Today I am looking at the Acebream Pokelit. It’s a AA-sized light, that can run on 14500 lithium-ion batteries or alkaline/NiMH. It features a neutral high CRI Nichia emitter and is very affordable. Thanks to Acebeam for sending this to me to look at and review.
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Packaging & Accessories
The packaging is quite small and compact. It’s a nice retail box with a see-through window. Everything slides out in a plastic tray. Accessories came with the clip preinstalled, optional Accebeam 920mAh 14500 battery with onboard USB-C charging, USB-A to C charging cable, Acebeam lanyard, 2 extra orings, and manual.
Construction and Design
The light comes in 3 available colors as of this review, Green, Orange, and Black that I have here. It comes both with and without a 14500 battery, the version I have is with the battery, and it would be the one I would recommend for most people.
Starting at the tail, there is a proud button, with a textured grip and hard plastic sides that stick proudly of the light. This is quite a stiff button and is a mechanical switch I believe. The tail cap has straight knurls and is glued onto the body of the light.
The clip attaches at the rear and is nonfixed in place, more on that in retention. The body is fairly plain with horizontal groves cut into it providing some grip.
The head section is straight with no detail milled into it. It contains all of the engraving of the model name, serial number, brand, and temperature warning. There is a smooth shallow bezel protecting the AR-coated glass lens and a shallow smooth reflector.
Retention
Retention options include the snap-on pocket clip. It’s finished in a glossy blue anodizing. It’s a dual-direction clip that’s reasonably deep carry. A bit of the tail does stick out of the pocket but with the stiff switch, I experienced no accidental activations. Your other option is an Acebeam lanyard. Its only attachment point is the hole built into the clip. Not my favorite attachment method but the clip does fit tightly here.
Size & Weight
I measured the length at 3.74”, the diameter at 0.72”. I measured the weight with the included battery and clip at exactly 2 ounces. The light is IPX8 water rated and drop-rated to 2M.
There are a number of competitor lights that I pulled from my collection. The Olight i5T and i5R are probably your two most similar lights, In general, the Acebeam is slightly smaller in diameter, and the two have a very similar button style. The Acebeam Ryder RX is similar in size, although with its stainless steel outer body and bolt action it’s different. The heads here are not compatible with each other. I will throw in a Reylight LAN as well since it’s dual fuel, although it’s in a different price category.
LED & Beam
The Acebeam Pokelit AA uses a Nichia 219F LED in 5000k and 90+ CRI. I measured the light on medium mode on my Oppple meter at 4438 CCT (k), and 95 RA (CRI). It’s a pleasant tint, without any distracting tint shifts. The beam is a medium-large hotspot and a large minimal spill. Exactly what was expected from the medium-depth orange peel reflector. My meter detects PWM here but it’s very fast so my eye or camera can’t detect it.
Heat & Runtimes
I will hit on a few highlights here and let the graphs speak for themselves. I primarily will run this light with the 14500 Li-ion battery because of the better performance. High came in just short of 500 lumens, and that decreases to 300 after 1:30. Total runtime slowly decreasing is 1 hour. Max heat here is 61C. This does get pretty warm to hold when on in high. Medium mode with the Li-ion battery is a pretty stable output starting at 150 lumens decreasing to about 80 or so out to 2:35:00 total runtime.
I also tested with an Ikea 2450 NiMH and you get about 225 lumens at the start by 2 and a half minutes you are running at about 70 lumens for two and a half hours, total runtime was 2:45:00. Medium mode extends this out to 3:12:00.
UI
The UI here is very simple with the reverse clicky switch. With the 14500 battery, you have 3 modes with memory mode. Click once to come on in the lowest model, if you fully clicked you do need to shut if off and then on again to advance, but if you don’t fully click you can half click to advance, hopefully, that makes sense. It’s a very simple user interface that I think anyone can understand.
Recharging
While the flashlight 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. 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.
Final Thoughts
Acebeam is on a streak of listening to consumers and enthusiasts and has been doing great putting out some new models this year with great emitter options. The Pokelit AA is no different. The Nichia 219F LED here puts out a neutral 5000k tint, with no ugly tones, and a nice beam pattern with High CRI. It does run hot when used for extended periods of time with the 14500 battery in high mode, reaching up to 140F. You may have to change your grip on it to be comfortable when it gets hot, holding more at the rear instead of in your fist.
I like the Pokelit AA better than the Lumentop Tool personally because it has a more desirable LED and a better clip. It also comes with a Li-ion battery here (depending on where you order it from), and is very affordable. It’s available on Amazon right now for about $21 in black or orange. Acebeam sells them directly too, but the cost is a little higher. For a basic, high-quality flashlight that anyone can use with an easy user interface, the Pokelit AA is a great choice that I can recommend.