Contents

• Pricing & Availability
• What comes in the box?
• Design & Construction
• Size & Measurements
• User Interface
• Emitter & Beam
• Mode Chart
• Runtime
• Driver & Regulation
• Switch
• Carry & Ergonomics
• Batteries & Charging
• Competition
• Conclusion

Pricing & Availability

Nitecore sent me this light in exchange for an honest review. Here is the official product page where you can see current pricing.

What comes in the box?

My sample is pre-release so I don’t have the official box. It just came with a wrist lanyard.

Design & Construction

EDC27’s main feature is its thin, flat design. It’s about the same size and shape as a large pocket knife. While most of it is thinner than your average EDC flashlight, it is still fairly large.

Build quality is fine. It appears to be a stamped steel sandwich held together with Torx screws. The steel makes it feel denser than the aluminum EDC25, but the stamping lines aren’t as crisp in the steel. There’s no thread lock on any of the screws so it’s easy to remove the clip and bend it back into shape if it gets snagged on something. It’s also worth noting that it’s only IP54 rated, not IP67/IP68 like most quality flashlights. Overall I like the lightweight aluminum build of EDC25 better.

Size & Measurements

Olight Warrior 3S | Surefire G2X Pro | EDC27 UHi | Mini Maglite | Weltool T1 Pro V2

(All Nitecore) EDC27 UHi | MT1C Pro | MT2C Pro | EDC33 | EDC35 | MH25 Pro

Measurement	Measured (mm)
Length	135.2
Width	31.1-31.2
Thickness (at bezel)	12.9
Thickness (at clip)	21.8
Pocket Clip Screw Spacing	~8.2
Weight with included battery (g)	121

User Interface

This is a unique and well-designed UI, and that impresses me. Often, when a flashlight maker tries something new with a switch or UI design, it’s cumbersome. Nitecore did an excellent job of innovating and keeping it intuitive and usable.

This light has two two-stage switches on the tail. One is labeled “mode” and the other has a power icon, so I’ll call it the “power” switch.

State	Switch	Action	Result
Off	Power	Full-Press	On
Off	Power	Half-press	Turn on display
Off	Power	Half-Press and hold	Momentary “Ultra-low”
Display only	Power	Half-press	Change mode while off
Any (except full lockout)	Mode	Half-Press and hold	Momentary Turbo
Any (except full lockout)	Mode	Full-Press and hold	Momentary Strobe
On	Power	Half-Press	Cycle mode (“Ultralow”-Low-Med-High)
On	Power	Half-press-and-hold until the display shows “semi-lock”	Half-lockout
On	Power	Half-press-and-hold until the display shows a lock with a 2 inside it	Full-lockout
Lockout	Power	Full-press then half-press-and-hold until the light turns on	Unlock

What they got right:

• There’s a dedicated Turbo/Strobe button. I love being able to quickly, instantly, and momentarily access Turbo without needing a specific series of clicks. It’s a great feature. Instant access to Strobe is good for some users too.
• There are 5 brightness levels, which is just the right amount. Enough options but not so many that it’s cumbersome to use.
• Turbo and Strobe are not memorized. They have a dedicated switch, so you can access them quickly without overriding your memorized mode.
• There’s a shortcut to the lowest mode. Half-pressing the main switch will momentarily activate the lowest mode. That’s great for situations where you don’t want to cycle through High to get down to “Ultralow”.
• You can change the brightness while the light is off and that’s pretty cool. Half-pressing and releasing the power switch while it’s off will light up the display and let you select the brightness level you want before turning on the light.

What they got wrong:

• “Ultralow” is not ultra-low. It’s 10 lumens. I expect an EDC flashlight to have a proper moonlight mode of 1 lumen or less.
• Half-lockout mode seems pretty goofy and unnecessary to me.
• The mode switch does Turbo and Strobe. I wish I could disable Strobe and just have Turbo like I could on EDC25. I don’t want to accidentally press too hard and enter Strobe when I want Turbo.

Emitter & Beam

The big deal with this “UHi” version of EDC27 is the NiteLab UHi-20 LEDs. UHi-20 is a 3V domeless emitter with a tiny, round die. While it doesn’t have impressive color properties it’s extremely intense so it throws far and gets impressively bright for its size. This is a huge improvement in beam shape and throw compared to the standard EDC27 model with Luminus SFT40 LEDs.

The proximity sensor detects if the light is close to an object when it’s turned on. If so, it will dim the light until the obstruction is removed. That only works if the light is already obstructed when you turn it on. If you turn it on and then put something in front, the sensor won’t do anything. I find this works well at protecting pockets without getting in the way of normal use.

The beam has a good general-purpose profile, not too narrow, nor too wide (10 cd/lm). There are two flat spots in the spill from the rectangular bezel slightly blocking the beam.

In the beamshots below, camera settings are fixed and the wall is 2.8M away.

In the beamshots below, camera settings are fixed, the basketball goal to the right of the hotspot is 39M away, and the power pole in the center is 185M away.

Mode Chart

Disclaimer: All of my measurements are taken at turn-on. Lumen measurements were taken on a Texas Ace 3.5″ Lumen Tube. A candela measurement was taken at 10 meters with an Opple Light Master III on the highest brightness, and other candela figures were calculated relative to that. CRI, CCT, & DUV data were taken for each mode from a few feet away at the center of the hotspot with the Opple Light Master and Waveform DUV Calculator. Runtime tests were performed with the Ceilingbounce app on my smartphone. These tests were performed with a fully charged included battery unless otherwise specified. I cannot measure moonlight directly, so moonlight readings are calculated based on the brightness relative to the next-lowest mode. None of this is professional equipment, so take these measurements with a grain of salt.

The official specs are above, followed by my own measurements below.

Level	Lumens	Candela	Throw (Meters)	CRI (Ra)	Color Temp. (K)	DUV (Tint)
Turbo	2800	28000	340	65	6110	0.0088
High	1100	11000	210	61	5680	0.0135
Medium	190	1900	87	58	5440	0.0169
Low	55	550	47	57	5400	0.0181
Ultralow	10	100	20	57	5350	0.0188

Runtime

Turbo only lasts 7-8 seconds before stepping down to high, so I didn’t include it in the graph.

Performance is great. Sustained output in room temperature conditions is around 500 lumens and that lasts almost an hour and a half. The ~200lm medium mode lasts over 4.5hrs.

Thermal regulation consists of a timed stepdown from Turbo at 7-8 seconds, and from High mode at the 2-minute mark. Then it displays active thermal regulation that maximizes brightness for ambient conditions.

LVP (Low Voltage Protection): When the battery is effectively empty, the light will shut itself off. It can be re-activated in an emergency.

Driver & Regulation

I don’t know what kind of driver this light has. I think it’s Buck or perhaps Buck + FET.

Regulation performance is good/average. It can provide near-full Turbo brightness down to ~25% charge.

PWM: No PWM is visible to my eyes or camera, nor audible to my ears.

Parasitic Drain: I can’t measure parasitic drain because the battery is built-in.

Switches

EDC27 UHi has two switches on the tail. The narrower one protrudes and the wider one is flush. It’s easy to tell them apart by feel. Both have a shiny metallic coating but they feel wobbly and somewhat cheap. Not enough to be a functional issue, but their quality doesn’t match the rest of the light.

Both of them are two-stage electronic switches. That’s an upgrade from EDC25 where only one of them was a two-stage. The narrower protruding one with the power icon the main switch. It controls on/off with a full press and mode changed with a half-press from on. A half-press from off activates momentary “ultralow” mode. The wide & flush one labeled “mode” activates momentary Turbo on a half press, and momentary Strobe on a full press. It’s weird that it’s labeled “mode”.

I have mixed feelings about the new two-stage Turbo/Strobe switch. I love having instant momentary access to Turbo, but I don’t like that I might accidentally enter Strobe mode if I press a little too hard. On the other hand, I can see how it’s really appealing to people who like Strobe mode. It provides instant, easy access by just mashing the switch in a high-stress situation.

Carry & Ergonomics

Ergonomics are fine. In a reverse grip, it can be hard to access both switches if you hold it flat, so I end up holding it like the photo below. A cigar grip also works well.

The clip works well enough but I don’t think it suits this light. It leaves a lot of the light sticking outside the pocket and there’s a big plastic piece above the clip for some reason that adds thickness. A simple deep carry clip would have been a better fit, I think. The clip screws don’t have any thread locker, so if you can find another clip that fits it’ll be easy to install. I included the screw spacing in the size and measurements section.

Batteries & Charging

The battery is a built-in 1700mAh LiPo pouch cell. That’s smaller than I expected, but LiPo batteries pack a lot of punch. It’s not user-serviceable, so when the battery eventually wears out, you can’t replace it. That sucks, but it comes with the territory. All of these flat-style EDC lights have built-in batteries.

Charging is facilitated by a USB-C port on the side near the tail. It’s covered by a plastic and rubber port cover. Both A-to-C and C-to-C charging work fine. There’s no powerbank function. I wouldn’t expect one with such a small battery. The light works while charging except for Turbo and Strobe.

OLED Display

This light’s most unique feature is the small OLED display on its face. It displays battery voltage, brightness level, remaining runtime at that brightness level, and lockout status. The display turns on for a few seconds after you press a switch. You can turn it on to check battery status or adjust brightness while the light is off by half-pressing the main switch. Half-pressing again will cycle the brightness level so you can turn the light on in any mode you want.

It’s neat at first, but ultimately I think it’s an unnecessary gimmick and prefer the intuitive and glanceable indicators of EDC25.

Competition

Here are some lights in the same class and how they compare.

Nitecore EDC25: identical EXCEPT

• ~25% less expensive
• aluminum construction
• significantly lighter weight
• Turbo/Strobe switch does Turbo or Strobe, not both
• No OLED display
• simple brightness & battery indicator LEDs
• cannot change modes while off

Olight Arkfeld Pro: fancier option

• also has a green laser and UV led
• same price
• less brightness and a lot less throw
• cool and neutral white LED options
• simple battery indicators instead of OLED display
• proprietary and convenient magnetic charging system
• smaller size
• better build quality
• difficult/impossible to remove clip
• worse regulation performance
• side switch & rotary channel selector

Wurkkos HD01: budget alternative

• about half the price
• also has a green laser and side RGBW light
• basic battery indicator instead of OLED display
• dual side switches instead of dual two-stage tail switches
• machined billet aluminum construction

This section is not comprehensive. If I didn’t include a particular light here, it doesn’t mean it’s bad or doesn’t deserve to be here. I simply cannot list every possible competitor.

Conclusion

I like the shape, USB-C charging, UI, LEDs, and beam. The ability to select the mode before turning on the light is cool. The clip and performance are fine. I don’t like the built-in battery, stainless steel, or the gimmicky OLED display. I don’t care for the two-stage Turbo/Strobe switch but I see the appeal. Ultimately I’d rather have an EDC25 because it’s lighter, less expensive, has simpler indicators, and lets me disable strobe.

Thanks to Nitecore for sending me this light for review!