Introducing the Nitecore NU33 Headlamp, a light designed for those who are wanting lightweight, small packaging, and multi-color emitters. The light features a primary cool white emitter (5867k), with an auxiliary neutral white (4575k) floody emitter and an auxiliary red mode. Thanks to Nitecore for sending this to me to look at and review.
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Get the Nitecore NU33 at http://bit.ly/3QPXUC4
or on Amazon at https://amzn.to/3CTfuis
Packaging & Accessories
The packaging here is Nitecore’s standard retail packaging. Inside the light is in a black plastic tray and has a few accessories. Included is the light itself, a strap that’s preattached, a USB-A to C cable, a manual, and a warranty card.
Construction & Design
The NU33 has an aluminum outer shell, with a plastic bracket that the tilt mechanism and mount are made out of. It looks like it’s available in black and purple currently. The back of the mount is contoured a bit for comfort, and I will say this is one of the lighter-weight and more comfortable headlamps I have used in recent months. The strap is made of black elastic and is adjustable. The outside of it has silver markings for style and reflections around the entire way. It has tilt control, only down and about 75 degrees. The buttons on top of the light stand proud and have different heights and textures so they are easy to tell apart. The internal 2000mAh battery is sealed inside and non-user removable.
Size & Weight
I measured the weight of the NU33 with the strap at 3.38oz, or 95.7g. length is 2.45”, width is 1.7” and it’s 1.34” thick. The light is only IP66 water and dust rated, which is less than we typically see. Light rain should be ok but I wouldn’t do much more than that. This headlamp compares nicely to some of the offerings from Blackdiamond and the like but I don’t have one of those so I picked a few headlamps to compare it to.
LED & Beam
Nitecore doesn’t say which LED’s are specifically being used with the NU33. The main emitter is cool white but surprisingly neutral. On my Opple meter, I measured it at 5867k and 66 CRI and just slightly green with a good amount of tint shift. Its beam profile here is a defused spot, There is plenty of spill out of the optic as well. The axillary neutral white emitter measured at 4575k and 85 CRI. This is your short-range flood emitter, it’s pleasant but only good for short-range tasks as it only goes up to 53 lumens. One thing to note as well as there is no PWM here, it’s a constant current driver.
Below are the outputs I measured with my Texas Ace Lumen tube. They measured slightly above what Nitecore claimed in all modes. My two comments would be I wish that the neutral white emitter had a high mode reaching 100 lumens and that the low had a lower output option instead of a blinking mode.
Heat & Runtime
Runtimes for the NU33 were pretty good. Turbo is able to maintain its claimed 700 lumens for around 5 minutes while gradually ramping down. From there it was pretty flat out for 3.5 hours, before stepping down a few more times for a total runtime of 4 hours. As expected high gives you quite a bit more runtime out to 10 and a half hours, but the output is much less between 100-200 lumens during this time. For the other modes, I will have to take Nitecore’s word on the output runtimes as they were too long to graphically test. Auxiliary mode runs for 47 and 147 hours respectively and red is rated for 26 hours of runtime on its constant mode.
UI
UI here is pretty simple, the large power button is your on/off button (press and hold), once on pressing the button again quickly will change brightness levels. The other smaller round button is to change the emitter mode. To get to the blinking modes long press on the mode button when the light is on. The light does have lockout just hold both buttons together when the light is off for about 4 seconds and the main emitter will flash a few times to let you know it’s locked.
Recharging
The light does have a built-in non-user replaceable 2000mAh li-ion battery. Nitecore says this is equivalent to 3x AA batteries or 9X AAA batteries. The light recharges via a USB-C port on the bottom hidden behind a flexible plastic cover that stayed in place nicely.
The total charge time I saw was 1:13:00 which is a little faster than Nitecore claims. Charge speed was under 1C but just barely for most of the charge and that’s probably why. There are 4 power level indicator LED’s on the left side of the light, each one representing 25% power and if the light is off you can just press the round mode button to turn them on. You can also use the light while charging.
Conclusion
I was pleasantly surprised by this headlamp. It’s very light, yet feels well-built in the hand. It’s super comfortable to wear. I’m not a runner so I didn’t test that but I would expect it would do well here if you had the strap reasonably tight. I was pleasantly surprised the cool white LED here wasn’t cooler, 5800 CRI is workable, especially with the NW flood emitter for more up-close work.
I will give it dings for the sealed battery, making it a disposable product and not very sustainable, as well as the red mode not having a low output mode. 18 lumens is fairly bright.
I can recommend this one and think it’s a pretty good option for the average person. It’s probably not the best option for a flashaholic though. At the time of filming, the price is around $50 which is an ok value, you can certainly find this size of a headlamp for less with not as many features, etc and you can certainly spend more on similar lights from headlamps often used in the backpacking/climbing world running on alkaline batteries often.
Let me know what you guys think of the NU33 in the comments below, if I have any discounts or coupons I will link to those in the description too. Thanks for watching this review, and supporting the channel, I will catch you on the next one.
Get the Nitecore NU33 at http://bit.ly/3QPXUC4
or on Amazon at https://amzn.to/3CTfuis