Nitefox UW360 Floodlight+Spotlight Review
Here’s the Nitefox UW360 Floodlight, which also has a side spotlight, too. The light has onboard charging as well. Read on!
Official Specs and Features
I’m forced to link to Amazon here because I can’t find this exact product on Nitefox’s website.
Versions
There are a number of similar versions of this light, but this is the only version exactly like this. There’s also a flood-only and a focusable version.
Price
This light goes for around $26.50 on Amazon (referral link).
Short Review
This is not a light I personally care for, but I can see some (probably) rare and specific use cases for it. I think it suffers from poor build quality (and indeed build choices), but it’s a format that could be improved upon.
Long Review
The Big Table
| Nitefox Worklight | |
|---|---|
| Emitter | ? |
| Emitter Notes | ? |
| Cell | 18650 |
| Runtime | Chargetime |
| LVP? | 2.4V shutoff |
| Claimed Lumens (lm) | – |
| Lux (Measured) | 55 lux @ 4.211 m |
| Candela (Calculated) in cd | 975.3 |
| Throw (Calculated) (m) | 62.5 |
| Throw (Claimed) (m) | – |
What’s Included
- Nitefox UW360
- Steel plate
- Charge Cable
- 18650 cell
- Manual
Package and Manual
The light ships in a bar-code-labeled plastic container.
The manual is just a printed sheet of paper. Nothing professional or special at all. Basically, copy paper.
Build Quality and Disassembly
This is an unusual flashlight, with a handheld body and a long (6″) neck, and the light on the other end. Not only is it unusual. Also unusual is that the head has two sets of emitters – a single for ‘throw’ and a series of emitters on the side for flood.
Unfortunately, the build quality on the handheld part is quite low. The body is plastic – not good plastic, and the threads between the body and the driver are plastic as well. I did not test waterproofness, but these types of threads normally have low water resistance. I wouldn’t trust this light in the wet.
The handheld part is also not very grippy – the whole body is hard plastic with only some grooves for grip.
See the plastic threads above. There is an o-ring, at least.
Size
Hard to quantify the size of such an item, so just see the pictures. It is a 18650 light, so that gives you some scale.
Retention
The only option for retention of this light is the magnetic base. Also included is the steel disc, which isn’t described in the manual. I believe this can be screwed to the base of the light, and the light can then be used as a lamp/lantern – standing up on its own – type light. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to use the light this way.
Power
Nitefox includes a single 18650 with the UW360. The light shouldn’t care what variety of 18650 is installed – there are springs on both terminals.
The output is, unfortunately, very boring. I tested only the “throw” emitter, and don’t be fooled by the runtime. While it’s fairly stable over the course of the 180 minutes before I stopped the test, the actual output is not all that high. So take the “100% Relative Output” seriously.
To be frank, the output was so low that after 3 hours, I stopped the test. The cell was still at 3.6V.
Charging
This light also has onboard charging. It’s a typical micro-USB port on the side of the light. When charging, the switch indicates red (for “charging”) and green (for “fully charged”).
The charge profile looks great if a little slow. It charges the cell (in fact, any 18650 – not proprietary charging!), at around 0.5A. That’s ok with me. Unfortunately, the included cell doesn’t fare quite as well, and only rates at about 1.5Ah. That’s low compared to the 2.6Ah claimed.
Nitefox also sent over an 18650 with built-in onboard charging. Below is a mini review of that cell!
Nitefox UR18-26 Mini Review
Package
Plastic “battery” package, but with just one cell and one charge cable.
Contents and Cell
Only the cell and charge cable in this package!
The cell is one of those “micro-USB port on the positive terminal” cells.
Here’s a chargetime. Unfortunately, the cell doesn’t have all that great of a charge profile, and on average, CC charges at around 0.55A, but it’s noteworthy that the capacity is approximately accurate at just north of 2.5Ah.
Size
User Interface and Operation
The Worklight has a single button for operation. It’s an indicating switch and can indicate red and green. It’s really a … button with a sticker over it – the kind that eventually wears out. The actual action of the switch is fine, but I don’t like the sticker-over-button-ness of it.
Here’s a user interface table!
| State | Action | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Off | Click | Flood (High) |
| On | Click | Mode advance (Flood High, Flood Low, Throw On, Off) |
| Off | Hold | No action |
| On >1m | Click | Off |
Modes
| Mode | Mode Claimed Output (lm) | Claimed Runtime | Tailcap Amps |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flood High | – | – | 0.61 |
| Flood Low | – | – | 0.2 |
| Throw | – | – | 0.62 |
LED and Beam
The emitters in this light aren’t mentioned by name. The side emitters are the big rectangular kind and have a fairly good neutral tint. These aren’t bad emitters and provide a very floody, useful light.
The front emitter is also unnamed, but isn’t as good as the side- it looks to be an aged emitter, and the tint is also not great – blue to purplish.
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.
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.
Conclusion
What I like
- Flood is a nice tint
- Head is on an adjustable… neck. Can be useful
What I don’t like
- Low build quality
- Questionable waterproofness
- The throw emitter is dated and has a bad tint
- Total output is low
Notes
- This light was provided by NiteFox for review. I was not paid to write this review.
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