I wanted to do a written review on the Nitecore MH12 Pro flashlight that Nitecore sent to me to check out. They have been very patient as my personal life has taken precedence over the past several months over flashlight reviews. It’s running Nitecore’s first Proprietary LED the NiteLab UHi 40 and it’s round instead of the more traditional square LED. It’s also running Nitecore’s new higher capacity (5300mAh) 21700 NL2153HP battery.
The box is typical of Nitecore’s retail experience with quite a bit of info and full color on the outside. Inside you get the light, a clip, lanyard, extra oring, next-generation holster, the NL2153HP battery, USB-A to USB-C charging cable, manual, and warranty card.
Construction & Design
Typical of other recent Nitecore flashlights in this price range the MH12 Pro is well built. The large rear mechanical tail switch stands proud at the tail but the two wings on the side allow it to tail stand. The milling on the tail is shallow and doesn’t really fit aesthetically to the body tube in my opinion. Threads are square cut and anodized with a proper amount of lubrication and oring in the usual places.
The body tube had deep triangle-shaped rings milled in and then some cuts going length-wise in a slow spiral for contrast grip. I think it looks great and is very functional without being too hard on the hand to hold. Works pretty well with gloves too. The pocket clip is dual direction, nondeep carry, and fits on either end of the body tube.
The head is glued in place and has your main mode button, USB-C recharging, and emitter. As talked about more in detail below, the light does have power level indicators and mode LED lights to the left and right of the button that are on when the light is on. These work well and are easy to see at a glance. The bezel is lightly crenulated and stands slightly proud of the glass lens. Underneath is a smooth reflector with the new round LED in the center.
User Interface
The UI is pretty easy to pick up the first time you power on the light. The main on and off is a large mechanical button in the rear, and then to change modes you have a large textured electronic button in the head. To the left of the button you have 4 small blue LEDs to indicate what output power level you are on, and on the right you have 4 green LEDs showing the battery level. These remain on when the light is on. The light also has a proximity sensor that is in use on high and turbo modes. It’s reactive and will dim when it senses too much reflection and drop the light down in mode to where it won’t damage any fabrics or burn skin, and the nice thing here is that it steps back up to the mode you were in once the obstruction was removed. This is the way it should operate. You can also override the proxy sensor if it comes on in the use of the light by just clicking that mode button once, and the sensor will be disabled then until the light is powered off and on again.
LED
The MH12 Pro uses Nitecore’s NiteLab UHi 40 LED, this is a new LED made by Nitecore’s parent company and is round instead of the normal square LED we see typically. I tested this on my Opple light meter. I tested the tint at about 5440k and CRI at 57.5 CRI. The tint here is a bit yellow-green, more noticeable on lower powers. To my eye not a huge flaw but it’s definitely noticeable more in the spill. No apparent PWM in lower modes or turbo. The beam shape isn’t noticeably different from other Square LED lights. I think the optic that’s chosen has a greater effect than the shape of the LED. Night shots show it’s round shape, especially in the spill with a focused center. This throws well for not being a thrower an easy 200 yards to the building in the distance. A nice choice for a lot of urban or rural uses without being so narrow like a lot of throwers are.
Heat & Runtime Graphs
Heat and runtime are pretty simple here, for my test of Turbo I disabled the proximity sensor (Check the UI section for how this is done), and got about 2400 lumens at peak output but this dropped pretty quickly to around 1250 lumens at the 30-second mark, and after 1 minute it was around 700 lumens where it ran slowly declining and hit its steady output of around 550 lumens for 3+ hours. Total runtime was 3:48:00. Max heat during this time was around 54C at the 50-second mark.
Recharging
The light has a larger port cover opposite the main operation button on the back of the light. It’s a bit unique instead of being solid silicone rubber like most other flashlights it’s got a harder plastic exterior and soft silicone interior. This should be good for durability. Recharging itself is done via USB-C and I had no issues with USB-C PD chargers indicating they have the correct pulldown resistors here. Charging took 4:26: in total, with charging hitting a peak of 2A for the first 110 minutes roughly. No complaints here with the charging curve or terminal voltage of the cell at 4.16v. The battery itself is protected and rated at 5300mAh, but in my testing, it was even larger at 5448mAh. The light takes a nonproprietary button top protected 21700-sized battery.
Conclusion
The beam pattern here is good i’m not sure it’s substantially better than square LEDs with a good optic from a similar style of lights. Personally, the somewhat green output here for me is a turn-off, and I would rather take some minor beam artifacts for a more pleasant, neutral or even cool white tint. So I’m not sure this new LED is meeting the marketing hype in this application. That said I don’t think a majority of Nitecore’s fan base will care that much round vs square since Nitecore generally has decent optics but some may care about the tint here.
The rest of the light has quite a bit to like about it. The size here is nice for a 21700 light in my opinion, controls and user interface are good and it has a nice amount of grip in the hand. I like the LEDs around the button that show mode and power level all the time and the markings are minimal on the light. Overall a solid flashlight, but hopefully as Nitecore continues to use this LED, the binning and tint will improve.
Subscribers to the channel may have noticed I have been slowing down in reviews a bit, and part of that’s being really selective in what I review. When I saw the Acebeam E75 announced, I knew I wanted to review it, well and let’s just say, I’m not disappointed. The size, LED’s (Nichia 519A available) and UI make this a win in my book, maybe the best of the year so far. Thanks to Acebeam for sending this to me to review, any sales or discounts that are available will be in the description below.
I will quickly go over the packaging and accessories that came with my light and then get to what you really want to know. It’s a nice full-color black box with the outline of the light on the front. The side gives a few highlights and the specs of your model, and the back more detailed stats. My light came with 2 spare orings, a charging cover, a generic lanyard, USB-A to C charging cable, and an Acebeam branded 5000mAh protected 15A 21700 li-ion battery, and the standard paperwork.
Construction & Design
The light is currently being offered in aluminum, anodized in 4 colors, Black, Gray, Blue and Dark Green, and I have the dark green model here. Interestingly the photos on Acebeam’s website don’t show a blue model, but 2 shades of green instead, a grass green which is what I have and a teal green seems to be what they are calling blue.
The light itself has a flat tail, with a very strong magnet and easily holds itself horizontally on painted slick surfaces. The tail cap has nice functional straight knurling. Internally there are springs on both ends and threads on the tail are square-cut.
The body tube and head are integral and made of one piece of aluminum. The tube has spiral unidirectional knurling. It’s fairly smooth and could be a little more aggressive in my opinion. 4 large flats are milled in to break it up.
The e-switch has a black aluminum cover, with a clear plastic ring surrounding it. Underneath there are the 4 LED power level indicators. These are multi-color but all behave the same. They are green when the power is greater than 20% remaining, turn red under 20% and blink red when under 10% remaining. One interesting thing to note is the 4 green power level LED’s around the button are always illuminated. This isn’t a big deal during most operations but is less than ideal when in moonlight mode. I have been told there is a revision where the LED indicator brightness will be less.
The charging port is opposite the button and has a good-fitting silicone cover. I’ll talk more about it and the pocket clip more in their respective sections.
The front bezel has moderate crenulations that are reasonably sharp. Mine is glued in place and I would guess made of steel. The lens is glass and AR coated, below it is the quad optic and in my case the 4 Nichia 519a LED’s.
UI
The UI here is what I’ll call the standard flashlight UI. It’s one many other manufacturers use and is logical. From off, long press on the button to turn into firefly mode. A short click from firefly will shut it off, and a longer click from Firefly will turn it to low. When already on in the standard modes the longer click will allow it to cycle up through low, med1, med2, and high. Turbo is a double click and strobe is a triple click. Both Turbo and Strobe shortcuts work when the light is off too. To turn off from any mode it’s a simple short click. There is memory on the normal modes, and lockout that can be activated when the light is off by holding the button for 3 seconds, and the unlock is the same procedure.
Retention
The lanyard attachment point on the E75 is on the tail cap, similar to a lot of other lights. It’s sufficient but nothing special. Let’s talk about the clip on this one though. It’s a little different design than I have seen on most other lights. It’s screwed on just under the charging port and runs most of the length of the body. It’s a dual-direction clip but neither is what I would say is great in my opinion. Both directions leave about 1” to 1.75” sticking out of your pocket both of which are more than I would like. With the diameter of this light and clip configuration for me, it’s not going to be an EDC in my front pocket. In a back pocket, it’s ok. There is no included holster which I would like for this size of the light, and something some of the competitor lights includes.
Size & Weight
I measured the length of the e75 at 5.1”, the diameter of the head at 1.38”, and the diameter of the body at 1.04” on the flats. Weight with clip and battery 7.64oz, or 216.7g. Slightly heavier than the Olight Seeker 3 Pro at 7oz or 198.9g.
Here are a few size comparisons with similar lights that I own.
LED & Beam
The Acebeam E75 is available with 2 LED options, a cool white 6500k option that’s not specified officially producing a peak of 4500k, and a neutral white Nichia 519a option which is what I have here. On my Opple meter, I measured the Nichia 519a LED’s at 4701k tint and at a 98Ra (CRI). Both are excellent and my personal preference, there was nothing negative to measure with the DUV here either. PWM was not to be found here as it’s a constant current driver.
The beam shape coming out of the quad LED’s isn’t perfect. On my Nichia version, there is some flower petal effects going on, at about 5ft or further though these are very minimal and not something thats a big deal. What you do notice is that the spill isn’t round, but the center is fairly round. I would put this as more of a floody light than thrower, but not pure flood.
Outputs
Here is an output chat, and it’s nice Acebeam includes measurements for both LED’s not something all manufacturers do these days. Moonlight through High I saw numbers that were reasonably close to the claimed numbers at the 30-second mark (FL1 standard). Turbo on my homemade TexasAce lumen tube read low, and this is a trend i’m seeing above 3000 lumens. It’s something I’m going to have to investigate further.
Heat & Runtime
Runtimes came in at what was expected for the most part. You can see that turbo starts stepping down at the 1-minute mark over the next minute before being at the 1000-lumen mark. Heat peaks at the end of the first step down out at the 1:33:00 mark at 54C .Starting in turbo and running to exhaustion ends at 4:10:00 which is pretty solid. You get 93 minutes of runtime on high of around 1000 lumens. Skipping turbo and going straight to high doesn’t yield much more only about 7 more minutes in high and 18 more minutes in overall runtime. Medium 2 lasted a total of nearly 7 hours runtime. The lack of a rubber grip here does make it a little toasty if you heat peak temps but it’s only after running for 90 minutes continuously, assuming you are not spamming turbo.
Recharging
The E75 uses onboard USB-C recharging and I had no issues with any of the cables or charges I used. PD support was good. The included cell is a 15A cell model number IMR21700NP-500A, is a button top, long, and protected. I measured it at 75.29mm, and my longer battery from my brass E70 worked fine which is even longer. Most button-top cells should be fine here, but not the ones with dual pole contacts on one end.
Charging time in my test took 3:10:00 from LVP at 3.009v to full at 4.134v. During this time charging speed hit a maximum of 2A with a pretty substantial ramp down beginning at the 2 hour mark. One note on the termination voltage. The 4.134v is when the lights voltage indicators went from red flashing to green solid. If you leave it plugged in it will trickle charge a bit closer to 4.2v.
Conclusion
My conclusion on the Acebeam e75 is that it’s my favorite light of 2023 that I have tested so far. For me the combination of the slightly warm, neutral, high CRI Nichia 519a LED’s, solid beam pattern, and 21700 battery provides a long runtime, and it’s available in green, one of my favorite colors. It’s got an easy UI too without any negatives, and no proxy sensor. This is a form factor I like too, and it’s a step up over the Olight Seeker 3 Pro which has the cool white LED, proxy sensor, and a UI I’m not hugely fond of.
The clip on the E75 isn’t my favorite, and it’s not going to be a front-pocket EDC for that reason. It also doesn’t come with a holster which is unfortunate, but it does fit in the Olight Seeker 3 holsters. You could also argue it’s price might be a little high if you’re comparing it to something like the D4V2 which is a similar size and performance but if you’re comparing it to the Olight Seeker 3 Pro or Seeker 4 it’s in line with the competition.
For me the pro’s outweigh the cons, and this ticks a lot of boxes for me for a general-purpose flashlight especially if you value high CRI, warm/neutral emitters like I do. It’s eays for me to recommend the E75.
Today I am taking a look at the newest right angle headlamp from Acebeam with the H16. It’s a single emitter light with 2 available LED options, in the AA/14500 size format. The H16 shares a lot of design and functions with the similarly sized Pokelite AA that I have reviewed last year. Thanks to Acebeam for sending this one to me to look at and review. Any discounts or deals that I have for this light will be posted in the description below this video along with links to my social media pages.
The packaging is a white retail box with color photos and highlights of the light on the front, there are no technical specs on the back like you commonly see, just contact info for Acebeam. The light and accessories sit inside a plastic tray inside and it comes with the light itself, and Acebeam branded 900mAh 14500 battery with USB-C charging on board, a short USB-A to C charging cable, the headband, 2 extra orings, and user manual.
Construction & Design
The light is made from aluminum and hard anodized in either a black or gray color. The black which I have here is the high CRI option and it’s only available in black. The gray body color is exclusive to the cool white emitter too. The design characteristics are pretty similar with the Pokelit AA model with a few differences.
The tail cap is flat and has a strong magnet that easily holds up the light. It features nice knurling for grip for easy battery removal. The body tube has ribs in the center and places for the clip to mount at the front or rear. The body tube itself is glued to the head of the light.
The head has some fins cut opposite the emitter for heat dissipation. The electronic switch is sitting at the top of the head and is covered by a shallow rubber/silicon boot that’s smooth. The business end of the light has a shallow bezel, glass lens, and smooth reflector. Markings on the light are pretty minimal, with the CCT and CRI being marked on the side of the head, the brand and model being marked just under the bezel, and the export and battery marks on the bottom of the cap.
User Interface
The UI here is very simple with the electronic switch found on top of the head. With the 14500 battery, you have 3 modes without memory mode. Click and hold to come on in the lowest mode or double press from off to turn on in low.. Once on click and hold to go up in mode groups. Double click to turbo when on and triple click to a slow strobe. Single short click to turn off. It’s a very simple user interface that I think anyone can understand. Mechanical lockout is easy to trigger by just breaking the seal on the tail cap.
Retention
The Clip is an uncaptured dual-direction pocket clip that can mount two ways on the H16. You can mount it near the rear of the light to give you a very deep carry, since the clip actually goes past the end of the light. The downside of this is the button will be inside the pocket and in my opinion easier to accidentally trigger, although it does still require a long press to turn on and comes on in low. The other place it mounts is hear the head but a fair amount of the light will stick out when doing this.
The H16 comes with an orange elastic 2 strap headband. It has a nice comfortable silicone mount, but requires the clip to be removed before mounting. On the sides you do have some reflective markings and Acebeam branding, holes in the material for style and ventilation, and then on the inside you have silicone grip strips to help it keep in place on a helmet. I found it to be lightweight and comfortable to wear.
LED & Beam
The H16 I have here is using a Nichia 519A LED in neutral white. I measured this LED at 4912k and 97.9Ra on my Opple light meter, without any color casts in the DUV data. The beam here is fairly floody with a large well defined hotspot and not a ton of spill. Good for the application here, as it’s optimized for closer-up use. There is some PWM that I could measure on my meter when on High but it’s very fast and I can’t see it with my eyes.
Output
Since this light is dual fuel and will run on both a Liion or NiMH battery, I will give some output data for both. One thing to note here is that light is available with a different LED that is brighter if you wish but you do give up the neutral tint and high CRI. All measurements were taken at the 30-second mark according to FL1 Standards. In general on the Li-ion battery that I measured on my Texas Ace Lumen tube was lower than Acebeam’s claims. If I had to guess they are listing startup lumens, not FL1 standards. For my Alkaline/NIMH tests, I used an Amazon Basics high-capacity AA battery. Acebeam doesn’t give official outputs for the use of this light with Alkaline or NiMH, and I think thats due to the extremely low outputs in the first 3 modes. The only one I got to give me a solid reading was medium at about 2 lumens. The light is only really useful on Turbo and that steps down pretty quickly which I will get to in the Runtime section coming up soon. My advice would be to stick with the Li-ion battery the light comes with and really only use a AA or NiMH in an emergency situation.
Heat & Runtimes
I focused primarily on the heat and runtime on the H16 when using the included Li-ion 14500 battery since that’s really where the light is best. Turbo lasts for 2 minutes to complete the total stepdown to about 180 lumens while staying above 500 lumens for the first 55 seconds. From here it’s a pretty steady decline and looks to be somewhat unregulated. Peak heat was at 18 minutes at about 48C on the exterior of the light. High output is an almost identical runtime, with the only difference being a few more total minutes of runtime.
The NiMH on turbo mode the H16 has a pretty minimal output time of less than a minute before stepping down to about 35 lumens. It will run at this state for about 9:10:00, and then continue to run past 24 hours at sub-lumen outputs. This really isn’t very effective light in most situations though.
Recharging
While the H16t itself doesn’t have built-in charging, the optional Acebeam 14500 battery does have built-in charging via USB-C. I had no issues charging this via USB-C to C or PD. Charging here is at 0.5C about .45A at the maximum for most of the charging time. The overall charging time is 2:30:00 at which time the LED on the battery itself goes from red to green. The battery itself has LVP built into it. I measured LVP at 3.103v and full at 4.174v on the Liion. The NiMH measured 1.23v when the light shut off.
Conclusion
The Acebeam H16 Fishing Headlamp is a decent light if you’re looking for small form factor, neutral white and high CRI. Just be aware that it doesn’t have the most output nor can it sustain those larger numbers for that long. I don’t think this is an issue as long as your use case is up close needs. I would recommend the headlamp for more specialized applications where light weight and size is of high importance. I wouldn’t recommend this headlamp if you plan to run it with a AA or NiMH batter. It’s performance and output runtime is really optimized for Li-Ion batteries. I would only use AA or NiMH in times of emergency. Keep in mind this does come in a different LED model where you can get up to 1000 lumens on turbo too if you’re needing a bit more output.
