ReyLight Pineapple Mini Flashlight Review
Here’s the ReyLight Pineapple Mini, a twisty flashlight made of copper. It uses a Nichia 219c, and has a tritium slot in the tail! Read on!
Official Specs and Features
Here’s a link to the ReyLight Pineapple Mini Flashlight product page.
Versions
Just one version!
Price
This light is $29.95 on Banggood right now.
Short Review
I happen to really like AAA lights. I don’t always love twisties, and copper isn’t really my thing. But this is a very simple UI, and the copper is coated, so for me it’s a pretty good win. I like the light, and the tritium slot is a nice touch.
Long Review
The Big Table
| Rey Light Pineapple Mini | |
|---|---|
| Emitter: | Nichia 219c |
| Price in USD at publication time: | $29.95. Available on Amazon (referral link). |
| Cell: | 1xAAA |
| High Runtime | Medium Runtime |
| LVP? | No |
| Switch Type: | Twist |
| On-Board Charging? | No |
| Claimed Lumens (lm) | 360 |
| Measured Lumens (at 30s) | 136 (37.8% of claim)^ |
| Claimed Throw (m) | – |
| Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s) | 47lux @ 2.745m = 354cd |
| Throw (Calculated) (m) | 37.6^ |
| All my Rey Light 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
- Reylight Pineapple Mini
- Spare o-rings (2)
Package and Manual
The Mini ships in a little plastic flip-open box. I’ve seen similar packages from Massdrop, and Massdrop was at one time a seller of this light, so this package could be a remnant of Massdrop. Either way, the light is held in place with a little bit of foam.
The manual is there on the back of the box. That’s the only included manual. However, the light is simple enough (re: UI) and versatile enough (re: acceptable cell chemistry) that you don’t have to worry about breaking anything even if you aren’t using the manual all the time for operation.
Build Quality and Disassembly
The Mini has a nice heft of copper, in a small package. The build quality is on par with what you should know from ReyLight (yes, that means I think you should own at least one ReyLight).
The copper is stunning. The coating will probably be polarizing, however. I think most would argue that copper on flashlights shouldn’t be coated. I’d agree. But I happen to like the coating because I don’t like the smell of copper. Brass, on the other hand, I would be into! It’s possible to remove the coating, but I’m not sure what the process is.
The tritium slot in the tail is a nice touch. It’s a 1.5 x 6 mm slot (the common size for flashlights).
The threads are very fine but importantly (since this is a twisty), smooth.
The tail end of the light is simply a spring. The head doesn’t have any spring at all, and has only a brass button for contacting the positive terminal of the cell.
Size and Comps
Officially 7.4 x 1.4cm.
This is a tiny AAA light but by no means the tiniest. The Lumintop Tool titanium (below left) and Lumintop Ant (Brass) are both similar-sized, and also both clicky. The Olight I3E EOS is much smaller, but also just one mode (and not Nichia).
Retention
A steel pocket clip is included and ships installed on the Mini. It’s a friction clip, so it’s possible to be removed. I like the clip – it has a nice big mouth and is thus easy to get onto a pocket, and allows semi-deep carry.
There’s also a loop on the tail of the light, for hanging a lanyard, etc. It’s easy to remove this by just pulling the wire out of it’s hole. The light hangs very nicely from it, though.
Power and Runtime
The Mini runs on a single AAA, but can also be used with a 10440 cell. All my testing is with AAA Eneloop cells. I don’t have 10440 on hand. Rey mentions that heat will become an issue with the Li-ion cell, but the light will be around 3x brighter with that cell.
Output is unregulated and drops as cell voltage drops. I won’t say this light has LVP because it’s likely the light shuts off when it’s no longer able to provide the forward voltage of the emitter, than actual LVP. With NiMH, the light never gets too hot.
Output on Medium is very stable for over 2 hours. Temperature fluctuations are just from room temperature. (The chart below also says “High”, but it’s really Medium.)
Some users have reported flickering in higher modes. In fact, Rey had to replace a bunch of drivers for this very reason. Many of those lights were sold on Amazon. I haven’t had the flickering problem with my sample, except once or twice when I don’t tighten the head all the way down, and contact is bad (ie, user error).
User Interface and Operation
This light is a twisty. The head is tightened and loosened for operation. There’s moderate grip on the head, but this is a place to improve – more gripping surface on the head would be welcome.
The user interface is very simple. Twist for Low. Twist off and on again for Medium. Twist off and on again for High. There isn’t mode memory – if you twist off and leave it off for a few seconds, your next mode will be Low.
Modes
| Mode | Mode Claimed Output (lm) | Claimed Runtime | Measured Lumens | Tailcap Amps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | 125 | 40m | 135 | 1.6 |
| Medium | 15 | 5h | 8.4 | 0.13 |
| Low | 0.1 | 100h | ~ | ~ |
LED and Beam
Rey has been great about using Nichia emitters in his lights. In fact, I’d say that’s one thing that helped the popularity of his lights early on. And this one is no exception, as it has the 4000K Nichia 219C high CRI emitter. The reflector is lightly orange peeled.
This all makes for a beam that has a pointed hotspot but trailing off gradually across the beam, to reasonable spill. That said, it’s a keychain light, so it’s not like this will be used for throwing across the farm. The beam is great for what it is, allowing fairly even light across the task at hand.
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.
BLF-348 is on the right, in case it’s unclear.
Random Comparisons and Competitive Options
Here’s a relevantly filtered page on parametrek.com. There are a few similar lights, but none of them seem to mix the use of a Nichia emitter with a copper body.
Conclusion
What I like
- Nichia 219c High CRI emitter!
- I like that the copper is coated. I’d like better if it was brass (It IS the Pineapple Mini, afterall. The Pineapple is brass!)
- Multi-chemistry support
What I don’t like
- The copper is coated. Even though I like it, it’s still a downside. (i.e., why bother with copper in the first place.
Notes
- This light was provided by Banggood 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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