Nitecore MT22A Flashlight Review

The Nitecore MT22A is an unusual flashlight because it has a polycarbonate body with side-by-side AA cells and a Cree XP-G2 emitter.

Official Specs and Features

Here’s a link to the Nitecore MT22A flashlight product page.

Versions

One emitter option but three body colors are available: Carbon black (reviewed here), Fluorescent Yellow, and Sandy Brown.

MSRP

The price of this little light is $29.95.

Short Review

This light is not too bad, but I’ll probably say I won’t use it much. The strobe is in the main UI, and unavoidable – that’s too bad. For someone married to AA lights, this wouldn’t be a bad choice.

Long Review

The Big Table

Nitecore MT22A
Emitter:	Cree XP-G2 (S3)
Price in USD at publication time:
Cell:	2xAA
Turbo Runtime
LVP?	Soft
Switch Type:	Mechanical
On-Board Charging?	No
Claimed Lumens (lm)	260
Claimed Throw (m)	98
Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s)	207lux @ 3.768m = 2939cd
Throw (Calculated) (m)	108.4 (110.6% of claim)^
All my Nitecore reviews!

^ Measurement disclaimer: Testing flashlights is my hobby. I use hobbyist-level equipment for testing, including some I made myself. Try not to get buried in the details of manufacturer specifications versus measurements recorded here; A certain amount of difference (say, 10 or 15%) is perfectly reasonable.

What’s Included

Nitecore MT22A
Lanyard
Spare O-Ring
Manual
Warranty card

Package and Manual

The yellow and black of Nitecore. Very ‘branded’. The package has a window, so you can see the light you’re about to open. The box has tons of wording and promises and such, and even a QR code for that guy out there who uses QR codes.

A packaged Nitecore MT22A flashlight is displayed upright on weathered wooden boards. The packaging highlights 260 lumens, a 5-year warranty, and uses two AA batteries. The flashlight is visible through a clear window.

A product box displays a QR code and three labeled images: Outdoors with a person writing, Industrial with people inspecting equipment, and General with a person reading a book, against a wooden background.

Back of a yellow and black Nitecore MT22A flashlight box on a wooden surface, showing product features, specifications, manufacturer contact details, website, and barcode at the bottom.

A black and yellow product box shows flashlight specs: 260 lumens max output, 180h max runtime, 98m max distance, 2460cd max intensity, 1.5m impact resistance, and waterproof to 2m.

The manual is a large fold-out paper with many languages. I don’t really love these manuals, because it’s hard to fold them in such a way to see only what you want and nothing else. (I’d love Nitecore to improve these manuals physically.) But they’re fine manuals as far as descriptiveness.

Build Quality and Disassembly

The body of this little light is polycarbonate – supposedly tougher than aluminum I guess? – and the head is cast aluminum. I believe this is intended to make a stronger light. I can’t really speak to that, but it’s a sturdy little light. The one-piece cast head with big fins is for great heat dissipation.

The individual parts are well built. Unfortunately, simply based on the way the light fits together, they don’t fit together too well. I think the light is still waterproof, but the head and body are just not as snug as I’d like.

And minor annoyance – neither the head nor the tail allow the light to sit vertically. The light will headstand, but as you can see below, it’s off-axis just a little. The pronounced button prevents tailstanding nicely, but it can be done. The light will just be off vertical by about 15 degrees.

The back of the light has a removable pocket clip. More about the pocket clip later

A small, black, cylindrical flashlight stands upright on a wooden surface. The flashlight has a ribbed grip, a side clip, and a button on top. The background is blurred in neutral brown tones.

A small black flashlight with a ridged body and a pocket clip is standing upright on a wooden surface, with a blurred background.

The switch and the emitter are on opposite sides of the body (and opposite ends too obviously). This could be a positive or negative, depending on how you hold the light. But I was fairly neutral about it.

A black handheld flashlight with a ribbed grip is lying on its side on a light wooden surface, with its lens facing the camera. The background is softly blurred.

A close-up of a small, black, cylindrical flashlight lying on a wooden surface. The photo focuses on the end with a textured button and a dotted pattern, with the background blurred.

As for disassembly…. the head obviously comes right off the body – this is how cells are changed. But past there, I can’t say too much about driver access. The lens is held down by a screwed in bezel ring. The tailcap is probably serviceable too – the rubber switch looks to be held in place by a screw-in ring too.

A close-up of two separated parts of a battery compartment, showing exposed metal contacts and a visible circuit board, positioned on a wooden surface with a blurred background.

A close-up view of an open flashlight lying on a wooden surface, showing its battery compartment with visible circuit board and metal contact points.

Size

Like I said above, this light is very reminiscent of a pager. Maybe a little longer? But who even knows what that is now anyway… sorry.

The dimensions are as follows: Length: 3.19″, Width: 1.6″, Height: 0.83″.

It’s not a big light, but I will say it seems more suited to belt-clip-wear than pocket-clip-wear. It just usually felt a bit big in my pocket, owing to the 1.6″ width.

Two white Eneloop AA batteries stand upright next to a black, rectangular, textured battery charger or device with a belt clip, placed on a wooden surface.

Two white Eneloop AA rechargeable batteries stand upright next to a compact black flashlight with a textured grip and clip, all placed on a wooden surface.

A black, ridged flashlight stands upright on a wooden surface next to two white Eneloop AA rechargeable batteries. The flashlight has a large silver button and a compact, rectangular design.

Retention

A pocket clip is provided and installed, and is directional. It can be removed and will leave almost no evidence, except a tiny spot where the screw holes are and where the clip touches the light.

The clip is cleverly designed so that the “mouth” end provides a little foot – and the light will rest on the clip side, fully supported by the clip, just fine.

Also provided is a lanyard, which attaches on the tail end, through the actual body of the light.

Power

The MT22A is powered by two AA cells. The manual does not mention Li-ion support, but primary AA and rechargeable AA are good to go. All my testing was done with Eneloops. The tubes are directional, with mechanical reverse polarity protection; the cells will only work in the correct direction. That is, they work with the positive terminal toward the button, and the negative terminal toward the spring, on both sides. The cells will be opposing each other. I find that when putting the head back on the light, one must depress the ‘release’ button. I expect that’s by design, which means head is essentially locked on. It also means that the head doesn’t “click” into place (and this is one of my complaints about the light).

I performed a runtime test on High. After this runtime on High (which was shut off at around 10 lux), the cell voltage was 1.152 and 1.139V.

The light does drop from turbo, but the drop is 1) not too fast) and 2) makes it to 90% over the course of 10 minutes, which is respectable. Then the stepdown is very stable at around 70% for almost 2 hours, which is again, respectable.

User Interface and Operation

There is a single reverse clicky tail cap switch, with a rubber boot. The click is very clicky. The light can be mode cycled while it’s on, and do so in a H>M>L>Strobe. That’s right, strobe is in the main group, and can’t be avoided. Although, technically that’s not true: The light will reset after 2 seconds (when off), and the next mode will be High. This means it’s possible to avoid strobe altogether. I won’t say that’s ideal, but it does seem purposeful and intended this way. Here’s a little user interface table:

State	Action	Result
Off	Full click	High (if light was off >2s)
Off	Half press	No Action
On	Half press	Mode cycle (H>M>L>Strobe)
On	Full click	Off

It’s a very simple UI, really.

Note that big gray button on the side is only the release for the head, to swap the cells. It will be tempting to press that to change the modes. That’ll be wrong, and your head will probably come loose. It won’t fly off, however.

The head really reminds me of Johnny 5.

(though in reality it probably looks more like Wall-E.)

Modes

Mode	Mode Claimed Output (lm)	Claimed Runtime	Tailcap Amps
Standby	–	–	–
Low	1	180h	0.008
Medium	45	18h	0.15
High	260	2h15m	1.08
Strobe	–	–	0.31

LED and Beam

Nitecore chose a Cree XP-G2 S3 for the MT22A. The reflector is small (dime-sized, or less), but is surprisingly deep. It’s also smooth (surprise?) which means the light has much more spot than one might expect. In M or L for example, the spill is hardly visible at any distance.

Beamshots

These beamshots always have the following settings: f8, ISO100, 0.3s shutter, and manual 5000K exposure. These photos are taken at floor level, and the beam hits the ceiling around 9 feet away.

A nearly completely black image with very little visible detail. Faint text along the left side reads “ZEROAIR @ R/FLASHLIGHT.”

A dim, circular beam of light appears in the center of a dark background. Text along the left side reads, ZEROAIR @ R/FLASHLIGHT.

A bright white circular light with a soft, gradual fade to dark edges, centered on a black background. The watermark “ZEROAIR @ R/FLASHLIGHT” is vertically aligned on the left side.

Tint vs BLF-348 (KillzoneFlashlights.com 219b version) (affiliate link)

I keep the test flashlight on the left and the BLF-348 reference flashlight on the right.

Random Comparisons and Competitive Options

There are a couple of (basically irrelevant) comparable lights. The Streamlight Sidewinder, and the Sunwayman D20A. Neither really compare, but both have side by side AA cells. The Sunwayman looks interesting, because it has two emitters, and a side clicky. But is likely unavailable. That means the MT22A is your best bet in this format.

Conclusion

What I like

Stable output for a long time after stepdown
Tough polycarbonate body
Uses common cells (great for backup use)

What I don’t like

The pocket clip makes this light seem meant for lefties
Inability to head or tailstand completely vertically
Head release button is to much like a mode button – will get pressed accidentally.

Notes

This light was provided by Nitecore.com for review. I was not paid to write this review.
This content originally appeared at zeroair.org. Please visit there for the best experience!
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