Review: Nitecore EA4 (4AA)

Bit of a update.

Aside from the bezel not screwing down, the rattle inside the head and the green to purple tint.

Now it is stuck at 1 brightness level (one of the mids I think) and it cant be changed, the flashing modes still work but appear to be only the same brightness that the light is stuck on.

I have contacted hkequipment with the issues.

Wow that sucks. Stupid question, are your batteries fully charged? When my batteries get low, it only does one mode. I think it's the low mode though

I just changed the batteries and it seems ok, I didn’t notice the blue LED flashing fast but I wasnt really looking either.

I’m going to feel silly telling him that… oh well. I’ll tell him after he replies.

But still I forgot to mention here the dark artefacts in the hotspot as well, if its on something less than 10 meters or so away and move it, its quite easy to follow the dark patches and even 1 section of it looks brighter than the rest. I could see orange flecks on the inside of the dome, it kind of looks like rusty orange lint.

I don’t really want to send it back but a $59 light should be flawless, shipping will cost $20+ from here as well.

He said they checked them all and sent the worst ones back and that Nitecore already knew about the problems with them.

I sent my first one back after noticing what seemed to be a cross threaded bezel. The replacement is pretty much perfect. Still has a slight rattle, and there is still a slight gap in the bezel but from what I've been reading, it's totally normal. The rattle is slight and also very common. Not really bothered by that. The beam looks good on mine. I'm not noticing any obvious artifacts.

BTW, Illumination Supply paid for my return shipping!

In a email they said they will pay for return shipping too, Ill send it off on Monday.

I still wan’t another one, hopefully it wont have any problems.

That's great! Hopefully you get your replacement in a timely fashion. It really is a nice light. I wish Nitecore would get their QC together. I think they rushed them out unfortunately..

i think if they do a second run, more threads on the head or a shorter bezel will get the bezel sitting nice and flush to the head. and the derlin ring needs to have the tolerance a little tighter to keep it snug around the base of the reflector. besides that i think its a pretty solid light and cant wait til i can get one

now the cross threads on yours is sure a qc miss though

I was thinking of taking mine apart and putting a couple of very small dabs of silicon sealer on the derlin ring so it doesn't rattle. At least gap in my replacement is even. All of what you said above should have done from the start..

yeah i agree. but it could be a lot worse

You're right about that. I expect crap like this from unbranded cheap Chinese companies, not a company like Nitecore

Fasttech has it for $49.05, I think it's the beat price on the web.

With discount code BLF you can get it for $46.60

Now thats mighty tempting :D!

Great price, thanks how2.

To better understand the UI, I created a colour-coded Quick Reference Guide or cheat sheet for the EA4 (in PDF format). You can download it from the following link…

Thanks bcoz
I copied that into my Evernote operating manual folder, along with the Nitecore PDF.

Thanks bcoz, I am very familiar with it already though.

But that will be very helpful to anyone picking one up for the first time.

Now DX has it for $54.60

Greattt Review ! I sold mine within 2 weeks of getting it….great light with some little flows (same ones that you mentioned) that pissed me. S)

Thanks very much! Frontpage’d and Sticky’d.

i've been reading about the rattle head of EA4 too in other places.

is it design flaw or just defect? can be fixed easily?