This is the Acebeam UC3A, a tiny flashlight powered by a single 10440/AA battery, with dual SST-36F 6500K LEDs, a flood AUX 5000K/RGB light, tail magnet and much more!
• My opinion:
The UC3A is a pretty fun flashlight for EDC, I think for it’s size it could have used 14500/AA batteries, as this would add more than double the runtime, but 10440/AAAs are okay too. The main cool white LEDs are quite powerful, but the “high” mode can only last some seconds as the flashlight will heat very fast.
The side AUX light is pretty good to use as a tiny lamp when you need it, it’s not super powerful, but enough for lighting up a small room in the dark. The RGB modes are cool and useful, but cycling them is not great in my opinion, including the “flashing” modes on the 2-click cycle made it take more time to get to the mode you want, I think it should have been hidden behind a 3-clicks maybe.
Overall it’s a pretty nice flashlight, but it lacks some features I think would improve it, like battery indicator, glass in front of the TIRs, a more easy to cycle RGB UI, and, of course, a dimmer moonlight mode; it’s on sale right now for almost $9 discount!
• Pros:
- Dual fuel feature (can accept 10440 cells and AAAs)
- The “High” modes of RGB are much brighter than advertised
- White Neutral AUX light can be useful
• Cons:
- Main LEDs Moonlight is too bright at around 4 lumens
- The AUX lights UI is a bit annoying
- No battery indicator
- The output with AAAs is much dimmer
• Box contents
- UC3A
- Acebeam 10440 Li-ion cell with USB-C charging
- Keychain ring
- Lanyard
- USB-C charging cable
- Instructions manual
• Price
The Acebeam UC3A is currently discounted and priced at $26.20 on the Acebeam official store. The normal price is $34.90.
• Body and build quality
Colors/Material Options: The UC3A is available in aluminum with 3 anodizing colors: Black, Olive Green and Orange. (This review features the orange version).
Material: The main body of the flashlight is made of aluminum alloy 6061-T6 hard anodized, type 2 anodizing.
Main body: The main body is very smooth; there is only knurling on the tail cap to make easier to unscrew it. The head is held on the body by 2 Allen screws.
Threads: The threads are trapezoidal and anodized; this means this light features mechanical lockout by untwisting a little the tail cap.
Clip: The clip is made of PVD black coated stainless-steel and already comes attached to the main body by 2 Allen screws on the opposite side of the buttons.
Tail stand and rolling: The UC3A can head/tail stand and does not roll easily.
AUX lights: This flashlight features AUX lights on a diffuser tube located on one of the sides of the flashlight. This tube produces a very diffused and floody light that reaches 270°, serving as a small lamp. Apart from 4000K white light, you can access 3 main colors (red, green and blue) in solid or flashing mode, and also a police flash and rainbow mode.
Buttons: The UC3A has 2 buttons, the top one turns ON the main SST36f LEDs, the lower one turns ON the AUX/flood light. If one of the lights is already ON, pressing the other button will override it and turn the other light ON.
Battery contact: Contact is made with the battery by one tiny gold-plated spring on the tail cap and a gold-plated button contact on the driver.
Bezel: The flashlight bezel is made of aluminum and anodized on the same color as the main body, the TIR lens are recessed only a little bit, so it’s prone to scratches.
Water Resistance: It has IP68 ingress rating, so it’s resistant to water submersion around 2 meters for 30 minutes. It seems to be decently sealed, the bezel has 2 o-rings to prevent water ingress, the AUX diffuser has one O-ring and the tail cap also has a tiny O-ring; it seems to be decently sealed.
Magnets: The UC3A has a tiny magnet on the tail cap, which is strong enough to hold the flashlight horizontally or vertically on metal surfaces.
Size comparison: Manker E02 III on the left and UrFlamp E8 on the right.
• Weight and size
Weight:
-With battery: 62.0g
-Without battery: 53.2g
-Battery (Acebeam 10440): 9.0g
Size: 31.1mm (length) x 19.6mm (width – with clip) x 71.3mm (height)
• Battery, runtime, and charging
Battery: The UC3A is powered by a single 10440 Li-ion cell, it comes with a protected 10440 Acebeam Li-ion battery with 400mAh and USB-C charging! The capacity is not the best in the world, but good for 10440 batteries. This flashlight has the Dual Fuel feature, so you can use 10440 cells and also AAA batteries (Alkaline, NiMH…), the light does not reach the maximum brightness though, so it’s mainly for emergencies. I personally love dual fuel flashlights for the option to use other types of battery if your main one has no charge.
Battery Indicator: There is no battery indicator present on this flashlight, there is a charge indicator on the battery top.
Charging: There is no USB-C port on the flashlight body, instead the charging port is located on the 10440 cell. Charging is pretty quick as the battery is only rated for 400mAh.
• Modes, Runtimes, Throw, Candela:
Modes: The Acebeam UC3A has 4 modes on the main SST36f white light, them being: moonlight (4 lumens), low (80 lumens), medium (210-30 lumens) and high (900-400-90 lumens), and also features a strobe mode. The UC3A does not feature mode memory, and this bothered me a little, but I guess some people may like it this way.
Main Cool White LEDs advertised specs (FL1 Standard):
| Cool White (Modes) | Brightness [Lumens] | Runtime [Hours-Minutes-Seconds] |
|---|---|---|
| High | 900-400-90 lumens | 15s-14min-26min |
| Medium | 210-30 lumens | 30min-1h |
| Low | 80 lumens | 1h50min |
| UltraLow | 4 lumens | 23h |
| Strobe | 900-400-90 lumens | 15s-25min-1h |
The side AUX light has a lot of modes, all of them except of the red-blue flash and rainbow, have low and high modes: Neutral white, red, green and blue. The RGB colors have also a blinking mode.
Auxiliary LEDs Advertised specs (FL1 Standard):
*The High modes of the AUX lights seem way more bright than the 2 lumens/1 lumen advertised.
| Neutral White (Modes) | Brightness [Lumens] | Runtime [Hours-Minutes-Seconds] |
|---|---|---|
| High | 35 lumens | 3h |
| Low | 2 lumens | 23h |
| Red (Modes) | Brightness [Lumens] | Runtime [Hours-Minutes-Seconds] |
|---|---|---|
| High | 1 | 6h |
| Low | 0.5 | 18h |
| Flashing High | 1 | 17h |
| Flashing Low | 0.5 | 53h |
| Green (Modes) | Brightness [Lumens] | Runtime [Hours-Minutes-Seconds] |
|---|---|---|
| High | 2 | 6h |
| Low | 1 | 18h |
| Flashing High | 2 | 17h |
| Flashing Low | 1 | 53h |
| Blue (Modes) | Brightness [Lumens] | Runtime [Hours-Minutes-Seconds] |
|---|---|---|
| High | 1 | 6h |
| Low | 0.5 | 18h |
| Flashing High | 1 | 17h |
| Flashing Low | 0.5 | 53h |
| Red-Blue flashing | - | 23h |
| Rainbow | - | 4h |
Throw: The flashlight is not focused on throw and is mainly for EDC and close up work, it has around 85m maximum throw FL1 standard on the cool white LED, so it is pretty floody and will not throw far, but this is actually the purpose of this flashlight.
• Emitter, reflector and CRI:
Emitter: This flashlight uses 2x Luminus SST-36F 6500K LEDs for the main cool white light, I didn’t notice any green tint at all on it, it has that classic blueish tint of cool white LEDs though. The neutral white/AUX RGB emitters are not listed and I assume they are generic LEDs; the neutral white seems to be very clean 5000K, I didn’t notice any green or blue tint to it.
Lens: The lenses are not made of glass, the TIR lens is directly in contact with the outside world.
Reflector/TIR: The TIR lenses on this flashlight make the beam slightly focused but still very floody, good for close/medium range uses.
Beam profile: The beam has a slightly focused hotspot with a nice amount of spill.
CRI: Standard 70 CRI for the cool white LED
• Beamshots Camera settings:
- 18mm lens 1" F8 ISO800
- (The trees at the back are at a distance of around 100m)
UC3A - High (900 lumens)
Flashlight off
I always try to match what my eyes can see on the beamshots, so camera settings may vary.
• Driver and UI
Driver: The driver type is not stated directly, but none of the lights has PWM, so I can assume it has a buck constant current driver. The output with AAA batteries is much dimmer, and when you cycle through modes sometimes it gives a brighter flash and dims down after.
UI: The UI is very simple to understand and use, each button turns ON a type of light, the top one is for the main cool white light, while the “RGB” button is for the neutral white lamp and the RGB AUX lights. If any of the modes is ON, clicking the button to access the other illumination type will override it.
For the main cool white light: One click on the top button to turn ON/OFF. Holding the button from OFF is the only way to access “moonlight”, holding the button from ON will cycle between “low” – “medium” – “high”. Double clicking will go to “high” instantly. Triple click will go to “Strobe”.
For the AUX light: One click on the top button to turn ON/OFF. Holding the “RGB” button will cycle between “low” – “high” on the color you have selected. Double clicking will swap the color following: “Neutral white” – “red” – “flashing red” - “green” - “flashing green” – “blue” – “flashing blue” - “Red/Blue flashing” – “Rainbow”. Holding the button while the light is OFF will access the “low” mode.
Mode Memory: The flashlight does not have mode memory, it will always turn ON in “medium” for the main cool white light, and “neutral white – high” for the RGB AUX.
Reverse Polarity Protection: The battery has low voltage protection on the protection circuit inside it.
Temperature Control: The flashlight will dim the light to a pre-defined brightness level if the temperature reaches hot temperatures. This is made to prevent LED and driver damage.
Lockout: It features lockout, to lock the flashlight you must hold the cool white light button for 3 seconds, the “moonlight” mode will turn ON, and this is normal. When locked, if you press the button the AUX light will blink red and green to indicate it’s locked. To unlock simply hold the same button for 3 seconds again.
Turbo: The “turbo” on this flashlight is simply the “high” mode with 900 lumens.
Moonlight: The moonlight mode is not the best in my opinion, as it has around 4 lumens, for me it’s too bright. I wish it had the 4 lumens mode on the normal cycle (4 lumens mode) – “Low” – “medium” – “high”, and the moonlight mode was dimmer, like 1 lumen or less.
Blinkies: This light has strobe mode on the main cool light, and some solid flashing colors, red/blue flash and rainbow mode.
A special thanks to Chris and Acebeam for sending this flashlight for me to review!
*I am not being paid to do this review, everything here is my honest opinion.
Thank you for reading my review 