Niwalker ES01 Three Light Flashlight Review

The Niwalker ES01 Three Light flashlight has three separate heads on one body, running from one cell. It offers neutral, cool, and UV output. Read on!

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Official Specs and Features

Here’s a tracking link to the Niwalker ES01 Three Light flashlight product page at flashlightgo.com.

Versions

The Niwalker ES01 Three Light flashlight is available in this orange version and also in cyan. The emitter options appear to be the same between the two.

Price

The Niwalker ES01 Three Light flashlight is listed for $45.99 and is available at flashlightgo.com.

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What’s Included

• Niwalker ES01 Three Light flashlight
• 1200mAh 14500
• Charging cable
• Lanyard
• Manual

Package and Manual

Build Quality and Disassembly

The Niwalker ES01 Three Light flashlight certainly has an interesting design! Build quality is good, too. This three-head design is familiar to Niwalker, but Niwalker is essentially alone in this market. It’s a fun design!

The head has just a button for contacting the positive terminal of the included 14500 cell. These threads are unanodized, too, preventing mechanical lockout.

The tail end has a spring. It may appear that the tailcap could be removed from the cell tube, but I think this is one piece!

The head also has some neat design features. These three pieces below the cooling fins appear to be brass, and possibly help with cooling.

Size and Comps

90mm x 35mm x 21mm and 78g (with cell)

Here’s the light in hand:

Here’s the test light with the venerable Convoy S2+. This is a brass version, which is a good bit heavier than aluminum, but has the same dimensions: 24mm in diameter by 117.5mm in length.

Also in the photo above, my Standard Reference Material (SRM) flashlight is the Hanko Machine Works Trident, an 18350 light. While I have not reviewed or tested the Gunner Grip version seen here, I have tested a Hanko Machine Works Trident Total Tesseract in brass. I love the Trident, and it’s a striking contrast to the inexpensive Convoy S2+, another great SRM.

Retention and Carry

A lanyard is included with the Niwalker ES01 Three Light flashlight. It’s not attached by default, but is easy to slip through the tailcap hole.

Power and Runtime

The Niwalker ES01 Three Light flashlight includes a single 14500 cell. It’s rated (or “stated”) to be 1200mAh. That’s quite high for a 14500! It is a standard button top 14500 cell.

The cell goes in the usual orientation – positive end toward the head.

Below are a number of runtime tests. The manual states one mode for “both” (white) emitters. Turns out all modes are available with both emitters. By the point I learned this, I’d completed these five runtime tests.

The output is about as I anticipated – lower than specified, and drifting downward after the initial level.

The temperature lines in these charts are included as general context, not precise measurements. The values represent the range (min to max) during testing, but should not be taken as exact readings. A temperature sensor is not always attached to the bezel (or even the hottest spot, assuming that could be defined). Even with ideal placement, too many variables affect temperature to definitively state a specific max value.

Charging

The Niwalker ES01 Three Light flashlight features USB-C charging.

A USB to USB-C cable is included.

I was only able to get USB to USB-C working; C to C didn’t work in my testing. It may work fine for you with your wires and stuff, but A to C is what I had success with (and also the cable that Niwalker includes, so A to C is implied.)

Charging works fine on A to C, and is a bit slow for the 1200mAh cell.

Modes and Currents

Mode	Mode Claimed Output (lm)	Claimed Runtime	Measured Lumens	Tailcap Amps
Turbo – Both	850	40m	568 (0s) 531 (30s)	2.49
High – Both	–	–	429	1.59
Mid1 – Both	–	–	229	0.78
Mid2 – Both	–	–	127	0.43
Low – Both	–	–	21	0.10
Moonlight – Both	–	–	10	0.01
Turbo – Cool white	600	63m	372 (0s) 362 (30s)	1.94
High – Cool white	420	75m	308 (0s) 290 (30s)	1.08
Mid1 – Cool white	230	2h	159	0.47
Mid2 – Cool white	120	5h15m	80	0.19
Low – Cool white	20	28h	11.5	0.03
Moonlight – Cool white	1	70h	5.5	[low]
Turbo – Neutral white	360	70m	312 (0s) 276 (30s)	1.94
High – Neutral white	270	75m	219 (0s) 188 (30s)	0.98
Mid1 – Neutral white	135	2h5m	109	0.42
Mid2 – Neutral white	70	5h30m	54	0.16
Low – Neutral white	10	31h	7.7	0.02
Moonlight – Neutral white	1	85h	3.5	[low]

Pulse Width Modulation

Below are the individual modes (no combined CW/NW). They all have PWM, but only the very lowest level (leftmost) is what you might call “bad PWM.”

Click here to 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

The Niwalker ES01 Three Light flashlight is controlled by two e-switches. The manual calls the first switch below the “main switch” and the other (second) the “auxiliary switch.”

The action is very low on both switches. It’s generally possible to differentiate these by feel, but they are quite similar.

Here’s a user interface table!

State	Action	Result
Off	Hold main switch	Moonlight (CCT memory)
On	Click auxiliary switch	Switch CW/NW
On	Click main switch	Off
Moonlight	Double click main switch	CW/NW alternate flashing.
Off	Click main switch	“General mode” (CCT and mode memory)^
On	Hold main switch	Mode advance (decreasing brightness, middle 4 modes only)
On (except moonlight)	Double click main switch	Switch to both white LEDs on
Both white LEDs on	Click auxiliary switch	Back to single LED output
Any	Double click main switch	Turbo for memorized CCT
Turbo or Strobe	Click auxiliary switch	Switch between CW/NW turbo
Any	Click main switch 3x	Strobe for memorized CCT
Any	Click main switch 4x	Battery power monitor. Blinks the voltage. Slow blinks = ones Fast blinks = tenths
Off	Hold auxiliary switch	UV
UV	Hold auxiliary switch	UV off
Off	Click main switch 5x	Lockout
Lockout	Click main switch 5x	Unlock

^ Disregards CCT memory from Moonlight.

Generally, that’s the user interface. I think there are some nuances in there, though, that will at least take some practice, at best take some fiddling, and at worst cause you to need to consult the manual. The main frustration for me was that the CCT isn’t memorized between the three groups (those being moonlight, main group (4 modes), and turbo).

LED and Beam

The cool white emitter is a Luminus SFT12 at 6500K. The neutral white emitter is a Samsung LH351d at 4000K. This one is high CRI. They both have surprisingly deep reflectors.

LED Color Report (CRI and CCT)

Cool white is the first row below. It’s cool white and low CRI. Nothing surprising. The second row is the 4000K output, and it is high CRI, as claimed.  The CCT doesn’t vary too much across all the modes, which is what you’d expect since the light isn’t driving either emitter too hard.

CCT (Correlated Color Temperature) refers to the measurement of the color appearance of light, expressed in Kelvins (K), which indicates whether the light is warm (yellowish) or cool (bluish). A lower CCT (below 3000K) is considered warm light, while a higher CCT (above 5000K) gives cooler, bluish light.

CRI (Color Rendering Index) is a measure of how accurately a light source renders colors in comparison to natural sunlight. Scored on a scale from 0 to 100, higher CRI values indicate that colors appear more true to life and vibrant, similar to how they would look under the sun.

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. I’ve captured these in the mode order – the middle group advances in a descending fashion!

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. These photos are taken around 18 inches from the door.

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

Summary and Conclusion

The Niwalker ES01 Three Light flashlight is an interesting light! Three heads for three very different outputs, two switches, and USB-C charging. There’s a lot going on in this light! The user interface can be a bit tricky, but it can be learned. The cost is reasonable, too!

The Big Table

Niwalker ES-01
Emitter:	Luminus SFT12 (6500K)
Price in USD at publication time:	$45.99
Cell:	1×14500
Runtime Graphs
LVP?	Yes
Switch Type:	E-Switch (2)
On-Board Charging?	Yes
Charge Port Type:	USB-C
Charge Graph
Power off Charge Port	No
Claimed Lumens (lm)	6500K: 600 4000K: 350
Measured Lumens (at 30s)	6500K: 362 (60.3% of claim)^ 4000K: 276 (78.9% of claim)^
Claimed Throw (m)	6500K: 268 4000K: 165
Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s)	6500K: 347lux @ 5.315m = 9802cd 4000K: 114lux @ 4.855m = 2687cd
Throw (Calculated) (m)	6500K: 198.0 (73.9% of claim)^ 4000K: 103.7 (62.8% of claim)^
Claimed CCT	6500K 4000K
Measured CCT Range (K)	6500-6800 Kelvin 4000-4200 Kelvin
Item provided for review by:	flashlightgo.com
All my Niwalker 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 I like

• Orange body
• Cell is included
• High CRI head
• Indicating switch

What I don’t like

• CCT isn’t memorized between the three groups
• Not anywhere near output claims
• No mechanical lockout
• Doesn’t seem to work with 1.5V AA
• C to C charging didn’t work

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Notes

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