Acebeam Pokelit AA Flashlight Review

The new Acebeam Pokelit is an AA-sized flashlight. It supports 1.5V and 4.2V cells and includes a 14500! It’s 5000K and high CRI, too!

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Official Specs and Features

Here’s a link to the Acebeam Pokelit AA flashlight product page.

Versions

There’s only one emitter available (but it’s a good one), but three body colors: black, green, and orange (seen here).

Price

The Acebeam Pokelit AA Flashlight is going for $29.90. Here’s a referral link for the Acebeam Pokelit AA flashlight! It’s also available on killzoneflashlights.com.

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Short Review

I’m extremely pleased with this light for several reasons. “It’s orange” is a strong (but maybe silly?) reason. More importantly, the Acebeam Pokelit AA flashlight will accept both AA and 14500 cells. It’s High CRI, too, and has a simple user interface!

Long Review

The Big Table

Acebeam Pokelit AA flashlight
Emitter:	Nichia 219f (5000K, High CRI)
Price in USD at publication time:	$29.90 MSRP or $22.95 at amazon.com (referral link)
Cell:	1×14500
High Runtime Graph	Medium Runtime Graph
LVP?
Switch Type:	Mechanical
On-Board Charging?	Yes
Charge Port Type:	USB-C (on cell)
Charge Graph
Power off Charge Port	No
Claimed Lumens (lm)	550
Measured Lumens (at 30s)	460 (83.6% of claim)^
Candela per Lumen	5.4
Claimed Throw (m)	86
Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s)	108lux @ 4.655m = 2340cd
Throw (Calculated) (m)	96.8 (112.6% of claim)^
Claimed CCT	5000
Measured CCT Range (K)	4500-4900 Kelvin
Item provided for review by:	Me
All my Acebeam reviews!

 

Acebeam Pokelit AA flashlight
Emitter:	Nichia 219f (5000K, High CRI)
Price in USD at publication time:	$29.90 MSRP or $22.95 at amazon.com (referral link)
Cell:	1xAA
High Runtime Graph	Medium Runtime Graph
LVP?
Switch Type:	Mechanical
On-Board Charging?	Yes
Charge Port Type:	–
Charge Graph
Power off Charge Port	–
Claimed Lumens (lm)	230
Measured Lumens (at 30s)	179 (77.8% of claim)^
Candela per Lumen	5.5
Claimed Throw (m)	–
Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s)	39lux @ 4.697m = 860cd
Throw (Calculated) (m)	58.7
Claimed CCT	5000
Measured CCT Range (K)	4500-4800 Kelvin
Item provided for review by:	Me
All my Acebeam 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

• Acebeam Pokelit AA flashlight
• Acebeam 920mAh 14500
• Charging cable (USB to USB-C)
• Spare o-rings (4, two types)
• Lanyard
• Manual

Package and Manual

Build Quality and Disassembly

You may be wondering if this light is just about like the Rider RX but without the sleeve and without the fidget business. It is!  It’s about like that, but not exactly.  You can read more about the (great) Acebeam Rider RX here.  I’ve actually reviewed two of those (aluminum, too).

I loved that light and still carry it often, but this Acebeam Pokelit AA flashlight is a nice slimmed-down version.

The build quality of the Acebeam Pokelit AA flashlight is just fine. No issues or concerns to mention.

It’s tempting to think that this light is literally just the internal parts of the Rider RX. But it’s not – they’re different.  Here you can see that the head unscrews off of the body, unlike the Rider RX, where the head unscrews from inside the body.

In fact, it’d be neat if this light was just the “guts” of the Rider RX because then it’d be possible to take a black Rider RX and put this orange body in place of the blue body, and have an ultimate-edition black and orange Rider RX.  Just saying.

Size and Comps

Length: 94.8mm
Diameter: 18.8mm
Weight: 54.6g with battery

If the flashlight will headstand, I’ll show it here (usually the third photo).  If the flashlight will tailstand, I’ll show that here, too (usually the fourth photo).

Here’s the test light with the venerable Convoy S2+.  Mine’s a custom “baked” edition Nichia 219b triple.  A very nice 18650 light.

Also seen is the light beside my custom engraved TorchLAB BOSS 35, an 18350 light.  I reviewed the aluminum version of that light in both 35 and 70 formats.

Retention and Carry

Included for carry of the Acebeam Pokelit AA flashlight is this two-way friction fit pocket clip.

The pocket clip has a lanyard hole in the shoulder, too.

This is acceptable. I’m not the biggest fan of attaching lanyards to friction fit pocket clips, but it seems to work.

Power and Runtime

Included with the Acebeam Pokelit AA flashlight is a lithium-ion 14500 cell. However, the Pokelit will also run on a single AA cell, too (that is, a 1.5V cell – primary or NiMH.)

The cell goes into the light in the usual orientation: button (positive end) toward the head.

The included 14500 cell is a standard button top, with a capacity of 920mAh.

Below are a set of runtime graphs. Output with a NiMH (or any 1.5V cell) is lower than with the included 14500 cell.

Overall I’d say performance is good, and I really appreciate that the Acebeam Pokelit AA flashlight runs on both lithium-ion and 1.5V cells.

Charging

While the Acebeam Pokelit AA flashlight itself doesn’t have built-in charging, the included cell does. That’s USB-C charging, and the port can be seen below.

Acebeam includes a short USB to USB-C cable.

Here are a few charge cycles.  Charging looks fine, but is a bit slow at around 0.5C.

C to C charging did not seem to work on this cell, but on the same cell from the Rider RX, C to C did work fine. So I’m guessing the cell can be picky about cables or setups, and if you don’t have luck the first time, just try a different cable.

Modes and Currents

Mode	Mode Claimed Output (lm)	Claimed Runtime	Measured Lumens	Tailcap Amps
High	550 + 330	35s + 1m30s	460	2.65
Medium	190	2h	149	0.81
Low	5	58h	4.9	0.2

Mode	Mode Claimed Output (lm)	Claimed Runtime	Measured Lumens	Tailcap Amps
High	230 + 150 + 70 + 50	35s + 1m30s + 2h35m + 2m	179	2.61
Medium	80	3h	74	0.72
Low	0.5	7d	0.8	0.01

Pulse Width Modulation

Every mode from both cell types uses PWM. It’s not at all bad PWM though, and I don’t find it the least bit noticeable.

Here you can see a “baseline” – a chart with almost no light hitting the sensor.

Then there’s the Ultrafire WF-602C flashlight, which has some of the worst PWM I’ve seen. It’s so bad that I used a post about it to explain PWM! Here are multiple timescales (10ms, 5ms, 2ms, 1ms, 0.5ms, 0.2ms) to make comparing this “worst” PWM light to the test light easier. That post also explains why I didn’t test the WF-602C at the usual 50us scale.

User Interface and Operation

A single switch controls the Acebeam Pokelit AA flashlight.  While the action is like the Rider RX, the actual switch itself is very much (exactly?) like the Olight i5T Plus  (for example), or the Olight i3T Plus Bamboo (for example), but the light as a whole is probably most like the Olight i5R, which I’ve reviewed in the Plum color. The user interface is pretty much the same, too!

The switch seems a bit unusual in that it seems to have hard sides with an internal soft-stippled contact point.  The hard sides make the action very smooth, and the stippled center bit makes it easy to grip.  The action is very good.  It’s smooth and direct and also very clicky.

Here’s a UI table!

State	Action	Result
Off	Click	On (Mode memory)
Off	Tap	Momentary On (Mode Memory)
On	Click	Off
Off	Repeated taps	Mode advance (LMH)

LED and Beam

In the Acebeam Pokelit AA flashlight is a single Nichia 219f emitter. I have liked the 219f before, and I’m still happy with it. Acebeam opted for the 5000K High CRI (90) version.

That emitter is paired with a smooth and not all that deep reflector.

LED Color Report (CRI and CCT)

As stated above, Acebeam calls this a 5000K, CRI90 emitter. I’m happy to report that mine seems to be warmer than 5000K (around 4600K-4800K, depending on the mode) and at or above 90 CRI for every mode.

Beamshots

These beamshots are always with 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.

The 14500 output is noticeably brighter than the AA output, and the photos below adequately demonstrate that. The AA output is still quite usable though. The top row is AA and the bottom row is 14500.

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.

I compare everything to the KillzoneFlashlights.com 219b BLF-348 because it’s inexpensive and has the best tint!

 

Conclusion

What I like

• It’s orange!
• Nichia 219f seems like a great emitter (high CRI, good CCT)
• Complete package
• Runs on both lithium-ion and AA (alkaline and NiMH) cell types
• Very simple user interface
• Great price point

What I don’t like

• PWM (but it’s fast, so does this really matter?)
• Switch is actually quite stiff
• Mode memory (the light should always start in low)

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Notes

• This content originally appeared at zeroair.org.  Please visit there for the best experience!
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