The AceBeam TAC 2AA rechargeable EDC flashlight is on sale for Prime Day.
AceBeam sent one over for testing, and it’s definitely a unique offering.
It comes with a USB-C rechargeable battery, which can be swapped for 2AA NiMH batteries.
Advertisement
There are different body color and emitter options – I’ve been testing the 1600 lumen model in black. It has different modes and both a side button and rear push button.
The user interface is not as intuitive as with other lights, but I got the hang of it. In addition to multiple output settings, the flashlight has different “tactical” and “daily” behaviors for the rear switch.
It comes with a Li-ion battery with built-in USB-C port, and a charging cable.
There’s a removable pocket clip, and also a wrist lanyard.
Sale Price: $24.99
This is my first experience with a flashlight that works with a rechargeable battery of this kind. It can be swapped with NiMH AA-sized batteries, and its output brightness will dip a little bit.
Advertisement
From the user manual, the battery is a 14100 size. A quick search shows that there are similar batteries on the market from AceBeam and a number of other brands.
If the battery ever wears down, you should be able to replace it. As mentioned, rechargeable NiMH AA batteries can also be used. It’s good to have options.
The user interface is a little tricky, in that the rear switch is the main power on/off control. If you turn the flashlight off with the side switch, it goes into standby mode. Another press of the side switch turns it back on. The rear switch turns it off, from the activated state or standby mode, and then has to be pressed again to turn the light on.
If you hold the side switch and press the rear button, you switch between daily and tactical modes. Basically, this controls whether a press of the rear switch goes to the brightest Turbo setting first, or one of the lower user-selected brightness modes.
Thus, it’s not intuitive compared to other flashlights with dual user controls, but it’s easy to pick up on.
The tailcap also has a momentary-on function.
I have just started testing the flashlight, but the sale will be over before I can post a review. So, these are first thoughts to help you determine whether this new releases is a good fit for your needs.
I’ve got it in front of me in case you have any questions.
There are a few 2AA-sized EDC flashlights in my collection – I like this size of light. The 14100 USB-C-recharged battery form factor is completely new to me, and so I don’t have much of an opinion about it yet.
Thank you to AceBeam for the review sample!
jake
Thank you for the post.
It reminds me of a fenix AA light I bought (maybe 10 years ago, could it be an ld22?). That is still my favorite flashlight.
Stuart
I started with the LD20 – https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/fenix-ld20-led-flashlight/%3C/a%3E .
LD22 is mentioned… here: https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/ultimate-tool-gift-guide/%3C/a%3E That was 2013, so yeah – around 10 years ago.
jake
Both are very good posts.
– I agree that Eneloop rechargeable batteries are wonderful. In my experience they hold their charge well, have long useable lifetimes and do not leak.
– The ultimate gift guide is great and very relevant.
– I like the 2 button controls on LD22
Rich
I had a Fenix keychain size, I think the 05 (discontinued), for 5+ years but it burnt out. Really liked it, so I just dropped $250 today on Fenix lights using their 10off new customer. Kinda stocked up and fixed my light needs except for a canteen style lamp.
The little square keyfob E03R, a joggers headlamp, a Fenix HT18R Long-Distance Flashlight 2800 lumens, and a pocket knife.
Curious about the Olight but I’m locked into Fenix, for sure for now, anyway. I had an Amazon order ready but visited the OEM and got a better deal. Bought other tools and non-tool stuff through Stuarts’ link though.
Stuart
Olight basically has a sales event every month. If you don’t see an “ooh, I gotta get that one” flashlight, check back the next.
My wife’s carried a Fenix AAA light for well over 10 years now, and it’s still going. Might be due for a battery change though.
I’m impressed. My last Maglite LED Solitaire lasted like a year or two on my desk. They offered warranty service, but it would have cost around the same as it was worth to ship it to them.
My Klarus failed after a few years, too, also from sitting on a desk with occasional use. That was a MiX6 with gold finish, cost me $35.
I’ve handed out a lot of Olight flashlights. So far, my father in law recently had a battery failure (he says it stopped charging), and my uncle in law’s charging cable broke (it stopped lighting up).
Rich
Same, a AAA battery Fenix. Liked everything about it including the twist to turn-on/turn-off. The lense failed but not a problem, onward with the latest model – will be interesting to see this square “fob” thing and if it lights up better.
S
I believe some of the other lights in ace beams lineup have a similar charging type, being on the battery. I don’t particularly care for a new flashlight with that style rechargable battery, but love those batteries for using in older lights that supported rechargable, but didn’t have onboard charging.
I ran an acebeam tk16 that was discontinued quite a while ago. The main advantage was that it used standard carclo 3-up TIR optics, so I was able to easily change the optics to better suit my needs, and ran a medium-width frosted lens for good short range flood with ok long range throw.
being that the only way to charge it was to remove the battery, I ended up breaking off a contact tab from the light head to the body.
Acebeam support was extremely prompt and professional. Through the support person, I ended up purchasing a new tk16 at half price, and then they sent a replacement contact tab with for me to repair the old light.
During the wait for the package(which arrived within a few days), I ended up using one of my other lights and lost interest, but was impressed with the level of service I got from the brand for a light that was officially discontinued on their website.
Stuart
Thanks, that sounds like a great experience and is good to know!
IndianaJonesy (Matt Jones)
I have some of the Acebeam AA (single) lights in various configurations and ordered a few more for emergency storm prep. Wish I had seen this one as an option to try it out. I like the dual fuel option, even though output is significantly less with a AA, and they are pretty solid lights in general even without that added feature. I don’t like them enough to replace my daily carry Wurkkos FC11, though.
Peter D Fox
I have a similar feeling toward AA lights, great for long term storage (with battery removed) and easy to find batteries when needed.
However once I switched to lights that run on 18650 and 18350 cells with onboard USB C charging its pretty hard to go back for daily use. AA cells even the amazingly good Eneloop ones just don’t make sense for EDC if you actually use your light a significant amount daily.
The newer version of the Wurkkos FC11, the FC11C is quite impressive for the price. I gives good high CRI light from a Nichia 519A LED and has a decent regulated buck driver for sustained brightness and efficiency. On the stock 3000mAH cell it should sustain 500-600 or so lumens for about 2 hours without hitting its temperature limit.
Many low cost lights and hit high outputs on turbo for a very short time not many can sustain decent levels for a longer time. it really impressive for a lower cost light.
IndianaJonesy (Matt Jones)
So the Acebeams use 14650 (I think) LiIon cells with usb-c recharging. Not the runtime or lumen potential of an 18650, but nice to be able to have for emergencies and then directly switch out for the AA (at a lower lumen count).
My Wurkos has the LH351D 4000K LED, which is also high CRI and is one of the reasons I love it. I’ll have to check out the newer version.
JR Ramos
They used the same battery (pack) in the previous Pokelit 2AA model. It’s really not a very good battery and they (as well as other brands using the exact same pack with their own wraps over it) have had numerous defects with them. It’s just two very cheap/lower quality 800mAh 14500 cells wired in parallel with the charging board tacked on like many other single cells do. I think Nitecore was the first with the pack but I can’t recall. Several others use it and they are interchangeable. Olight also had/has it but I’m not positive if theirs is exactly the same pack but probably so.
If you can find the Pokelit 2AA it has a simple/normal UI instead of the convoluted “tactical” UI of this one…and a single tail switch for simplicity. Or, look into the newer Wurkkos 2AA or get a nice Convoy T4 for a lot less money and with a lot more choice (pick your emitter, your color temp, and your host/body color)…I think still $20 for aluminum and $44 for two flavors of titanium…fantastic light that also takes multi-fuel options (any disposable cell or two li-ion….has a decent buck/boost driver to handle it all).
The nice part about Acebeam’s light here is that is has a decent driver (probably boost-only but possibly buck-boost). I haven’t seen a good test on it yet but their lumen and run-time claims are dubious given the battery. I mean everyone knows the FL-1 standard falls short of reality but this still seems pretty inflated (and Acebeam is known to be one of the regular fudgers…but as time has marched forward from the implementation of FL-1 (which not everyone bothers to use or adhere to factually) we see more an more returning to the old dishonest/optimistic specs.
Good to hear a positive story about Acebeam’s after-sale service. They’ve largely fallen far out of favor with enthusiasts because of frequent QC issues and failures and service or contact that fell way below even relaxed expectations. They have decent lights usually, poor value for what they offer, and they’re stuck on cold white emitters with smooth reflectors for so many lights…they did do some Nichia 519A in some lights (like the Pokelit models) so they wouldn’t fall too far behind the popular curve.
Two small cells in series that can handle multi-fuel options are still pretty uncommon. Easy to design and make but the driver has to be…better…than what is typically offered so many flashlight companies get stymied there and/or will not spend the extra pennies to implement it because they fear customers won’t like the price increase and/or it will lower their already high margins. I think Lumintop was the first in quite awhile to bring it back, then Convoy and a couple others, and Acebeam and now Wurkkos. It’s a very convenient and versatile configuration for many people. The 6″ length is reminiscent of the old Maglite 2AA which many people still love, but it’s not as pocketable I guess. Use the benefit of li-ion and enjoy it, but use readily available disposables or NiMH if that’s all you have or prefer.
These 14100 packs would be a lot better if they’d bother to use some better cells in them but for whatever reason, that manufacturer won’t upgrade them. 14500 cells have actually seen some very nice improvements in the last 4-5 years in both performance and capacity, and they don’t really cost more especially when bought in volume.
Bella
Thanks for your comment.
For ACEBEAM, We have been committing to researching and utilizing the latest and most efficient LED emitters. For the cool white of the Acebeam Pokelit AA and TAC AA, which utilizes the TN LED emitters with the highest efficiency at the same current (TN >SamsungLH351D > OSRAM P9), So we can use the least current to achieve the maximum power. This is why we chose this LED emitter. For the same Nichia 519A, we chose NVSW519A-V1 instead of NVSW519AT, which has higher efficiency.
About Acebeam batteries, we are very confident to say that we have been insisting on the best batteries for the last 10 years. Our battery supplier is the same as the famous flashlight brands of the USA.
More importantly, our lights have extreme output for so many years, which requires a larger current, and we are insisting on using the best battery protection board. Taking our 21700 battery for instance, its protection board MOS can reach a maximum current of 15A, our battery cost is expensive. The common cheap battery is unable to support such a large current. (Current does not lie, if the quality of the battery is poor, it will suddenly turn off (can not turn on) under high current when you repeat Turbo.
Regarding the Output Test, our engineers test Acebeam products through a large integrating sphere (2-meter) and we comply with the ANSI standard. (If you are interested in technical implementation details of an integrating sphere in depth, I would suggest reading the Integrating Sphere Theory and Applications from LabSphere – the recommendation in the book is 5% as an upper bound for the relative size of any port, with increasing accuracy loss as the proportion increases. https://www.labsphere.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Integrating-Sphere-Theory-and-Applications.pdf)
At the same time, we also hope that everyone understands that the test method/principle is different between the long-range flashlights and the floodlights.
P.S. For The Last 5 years, we have been working on making the brightest and longest range portable lights which is based on the same size. For example, the first LEP flashlight.
For the new release TAC 2AA Blue version, We are the first manufacturer of portable lighting tools to use Luminus SFT25R 6500K HI LED in mass production with stable quality, thanks to our ACEBEAM laboratory. Because our engineers have been always doing advanced research and development, looking for and researching some new products ahead of half a year or longer.
We will continue to study the latest electronic technology and how to perfectly match the latest LED emitters.Please stay tuned.
Lastly, there are more and more excellent guys joining our big family. We have been optimizing our policy and improving service. Great customer service is one of the important factors for helping us to succeed! Thanks for your continuous trust and support! We will continue to also serve you wholeheartedly as always.
JR Ramos
Hello, Bella! Surprised to see you appear on this forum! Thank you very much for the paper on integrating spheres – very interesting and I’ll read through it later today. I know a fair amount about them and all of the other aspects of testing instrumentation and methods but I’m sure that will be an interesting read. I and others appreciate that Acebeam has undertaken the great expense of such a large integrating sphere – several other companies do, but many do not, or some just use smaller 1m size (adequate for many lights still).
SFT25R is an impressive emitter so far and hopefully Luminus will be able to supply good bins going forward and dependable availability. Enthusiasts on BLF were probably the first to jump on this emitter as it became available but it’s impressive that Acebeam put it into production so quickly. For a few years I have been hoping Luminus would actually produce an SFT20 (it exists in their product catalog in colors for lighting/theater production but not in white). An engineer there told me that it would be produced but was a low priority – had given up hope on it and then the SFT25R showed up. We all hope that they will produce bins with good light quality/tint in the future, not just best performance high-temperature cold white greenish tints. Wouldn’t it be nice if one day Nichia would make some really high power emitters that could handle higher current and heat levels! 🙂
In recent years, especially as Luminus and Nichia (and Samsung to a smaller degree) have produced emitters in those nice quality bins, many companies have seen success and greater sales using those emitters. On paper they lose some lumens/flux but most often that difference is not very perceptible to the human eye in actual use (it is more noticeable in long distance throwers of course). In the mass market such as what you serve more, many people don’t know about higher light quality from LEDs because they have never seen it, but once they do they seem to enjoy and prefer it. For true tactical lights and duty lights used by first responders, they don’t usually care and sometimes that cold white is beneficial to them, but for most flashlight users the cold white is kind of harsh – and sometimes it is a big disadvantage when working with things where true color rendition is important (such as wiring harnesses, especially old wiring where colors have faded a little…or skin tones (emergency medical responders and physicians)…or photographers and light painters). But there is room for all…soooo many flashlights and choices, right! 🙂
I think your batteries could improve. For the 14500 the recent models sold by Vapcell are just excellent – a real improvement from years past in both capacity and current delivery, and they seem to have great cycle life as well. I don’t know who actually manufactures the cells…Vapcell is a wrapper and retailer of course. Their H10 model is exceptional for high drain lights where you want a really bright turbo and still gives better capacity. The L10 was more like older cells but with improved performance and a legitimate 1000mAh capacity…it has been replaced by a newer (gold instead of purple) model that I can’t remember the name of now. But if Acebeam wanted, those cells could be used in the 14100 pack instead and users would see benefits compared to the older 800mAh cells (even the best ones…). Many 21700 cells these days are just great – thank you Tesla and all the cell manufacturers for putting effort into that cell size to make them great! Even the lower performing 21700 are often better than great cells in 18650 sizes. Eve and Molicel have really made advances there over Samsung and the bigger manufacturers (to say nothing of the ones that only cater to automotive uses…different world).
Take care, Bella…have a great day and see you around the forums! Thank you again for the .pdf!
Bella
Thanks for your greeting and reply.
I have kept the habit of reading comments in the market for over 10 years. Usually, I don’t like leaving comments that represent a brand official in public (Do not stick the label of “being boastful” ). Let customers make smart choices according to their favorites.
As you know, our Acebeam lights have had extreme output which requires a larger current. For the cell of 14500 1250mAh in the market, it supports 3A only which does not support/fit our Acebeam Pokelit AA. We suggest buying the 14500 cell with Max 5A. Our engineers and lab test team have been testing various batteries including the 46950 and etcs. The user’s security and best output based on the stable quality is our first consideration.
About the users’ worries of the cost and replacing the customized battery, the Acebeam P20 is released to solve their doubts and meet their needs. It comes with a battery pack and is compatible with 2 x 21700 batteries. And more…
Looks like there are more topics we can discuss and exchange our opinions …please take care!
Thanks Stuart! I appreciate your honest and fair reviews (I also like your reviews of other tools).
Stuart
Thank you Bella, much appreciated!
JR Ramos
Look into the Vapcell H10 (if you can find the actual manufacturer of the cell).
1000mAh, 10A CDR. In testing it performs fantastically at 5A giving about 930mAh. At 10A load it holds very well, enough to maintain the honest CDR, gives about 800mAh. It can handle 15A with expected sag in performance but it would be a poor choice for that current of course. There is a Vapcell representative who goes by the name of “Dennis” that is very helpful and forthcoming with information but he has not been willing to divulge the manufacturer of this cell for us. They have been available (with consistent quality) since about 2018 I think, maybe 2019.
Anyway…it would be a great option if Acebeam wanted to incorporate it as a single cell or for these 14100 packs – absolute step up in all performance metrics.
JR Ramos
You are probably familiar with both Mooch and Henrik, but here are links to their testing of the H10 cells. (Mooch specializes in high-drain applications for vaping products, where Henrik is more of an electronics and flashlight buff who tests more thoroughly).
https://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/threads/bench-test-results-vapcell-h10-%E2%80%93-10a-1000mah-14500-slightly-overrated-capacity.937461/
https://budgetlightforum.com/t/test-review-of-vapcell-inr14500-h10-1000mah-purple-2020/62343
Jared McBeth
Not this particular flashlight, but the ACEBEAM Pokelit AA is my favorite flashlight. I have the 550 high CRI version.
It’s not my most powerful, compact, expensive or unique flashlight, but when I grab a flashlight to stick in my pocket – that’s the one. It does everything pretty well.
The size is small enough to be a comfortable pocket-carry, yet not so small I can’t hold it like a normal light. It’s bright enough to do most things – and the high CRI and 5000k color temperature makes me feel like I see well while using it. Plus the UI is intuitive and it wasn’t terribly expensive (when I use an expensive light, I sometimes feel like I don’t want to put it on the ground or leave it in the bottom of a bag, etc.).
It’s just a good, simple, well-made light!
JR Ramos
It’s been good to see the resurgence of 14500 lights…a lot of that had to do with improvements in the cells, where the best 14500 now have almost made 18350 obsolete (and 16340 are kind of scarce now, too). Lots of really good lights to choose from now but that wasn’t the case just 4-ish years ago when 14500 just couldn’t hold long enough to make a good real-use light. I probably use the Convoy T2 and T3 the most, but the little Wurkkos TS10 is a fantastic little light save for the linear driver and faster drain, and the good old FWAA was my daily for quite awhile – sad they scrapped that series of lights. I don’t use it as much but perhaps my favorite is the newer Skilhunt M150 V3…maybe the best of the bunch but I really like tail switches for this size of light.
Alex
Just picked one up – very impressed so far. Mine came with a pair of rubber domes to covert them into lamps – one red and one white. Daughter thinks the red one will be great alternative to a lightstick after dark!