My Noctigon M43 experience as a regular customer "semi-flashoholic" UI thoughts.
Okay so I jumped deep into the pool and ordered 5 of them and my first part came in today (This means a big chunk of my flash light collection will be M43's)
My collection is actually pretty sparse.
1 Surfire L1 light (when it first came out)
1 Fenix TK-75 (first gen, heavy work use over 5 years with no issues)
2 Streamlight survivors (current gen)
1 Fenix LD-75c (new, just had it for 3 days)
1. streamlight firevulcan incandescent (very old been kicking around for ages)
2 streamlight Siege led lanterns
The first thing I notice about the light is the amazingly small petite format and the quality build and fit/finish of the flashlight. It just looks like something Apple would design if they were making flashlights. It feels right holding it, its small and fits great on the belt.
The blinking battery indicator is one of my favorite features, it reminds me of the AED blinking light to let the user know its ready to get to work when you need it. During a sudden blackout having this beacon of light to direct you to the flashlight is a great feature and not only that but you know the state of the charge at all times and you know that the light is ready for work. No "Oh poop, dead battery surprises just when you need the light the most"
The light beacon/charge indicator really adds to the premium feel of this light.
The UI. I am using UI level 1 which is what it shipped with. In all honesty, 95% of Users would never need to go past UI-1 and could pretend all other features do not exist. UI-1 is so easy and idiot proof and so much easier that other UIs I have dealt with.
It is pretty simple. click once, you have low
click once it is off.
Wow it behaves like a normal flashlight, no accidental jumping to another level then having to cycle back down etc.. its turn on and turn off. how much simpler can you get.
My wife would never have issues using this light. its simple.
now if you press the button once to turn it on all you have to do is double click to go up brighter or double click to go down to the low level,
(Just like using a mouse, and anyone can follow that simple instruction, hey double click if you want it brighter and double click if you want it less.)
The beauty of it all is if you like it at the brighter level or the lower level it remembers where you left it. and one click on, one click off gets you there. Simple.
I would say low mode (60mA) would cover the majority of power outage needs inside the home. leaving it at low and just turning on and off and its as simple as it gets. I can just hand this to anyone and they can operate it like any flashlight in the last 100 years
The issue with a lot of the cool flashlights is you hand this to someone and it would not be surprising for them to all of the sudden somehow end up in strobe mode, or turbo mode then having to go through the whole range of levels to get back to a normal level etc.. The M43 is nice in that you have a Ferrarri hiding underneath but in all purposes its a regular simple flashlight when you need it with no confusion. Hand it over, turn it on and your good, turn it off and its off. Thats it. on and off.
It is much easier to remember a simple hey i want high power, okay double click to turn on at high and click once to turn off.
I want low, then just click. 90% of the time I will just need low so its just click once to start.
I find the hold down for less than 6s for max blast a great UI for this light. all I need to do is (if the light is off, just press and hold and you get the max turbo wall of light) let go of the switch and its off. (Damn simple)
If I am at either moonlight,low,med or high and I hold down I go to turbo max blast I let go and it goes back to the level I was using the light. now if I hold past 6 seconds then it stays at max turbo until I switch off.
So far This has to be in my book the most intuitive UI of the fancy flashlights I have messed around with, its hard to screw up since its easy muscle memory to operate and UI-1 will cover the moon,low,med,high and turbo and its way simpler that the TK-75 or LD75 for example, I find it much more foolproof to operate than those two lights.
I will be doing more with this light and report back but these are my initial findings and its a very positive one so far.
Okay so I jumped deep into the pool and ordered 5 of them and my first part came in today (This means a big chunk of my flash light collection will be M43's)
My collection is actually pretty sparse.
1 Surfire L1 light (when it first came out)
1 Fenix TK-75 (first gen, heavy work use over 5 years with no issues)
2 Streamlight survivors (current gen)
1 Fenix LD-75c (new, just had it for 3 days)
1. streamlight firevulcan incandescent (very old been kicking around for ages)
2 streamlight Siege led lanterns
The first thing I notice about the light is the amazingly small petite format and the quality build and fit/finish of the flashlight. It just looks like something Apple would design if they were making flashlights. It feels right holding it, its small and fits great on the belt.
The blinking battery indicator is one of my favorite features, it reminds me of the AED blinking light to let the user know its ready to get to work when you need it. During a sudden blackout having this beacon of light to direct you to the flashlight is a great feature and not only that but you know the state of the charge at all times and you know that the light is ready for work. No "Oh poop, dead battery surprises just when you need the light the most"
The light beacon/charge indicator really adds to the premium feel of this light.
The UI. I am using UI level 1 which is what it shipped with. In all honesty, 95% of Users would never need to go past UI-1 and could pretend all other features do not exist. UI-1 is so easy and idiot proof and so much easier that other UIs I have dealt with.
It is pretty simple. click once, you have low
click once it is off.
Wow it behaves like a normal flashlight, no accidental jumping to another level then having to cycle back down etc.. its turn on and turn off. how much simpler can you get.
My wife would never have issues using this light. its simple.
now if you press the button once to turn it on all you have to do is double click to go up brighter or double click to go down to the low level,
(Just like using a mouse, and anyone can follow that simple instruction, hey double click if you want it brighter and double click if you want it less.)
The beauty of it all is if you like it at the brighter level or the lower level it remembers where you left it. and one click on, one click off gets you there. Simple.
I would say low mode (60mA) would cover the majority of power outage needs inside the home. leaving it at low and just turning on and off and its as simple as it gets. I can just hand this to anyone and they can operate it like any flashlight in the last 100 years
The issue with a lot of the cool flashlights is you hand this to someone and it would not be surprising for them to all of the sudden somehow end up in strobe mode, or turbo mode then having to go through the whole range of levels to get back to a normal level etc.. The M43 is nice in that you have a Ferrarri hiding underneath but in all purposes its a regular simple flashlight when you need it with no confusion. Hand it over, turn it on and your good, turn it off and its off. Thats it. on and off.
It is much easier to remember a simple hey i want high power, okay double click to turn on at high and click once to turn off.
I want low, then just click. 90% of the time I will just need low so its just click once to start.
I find the hold down for less than 6s for max blast a great UI for this light. all I need to do is (if the light is off, just press and hold and you get the max turbo wall of light) let go of the switch and its off. (Damn simple)
If I am at either moonlight,low,med or high and I hold down I go to turbo max blast I let go and it goes back to the level I was using the light. now if I hold past 6 seconds then it stays at max turbo until I switch off.
So far This has to be in my book the most intuitive UI of the fancy flashlights I have messed around with, its hard to screw up since its easy muscle memory to operate and UI-1 will cover the moon,low,med,high and turbo and its way simpler that the TK-75 or LD75 for example, I find it much more foolproof to operate than those two lights.
I will be doing more with this light and report back but these are my initial findings and its a very positive one so far.
