[Review] NITECORE Concept 1 (XHP35 HD, 1x 18650 / 2x (R) CR123)

LED Flashlights – General Info 18650 Flashlights
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Warning: This is a Nitecore light so everything is threadlocked. That includes the small phillips screw that keeps the switch from flipping up. Do NOT attempt to unscrew that without first doing something to weaken the red threadlocker around it or you WILL instantly strip that screw like I did.

Holding the tip of a soldering iron to the top of the screw before unscrewing might work.

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Thanks for that tip Firelight2.

That UI is strange. It almost seems like nitecore was trying different stuff for its own sake, with the switch and UI. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but in these cases it doesn’t seem like it adds anything and might detract for some people. I do like the “momentary” style turbo, but that could be done without the unusual feature that prevents switching modes while on.

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A pair of macro shots of the switch:

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Hi UPz
Thanks for the good and objective review

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Thanks a lot! Quite disappointed with output. People can complain how a light steps down after a couple of minutes, but this thing only has significantly more output than an XP-L for only a couple of seconds. 10 seconds and you’re at 1400 lumens, which visually is not much brighter than an XP-L at max output. Just not worth it.

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Here’s my assessment, having EDC’d a Concept 1 for the last week and a half:

  • Hand feel. I like the smooth tube-shape of the Concept 1. Feels good in the pocket. The slightly recessed body tube feels more distinct than a plain tube and the knurling on the back half of the light provides a good grip.
  • The UI is adequate. At least it has shortcuts to moonlight, turbo and off. But it’s definitely harder to use and less functional than the Olight UI. I agree it does feel a little like nitecore is trying to reinvent the wheel here and doing a poor job. Still, this is far from the worst UI I’ve ever seen in an e-switch light. It’s adequate. (Astrolux S42 has the worst e-switch UI I’ve ever seen … leagues of magnitude worse than the Concept 1’s UI.)
  • Output is adequate. Quite nice at turn-on, but then dimming rapidly as it heats up. If you press and hold the button down while it is dimming it will instantly revert back to max turbo. However, if you do this a lot it gets burning hot. My modded Jaxman E2L triple XPL HI with FET driver and running on an IMR 18500 is considerably brighter and maintains that brightness longer than the Concept 1. heatsink fins make a real difference.
  • The head. The clean head feels good in the hand, but the lack of heatsink fins was a poor decision. A light like this needs heatsinking. Not having heatsink fins sacrifices a bit too much functionality for form.
  • The switch. I agree that the switch is awful. Far too easy to activate without offering any functional advantage over a traditional switch. If Nitecore was really set on having a rectangular switch look like this they should have just installed a conventional button switch and then had the rectangular portion on top be a protective cover that the user would have to flip up to get to the switch. Such a design would largely have looked the same, would look cool, and would solve all issues of accidental activation.
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What is the shortcut to moonlight?

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2 clicks from off - moonlight. Well not really a moonlight. More of just a “low”
3 clicks from off or click and hold while on - turbo.
1 click from on - off

Note that this is in the “non-tactical” mode. In tactical mode 3 clicks goes to strobe.

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So long click from off goes to last used mode. Does quick click from off do nothing?

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Thanks for the review!

I didn’t quite understand the UI with a single click doing nothing while off, but now that you point out how easily one can accidentally activate the switch it makes sense. The name sure fits this light, probably their attempt to play with new concepts.

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  • Long-click from off goes to the saved mode, not the last used mode. If you keep holding the button down after it turns on this way, the light will start cycling from min through mediums to max turbo, and then back to min. Release to stop cyclilng and save the mode. If you last-used min or max via the double or triple-click shortcuts, those won’t override the saved mode. When combined with the shortcuts, you basically have instant access to 3 different modes from off (min, max, and your choice of 1 other mode). This is a good thing.
  • The “long-click” to turn on to the saved mode isn’t that long…. seems to be require holding the light down for just 1 second. I actually like that much more than lights that require you to hold the button down for 2 seconds or longer.
  • Surprisingly, a single quick click from off does absolutely nothing. If the goal of not having a single quick-click do anything was to provide more protection against accidental activation Nitecore royally failed. This light activated accidentally within 30 seconds the very first time I stuck it in my pocket. Unless you use the tailcap lockout this light is more prone to accidental activation than any other light I’ve ever tried. Even more so than the old Zebralight SC51.
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I agree that quick access to low, memorized, and high modes from off is great and IMO necessary for a good UI. This UI has those, but not being able to switch modes while on is just different. It’s not necessarily bad, but it’s so different from my other lights that it would probably dissuade me from buying it.

I felt the same way about the skilhunt H03 UI. Single clicks while on changed modes and a long click turned off. This was different enough that I just didn’t want to deal with the potential confusion when switching between lights.

Luckily there are great FWs that the community has developed and resources to learn how to flash them to your drivers. For me the golden standard for UI is: access to low, high, and memory from off, and the ability to go up and down in brightness. Toykeeper’s clicky and e-switch ramping FWs, as well as Narsil, allow this.

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Light has so much potential, hopefully they get rid of that switch and flip the clip around in the next version of it

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I got my Nitecore concept 1 in 9 days from banggood shipped to united states. user interface is very easy to use. It’s small and bright. thanks Nitecore and banggood.

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Thank you all for your comments!

I just did a quick test to see how the Turbo with switch pressed affects to the performance of the flashlight:

As you can see, I’ve tested the Concept 1 while continuously holding pressed the switch after a shortcut-access to Turbo mode. I also tested the light with a INR18650-30Q and obtained better initial output and overal performance than with the Nitecore IMR18650 “for TM28” battery.

The stepdown must be (unconfirmed) by temperature. At the moment the light dropped the output it was really unconfortable to hold on the hand.

I’ll be updating the review to include this “feature” and also to modify the mode measurement chart with new numbers.

Cheers!

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Thanks for this. I wasn’t aware of this shortcut. I’ll add this to the review too.
:beer:

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Thanks for the review! :smiley:

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Thank you for your very detailed and very valuable review.

I like lights that have the option of releasing the power of the cells in the shortest time for maximum lumens in short burst. Of course, I can choose lower mode for power conservation and longer run time and also for heat management.

This light occupies a salient position in the size/power ratio continuum, therefore, I am interested. I will ask (again) Going Gear when they will have this item.

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I do like the Concept 1. The UI is decent. It feels good in the pocket and it feels good in the hand.

It’s a good light. But to be a great light, Nitecore needs to redesign the switch.

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I see that the topic title shows “Updated” in red in the sub-forum topic listing. I see that means that the first post was edited, in this case, to add extra information.

Thank you again for your very detailed review.

By the way, GG has recently, in the past few hours, added this item to their list of new items.