.if a moderator would like to move this to the reviews section, please feel free. Welcome everyone! About a month ago I was doing my weekly browse of flashlight websites and came across the R40 which had recently been announced but was not yet available. The specs were exactly what I was looking for and the renders looked beautiful so I was planning to buy it, but then I found out that you can apply to review a flashlight.
That means this flashlight was provided at no cost from Nitecore, however all opinions in this post are completely honest and my own. I'm not a professional flashlight reviewer with advanced runtime and output charts, but I have done flashlight and other product reviews on youtube so I mostly know what I'm doing Hopefully you guys enjoy and let me know if you have any questions/concerns/suggestions!
This is my first time doing a review on a forum rather than YouTube, so please let me know if anything needs to be changed. Classic black and yellow box, molded plastic interior padding, all information on it can be found on the R40 product page. Main specs: Turbo: 1000lm - 1h30min High: 420lm - 4h30min Mid: 200lm - 10h30min Low: 50lm - 32h Ultra Low: 1lm - 1000h Strobe, SOS, Signal modes Beam distance: 520m Intensity: 67700cd Dimensions: 154mm long, 40mm diameter Weight: 298g with battery Battery: proprietary mAh - The flashlight itself: A beautiful piece of black anodized aluminum, probably the best looking flashlight of this size IMO. The notches around the head look cool, but they do not prevent the flashlight from rolling because they are smaller than the head diameter. Not sure if intended or a tiny oversight, but it does make the light more streamlined and easier to fit in a pocket without catching on clothing or feeling bumpy. The light is made out of 3 main pieces, the body tube, tail cap, and head.
The body is a very thick aluminum, 2-3mm, and has the ideal trapezoidal threads on both ends for best durability. There is a blue LED inside the power/mode switches which indicates many things. Great to here a perspective on this. Hopefully you will give us some extended use impressions in the coming months. Perhaps you can go into a description of how the user interface works for you. Installing a lanyard, especially a more substantial lanyard, would go a long way towards keeping the light from rolling around when on its side.Thanks!
That is true, but I usually keep my lights without lanyard just to keep is looking sleek:P I'll be going on vacation when I'm done exams so I'll get more chances to take beamshots in mountain areas with longer distances, less light pollution, etc. Should be fun, it's much lighter than my TK41 + bajillion AA batteries which I used to take with me too. I see this light aimed more at professionals that use a light on a daily basis, who will drop it in a charger when their day is done, and grab it the next day (rinse, lather, repeat). By professionals I mean people like LEO, First Responders, security & watchmen jobs, building inspector. Anyone who will regularly use a flashlight on a daily basis for the better part of their shift, or at least have the potential to do so. To my mind, this puts the R40 up against lights like the MagCharger, et. Like you, I can't see the attraction to a casual or hobbyist type user, where there might be periods of a week or more between charges.
May 23, 2013 - rotaprint r37 a operation manual - Cameras question. R28-100 R40-1000 R41-100 R42-100 R48-100 R35-1000 R37-100 R36-100.
It is nice to see Nitecore embracing the 26650 cell size, and I hope they come out with more in a more general purpose light. Lights like the high end of the P-series and MT-series would definitely benefit from the larger cell size with its greater capacity. I see this light aimed more at professionals that use a light on a daily basis, who will drop it in a charger when their day is done, and grab it the next day (rinse, lather, repeat). By professionals I mean people like LEO, First Responders, security & watchmen jobs, building inspector. Anyone who will regularly use a flashlight on a daily basis for the better part of their shift, or at least have the potential to do so.
To my mind, this puts the R40 up against lights like the MagCharger, et. Like you, I can't see the attraction to a casual or hobbyist type user, where there might be periods of a week or more between charges. It is nice to see Nitecore embracing the 26650 cell size, and I hope they come out with more in a more general purpose light.
Lights like the high end of the P-series and MT-series would definitely benefit from the larger cell size with its greater capacity.You're right, it's more like the R50 pro seeker and other professional lights for law enforcement, night surveillance, etc. Than a cheap consumer flashlight. At that price point and performance, it's pretty much a professional tool I can see quite a few flashlight enthusiasts buying it though, it's a pretty sweet light, I paid almost this much for a TK41 like 5 years ago. This was an OUT STANDING review thank you! The Mods will soon move it to the reviews section.
![Manual Rotaprint R40 Manual Rotaprint R40](/uploads/1/2/5/4/125459523/570996245.jpg)
Sure it comes with the cell and the two charging bases and holster but in my opinion it is $25 to much. If it was IP68 rated as opposed to IPX8 then $150 would be very fair. I have got to once again give some mad props to Nitecore. Over the past 28 months Nitecore has truly stepped it up in quality of design, engineering and build quality. The fact that this light stays at max output for as long as the cell can provide is a MASSIVE selling point and shows very impressive electrical engineering as well as build quality. It takes some seriously stout electronics to crank out 1000 lumens for an hour or more!!
I like the mode spacing well done once again Nitecore! The usual bells and whistles NC is known for that no other manufacturer features ie the SOS, beacon, strobe, voltage read out and locating function beneath the side switch. The 68,000k CD is very very impressive!! It IS a one and a half inch reflector though so it SHOULD be accomplishing that feat and it does kudos once again NC. My favorite feature out of anything NC has done in any of their new generation of higher quality lights is that they are now featuring thermal regulation instead of timed step downs.
NC has a lead over Fenix with this feature as NC now has it in more of their models and Fenix just really started featuring thermally regulated lights within the past 12 or so months in their very latest lights. The big minus for Nitecore with this near perfect LEO light is that proprietary 26650 cell. The only reason that brands like NC and Olight have proprietary cells in their built in charging featured lights is to get you to buy more of the model specific proprietary cell. The built in charging systems in these proprietary cell lights are designed specifically to trap you into their specific cells.
I cannot STAND that. I use stand alone Xtar VP2 chargers and also have two VC4's that will charge anything you can put into them(the VC4's that is). I feel they are much more accurate than any light with a built in charging system, in my opinion that is, and a stand alone charger charges the bigger cells faster as well. For my Olight R40 Seeker for example I dumped the poopy 4000mah proprietary 26650 and bought a bunch of the short 5200mah protected Keeppower 26650's(there are two different lengths of the same Keeppower 5200mah protected cell one is 69.5mm and the other 71.5)and the R40 LOVES it!
I get much better run times out of my R40 Seeker which is one of my all time favorite larger EDC lights and I swear it is higher output with the Keeppower cell. I have zero problems just unscrewing the tail cap of the R40 and taking out the cell and sticking it in my VP2 and letting it charge up at 1 amp.
Thanks for the review OP! Oh.the pics you posted of beam shots.in some the beam looks very neutral in others it looks very CW almost 6000k. I know you are new to beam shots so its all good I am betting the IRL tint is 5500k ish! I tried my best on this review Glad you liked it! Does the X in IPX8 mean that is was not tested for the dust resistance? I would assume that a waterproof light would also hold up just as well against dust? But yeah, I've been browsing all major flashlight manufacturers lately, unfortunately I have only seen a few releases from Fenix, which aren't that appealing to me.
All my favourite lights like the TK45, TK41, TK61, all got discontinued:/ Also I am in contact with Nitecore and giving them all my findings, good and bad, about the light, especially the battery. My contact said he will speak to the engineering team about this so that future flashlights, if they MUST have a proprietary battery, should also be compatible with regular batteries.
So although this light may not be perfect, future flashlights might be! (for example the R25, which doesn't have a proprietary battery because it charges at the head). You are very welcome. The 'X' in IPX8 means it is not completely dust resistant. Very fine dust, sand whatever MAY get in.
The '8' is the highest waterproofing rating. The light is submersible up to 6 feet for two hours I believe. So X is dust resistance and the last digit in the rating is its water resistance/waterproofing rating. For example there are a lot of stellar IPX6 lights out there like Zebralights.
Full on IP68 rated lights are traditionally very expensive as up until recently it has been very expensive to build lights that are both submersible and totally dust proof. Fenix is now going IP68 apparently across their entire new catalog. I have the new Fenix TK20R, 2017 LD 12 and FD41 all of which are IP68 rated. They are near indestructible. It would take a freak accident or purposely taking a large and very heavy hammer to break them. Just remember to not let the silcone/rubber O rings dry out lube them twice a year, keep the threads clean and lightly lubed up and the contact points clean twice a year or more with heavy use and they will likely out last you.
Armytek is famous for making all their lights(I think somebody correct me if I am wrong)IP68 rated. Not just meeting the minimum for IP68 but some of their lights are submersible to 50 feet and built to withstand drops from up to 50 feet.