Review: DQG AA (world's smallest AA light)

LED Flashlights – General Info 1 x AA / 1 x 14500 Flashlights
1

Copy of DQG AA provided courtesy of www.cnqualitygoods.com

Specs:

  • Emitter: CREE XP-E R4 4B CW / R2 4C NW
  • Color Temperature: CW---6000K ; NW---4500K
  • Material: High Quality Stainless Steel
  • Mode: Lo>Hi without memory ; Twisty on/off
  • Battery: 1x AA primary or 1x 14500 Lion ; No battery rattle
  • Runtime: about 60 minutes on 600mAh 14500
  • Current Regulation
  • 0.5A on HI with 14500 lion; 0.3A on Hi at AA
  • Size:16.5mm*17.5mm*72mm
  • Weight: 32g

Well, actually the specs tells it all. I'll provide some more measurements.

The driver has no memory and always starts on low. Twist it off and on again and you get into high.

On a reflected ceiling bounce, i am getting about 140 lumens OTF on 14500. Surprisingly on a fresh Alkaline I am getting about 125 lumens OTF. The SA1 does 190 lumens from the ceiling bounce.

14500 - High current is 0.6A, low current is 0.026A.

Alkaline - High current starts off at 2.2A, cut slowly dwindles due to sag. Low is 0.032A. The low output on Alkaline is about 34% lower than on 14500, as measured on the lux meter.

It also nets me 0.032A with NiMH. Hence we can calculate that it gets approx 84hrs of runtime in low on a NiMH.

Absolutely no PWM is detectable, driver is current regulated.

Front of the light there is a GITD strip behind the TIR lens. Nice effect.

GITD for the back.

Driver is protected by a compressible rubber disc. Absolutely no battery shake or rattle in all directions.

Light can work with Trustfire Flames 14500 protected, no issue with the longer length. Also works with regular Alkalines. However flat top like the Bestinone.net 14500 IMR does not work. You need the cell nipple. It's not advisable to remove the rubber disc

Left is iTP A1 EOS @ 1.8 lm low mode. Right is DQG in low mode with a 14500. That's low!!! And it gets 35% lower with an Alkaline. BTW, mine is NW copy.

Beam quality is very nice. It's actually better than a XP-G or XM-L in OP. This is due to the TIR lens. No rings or artifacts.

I have both the CW and NW tint versions. NW is needless to say for the NW fans, it is not a 3 series tint and colour temperature is probably in the 4200k range. The biggest surprise is the CW, it is very pleasant to look at, no hint of blue. It's like creamy soft cold white. In low there is definitely not a single hint of green tint and the tint still looks great. This is very important.

Stuff like Sunwayman V10A goes low, but in the low-end the tint is absolutely horribly green. Shine it on a person's face and it's so ghastly. You don't notice this until you do a comparison.

Left is DQG cool white, right is Sunwayman V10A cool white with green tint. (it looks worse than that in real life)

I put in an exhausted zinc carbon AA and it still works dimly, so this is able to dig and use up all the energy in your AA cells until moonlight mode.

2

How small is this thing? Take your Xtar 2600mAh 18650, it's slightly thinner than that and length is slightly longer.

3

Hm, the color tint data "R4 4B CW / R2 4C NW" doesn't make sense, is it 2B for cool white and 4C for neutral?

4

good to see the cool white isn't a blue white, but a very usable 2 tint.

Sunwaymans have notoriously green emitters, and combine that with a true current controlled driver and you have a very nasty tint. A sunwayman on a neutral tint is another story ;)

Great review to help bring these products to our attention!

5

4C for NW probably looks correct.

For CW, it definitely is not 1 series. It could be 2 series.

6

nice review, thanks!

7

Nice pics, much appreciated for the review!

From your rubber ring picture, I must say it is a needed upgrade. Small but necessary.

I have AAA and there is a couple of "chips" missing from one of the circuit boards components. Probably because of battery rattle.

I was hoping maybe a bit lower output on High for the runtimes but I think I an deal with it. 126lm sounds not bad at all.

8

Do you think that i should do a drop torture test for the AA version? Seems like it would survive due to TIR, solid pill inside.

I am thinking of doing a 2-3m drop test. How many times should i drop?

9

i like your seeking attitude. Looking forward..

10

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us 2100. How's the beam like compared to a reflector equipped XP-G R4?

11

It'd be somewhat better. Something like a very very nice OP. I only have 2 OP XP-Gs, namely the Romisen RC-R2 (something like that) which is a P60 sized light and also the Sunwayman V10A which i guess is the closest for comparison. The DQG has a better beam than the Sunwayman V10A. I guess for such a mini EDC, flood qualities is more important and useful than throw.

I have already posted a photo of the V10A vs the DQG above.

What you can clearly see is that there is spill, and then smooth hotspot. For most lights incld OP reflectors, you get spill, corona, hotspot. It is usually not an issue for semi-throwers or bigger lights because they would be used for > 5m anyway so the corona usually won't show up, but for EDCs this is impt. This is why a TIR lens work.

12

Cheers 2100, from what I see from your beam shots, it seemed the DQG has more spill. Since the DQG uses a TIR coupled with a XP-E, I would have thought that the spot would be a lil tighter & narrower, hence my curiosity.

The beam is indeed beautiful

I see that you have just added more clarifications, thanks a bunch.

13

Ooh, that sounds like a very nice runtime on low. Very interesting.

Thanks for the nice review! Frontpage'd and Sticky'd.

14

not stick it in 1x AA forum section?

anyway. good it's stickied. i had trouble finding it.

15

Oops, thanks for the heads up. It's moved to AA now.

16

Until it dies, Mr. Bond!

17

:bigsmile:

18

Any chance we could get a side-by-side comparison shot of the two tints on high? I'm partial to NW tints but if this CW tint is pure white similar to the EZ AA R2 tint I think I could go for that as well.

Thanks for the excellent review!

19

Love that smooth beam .

20

Runtime on Hi with eneloop AA? Please (I ordered one and want to know). Do You measure it?