NEXTORCH E52C

1lumen selects and reviews products personally. We may earn affiliate commissions through our links, which help support our testing.

NEXTORCH E52C specifications

Brand/model	NEXTORCH E52C
Flashlight category	EDC / General tasks
LED	CREE XHP50B
Max. output	3,000 Lumens
Max. beam distance	210 meters
Max. beam intensity	11,025 cd
Battery config.	1*21700
Onboard charging	USB-C
Modes	3
Blinkies	Strobe
Waterproof	IPX8
Review date	September 2023

NEXTORCH is known for their tactically oriented flashlights and law enforcement gear. They supply many products to over 100 countries and agencies around the world. Their “TA” line is the most tactical in the lineup, but he “E” line is a smaller kind of flashlight, and almost feels like it would fit the EDC flashlight category. But that’s not really correct, because it’s not marketed as being an EDC. It’s sold as being a High Power Rechargeable Flashlight. The NEXTORCH E52C is an upgrade from the NEXTORCH E51C we also reviewed, which was again a slight upgrade from the E51. The E52C is advertised at 3,000 lumens, which is about double that of the E51C. They also changed battery type, and moved from 18650 to a 21700 battery. It still has USB-C charging, and with the included battery, you are ready to go.

Package quality.

The E52C is shipped in a white cardstock box with the NEXTORCH logo and photos of the light in front. The back has specifications and some information on charging. The light did ship with a battery, and it came preinstalled in the light, and measured about 3.63V, and with a battery isolator pad stopping parasitic draw while en route. All of the other items came in a plastic zipper bag. All in all, everything was well packaged and, in the box, everything included is:

• NEXTORCH E52C
• 21700 Battery 4800mAh (preinstalled)
• Pocket clip (preinstalled)
• USB-C cable
• User Manual
• Spare O-Rings
• Lanyard

The E52C is made of aluminum, with black silkscreen anodization (Type HAIII) and shallow square-shaped knurling, which is typical for NEXTORCH. This all feel pretty nice in hand, and even though the flashlight doesn’t look very rough, it doesn’t feel slippery at all.

The tailcap houses a forward clicky switch, with 2 ridges on each side, that can be used to attach the included lanyard, or any lanyard in that regard. A half press will activate the light momentarily.

If you don’t like using the included lanyard, you still have the pre-attached pocket clip which fits extremely snug. It’s not easy to remove from the batterytube, and it also help as an anti-roll feature.

Being a forward-clicky switch, it feels a bit like a tactical flashlight, because it can be used in the overhand position. If you carry it in the underhand position, you’d have to use both hands to change modes.

Even though it might sound like an EDC flashlight, it definitely fits more into the tactical group.

NEXTORCH mentions the following tasks: Duty, outdoor, Night patrolling, Industrial, Self defence.

The NEXTORCH E52C’s build quality meets my expectations. I have several NEXTORCH flashlights, and although it doesn’t look as good as the NEXTORCH T10L, or NEXTORCH T20L, it’s definitely not a cheap looking flashlight. It’s using durable Type III hard anodized matte black finish, but mine had some minor damage. That’s probably because it went by another reviewers before I received it.

The anodized, threads, with just the right lubrication, are problem-free and can lock the flashlight with a quarter turn. The head of the E52C unscrews but remains attached ,to reach the hidden USB-C port for charging. It’s securely sealed with an o-ring that guarantees effective water resistance.

Warranty:

NEXTORCH® guarantees our products to be free from any defects in workmanship and/or materials for 5 years. If products are found to be defective we will replace them at our sole discretion. NEXTORCH® reserves the right to replace an obsolete product with current production.

NEXTORCH® provides free maintenance service for products with quality problems under normal use within 5 years since the purchase date. Please note, quality problems do not include regular wear and tear or things like the lamp burning out, batteries draining, or switches wearing out. Nor does it cover damages resulting from abnormal use, abuse, neglect, battery damage, use of non-NEXTORCH® brand batteries or accessories, unauthorized modifications or repairs.

The above warranty excludes accessories, while chargers and rechargeable batteries are covered within one year.
In the event that any issues with a NEXTORCH® product are not covered under this warranty, NEXTORCH® can arrange to have the product repaired or replaced for a reasonable fee.

While the E51C used a OSRAM P9, the new E52C is using a CREE XHP50, and they name it the XHP50B, which is probably just the XHP50.2. And with a light orange peel reflector, you get the unpopular color shift, which many XHP LEDs suffer from. The beam is very wide, and floody, and there is a hotspot, but the spill is also plenty bright, so the hotspot itself is not too distinct.

The bezel is flat, and protects the AR-coated lens from most kinds of impacts.

The beam was measured with the Sekonic C800 spectrometer, instead of the Opple Light Master 3 I used before. I have another Spectrometer, but it’s stored in a place I couldn’t reach during this review.

Here are the measurements:

• CCT: 8035K
• CRI Ra: 71.9
• duv: -0.0080

This means that the light is very cold, and with a negative duv has a pinkish tint, and in the middle. If you look at the beam itself, you can see the transition to a greenish outer ring.

Dimensions: 

NEXTORCH E52C	Millimeters	Inches
Length	154 mm	6.1 in
Head diameter (widest)	30 mm	1.2 in
Tailcap diameter	28 mm	1.1 in

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

Weight: 

NEXTORCH E52C	Weight in grams	Weight in oz.
Without battery:	128 g	4.1 oz
With battery	200 g	6.4 oz

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

NEXTORCH E52C comparison

Size compared to a few tactical flashlights, and EDC flashlights

From left to right: NEXTORCH E52C, Olight Warrior 3 (21700), Fenix PD36R (21700), Wurkkos TS21 (21700), Acebeam E70 Mini (18650), Olight Warrior Mini 3 (18650).

The 2 flashlight on the right use a 18650 battery, and the others 21700. You can see that the E52C is very large for being an EDC flashlight, and is likely more of an tactical flashlight.

Half presses before a full click will run you through the modes. Fast tapping will activate strobe.

Available modes: 

• High, Medium, Low (in that order)

Available blinky modes:

• Strobe

From OFF:

• Half Press: High Mode
• Half Presses: Switch Between Output Modes from High to Low
• Click (when mode has been selected): Lock in Current Mode
• Double Half Press: Momentary Strobe (and full click will activate it)

From ON:

• 1 Click: Off

Mode memory:

• No memory mode. The first setting is always High.

Shortcuts:

• To Strobe: Double Half Press for momentary or Half Press and Click to lock in that mode.

Low voltage warning:

• The battery indicator will show the charge status:
• Blue: 75-10%
• Blue flashing: 50-75%
• Red: 20-50%
• Red flashing: 0-25%

Strobe/blinkies

• Strobe will activate with a double half-press for momentary or a half-press and click to lock it in strobe mode.

Lock-out mode: 

• No intended lockout, but you can disengage the circuit by a twist of the tail cap as the threads are anodized.

PWM

• No PWM was visible

NEXTORCH moved from a 18650 battery in the E51C to a 21700 in the E52C. This increases the diameter of the battery tube by about 3 millimeters. Not much, but to me, a 21700 flashlight feels just a bit nicer in hand than an 18650.

The included cell has a capacity of 4800mAh, and is labeled NEXTORCH DC20005A. It’s longer than a unprotected 21700 battery. A full charge inside the flashlight took 4 hours and 44 minutes.

With the E52C, you don’t need to invest in a 21700 battery charger, because it has onboard charging via a hidden USB-C port. The USB-C port becomes visible when the head is unscrewed from the body, but the head will never detach. Once unscrewed, simple connect it with a USB-C cable, and you’re ready to go.

The included charging cable is USB-A to USB-C, and the E52C does not charge when using an USB-C to USB-C cable.

Flat top, unprotected batteries won’t fit because they are too short to make contact.

I tested the end Voltage by slightly discharging the battery, and then charging it. I was surprised to see the end voltage being 4.24V. That’s too high!

This is the gear I used for testing:

Gear	Purpose	Link to buy
Hagner E4-X	Measuring beam intensity (throw)	Inquire at Hagner.se
Extech SDL400	Lumens and logging runtimes	Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk,
Leica Disto D2	Distance for throw measurements	Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk,
Sekonic C-800	Spectrometer for LED measurements	Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk

Lumen measurements:

How Lumens are Measured: Understanding ANSI FL1 Standards How Lumens are Measured: Understanding ANSI FL1 Standards: The ANSI FL1 standards specify that output in lumens should be measured 30 seconds after turning on, as this is the standardized time for measuring brightness according to the industry standard. This is why we focus on this part in our 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 NEXTORCH 4800mAh 21700 battery.

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

NEXTORCH E52C	Specified	Turn on	30 sec	10 minutes
Low	30 lm	38 lm	38	–
Med	550 lm	634 lm	630	626
High	3000 lm	3455 lm	3258 lm	543 lm
High at 3.7V		1606 lm	1479 lm

I didn’t do a runtime test in Low mode, because it would take 65 hours according to the manual.

I like the fact that even at 3.7V, the E52C can still produce 1600 lumens at turn on, and 1479 after 30 sec. It’s noticeably lower than at full charge (4.2V), but this is something people want to see. I do these tests with a specific battery which is discharged to something between 3.6-3.8V, and check the battery for each test. This time, the battery was exactly at 3.7V

Oh, and all modes measured higher than specified!

NEXTORCH E52C Battery life and runtime

How Runtimes are Measured: Understanding ANSI FL1 Standards About ANSI FL1 runtime standards: The runtime is measured until the light drops to 10% of its initial output (30 seconds after turning 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.

The runtime test was done with the 50cm integrating sphere, including the Extech SDL400 data logging Lux Meter.

Mode	Specified runtime	Measured runtime (ANSI FL1)	Time till shut off
Low	65h	–	–
Med	4h 15min	4h 33min	10h 29min+
High	2h 30min	3h 19min	6h 35min+

The runtime didn’t finish yet when I stopped it. I noticed after the first runtime that the battery went down to 2.51V, which is kind of low in my opinion. You can also see that the output is not regulated.

I would not recommend doing this, so charge the battery, when the output reduces to below 100 lumens.

NEXTORCH E52C Peak beam intensity and beam distance measurements

About Peak beam intensity: Understanding ANSI FL1 Standards About peak beam intensity 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). This means that the intensity has decreased so much, it becomes difficult to see darker objects, or objects that don’t reflect light. The columns ‘Meters’ and ‘Yards’ use rounded numbers.

Measurements were taken indoors at 5 meters with a Hagner E4-X Lux Meter. The measurements were taken 30 seconds after turn on.

NEXTORCH E52C	Specified	Candelas	Meters	Yards
Low	156 cd	150	24	27
Med	2,500 cd	2,550	101	110
High	11,025 cd	13,825 cd	235	257

Again, the beam intensity was higher than specified. At turn on, it could easily reach 14,000 cd.

For the following beamshots, I used a Canon EOS 5D Mk2 with a 50mm lens. Manual settings: ISO1600, 1/4sec, F4, 5000K

The shed is about 65 meters / 71 yards away, and the reflective fence about 200 meters.

Compared to the following flashlights:

• NEXTORCH E52C
• Acebeam E70 mini
• Acebeam E70
• Olight Warrior 3S
• Olight Warrior X3

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