Sometime ago Nitefox was asking members if they would be interested in reviewing a light. I said I would be interested in either the UW360 or the UT25 - and Nitefox sent both. I have now had the UW360 for a few months, and have used it a number of times as both an indoor work light and while out working on the car.
^This marketing image is from the Nitefox UW360 Amazon page.
The light comes packaged in a rigid clear box, with a 2600mAh protected 18650, a 50cm USB cable for charging, a metal disc to stand the light on a desk and an instruction manual.
The included battery is shipped in the light with a insulating disc on the negative terminal, it seems obvious but one needs to remember to remove it before using the light The battery is branded Nitefox and under the wrapper it has the protection circuit on the positive terminal.
The UW360 always starts in high and switches to low if the switch is clicked within ~2.5 seconds. Subsequent clicking after this time switches the light off rather than changing modes. It might be worth mentioning that the light switches on as soon as a battery is inserted and the tube is tightened regardless of whether the light was switched on or off when the battery was removed.
The USB charging function seems to work well, cutting off at 4.15V. A particularly nice aspect is that the light will still work as normal when connected to a powerbank if there is no battery inside. The USB cover is a fairly typical rubber flap.
There doesn’t seem to be any low voltage cut-off built into the light, and I suspect that the only low voltage protection is handled by the protected cell. I ran the light for approximately 8 hours on high mode and the battery was at 2.61V when I pulled it (had bounced back to 2.63V by the time I photographed it). I am guessing the cell protection will be set at ~2.5V but that is lower than I was comfortable discharging to.
As one would expect from a cob light, the beam is all flood without a hotspot. The tint is on the cool side of neutral with an almost aqua hue.
The LEDs are mounted on an aluminium plate and the light remains cool to the touch in both low and high modes.
Low draws 0.19A at start up and outputs a claimed 100 lumen whilst high draws 0.5A at start up and outputs a claimed 300 lumen, both seem accurate to my not so precision eyes. Nitefox states the runtime to be 7.5hrs on high and 19hrs on low. When the battery voltage has dropped to 3.33V the current draw is 0.24A on high and 0.09A on low.
The body and head of the light are plastic, with only the gooseneck being metal. The body material seems robust, however I question the longevity of the plastic threads for people who prefer to externally charge batteries.
The main concern is with the plastic head that appears to have been originally designed to have been a pocket light and operate from 3xAAA batteries.
This in itself isn’t an issue, however the plastic it is constructed from feels brittle and possibly easy to break if the light is dropped or handled rough, which is highly likely in a lot of garage or workshop situations.
Overall I like the light, hence the reason I haven’t drop tested it. However, I would suggest to Nitefox that they swap to a neutral tint, and upgrade the components/materials to make the light more suitable for rough use situations such as vehicle maintenance. I would also like to see a brighter third mode that draws 1-1.5 amp.
In about a week I will try to post a review for the UT25.