Well, my Nitecore TIP has had a nice long run full-time on my keychain, I believe since 2017 or 2018 thereabouts. But the main power switch has just failed and it won’t turn off, so I’m looking for a replacement. My keychain light is actually the most important and most used one by far in my collection, as per the corollary on the old mantra “The best camera is the one you have with you” / “The brightest flashlight is the one you have with you”.
I’m going to be fairly picky about this purchase, as I don’t want any major annoyances with a key [pun not intentional] light such as this that I will use and carry so frequently:
Requirements:
USB rechargeable – I would actually prefer micro-USB because that’s still what I mostly have plugged in and ready to use in several locations, but I can live with USB-C if that’s all that’s available.
Not a twisty switch.
Good mechanical or electronic lockout to avoid accidental pocket activation (I carry my keychain in my front-left pocket together with my wallet. Yeah, I’m weird like that.) But not too hard to quickly turn on. The frequent pocket activations with the protruding gummy buttons were the biggest flaw of my TIP.
A few usable modes, and difficult to access or no strobe/flashy modes.
Not too bulky.
Low parasitic drain.
350+ lumens – NW preferred, but I managed fine with the CW in my TIP for all these years.
Yes, I have the older Gen 1 version.
I don’t know which Gen 1 on Amazon I have because I ordered from flashlightbrand.com
I also don’t know about the newer Gen 2 version.
Good question!
I’m hoping someone else can help you with that because I haven’t seen any rectangular keychain flashlights that appeal to me, but y’know, I’m super picky.
I had a couple of Nitecore keychain flashlights, and another rectangular one by TrustFire, but they all broke or fell apart.
The Nitecore ones fell completely apart, and the TrustFire broke off where it attached to the keychain.
Those three broke in places that were plastic, so now I prefer keychain flashlights to be as “metal” as possible.
Bump!
I looked up the rectangular keychain flashlights I own.
I have the Nitecore TIP T Series XP-G2, Nitecore Tube, and the TrustFire MiniX.
The MiniX has the best build quality of the three, but the area that attaches to your keychain is made of plastic and could break like mine did.
(If that area were more durable, I would recommend the MiniX without reservation.)
I also had a RovyVon Aurora A3, but I gave it to my sister, and she lost it.
The A3 is nice, though it’s not rectangular, and the A3 Pro might be a little better.
I was looking at that one too. Any initial impressions?
Thanks! That looks pretty close. I wonder if it has fiddly modes with that auxiliary red LED. And I wonder about the tint.
I seem to remember that Manker or one of the other budget brands had a rectangular offering in this space too, but again I would need to see a good review to make sure there are no major annoyances.
I think the A3 is pretty similar to the Tunenge S15, though I didn’t have them both at the same time.
RovyVon has a great reputation, meanwhile I think I’m just about the only person that has talked about Tunenge on BLF, so Tunenge doesn’t have much of a reputation.
Thanks, this sounds like an important flaw to me too. Even the cheap plastic Nitecore Tube had strong wire attachment points with an incredibly high hanging load rating (in tons if I remember correctly).
