Nitecore EDC23 Review – Good Idea, Questionable Execution

1. Pricing & Availability
2. What comes in the box?
3. Design & Construction
4. Size & Measurements
5. User Interface
6. Emitter & Beam
7. Mode Chart
8. Runtime
9. Driver & Regulation
10. Switches
11. Carry & Ergonomics
12. Batteries & Charging
13. OLED Display
14. Competition
15. 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. At the time of writing it’s $75 USD, which is lower than I expected.

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 and USB-C charging cable.

Design & Construction

The design is just like EDC27, but shortened. It’s a little thick toward the screen and tail, but most of it is pretty thin.

Build quality is fine. It appears to be a stamped steel sandwich held together with Torx screws. The steel makes it feel dense, but heavy. There’s a small aluminum heatsink under the clip to help mitigate the steel’s poor thermal properties. It’s worth noting that it’s only IP54 rated, not IP67/IP68 like most quality flashlights. Overall I wish it were aluminum for lighter weight, better thermal properties, and less stain/smudge prone finish. The aluminum EDC25 is ~33% longer, but weighs about the same.

Size & Measurements

Mini Maglite | Olight Warrior 3S | Nitecore EDC29 | Olight Arkfeld Ultra | Nitecore EDC23 | Skilhunt EC200

Measurement	Measured (mm)
Thickness (mode)	14.8
Thickness (max, including clip)	22.6
Width (mode)	30.2
Length (including switch)	102.7
Weight with included battery (g)	101

User Interface

This is largely the same UI Nitecore uses on their other flat EDC-series lights. It doesn’t have Moonlight, but otherwise, it works well.

This light has two two-stage switches on the tail. One has a power icon, so I’ll call it the “power” switch. The other is the Turbo/Strobe switch, which I’ll call “T/S”. There’s also a slider switch on the side for lockout.

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
On	Power	Half-Press	Cycle mode (“Ultralow”-Low-Med-High)
Any (except full lockout)	T/S	Half-Press and hold	Momentary Turbo
Any (except full lockout)	T/S	Full-Press and hold	Momentary Strobe

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’s a dedicated lockout switch. It’s easier and faster to use than a bunch of clicks, a long hold, or loosening a tailcap.
• 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 before turning on the light.

What they got wrong:

• “Ultralow” is not ultra-low. It’s 14 lumens. I expect an EDC flashlight to have a proper moonlight mode of 1 lumen or less.
• The mode switch does Turbo and Strobe. I wish I could disable Strobe and just have Turbo like I could on EDC25. I often accidentally press too hard and get Strobe when I just want Turbo, or press so gently (to avoid Strobe) that it turns off after a moment.

Notes:

• Half-lockout mode seems pretty goofy and unnecessary to me. It doesn’t get in the way at all though. It’s accessed by sliding the lockout switch while holding the Turbo/Strobe switch.
• Ultralow: I’m glad there’s momentary direct access to “ultralow” by holding a half-press, and I’m glad that I can cycle to ultra-low before turning the light on. I think it would be better to be able to half-press into momentary ultralow and then full-press for constant ultralow, instead of having to look at the screen. It’s a minor thing, but it’d be nice.

Emitter & Beam

EDC25 uses two “NiteLab UHi-25“ LEDs. They look exactly like Luminus SFT25Rs to me. They’re domeless emitters with tiny dies for high intensity. The two LEDs each sit in their own orange-peel reflector and there’s a small proximity sensor between them.

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. Unfortunately, it only works in the constant-on modes, not Turbo.

The beam has a good general-purpose profile, not too narrow, nor too wide. 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	2200	23000	303	62	5780	0.0111
High	990	10350	203	60	5590	0.0130
Medium	190	1986	89	59	5480	0.0150
Low	51	533	46	58	5440	0.0156
“Ultralow”	14	146	24	58	5410	0.0158

Runtime

Turbo mode: I didn’t do a discrete runtime test because it requires holding the button and only lasts 7 seconds before stepdown. That’s an extremely short Turbo time, even for a hotrod. With that said, it never stepped down on me in my normal use because I only use turbo in short bursts when I need to see “What’s that over there”? If you consider Turbo a regular prolonged-use mode you’ll be severely disappointed. In this light, Turbo is a bonus mode that pushes the light to its limits in short bursts.

Performance is mediocre. It’s very bright on Turbo, but it steps down very quickly (7 seconds or less). High mode steps down after ~3 minutes, like most other lights do on their Turbo mode. Sustained output is a little over 300 lumens, which is lower than I expected. This performance level is sufficient and will work great, but it’s not impressive. I’m sure the stepdowns and sustained output would be better if it were made of aluminum instead of steel.

Thermal regulation is present and active. Turbo steps down at 7 seconds, but it will step down sooner if the light is hot. That’s abysmally short, but it’s long enough to blip it on for a moment and then let it go. There’s a progress bar on the screen that regenerates after Turbo use and it takes longer when the light is hot. My High Cooled test maintains a much higher output than my High test, so the light is clearly adjusting the brightness level according to its temperature. Well done!

LVP (Low Voltage Protection) appears to be present and works well. When the battery is effectively empty, the light will shut itself off. The light can be re-activated in an emergency.

Driver & Regulation

The driver is a Boost circuit according to my Nitecore rep. That’s great news because boost drivers typically provide great efficiency and regulation performance.

Regulation performance is average/good. You get most of the Turbo output 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 the parasitic drain because the battery is built in.

Switches

EDC23 has three awesome switches.

The main power switch is square and proud. It controls on/off and mode selection. It’s two-stage, so a full-press turns on/off and a half-press changes modes. Very nice!

The flat rectangular switch is the instant Turbo/Strobe switch. It’s momentary only, so releasing it will turn the light off. It’s two stage, so a half press activates Turbo and a full press activates Strobe. I love having a dedicated Turbo switch that makes it instantly accessible. However, I wish this were a single stage or that I could disable Strobe. The first stage is very light and I frequently push past Turbo and into Strobe by accident.

The toggle switch on the side is for Lockout. I like it because it’s dramatically easier to use than a long hold, series of clicks, or loosening a tailcap. This is a light where lockout might be necessary because both of the main switches are sensitive. My only gripe is that the switch seems backwards to me. I wish it unlocked when I push it toward the tail, because my thumb will already be moving that direction when I go to turn it on.

Carry & Ergonomics

Ergonomics are fine. It’s just big enough to be comfortable enough to use in a reverse grip. A cigar grip works well too and lets you access both switches without changing grip.

Batteries & Charging

The battery is a built-in 1500mAh pouch cell. That’s a lot bigger than I expected. The longer EDC25/27 models only get 200mAh higher capacity. 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. Charging takes about 75 minutes. 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

A unique feature of most of Nitecore’s flat lights is the small OLED display. 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. I prefer the more intuitive and glanceable indicators Nitecore used on EDC25.

Competition

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

Nitecore EDC25:

• same price
• 20% brighter
• marginally higher throw
• 13% larger battery
• 33% longer
• similar weight (only 5% heavier)
• simple, glanceable, intuitive indicators instead of a gimmicky display
• single-stage button that does Turbo or Strobe, not both (no accidental Strobe!)
• Same clip, but it suits this light better

Wurkkos HD01: budget alternative

• around half the cost
• less lumens and much less throw
• dual side switches (no tail switch)
• laser and side RGBW light
• magnetic tailcap

Jetbeam E26: bigger with more features

• similar price
• less lumens and throw
• also has a green laser and UV light
• rotary toggle for channel selection and lockout
• side switch for general use and tail switch for Turbo and Strobe
• larger size
• glass breakers in bezel
• SFT40 5000K LED

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 idea of a shortened version of one of Nitecore’s flat EDC lights, but I don’t think this is a good implementation. The steel makes it heavier than it should be, reduces sustained output, and makes it step down faster. The display is gimmicky and harder to use than simple indicator LEDs. Strobe is too easy to activate. The clip is too long, stiff, and doesn’t carry deep. The lockout switch and shorter length are the only things I think this light does better than the rest of Nitecore’s flat EDC line. Personally, I’d rather have an EDC25 because it’s the same price, about the same weight, performs better, has easier-to-read indicators, lets me disable Strobe, and doesn’t have as many clip issues.

Thanks to Nitecore for sending me this light for review!