I have been EDC’ing my Olight EOS A3 ITP since 2010 (a little over 10 years now, as you can see by how worn it is):
It’s an unbranded version supposedly sold to law enforcement and it only has the 3 brightness modes (twist once to start with medium, once more for low, and a 3rd twist for high), fortunately no blinking mode as I’ve seen in a more recent version bought by a friend.
I just about love mine: small enough to fit in a corner of my belt pouch, bright enough for my uses (never needed anything brighter than its “high” mode, and the other two modes are also just about perfect), good battery duration with Eneloop AAAs, etc.
But, after perusing this forum while educating myself in the current state-of-the-art (haven’t researched my options since 2010…), I’m starting to wonder what I could be missing.
The only things I would like different in my A3 are, in order of importance:
its “twist” activation (impossible to do with one hand, at least for me), a button would be much better.
a “continuous brightness adjustment” as I’ve read about on other flashlights (instead of 3 fixed levels) would be great;
also, the possibility of fitting protected lithium (ie 10440) cells without needing to do any mods;
it would be nice if it could stand on its rear end, for illuminating the ceiling during black-outs.
I’ve seen some 1x18650 flashlights sporting some/most of these features, but (at least not yet) any AAAs, and I much prefer the smaller size.
Ramping on a AAA light might be impossible to find. There may be one running around but, I assume it will be custom light and not cheap. Lots of good AAA lights out but not that meet all of your criteria. Most tail clicky’s take the whole tail standing thing out. I think only the Ti AAA Tool will tail stand. I think the rest of them have protruding tail switches. I might be and am more times than not, wrong. Besides AAA lights don’t really tailstand well. They are too narrow and will fall over when breathed on. Guess you could set them in a shot glass or something so they don’t tumble into the area under the couch where nobody ever finds anything. Most of the AAA lights I like are twisty’s but, as far as tail clicky’s go for AAA lights, the Tools are the best value going. Unless you wan’t to get into copper or Ti lights.
Heck I would just order a Reylight mini copper pineapple. NiMh and Li-Ion compatible. Tail clicky. Very well made and stood behind. It has LVP as well as reverse polarity protection and high temp protection. You wouldn’t need the protected cell. Looks like it will be back in stock soon HERE.
