Nitecore TINI Review

Nitecore TINI – 5 stars

Summary

The Nitecore TINI is unique in its ability to produce so much brightness from such a small, light package. It’s my only 5 star small torch. Weighing 13 grams, TINI’s ability to produce 145 lumens for 1 hour is miraculous enough, but then it also has a 380 lumens turbo mode.

Not only is this torch is without doubt the ideal keyring torch, it is also peerless at this weight.

Brightness

It’s fixed beam biased mostly to flood, the Nitecore TINI does still have a discernable wide spot. As you can see below, the door on the left 15 metres away is clearly lit, as is the sign of The Plow (pub) across the road on the right, thanks to the generous flood. But the sign for The Tilbury (pub) straight ahead is barely visible. 

Useful for

This is a keyring torch, and it’s the best one we’ve tested by some margin. It’s been on my girlfriend’s keyring (the nicely worn pink one in the picture) for over a year and she likes it. Basically because it doesn’t add any noticeable weight to her handbar, or bulk in her pocket.

Notable features

The built-in battery is proprietary to the TINI, charging via the built-in micro USB charging socket.

The Nitecore TINI has 4 brightness levels:

• Turbo: 380 lumens 15 minutes
• High: 145 lumens for 1 hour
• Med: 38 lumens for 4 hours
• Low: 1 lumens for 60 hours

To turn on the torch hold the power button (rear) down for a 2 seconds. Once turned on, the front button changes levels between low, med & high.

To access turbo from on or off, press and hold down the front button.

Design

The TINI is about getting as much brightneess in as light and small a package as possible. It’s a little thin & tinny, but a more solid feel would add to the weight. So it is what it is, but it’s so successful on executing on it’s brief that I don’t feel inclined to judge it on aesthetics.

Having said that, I do actually like the way it looks when slightly worn, the way the pink TINI in the picture above has worn just by being picked in and out of my partner’s handbag or my jeans pocket.