Great point. I'm very interested in the comparison too.
The A3 is about 5 mm shorter I believe...I measured my A3 and compared to the reviewed measurements.
I have an Ultrafire single AA that is a little longer and heavier that sounds about like the reviewed Fenix (except that the Ultrafire is about 60 lumens and costs $15).
I would think the advantage of the Fenix would be toughness and long runtime.
Do you have the $3.50 Coast light https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/1086 to compare it with? I remember they have the same emitter.
I'd like to see the coast 3.50$ light
the fenix E01
and the new Nitecore T0 http://nitecore.com/goods_detail.php?id=27
https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/3558
in a heads up shoot out ..My money's on the nitecore at a whopping 12lumens and a bright orange body
The nitecore T0 looks nice. Think i might get one.
These small AAA are tougher than most think. I could not get my Tank007 TK-703 to quit. XP-E and 1-mode though, probably direct drive. Will last quite a while with AAA Alkalines.
Shock/toture test for TK-703, 4m drop, 7m drop and washing machine spin cycle : https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/3678
The EO1 pretty much defines reliability. There have been several "torture" tests.
IMO, the EO1 and the Gerber IU's are about the best emergency lights.
I agree on the E01s reliability, Got one in my Mt hiking pack as my last resort light when everything fails.
The A3 obsoletes the E01 for the reasons you already came up with.
Although, for gifting, the A3/i3 R5 models are quite equivalent to an E01 because people will have to suffer with only two lumens since they will forget about the modes and it will always start in low.
I carry my A3 on my keychain since it is smaller and lighter weight. Mine is the older MLH vs. The advantages of the EO1 has is durability, knurling, tailstanding, and arguably runtime. The Maratac vs. negates some of these.
Very nice review, Dsoto87! Thanks. I tend to place more of an emphasis on brightness, but then again, I usually use the light I have on my keychain at least once or twice a day, which is why I've been carrying the Skyray for a while now.
Having said that, I think I'll pick up a E01 now. The Skyray is likely to stay on my keychain because it can take 10440s, but you can never have enough flashlights, can you? :)
I used to be in the same boat: I had way too many keys, most of which I rarely needed and I hated the added weight in my front pocket. At the time, I just didn't have any space for a keychain light other than a DX fauxton.
So, one day, I bought a dozen or so small clip-on keychain carabiner thingies from the dollar store. My car key looks like this:
I permanently keep my house key and my Skyray S1 attached to my car key. All the other keys have one of the aforementioned clip-on carabiners attached to them. Before I leave the house in the morning, I clip whatever keys and RFID tokens I'm going to need for the day on the car key. That way, I don't need to carry a ton of keys I won't need and I don't have a bunch of stuff flopping in the wind when I'm out riding my bike, but I don't need to worry about loose keys and crypto tokens.
Runtime? The old model is rated 50 hours on low, the newer i3 at 20 hours on low. I and many others have come to the conclusion that the A3 is durable enough for tough usage in the real world. I dropped mine 3-4 meters onto a concrete floor and only the eneloop inside it lost some paint, the light wasn't damaged. The i3 can also tailstand.
I've dropped mine several times too. My ITP has been pretty solid, but I have had some glitchy contacts with one of my Maratac's causing flickering.
The EO1 gets 8 hours of regulation (8-10 lumen) and another 8 hours of dimming on a battery. This seems pretty good for ceiling bounce applications when the power is out, plus it will run a battery further down.
I never noticed that the runtime on low is drastically less on the i3 compared to the ITP A3. That's a bit of a disappointment.
It's probably just measured differently. I think they have to use the included alkaline battery for the measurement according to ANSI, the old runtime test was made using 1000 mAh NiMH.
I think they just increased the brightness of the low mode on the Olight. It's 2.5 lumens compared to like 1.5 on ITP or 1.8 on the Upgrade Edition with an XP-G.
I think they also increased the low's output slightly, which make it easier for me to hold off getting one. If I remember correctly, the 50 hour runtime in low was a little exaggerated (35-40 hours on alkaline).
I did a runtime test on low with my Q5 A3 and got 18:20h with eneloops.
e01 left, a3 right (high)
Thanks, that helps. What do you reckon it would give with Alkalines? Alkaline usually lasts longer (going slowly dimmer) on the low mode.
I did not test runtime with alkalines yet. I will buy some fresh alkalines tomorrow and then we'll find out.
According to this thread Link the A3 gave 24+ hours of light on "????"
I have both, and the hotspot is very similar...almost UV purple and oblong in shape. The Coast light is noticeably brighter with more spill and a very ringy beam, plus a forward clicky. Of course, the EO1 is noticeably smaller and can tailstand and is a twisty. Both are nice quality small lights.