Nitecore EDC29 Review – Biggest Baddest Flat EDC

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. Switch
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, MSRP is $110 USD.

What comes in the box?

The box is Nitecore’s typical black printed retail box with yellow accents. There’s a vacuum-formed plastic insert inside to hold the contents securely. Inside is:

• The light itself
• User manual
• USB A-to-C charging cable
• Wrist lanyard

Design & Construction

This is the biggest light yet in Nitecore’s flat EDC series. It’s got a more aggressive design than previous models and I think it looks great. It’s quite large for a “flat” EDC light though.

Build quality is good. It feels better made than Nitecore’s other flat EDC lights I’ve tried. It’s still a stamped steel sandwich, which isn’t my favorite. It has an aluminum heatsink under the clip, but full aluminum construction would be lighter and provide better thermals. None of the screws (Torx T5) are threadlocked, so the side panels should be removable.

Size & Measurements

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

Measurement	Measured (mm)
Width (typical)	34.7
Thickness (minimum, not including clip)	16.0
Thickness (at bezel)	19.3
Thickness (thickest point, including clip)	22.6
Length	134.0
Weight with included battery (g)	160

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 Luminshield
Luminshield/Strobe	Power	Full-Press	Switch between Luminshield and Strobe

What they got right:

• There’s a dedicated Turbo/Luminshield/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. I love that I can disable Strobe and use Luminshield instead.
• 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.
• Turbo, Luminshield, 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 13 lumens. I expect an EDC flashlight to have a proper moonlight mode of 1 lumen or less.

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

The big feature of EDC29 is the two NiteLab UHi-20 MAX LEDs with a total of eighteen dies between them. They produce over 7000 lumens at turn on in my testing, the most brightness I’ve seen from a light this size. It’s only for a few seconds at a time but it’s jaw-dropping. They also are segmented, so all the dies turn on in Med, High, and Turbo, but only the center dies turn on in “Ultralow”, Low, and Turbo. That lets you vary how bright you need the spill to be. There’s a small proximity sensor in the middle that will dim the light if it detects an obstacle within the first second after activation, but that only happens on High mode.

The beam with just the center dies is surprisingly throwy (15 CD/LM). With all dies activated, the spill gets much brighter and becomes a floodlight (5 CD/LM). The spill has the same minor flat spots as the other flat EDC lights from Nitecore, caused by the bezel.

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)
LuminShield	7700	38000	390	68	5921	0.0069
Turbo	2900	43000	415	67	6042	0.0070
High	1200	10000	200	63	5460	0.0125
Medium	370	2700	104	60	5270	0.0149
Low	86	1300	72	60	5240	0.0159
“Ultralow”	13	200	28	60	5230	0.0168

Runtime

Note: I didn’t runtime test Turbo or Luminshield because they last less than 10 seconds each and require you to hold the button down.

Performance is good. High mode lasts over 4 minutes before stepping down, which is unusually short for “High” mode. With that said, it’s 1200lm and that’s Turbo brightness for other lights in this class. Medium mode is perfectly stable at ~380lm for over 3 hours, and that’s great.

Thermal regulation is present and active. My High and High Cooled tests are dramatically different, with the light staying much brighter in the Cooled test. The Turbo and Luminshield stepdowns are time-based but the “recharge” time has a thermal component. If the light is hot after a few Turbo/Luminshield runs, it will take longer to “recharge” and be able to Turbo/Luminshield again.

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

Driver & Regulation

The driver isn’t specified, but I suspect it’s a buck circuit.

Regulation performance is fair/average. Lumenshield and Turbo are affected by battery voltage at every level, but they stay fairly bright down to near empty.

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.

Switch

EDC29 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/Luminshield 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 or Luminshield. I love having a dedicated Turbo switch that makes it instantly accessible. I also love that I can choose between Lumenshield and Strobe, so I can effectively disable Strobe.

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 and it’s freaking bright. My only gripe is that the switch seems backward 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 good. It’s comfortable to hold in a reverse grip or cigar grip. Its larger size gives it the best ergonomics out of Nitecore’s entire flat EDC series.

Batteries & Charging

The battery included is a 2500mAh built-in pouch cell. That’s substantially higher capacity than any other light in this class, but still much smaller than the 3500-5000mAh you can get in similar-sized cylindrical lights. 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.

The battery came fully charged for user convenience, but it shouldn’t have. Normally lithium rechargeable batteries are shipped half-charged for safety and longevity. While Nitecore says they did lots of safety testing, I still wish it had shipped half-charged. Sitting fully charged for weeks or months in a warehouse will degrade the battery and reduce its lifespan. Since you can’t replace it when it wears out, it will also reduce the lifespan of the whole flashlight. Not cool.

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 80 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 more intuitive and glanceable LED indicators like the ones on Nitecore EDC25.

Competition

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

Olight Warrior 3S: round, user-serviceable alternative

• similar price
• similar size, but a bit thicker
• less lumens and throw, but still impressive
• different but still excellent two-stage tailswitch
• traditional independent side switch UI for utility
• convenient but proprietary magnetic charging
• magnetic tailcap
• proprietary but replaceable 21700 battery
• double the capacity longer runtime
• intuitive and glanceable indicator LEDs

Nitecore EDC25: better value alternative

• substantially lower price

• noticeably thinner and much lighter
• aluminum construction
• UHi-20 LEDs (no LuminShield mode)
• less lumens and throw, but still impressive
• intuitive and glanceable indicator LEDs
• no dedicated lockout switch

Jetbeam E26: multi-channel alternative

• lower price
• less brightness & less throw
• multiple color options
• also has UV and green laser
• side switch, rotary switch, and tail switch
• no dedicated lockout switch

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 was skeptical and confused when Nitecore announced this model. It seemed too big and needlessly bright. After using it, I see the appeal. It’s still thinner than a comparable 21700-size cylinder light, and the brightness is jaw-dropping. I like the UI and love all the switches. Unfortunately, the battery is built in, but it enables this unique shape. I wish it were aluminum instead of steel, and that it wasn’t fully charged in the package. Personally, I still think EDC25 is the best EDC flat light in Nitecore’s lineup, but EDC29 is pretty compelling too.

Thanks to Nitecore for sending me this light for review!