Why is Fenix E05/E01 highly regarded as opposed to other AAA lights?

I have seen numerous reviews online and people praising Fenix E05 and Fenix E01 as a reliable and compact single AAA light. I personally own a ITP EOS A3, and would like to get another similar light to swap in/out my EDC, but why is FenixE05/E05 so high praised when it has lower lumen output, higher pricing, and possibly equally as reliable? I'm not trying to knock on these lights and I am interested in getting one just to test it out myself but I'm just curious.

Well when your itp have "drained" the batt, you simply pop that batt out, and put it in a fenix E01. It will keep running on that "depleated" cell for hours until its really drained.
Have seen alot of pepole complain over several broken itp's, so i dont think of it as half as rugged as the E01. It's dim, but it got few parts that can fail.

i am not going to answer your question (what kind of question is that anyway? there are many highly regarded AAA lights!). random thoughts re the mentioned lights:
the E01 is a joke (i have it), it's cheap because it's cheap. Simple electronics, simple LED, wont fail easily. Many manufacturers copied this design 5mm LED 10lumens, 1-mode, and who knows maybe all those copies are manufactured in the same factory.
the E05 i dont have it. i can give you a link, 18US$ shipped from Hongkong warehouse. Even cheaper if you earn a giftcard or collect points or ..
i have the iTP A3. nothing special about it. when it was released the only competitor was Fenix LD01. since the LD01 was much more expensive, the iTP A3 gained popularity.
AAA lights of reputable brands have about the same quality, it's China-made stuff, and parts are sourced from the same parts suppliers.

if you go from ITP A3 to Fenix E01 or E05, then it's a downgrade and you'll regret it. at least that's my purchase philosophy. i buy a new light, then it must "be better (and brighter)" than the lights which i already use. if you want something better or different, look out for stainless steel or titanium AAA lights

Hi sticky door knob

I think your question is a fair one and in my view I think Jorn nailed it! The E01 will totally use up the hole battery, and the most important light is the one that actually works when you need it in fact id say it should be included with all survival kits its very well made.
I dont feel the light is a joke like shelm but he does makes some vaild points & it would seem like a downgrade after using the ITP but its simple like he says & very hard to break unlike my ITP A3 that broke the 3rd time a dropped my keys.

To be fair I may have just had a bad one but it definetly didnt seem as well built as Fenix lights in my limited opion.

I now edc the Fenix E05 because its really small! Run times are no where near as good as the E01 but in real word use this has never been a problem for me. Its very floody which is perfect for a keychain light and I have never found it wasnt bright enough so dont feel the need to buy a new AAA light that will kick out 60-85 lumens as I just dont need it.

I dont like buying stuff if I dont use it but why dont you give one a try for 6 months and see what you think!
Oh yeah I have bought loads of friends an E01 and they all said THANKS!?? (Why has he bought me this!) but the same friends have then said its such a good little torch Iv used it loads inculding my sister last week. There almost idiot proof lol.

The E01 like said will drain the battery to the last drop. The E01 is quite bright in dark areas. I turned mine into pure flood with the steel wool treatment & love it! The E05 I have has enough pure flood to do tasks for as well IMO. How many posts have you seen by members complaining that their E01 or E05 bit the dust or gave them trouble??? Its really different strokes for different folks when you purchase a light. Some want super bright flashlights with long throw. Others want sub lumens on their light & people like me choose middle of the road stuff. It all boils down to personal preference really.

what typically breaks in a light when dropped is the glass lens or the solder point of the cables. it is possible to take out the driver of the itp a3 and fix the solder point .. unless you dont have tools.
one can easily protect AAA lights against impact of drops by wrapping the extremities in heat-shrinkable tubing. the OP didnt mention ruggedness, and as i said, all similar constructed China-made AAA lights have the same ruggedness (1m ANSI impact resistance) since they are constructed similar, duh.

you shouldnt be interested in E05, but if you really really really want to buy a copy, i can provide you with a link, 17.76US$ shipped. i am out now. good luck in life.

the OP didnt mention ruggedness, and as i said, all similar constructed China-made AAA lights have the same ruggedness (1m ANSI impact resistance) since they are constructed similar, duh.

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Nah, i open up amlost every single little aa light i get my hands on to peek inside. And there are lots of difference between the brands. Some are poor, some even potted.

jorn said:

some even potted

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my Worm SS wasnt potted btw

We can argue about this forever! My suggestion is to do research & get the flashlight that meets your needs. There are tons of reviews on this site btw.

As I can only speak of the E01, I will offer the following. I've had this on my car keys for years, it has had the living crap kicked out of it. In that time it has never failed to come on when I needed it and always filled its intended role. That role is to serve as a dependable "in a pinch" or "need enough light for a long time". It's a 10 dollar light that you throw on a key ring, top up a battery every six months and not give another thought to.
I use it in some capacity several times a day and although it's never the only light I carry, it is one that I always carry!

I have both the E01 and the E05. They may be overpriced for the brightness factor, but they do seem very rugged compared to other "cheap" lights. If I were to go back and do it again, I might have bought a Thrunite Ti and an E05 for a few $ more than what I spent just because I don't use the E01 as often as the E05, and I am curious of the Ti. I'll still probably get one of those soon though.

I would say the E01 and E05 are great backup lights, and would probably be go-to lights for power outages or loaners. They are cheap enough not to be upset if lost, and simple enough that anyone could use them without instruction. I like the E05 because it has the same output as the classic minimag (though floody instead of throwy) in a much smaller size. Perfect to put on a key chain and forget about it until it's needed.

I have both, and from my experience as well as the comments I have read from other forum members, the E05, and in particular the E01 are 'highly regarded' in respect of their reliability, relative cheapness and robustness. I keep an E01 on my keys with an Energizer Lithium in it and know it will work when I need it to.

I don't think they are regarded particularly highly in terms of output or versatility and the E01 has a very tinted beam, but it depends on what you want - I have other lights with lots of output and modes.

The E01 is hard to beat for what it does, but there is a lot it cannot do.

OP- Search "EO1 torture". Great runtime, absolutely bombproof, cheaply priced, all the positive points made here by others. For what it's intended role is, there's nothing more durable, simple to use, or cheap to feed. I've got a dozen scattered here and there, and put away... The one on my keys has been beat up, boiled, frozen, left in a snowbank overnight, thrown at a rock wall repeatedly, dropped and tossed hundreds of times, run over repeatedly, including by a full 46,000lb water truck at work. Twist head, light comes out. Period. Folks can grouse about tint and beam pattern until the cows come home, it'll never leave my keyring. I've got much brighter lights, much more expensive lights, bigger and smaller lights, and have attempted to test a good number mentioned in this thread in a similar fashion to the abuse my EO1's have seen. NONE have made the cut. I've paid for these out of my own pocket, looking for as durable and trusted a light as my EO1. Buy a few, and don't look back. Others may scoff, but you'll have one of the best at what it was designed for available. No gee-whiz, no power LED, no multi-mode, but I can comfortably say I'd trust mine with anything I can throw at it. Buy others for the cool factor, buy EO1's for the long run. (I carry either a Haiku or a Spy 007 daily, but the EO1 on my keys is permanent until something better comes along.)

EDIT: Here's a pic or two of my abused EO1...

It's common knowledge that simpler things are harder to break than complicated ones.

E01 and E05 are pretty much metal tubes with emitters.

No switch to wear out, no circuits to fry, nothing.

As long as electrical flow between the emitter and batteries are maintained, they will light up. Short of the emitter dying an early death or the tube being sawed in half, you can't kill 'em.

enomosiki said:

Short of the emitter dying an early death or the tube being sawed in half, you can't kill 'em.

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Or the dreaded alkaline battery leak! Yet another reason for lithium primary in the light (or checking it regularly).

shelm said:

i am not going to answer your question (what kind of question is that anyway? there are many highly regarded AAA lights!). random thoughts re the mentioned lights:
the E01 is a joke (i have it), it's cheap because it's cheap. Simple electronics, simple LED, wont fail easily. Many manufacturers copied this design 5mm LED 10lumens, 1-mode, and who knows maybe all those copies are manufactured in the same factory.
the E05 i dont have it. i can give you a link, 18US$ shipped from Hongkong warehouse. Even cheaper if you earn a giftcard or collect points or ..
i have the iTP A3. nothing special about it. when it was released the only competitor was Fenix LD01. since the LD01 was much more expensive, the iTP A3 gained popularity.
AAA lights of reputable brands have about the same quality, it's China-made stuff, and parts are sourced from the same parts suppliers.

if you go from ITP A3 to Fenix E01 or E05, then it's a downgrade and you'll regret it. at least that's my purchase philosophy. i buy a new light, then it must "be better (and brighter)" than the lights which i already use. if you want something better or different, look out for stainless steel or titanium AAA lights

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Sorry, I probably phrased it badly, probably because I've only read a few of the many articles and reviews about compact flashlights and it gave me the impression that the E05/E01 were really good lights for carrying around your pocket. I do agree that many of the lights in this category do seem pretty similar, and are probably different casing with the same guts on the inside. If you don't mind me asking, what light would you recommend that is around the size category as E05/E01/LD01/ITP A3/Maratac AAA or do you really think its essentially same with minor differences and different logos?

andy_a07774 said:

Hi sticky door knob

I think your question is a fair one and in my view I think Jorn nailed it! The E01 will totally use up the hole battery, and the most important light is the one that actually works when you need it in fact id say it should be included with all survival kits its very well made.
I dont feel the light is a joke like shelm but he does makes some vaild points & it would seem like a downgrade after using the ITP but its simple like he says & very hard to break unlike my ITP A3 that broke the 3rd time a dropped my keys.

To be fair I may have just had a bad one but it definetly didnt seem as well built as Fenix lights in my limited opion.

I now edc the Fenix E05 because its really small! Run times are no where near as good as the E01 but in real word use this has never been a problem for me. Its very floody which is perfect for a keychain light and I have never found it wasnt bright enough so dont feel the need to buy a new AAA light that will kick out 60-85 lumens as I just dont need it.

I dont like buying stuff if I dont use it but why dont you give one a try for 6 months and see what you think!
Oh yeah I have bought loads of friends an E01 and they all said THANKS!?? (Why has he bought me this!) but the same friends have then said its such a good little torch Iv used it loads inculding my sister last week. There almost idiot proof lol.

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I'm sorry to hear that your light broke on the 3rd drop! I'm extremely clumsy and drop my keys all the time but aside from some dents and paint chipping, it still works fine. I also completely agree with what Jorn said about using the batteries drained from the ITP A3 on the E01. Would the E05 suck the battery dry like the E01 too? The ITP light drains pretty ridiculously on high mode and although I read from some reviewers online that the light does not dim much as the battery drains up, I found this to be false. My high mode would drop down to the same lumen as my Medium mode after a week of use.

For a cheap keychain light, I think the E05 is better than the E01 because it's been updated, and it's a bit smaller, and when giving a layman a keychain light, smaller is better -- they're less likely to get annoyed and remove it, especially if it produces a satisfying amount of light for its size.

scout24 said:

OP- Search "EO1 torture". Great runtime, absolutely bombproof, cheaply priced, all the positive points made here by others. For what it's intended role is, there's nothing more durable, simple to use, or cheap to feed.

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Here's a question for you: do you think it's more durable than a McGizmo Sapphire? Not judging either way, just curious.

scout24 said:

Great runtime, absolutely bombproof, cheaply priced, all the positive points made here by others. For what it's intended role is, there's nothing more durable, simple to use, or cheap to feed.

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Well said. For all the E01 "killers" out there, they miss the point. The only thing that would be an E01 killer is one that is just as tough and uses an AA battery. Come on Fenix, you have a market waiting for it

Mr Floppy said:

Well said. For all the E01 "killers" out there, they miss the point. The only thing that would be an E01 killer is one that is just as tough and uses an AA battery. Come on Fenix, you have a market waiting for it

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It's called the Peak El Capitan. For my money the Jetbeam E3S is a better deal, though; AA is just a touch too big to carry in-pocket, and having tipped over to the "primary EDC" size category, for me it needs to have a pocket clip and it might as well have a clicky switch too. The E3S satisfies both.