Flashlight suggestions, please

I'm a complete novice when it comes to finding the right flashlight. I know what I want in a flashlight, but with all the choices it's difficult for me to find the right one.

I currently have some simple and cheap pocket edc lights that use a single AA or 14500 battery. When I bought them 2-3 years ago they were listed with a Q5 cree led. These are great little flashlights but I'd like something that's brighter.

This is what I'm looking for:

• Simple - Low, Medium, High setting
• Single battery - Prefer AA/14500, but not opposed to changing to something different (18650, 26650, other)
• Small - EDC carryable, I normally have one next to my bed, in my pocket, car, and fiancee has one. Would like something around 3-6" in length and no larger than 1.25" diameter
• Budget - Would like to keep the cost under $25, cheaper is better.

Please let me know your top 3 suggestions so I can look into them. Thank you!

Wowtac A1S. On Amazon it's right at $25 each and uses an 18650 that is provided and has a built in USB charging port (in the battery). Has low, med, high and turbo settings. Also has flashing settings but they are hidden. It's also fairly bright. There is also the A1 from Wowtac that you can get for under $20 on Amazon and is mostly different in the max output level. The A1S is rated at 1150 lumens and the A1 for 500 lumens.

Unless you are specifically wanting to use AAs for availability anywhere...or you intend to just leave it in the car all winter...and summer, I suggest switching to 18650s. They will have a longer run time.

A couple of other lights to look for:

Convoy S2

FW3A

Lumintop Tool: AA/ 14500 powered pocket light.

For the money, this is hard to beat.
Lumintop Tool: AA/ 14500 ! AA or 14500 for brighter.

Thank you for the suggestions. I've been reading up and watching videos on the flashlights you both suggested. I'm very intrigued by the FW3A by the 3 Led setup. I'll keep researching these flashlights until I can make the right deciding for me!