Nitecore R40 review (image heavy)

*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 :laughing:

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 26650 5000mAh
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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. It shows:
-blinking = charging
-solid on = done charging
-some number of blinks, 1.5sec pause, another number of clicks = battery voltage (one of the best features I have seen in a flashlight)
-for example, 4 blinks, 1.5sec pause, 2 blinks = 4.2 volts

UI features:
-mode and power buttons have regular functionality when just pressed normally (no long press)
-hold mode+power buttons down together for 1 second = lockout mode, no buttons will activate anything, good for storing flashlight, exit lockout mode by doing the same
-hold mode button for 1 second = instant turbo
-hold down power for 1 second = instant ultralow mode
-(when light is on) hold down mode for 1 second = enter beacon mode, hold down another second to enter SOS, hold down another second for strobe, hold down another second for back to beacon, etc...
-(when light is on) hold power for 3 seconds = turn light off and enable positioning light (the blue light blinks once every 3 seconds to easily find flashlight, battery lasts 12 months in this mode)
-(when light is off) press mode button = check voltage as mentioned above


When off or in lockout mode, the battery lasts 2 months, so it seems like the light was factory tested to make sure there are no parasitic drain issues.


Flashlight weight and total weight with battery.


Size of the flashlight, and the proprietary battery is actually larger than a regular 26650.

The proprietary battery is one of the biggest down sides of this flashlight and will put off a lot of flashlight enthusiasts that like using their own 26650s.
The proprietary battery is necessary for the inductive charging from the tailcap to work, because it has both contacts on each side.
This is one of the issues with having charging come in the tail cap while the driver is in the head. This can be fixed by implementing charging in the head (like the new R25 from Nitecore)
OR
By doing what olight did with the R50 Pro Seeker and making the flashlight compatible with regular 26650s at the expense of not being able to use the tail cap charging.
If you're the type of person to put a battery in a rechargeable flashlight and never take it out again, then this is not an issue!
Also, if anyone is wondering, the proprietary battery should be available for purchase individually if you want a spare one, but other accessories (like pouch or charging bases) will not.



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Accessories:

Good manual, not an overload of information but still has everything you need to know to operate the light.


Spare charging cap (in case you lose the one already on the flashlight), two spare o-rings, and a nice padded wrist strap.


Padded carrying pouch (unfortunately no belt clip)

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And now, one of the most unique features that you pretty much never see on a flashlight: INDUCTIVE CHARGING! (aka wireless charging)

Info on inductive charging: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inductive_charging(link is external)

The light comes with two different bases, one for sitting on a desk, the other for mounting to a wall.
The desk base is very stable and has rubber pads on the bottom to keep it from slipping, and the wall mount has a strong plastic clip that keeps the light from unintentionally falling out.
Both are made from plastic, not aluminum, but still do their job. I would have liked more premium feeling aluminum though!


The bases also have a tiny switch in the bottom that shuts off the base charging when there is no flashlight on it.
Unfortunately that means that when the flashlight is done charging, you need to take it off the charger otherwise it will waste energy and keep the flashlight warm with waste heat.
It is not recommended to leave the flashlight on the charging base when finished charging for this reason.

The battery charging circuit does shut off charging when finished, but it would have been even better if the bases had a manual switch on the outside so you can shut the base off when finished to store the light on the base.
Currently you either need to take the light off of the base for the base to shut off (which wastes space) or you need to shut off the base with some power bar that has a switch.

The inductive charging works well, charges decently fast, about 10-20% capacity per hour, only gets warm and doesn't heat up too much, but a manual off switch would be the ideal way of storing the flashlight on the charger.
The power button on the flashlight blinks while charging, and stays on when finished charging reminding you to take it off the charging base, or shut off the charging base.


There are two cables for the charging bases, one is a wall plug and the other is a car 12v plug.
If you want to use both charging bases in different places (eg one at home and one at work) you will need to buy a second 12V 1A ac adapter which is cheap and easy to find. It uses the standard 5.5mm 2.1mm barrel connector.

The third cable is a USB to micro-USB cable, for the second method of charging.
The micro USB cable plugs directly into the flashlight, charger a bit slower, but does not require any charging base. This is very useful if you want to bring the flashlight to places like work or camping and you don't want to carry around a base and wall/car plug. Since it is micro-USB, it is very likely you already carry one of these cables around with you for your phone, so you can use your own cable to charge the flashlight when away from home.


This is the charging cap that I mentioned above in the spare accessories.
So that's about it for the charging methods!

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Size comparisons:

It's almost the same size as my TK41 battery tube! And with farther throw and more lumens too!


Here it is compared to the full TK41, and to my daily driver P5r.2 (which is 14500 size)


Here you can see the light is a very good handheld size, not too thick or skinny, not to long or short, and has the switches in the ideal spot.

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Ceiling shots of beam profile: (I can't set a static exposure on my cheap camera so the brighter the light is the dimmer the image gets, you can see the ceiling lights for reference)

The spot is not extremely sharp and has a pretty nice corona to blend it into the spill (as you can see in the turbo image), likely due to the small diameter reflector used in the light.


The flood from this light is 60 degrees, slightly less than the P5r.2.


The reflector is excellent, and perfectly centered on the LED.


The LED used in this light is an XP-L HI of about 5000-6000k.


You can see the "lines" that some people were talking about in the P30 reflector, this is just how the reflector is manufactured, it works great so no complaints from me.



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Some tests:

Shallow underwater test to make sure all joints and caps (such as the micro USB plug on the tail cap) seal properly, and they do.
The flashlight is rated for IPX8 2m underwater, but I am not going to go swimming in this sub-0 weather, so no 2m test :C
Obviously the light does not float, so if you plan to use near a river/lake/ocean I suggest you use the wrist strap!

I also did a lux test, and got slightly over 68000cd, so it does match or exceed the specs listed on the website. No fake advertising here.

I don't have an integration sphere to confirm the 1000 lumens, but it did seem brighter than my 800 lumen TK41 so that's a good sign.

At full brightness in a 24C ambient room the light gets hot but not too hot where you can't hold it. There is no turbo timer, so the light can operate on max with no problem indoors.
The light does have thermal protection that will prevent overheating, however it did not activate when I ran the light for 15 minutes on turbo indoors.

Also, during some recording and beamshot taking, the light was on turbo for 25 minutes and dropped from 4.2v to 4.0v which is ~1/4 capacity of a lipo battery.
This would indicate that 25*4=100 minutes of runtime on turbo, which is almost exactly the 1h30min stated in the specs, so no turbo runtime overestimates either.


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More flashlight pics:

















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Beamshots with my not-so-amazing camera...:

Backyard, underexposed quite a bit.

The rest of the images are taken at 1600 ISO, although I should have probably used 800. Still learning how to do beamshots!
They are almost exactly as it looks like IRL though, very impressive.














Approx 300m to the tip of the antenna


About 50m+ distance in this pic^









Pretty impressive beam from a 1.5" diameter reflector!

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Conclusion:
Good:
-build quality
-looks (subjective)
-portability (size and weight)
-matches advertised specifications
-unique charging system
-usb charging method for when charging at places other than home, no need to carry around charging base
-no overheating or turbo timer necessary
-1lm mode works very well for long runtime in the dark, it is not too dim to not be able to see anything, I could actually walk around and see the ground a few feet ahead of me in 1lm mode.
-decent runtime on turbo
-great mode selection, instant-turbo, instant-moonlight, lockout mode, etc...
-tail stand!

Not-so-good:
-proprietary battery with no option for regular 26650 will be a put-off for flashlight enthusiasts
-bases made of plastic feel a bit cheap, would have preferred premium-feeling aluminum
-no manual shutoff for bases, either need to store the flashlight off of the base or use a power bar to shut off the base
-rolls around when on its side
-$150 fairly high for a flashlight, unaffordable to many people

Overall this is a very unique light, with excellent performance for it's size. The aesthetics of a cylindrical no-large-head flashlight really appeal to be, and being able to get 500m+ range out of it is great.
1000lm is definitely enough for me, although if you want more lumens you can find other XHP35/50/70 lights at the same size for less money.
The induction charging works as expected, with the main downside being that the base doesn't have a manual shutoff. I think I might mod a switch into the power cable going to the base so that I can shut it off when done charging and store the flashlight on the base (because it is convenient, and looks cool)


Is it worth $150? That's something you will need to decide for yourself.
In my opinion, for all the features, functionality, and accessories it comes with, $150 is fair and I would not have been disappointed if I had bought it with my own money.
Any more than $150 and I would say it's not really worth it, if it was about $100 then I would say it's a bargain.
The convenience factor of never having to remove the battery outweighs the inconvenience of not being able to use regular 26650s for me personally, and I look forward to using this light when going on night hikes, camping, or doing work in dark places (eg. auditoriums) although it is a bit too large/heavy for me to use as an EDC flashlight.

Again, as I mentioned at the beginning, this flashlight was provided by Nitecore for review.
Hopefully this review was informative for you, and let me know your thoughts or questions below!
Have a great day!

Extra outdoor pics I took while on vacation:


Compared to a super bright streetlight:

Nice review, just right amount of pics. UI wasn't addressed much but by now it should be a familiar UI to most people.

Bdm82 said:

Nice review, just right amount of pics. UI wasn't addressed much but by now it should be a familiar UI to most people.

Click to expand...

Thanks

The UI is a good point, I didn't think many people would be interested but I should add that.
There are actually some pretty cool features that my other flashlights don't have, such as instant moonlight, instant turbo, lockout, and even more.

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.

KITROBASKIN said:

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.

Click to expand...

Thanks!
That is true, but I usually keep my lights without lanyard just to keep is looking sleek
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. al.

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.

Timothybil said:

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. al.

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.

Click to expand...

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. $150? 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. I love this! 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!

Thank you! 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.

I see.
I looked on wikipedia and the dust rating is from 0 to 6 so I thought if it had been tested against dust it would say something like IP08, IP18, IP28, ... IP68
I then checked google, and yes the X means it was not tested for dust, so no idea if it performs good or bad in that area, it was only water tested.

But I guess yeah it would have been even better if it was officially tested and rated IP68 both dust and water.

Great review! Definitely a good-looking light. Would you mind linking your YouTube channel?

Thank you!
This is my channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/SilentShock42
Not particularly focused on flashlights, or any topic really, it's basically a "upload anything that I am interested in" channel

You can see my "lightcanon" custom flashlight there too, which measured 1M lux at the time of building, and I'm currently working to reach 1.5M lux.
Also, some time next week I will be uploading this same R40 review but in video form rather than forum form.

Awesome! I'll be sure to check it out.

Ryp said:

Awesome!

Click to expand...

Thanks!

I just did a recording test with a 240fps camera, and there is no visible pwm flashing/strobing at all.
Just thought I should mention that because a lot of people seems to dislike pwm

I got one of these lights as well; so far I really like it. Outside of a couple of Tubes, it is my first nitecore. I looked into the proprietary battery before purchasing; and found it somewhere online for ~$23.00, which I didn't think was too bad.

As for the price; $150 is high, but I found a $25 off coupon code when I purchased mine, so I was pleased. I still haven't had the chance to fully test the light, but so far I'm impressed. I would like to have a tail switch, but that's just me.

kssmith said:

I got one of these lights as well; so far I really like it. Outside of a couple of Tubes, it is my first nitecore. I looked into the proprietary battery before purchasing; and found it somewhere online for ~$23.00, which I didn't think was too bad.

As for the price; $150 is high, but I found a $25 off coupon code when I purchased mine, so I was pleased. I still haven't had the chance to fully test the light, but so far I'm impressed. I would like to have a tail switch, but that's just me.

Click to expand...

Sweet, what other tubes you got?

$125 is definitely not bad
I think a tail switch was not possible due to the charging method, the tail switch would have stuck out and needed a rim around it for it to tail stand, and if it is raised then the inductive charging will barely work.
The two surfaces need to be pretty much touching eachother for best induction.

The R25 gets around this by not using induction charging and has a tail switch and non-proprietary battery, but isn't my style of flashlight.
And personally I prefer the switches at the front by my thumb, because I never hold my flashlights up, only down

I got a video up of the review, it's quite long (30 mins) but shows all the tests I did and some more descriptive info about the modes and stuff.
Next time I'll work on summarizing better so that the video is more condensed, let me know if you have any tips or suggestions, I always listen to constructive criticism!

If you bothered to watch the video, thank you for your support!

Two days ago I also took some more beamshots while going for a walk in the mountains, I'll be adding those into the "reserved" post tomorrow after I edit them down to size