn't buy it. We're in BLF mate! $)

Good to know! :slight_smile:

Would like to see more induction charging method being Incorporated in their newer series. Nice review, and thanks for sharing!

Thanks :stuck_out_tongue:
I think the induction charging is cool but still needs some work, like being able to use non-proprietary batteries and having a manual off switch in the charging base or some way of the charging base automatically shutting itself off.

As far as I know this is the first induction charging flashlight from a well known brand, and it’s a great first attempt!

Hey everyone!
So even though the price of this flashlight is quite high, you can send a private message to my buddy M4D M4X ( http://budgetlightforum.com/user/11225 ) for some info about a discount which will make the price much less painful to your wallet :wink:

thanx a lot, good review!

Thank you! :slight_smile: