Acebeam Pokelit AA Gray

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Acebeam has been around for several years, and keep adding new and interesting flashlights. They still only focus on lighting products (flashlights, headlamps etc). The one I am reviewing now is their latest AA flashlight, the Pokelit AA Gray.

Don’t mistake this for the standard Pokelit AA with ‘only’ 550 lumens! Even though it looks and seems to be the same, the maximum output is not.

The light runs of available AA batteries, both primaries as rechargeable. But on top of that, Acebeam includes a 14500 lithium-ion rechargeable battery for max performance. And yes, there is a huge difference between the lithium battery and AA batteries.

Before you use it, make sure you remove the battery insulator!

Package quality.

For the price, you get a pretty decent box with the following inside;

• The flashlight: Acebeam Pokelit AA Gray
• Pocket clip (pre-attached)
• 14500 lithium-ion battery
• USB-C charging cable for the 14500 battery
• Lanyard
• Spare O-rings
• Manual

Just like its bigger brother, the Pokelit 2AA, the switch is protruding, so you can’t make it tail stand.

It is a forward clicky switch, so the light turns on before you hear the click.

You can use the light with an overhand and underhand grip. And since it has only 1 switch, you either have to use 2 hands for activation and mode switching or re-position your hand, so you can put your thumb onto the switch.

Acebeam included (and pre-attached) a 2-way pocket clip for deep-pocket carry as well as giving you the possibility to attach it to your baseball cap. The same pocket clips works like a anti-roll feature on a slightly included surface.

There is also a lanyard included in the package, so that’s another way to use it.

With all these options for carry, there are lots of activities you can use this for. This would include Every Day Carry, but it’s also an interesting light for camping, walking the dog etc. You just need to keep in mind to charge the battery regularly, because battery life is relatively short.

Acebeam makes really nice and top-notch flashlights. And I can’t really complain about the Acebeam Pokelit here either.

The only part that is removable, is the head. That’s also the place where you insert the battery.

The threads are bare, so even if the head is not fully tightened, you can still turn the light on/off, and change modes. And since it’s using a mechanical switch, you don’t need to worry about the parasitic drain, as you can’t mechanically unlock it, by unscrewing the head. That was a long sentence.

Unlike the normal Pokelit AA, this one is only available in Gray, hence the naming.

The warranty according to their website:

Warranty terms:
1. If the customer experiences any problems caused by manufacturing defects in normal use with an Acebeam product within 15 days of purchase, the dealer will replace that product.
2. If an Acebeam flashlight fails during normal use and any problem covered under warranty occurs within a period of 5 YEARS (60 months) of purchase, the dealer is responsible for warranty service.
3. Acebeam flashlights enjoy a limited lifetime warranty – after 60 months the dealer will attempt to repair the flashlight for the cost of spare parts and shipping (i.e. no charge for labour).

Acebeam knows that people in the flashlight community like to know what particular LED has been used. And when they do, they proudly share that information on their website, as well as on the packaging and in the manual. But for this one, they don’t. It’s simply called a High Density LED with 6500K.

Unfortunately, I can’t really tell what brand or model it is using. It looks pretty generic so to say, without any physically unique characteristics. All I can say is that it looks indeed a bit cool.

But why bother you with things I think, let’s see what the tools say about it.

For this test, I used the following spectrometer: Asensetek Lighting Passport Pro Standard

And this is what it measured in High mode:

• CCT: 5555K
• CRI Ra 70
• CRI: 60
• Duv: 0.0103

Med mode:

• CCT: 5570K
• CRI Ra 69
• CRI: 57
• Duv: 0.0128

Low mode (The was too far away to register succesfully… so I won’t share them here)

The beam is on the cooler side, but not as cool as advertised. It has a very clear and clean round hotspot with the edges pronounced, so you can see a clear difference between the hotspot and the spill. Also, it’s importan to note that the hotspot is big and evenly lit.

It lacks a normal bezel because the bezel and head are one piece.

Dimensions: 

Pokelit AA Gray	Millimeters	Inches
Length	95 mm	3.7 “
Head diameter	18 mm	0.7 “
Body diameter (narrowest point)	16 mm	0.6 “

Dimensions are rounded to the nearest millimeter, and to the nearest tenth of an Inch.

Weight: 

Pokelit AA Gray	Weight in grams	Weight in Oz.
Without battery:	37 g	1.3 oz.
With 14500 battery	58 g	2 oz.
With AA eneloop	63 g	2.2 oz

Weight is rounded to the nearest gram, and to the nearest tenth of an Oz.

Acebeam Pokelit AA Gray flashlight comparison

Size compared to other AA flashlights and some of the best EDC flashlights

From left to right: Acebeam Pokelit AA, Manker E05, Olight i5R Eos, Acebeam Pokelit AA copper, Reylight Pineapple v4, Convoy T2, Fenix E12 v2, Lumintop Tool AA 2.0, Lumintop EDC05, Stainless steel light.

Group 2: Compared to the Acebeam Pokelit 2AA

The Pokelit AA gray uses some sort of buck-boost driver because the LED is 3V, but lithium-ion batteries go up to 4.2V, while an AA battery goes as low as 0.9V. In order to power the LED, the driver has to increase and decrease the voltage, depending on the taype of battery.

The switch is a forward-clicky switch, so it has a momentary-on feature. It also means you can’t change modes while the switch/light is activated.

The first mode is very dim on AA/NiMH batteries, so I would call it Moon instead of Low.

Available main modes:

• Low, Med, High (with lithium-ion battery)
• Moon, Med, High (with AA Alkaline / NiMH batteries)

Available special modes (blinkies):

• N/A

From OFF:

• Half-press: momentary on
• Half-pressing: switching from low to high
• Single-click:turns on selected mode

From ON:

• Half-press: nothing
• Single-click: turns off

Shortcuts:

• None

Mode memory:

• Yes, unlike the bigger Pokelite 2 AA, which doesn’t have mode memory.

Blinky modes menu:

• None

Low battery warning:

• The output reduces, but there is no other warning

Lock-out mode:

• It’s a mechanical switch

PWM:

• Not visible by eye

Firmware / UI Conclusion:

The UI is pretty standard, and that’s a good thing IMHO.

One thing I like about this light is the number of batteries you an use.

By default, Acebeam included a 14500 lithium-ion battery, named the Olight ARC14500/AA Type-C with a total capacity of 920mAh. It has a USB-C charging port, and charges at around 0.5A. So I measured 2 hours and 13 minutes charging time.

The driver has a mechanical protection against reverse polarity, with a small copper pin. So when you insert the battery the wrong way, it would not make contact with the driver.

Besides a lithium-ion battery, you can also use standard and rechargeable AA batteries. I just advise against using Alkaline primaries because they can leak and destroy your flashlight.

Lumen measurements:

The output measurements in this review are based on my homemade integrating spheres, each equipped with an Extech SDL400 Lux Meter. For consistency and accuracy, a calibration light (Convoy S2+ with 249lm and a Convoy S2+ with 261lm) is measured prior to each set of lumen measurements.
For high-output lights, one of the lux meters uses an ND camera filter to prevent the lux meter to max out. This is either the Kenko PRO1D ND16 up till about 80,000 lumens or Gobe ND32 for anything above.

All of my readings were taken from a fully-charged 14500 battery, and Eneloop AA battery.

The measurements were taken manually at turn on and 30 seconds. The 10-minute numbers are taken from the runtime graph.

With 14500 lithium-ion battery I measured the following:

Mode	Specs	At Turn on	30 sec	10 min
Low	5	7	7	–
Med	330	292	283	270
High	1000	885 lm	805 lm	483
3.6V High*		599lm	646 lm

The last measurement was at around 3.6V-3.65V, to see how High mode would perform. It’s interesting to note that I saw a strange bump in output during this 30 seconds test.

Here are the measurements with Panasonic Eneloop AA 2,000mAh battery:

Mode	Specs	At turn on	30 sec
Low	?	1	1
Med	?	116	116
High	?	345 lm	321 lm

I used rounded numbers for the outputs.

Parasitic drain:

• Nothing to measure

Acebeam Pokelit AA Gray battery life and runtime graphs

The runtime test was done with the 50cm integrating sphere, including the Gobe ND-16 filter and Extech SDL400 data logging Lux Meter.

First up is a graph with 14500 vs AA batteries.

Mode	Specified runtime	Measured runtime (ANSI FL1)	Time till shut off
14500 lithium: Low	58h	–	–
14500 lithium: Med	1h 50min	1h 55min	1h 55min
14500 lithium: High	49min	50min	50min
Eneloop AA: Low	?	–	–
Eneloop AA: Med	?	1h 46min	1h 50min
Eneloop AA: High	?	1h 29min	1h 36min

I didn’t test Low because of the long specified runtimes.

After the Eneloop test, I measured 0.8V.

About ANSI FL1 standards: The runtime is measured until the light drops to 10% of its initial output (30 seconds after turning it on). This does not mean that the flashlight is not usable anymore. The last column shows how long the light actually works till it shuts off. If there is a + symbol, it means that the test was stopped at that particular point, but the light was actually still running. This happens on certain occasions, with certain drivers, firmware, or batteries.

Acebeam Pokelit AA Gray peak beam intensity- and beam distance measurements

Measurements were taken indoors at 5 meters with a Hagner E4-X Lux Meter.

Mode	Specs	Measured Cd	Meters	Yards
Low	–	25	10 m	11 yd
Med	–	850	58 m	64 yd
High	2,756cd	2,500 cd	100 m	109 yd

Unfortunately, it didn’t reach the specced beam intensity, but it’s very close, so you wouldn’t even be able to tell the difference.

Extra info: Peak beam distance according to ANSI FL1 standards: The calculated value of distance in meters at which the flashlight produces a light intensity of 0.25 lux. (0.25 lux is about the brightness of a full moon shining on an object).

Here’s a closeup graph of the first 10 minutes

For the following beamshots, I used a Canon EOS 5D Mk2 with a 50mm lens. Manual settings: ISO1600, 1/30sec, F4, 5000K

The wall is about 5-6 meters, and the fence is about 4 meters away. I also took some pictures at 65meters distance, but they were not very helpful, only with 14500 battery.

The following flashlights are compared:

• Acebeam Pokelit AA Gray
• Olight i5R High Cri (2.4V)
• Olight i5T Plus (2AA)
• Olight i3T EOS (AAA)
• Olight i3T Plus (2AAA)

Low was too dim to see in the picture.

Disclaimer: This flashlight was sent to me for review at no cost by Acebeam. I have not been paid to review, nor have I been holding back on problems or defects.