Nitecore announces a new AA light

I just went to the Nitecore site to look up the specs on a light mentioned in another thread. They always feature their newest products on the home page, and the announcement of an EA42 caught my eye, since I own an EA45S. The big differences are: A Polycarbonate body instead of aluminum, and the use of an XHP35 HD emitter instead of the XP-L HI V3 used in the EA45S. Due to the emitter swap, the max lumens increases from 1000 to 1800, but the max throw drops ~50 meters. One nice thing is that the mode/output chart now shows the CD and throw for each mode, rather than just the maximum. This is something I have wanted for a long time, since the max numbers are not really all that relevant for continued use.

The head appears to be larger at first glance, but I think that is because that is now where the threads are for opening the light, and the tail does not open. The tail does have a nice connection point for a lanyard, but I don't think it will tail stand, and there is no tripod socket. Surprisingly, the weight is almost exactly the same as the aluminum EA45S. I expected it to be lighter due to the polycarbonate body. They do have a nice little note that says that turbo mode might not be available when using alkaline cells.

The Nitecore store carries it for $69.95 USD, which is ten dollars less than the EA45S.

Looking forward to seeing some reviews, hopefully soon.

Thats cool. Love the design, i guess its alot easier to be creative when you use polycarbonate.
Strange to move away from the heat sinking diecast body when increasing power though. My son has an ea45s and it regulates high output very well due to great heatsinking.

Interesting development. I am on Battery Junction's mailing list, and they just announced the EA42, but with a price of $84.95, or fifteen dollars higher than the Nitecore store price. It will be interesting to see what the real price will shake out to be.

torchsarecool said:

Thats cool. Love the design, i guess its alot easier to be creative when you use polycarbonate.
Strange to move away from the heat sinking diecast body when increasing power though. My son has an ea45s and it regulates high output very well due to great heatsinking.

Click to expand...

I downloaded the User Manual when I was on site, and it states that the head is still aluminum. I guess they are just depending on their ATR programming to control the temp. The other interesting fact is that they do NOT recommend using lithium primary cells, only NiMH or Alkaline.

Not supporting L91 Lithium primary is a deal breaker. Why would they not support that? Who would put Alkaleaks in a flashlight like this? Seems like a bad decision by NiteCore.

Thought it was an AA light. It's a 4xAA light.

Correct, it runs on AA. But Nitecore has excluded the Energizer L91 Ultimate Lithium AA battery (1.5V 3000mAh) from usage in the light.

I guess the idea is to use NiMh batteries, like eneloops. Although alkalines are "supported", they won't give you turbo. Madness to use them, of course.

bwalker said:

Not supporting L91 Lithium primary is a deal breaker. Why would they not support that? Who would put Alkaleaks in a flashlight like this? Seems like a bad decision by NiteCore.

Click to expand...

Yea. Same for me. I use my lights often during winter.

The light seems like a pain to swap out batteries. It's not just simply a matter of loosening the head from the body. There is a retaining ring that mates the head to the body. The ring must be unscrewed and slightly "dropped" past the body of the light to remove the head. Of course, this makes battery swaps slower than normal and can also be lost. See 2:34 for a demonstration of this:

I have to admit this light looks awesome. A nice throwy light that's not too big. Hopefully their boost circuit allows full flat regulation till dead. The ea45s would due to over voltage unlike a single 18650 light but I prefer the UI on this one

Again no neutral white version from Nitecore = no buy for me.

bwalker said:

Not supporting L91 Lithium primary is a deal breaker. Why would they not support that? Who would put Alkaleaks in a flashlight like this? Seems like a bad decision by NiteCore.

Click to expand...

We have confirmed with the factory that the first batch of instruction sheet has a typo.

The EA42 will support 1.5V Lithium primary batteries.

bwalker said:

Not supporting L91 Lithium primary is a deal breaker. Why would they not support that? Who would put Alkaleaks in a flashlight like this? Seems like a bad decision by NiteCore.

Click to expand...

NitecoreStore said:

We have confirmed with the factory that the first batch of instruction sheet has a typo.

The EA42 will support 1.5V Lithium primary batteries.

Click to expand...

Good to hear that. It made no sense whatsoever to not allow lithium primaries, especially since most of us here abhor them. Thanks for checking.

Doesn't abhor mean hate🤔

thermal guy said:

Doesn't abhor mean hate樂

Click to expand...

You are right. I meant most of us abhor alkalines.

NitecoreStore said:

We have confirmed with the factory that the first batch of instruction sheet has a typo.

The EA42 will support 1.5V Lithium primary batteries.

Click to expand...

Good, it did seem very odd not to support lithium primary cells, and I am glad to hear that his was a typo.

Wouldnt the polymer body be an impediment to cooling the light when running at mid to high settings? If it gets to 1800L on turbo, or even 700L for a few mins, i would imagine that the polymer wont conduct the heat away from the LED and electronics efficiently(?)

Timothybil said:

You are right. I meant most of us abhor alkalines.

Click to expand...

while i dont abhor alkalines, i most certainly despise and dislike them immensely..... lol

HighlanderNorth said:

while i dont abhor alkalines, i most certainly despise and dislike them immensely..... lol

Click to expand...

The head is still aluminum, and by its appearance is about 2" long or so, and it is 40mm in diameter, so there is still a good chunk of metal there.