Today I am taking a look at the Nitecore Tiki and Tiki LE keychain lights. These are small, multicolor lights with built USB recharging and a sealed battery. Thanks for Nitecore Store for sending these two keychain lights out for me to take a look at. Links to them will be in the description.
YouTube Version of this Review: https://youtu.be/5_gcMlMnMSk
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Packaging
Packaging on these are simple retail hangers with a try it feature on the clear see through bubble. The Tiki features a primary white LED, and then a high CRI white emitter and UV led as a an auxiliary. The LE version swaps the UV and High CRI aux emitters for red and blue. On the back the package goes through the simple models. The only included accessory is the keychain attachment point.
Construction
Both lights are made from polycarbonate plastic. The Tiki is made from a simi translucent plastic allowing you to see the internals pretty well. This also diffuses the side auxiliary LED’s. Up front there is a stainless steel bezel, the light is using a TIR style optic and a small glass lens. The hoop at the back is fairly thick and may not fit every key chain naively without the included small chain. The LE version is a black plastic thats semi transparent on the side LED’s. The front bezel is black colored here. On both the button is in a logical place on the barrel and takes a fairly firm press to actuate. The USB recharging port on the back is nicely flush fit with the body too.
Size & Weight
Overall length is 54mm on both lights, and the diameter as measured is 15mm at the head. This puts these lights a bit smaller then your average AAA keychain light and just a little longer then the Olight i1R and Lumintop Glow I recently reviewed. The light is IPX66 rated.
This review wouldn’t be complete without mentioning how close these look to the RoyVon A5 both in looks and operation. The USB ports are a little different but that’s about it. I asked Nitecore about this and they declined to comment on if there was any collaboration or licensing here.
LED & Beam & PWM
The primary LED being used on both lights is the Osram P8 LED in cool white. The beam pattern out the TIR optic is pretty decent for what this is but it does have very small artifacts. For a light like this it’s not something I am going to fault it on too much.
I am not that sensitive to PWM myself but I can see it on the lowest mode, my oscilloscope sees it in the higher modes as well. It’s fairly bad on the scope in at least the lights i have tested this year.
Not much data on the auxiliary LED’s is given. The UV LED is said to be 500mw and at 365nm. In practice this is really weak, you can use it to help point out the security features on a card or dollar bill but that’s about it, things need to be very close range. The high CRI LED is warm tint and decently bright. No data is given on the red or blue LED options on the LE version.
Runtime
Runtimes on the main LED are identical on this light. The highest mode is good for 300 lumens for about 1 minute before stepping down and running at about 40% output where it runs till the 30 minute mark and where it then steps down and runs for another 20 minutes or so before LVP kicks in. This is pretty respectable for a light of this size. It’s not something you will hike with but more then enough to find something you dropped on the ground, get the mail, or find your key hole.
UI
UI is fairly straight forward here and the same on each light. A slow double press turns the light on in Low mode, with single presses going up in output (4 total modes). Long press to turn off. When off a long press turns it on in maximum output in momentary mode.
To get to the auxiliary modes triple click from off, single click changes modes. The Tiki has the UV on by default, single click again and it goes to high CRI which is warmer and much brighter. Single click again and it goes to high cri blinking. The Tiki LE default is the Red LED, click again and it goes blue, then again and you red/blue cycling option.
Recharging
From 100% depleted the light took 1 hour and 15 minutes to fully charge. It does have a little red/blue LED in the body to tell you when it’s done. Charging is quite slow at 0.14A at the maximum but that’s what you want for the health of such a small battery. I am ok with this.
Pro’s
- The UV/High CRI side lights on the Tiki make for a more useful overall light.
- Good form factor but not an original design.
Con’s
- Significant PWM in lower modes
- Seems to be a copy of other lights on the market in this segment
- UV is limited in what it can do due to the low power and wave length used here.
Conclusion
The keychain market has gotten hotter here in the last year or so, and there are lots of good options on the market. I am not that sensitive to PWM personally but can see it on these lights in the lower modes easily. For me that makes it hard to recommend them when there are other lights that don’t have that problem. That said I like the form factor and they produce a good amount of light on the highest output mode. Other then the UV mode I can’t find a ton of practical use for the side LED’s here especially the LE’s Red and blue outputs. That said these make fun zipper pulls and that’s where the are going on a couple of my jackets.
Purchase the Nitecore Tiki https://bit.ly/2J9A7uJ
Purchase the Nitecore Tiki LE https://bit.ly/2xgVuYe
Full Image Gallery https://imgur.com/a/18lCemW