In this multi-part round up of flashlights or torches as we call them here in the UK, I’ll help you find the perfect every day carry or EDC torch. From the smallest micro EDC or keychain torch up to torches that will still fit in the palm of your hand and in your jeans or jacket pocket.
I have torches from well known and not so well known brands, from £5 or $5 all the way up to just under £100 or $100 – with most of them well below that. And I’ve thoroughly tested them all both in real use and quantitatively. I’ve even built a calibrated lumen testing enclosure to check manufacturers’ sometimes wild claims on just how bright these torches are – especially some of the larger ones. I’ll also measure their colour temperature and accuracy with a spectrometer – if you’re using a torch for longer periods of time the quality of light is also important.
In this first article I’ll look at keyring torches, starting with the lightest. These use either an integrated battery or a replaceable AAA battery. They are super lightweight weighing less than 25g – you’ll barely even know you have them on you. They’re still surprisingly bright – way brighter and with far more reach than an iPhone 13 Pro’s torch that I’ve included as a baseline.
But they’re not as bright as the larger torches I look at in my “10 best pocket flashlights article“, and they have much shorter run times.
I’ll have links to all the torches at the bottom of the page, and they’re often discounted so please make sure you check the current pricing.
Nitecore TIKI GITD
The Nitecore TIKI comes in a few guises from around £20 or $20. I have the GITD or glow in the dark version that is phosphorescent and will glow for a short while after use. It comes with a key ring clasp and no charging cable or even manual – although you can download one. There’s a rubber flap covering the micro USB charging port and it charges its built in 130mAh Li-ion battery in around 80 minutes. It’s made from polycarbonate and has an IP66 weatherproof rating.
It’s the lightest torch in this roundup at just 15.4g. In fact if you take the supplied keyring off it weighs an impressive 12.6g and it can still be attached to your keyring though the end hoop. I’ll have dimensions for all the torches in the roundup on screen as I discuss their build and weight.
Press and hold the power button from off to go straight to momentary full power mode at 300 lumens until you let go of the power button. Or double press from off to turn on in its 1 lumen moonlight mode. Press the power button again to switch to low, medium and again to high at 15, 60 and 300 lumens respectively. 300 lumens is more than enough for most indoor use and some outdoor use, and 60 lumens is plenty for reading for example.
I confirmed these outputs, although high I measured a little lower at 240 lumens – but that’s still pretty good for a light this size and weight. This drops to around 50 lumens after 1 minute. Unless I state otherwise I’m measuring the lumens after 30 seconds, as per the American ANSI flashlight testing standards.
In high mode the TIKI has an intensity of 1260 candela which equates to a throw of 71 metres. This refers to how focused the torch is – so how bright the hotspot is in the middle of the beam.
Typically around the hotspot of the beam is a less bright ring called the spill. If there’s no hotspot the torch is said to have a floody beam which is more useful for close work – if you have enough lumens. An example of an almost all flood beam is the torch function on your phone.
It’s worth noting this is also based on the ANSI standards and only requires the equivalent of moon light illumination or 0.25 lux on distant objects which isn’t very much. You can divide this throw by 4 for a more realistic distance measurement. Again, the TIKI is not bad for its size with a good combination of throw and flood.
The 60 lumen mode should last around 1 hour and the ultra low mode can last for up to 40 hours. A long press turns the torch off. You can run the TIKI off a USB portable charger and unusually all the lighting modes are available. So it would be great for a reading light when camping for example.
The TIKI also has a couple of additional modes. If you triple press the power button from off you turn on the 500mW 365nm UV side LED in its translucent body, handy for identifying counterfeit banknotes for example. Press it again for a high CRI white LED and again to flash this LED.
The higher the CRI or Colour Rendering Index the more accurately you’ll see colour. Sunlight and traditional incandescent lighting have a CRI of 100 for the most faithful colour reproduction. But anything over 80 is good and over 90 is considered excellent. I used a spectrometer to measure both this overall CRI value and also the R9 value which I’ll show on screen when I refer to CRI.
R9 is an additional score that represents how accurately a light source reproduces strong red colours often found in skin colours, clothing and food. Again the closer to 100 the better but this number will usually be lower than CRI, often by a fair bit and can even be negative.
I measured a CRI of 85 for this white auxiliary LED with 22 for R9, a colour temperature of 4392K and a tint of 0.0056 Duv. The lower the CCT the warmer the light. What you’re after here will come down to personal preference, but generally values of 4000-5000K are preferred by most people for EDC torches providing less harsh, natural lighting.
The Duv value represents the tint of the LED. The closer this value is to zero the better, if you want perfectly neutral lighting with no tint. Less than plus or minus 0.006 would be considered neutral. A more negative value, often with a rosy tint depending on colour temperature is usually considered preferable to a positive value often resulting in an undesirable green tint.
I measured the main front OSRAM P8 LED as 5346K with a CRI of 69.
Just as a comparison I carried out all these measurements with my iPhone 13 Pro’s torch. In its highest mode it produces 15 lumens, with an intensity of 8 candela which works out as a throw of just under 6 metres. Its colour temperature is 5263K with an impressively high CRI of 95 and a neutral tint.
The TIKI is a great little torch at a decent price but there are a few cons. There’s no memory – so if you want it to always turn on in medium mode that’s not possible. And it’s the only torch in this roundup that has micro USB charging, which is looking very long in the tooth as we approach 2023. It also has no pocket clip, so it works perfectly on a keyring, but not so well in your pocket. And with the side LED a pocket clip would be useful for hands free lighting if you clip it to your shirt for example. There’s also no USB cable included and it only has an IP66 water resistance rating. Also the built in battery does ultimately give it a limited life – when the battery eventually fails the whole torch will need to be replaced. But that applies to all the torches I’ll be reviewing with an integrated battery.
Thrunite Ti2
The Thrunite Ti2 is an absolute bargain at around £6 or $6. It’s well built, made from Type III hard anodized aluminium and has an IPX8 waterproof rating. All you get with it is a keyring and manual.
It runs off an alkaline or rechargeable AAA battery – neither is included. Li-ion 10440 3.7V batteries are forbidden and don’t fit being ever so slightly longer.
You’ll get better performance with a rechargeable NiMH battery, ideally a low self-discharge battery like this Eneloop. I’d only use Alkaline batteries if you have to. Alkaline batteries are prone to leak and destroy your torch if you’re not careful.
With this Eneloop battery it weighs only 19.3g and you can see its size on screen. It’s as simple as a torch gets with just one mode. Tighten the head to turn it on.
I did find the Eneloop battery quite a tight fit though – it’s easier tightening the head down to turn it on with a standard alkaline battery.
Thrunite quotes a conservative 120 lumens, but I measured around 140 lumens with an Eneloop battery, even after a few minutes. This is plenty of light for most keyring duties. And you should be able to get up to 45 minutes of runtime off this small battery, although in my tests its output had dropped considerably by then. If you do use an Alkaline battery, you’ll get similar initial output, but the output will drop off far more quickly, as the battery’s voltage drops.
The Ti2’s beam has 600 candela of intensity which equates to 48 metres of throw. It’s a decent mix of flood and throw for a keyring torch.
Its CREE XTE LED has a cool 7088K colour temperature with a CRI of 73, but mine was very neutral with no nasty green tint you often get with cheap torches.
It’s very hard to criticise this torch at its asking price. There’s no pocket clip and an ultra-low moonlight mode would be nice for a more well rounded torch, but as it is, it makes a perfect gift with a super simple user interface, good build quality and decent performance.
OLIGHT i3E EOS
The OLIGHT i3E is another tiny keyring torch that runs on a single AAA battery. It already has a keyring installed and comes with a user manual and an alkaline battery. It’s well built with an aluminium construction and has an IPX8 rating. It feels a little more premium than the Thrunite with a smoother twisting action of the head. But it also costs a little more too at around £10 or $10.
It will also run off an alkaline or NiMH rechargeable battery. The manual forbids a battery with a voltage higher than 3.6V so you shouldn’t use a Li-ion 10440 battery in this torch either.
With a Eneloop battery it weighs just 19.6g and you can see its size on screen. Like the Ti2 it has just one mode – tighten the head to turn it on.
OLIGHT quotes 90 lumens of output from its Philips LUXEON TX LED. I measured 114 lumens with an Eneloop battery which barely dropped even after a few minutes. More impressively I got exactly the same constant regulated output with an Alkaline battery – it held at 114 lumens for over 5 minutes. OLIGHT quotes 70 minutes runtime off a NiMH battery, and 45 minutes off an alkaline.
I couldn’t resist trying a rechargeable 3.7V 10440 battery in this torch since it fits, but you’ll almost certainly void the warranty if you try this yourself. I measured over 420 lumens, but the torch started to get warm pretty quickly.
The i3E’s beam has 500 candela of intensity with 44 metres of throw and a useful mixture of throw and flood for a keyring EDC torch.
The torch has a 5760K colour temperature with a CRI of 72 and does have a slightly green tint which I’m not that keen on. But considering its price and constant output even with an alkaline battery, it’s a great little torch. Again a pocket clip would be nice, as would a low mode but that would push the price up and many will love its simplicity.
Nitecore TINI 2
The Nitecore TINI 2 comes with a key ring clasp already attached and a user manual. It has a built in 280mAh battery and a USB-C charging port, but no cable is included.
It’s a rectangular cuboid rather than the standard round torch design. It’s still remarkably small – slightly thinner than the Nitecore TIKI but wider with two of the same OSRAM P8 LEDs used in the TIKI. It feels tough, made of aero grade aluminium with a type III hard anodised finish but only has a splash proof IP54 rating. There’s also a stainless steel and titanium version available but this version costs £40 or $40.
There’s a rubber flap covering the USB-C charging port and it charges from flat with a USB-A to USB-C or a USB-C to USB-C cable in 1 hour 45 minutes. Like the TIKI you can use all the modes even whilst it’s charging.
The TINI 2’s most impressive feature is an OLED screen with real time information on lumens, runtime and battery level, that’s controlled with two buttons. And it still weighs just 21.5g.
Rather bizarrely it arrives in Demo mode, so you need to switch it to Daily mode before use. Press and hold the two buttons simultaneously to switch mode.
It’s very easy to use – the power button turns it on and the mode button just above changes mode from a 1 lumen ultra low, to a 15 lumen low, to a 65 lumen medium and a 200 lumen high.
In any mode and when the light is off holding down the mode button takes you to the momentary 500 lumen turbo mode until you let go. When the light is off holding down the power button will take you straight to the 1 lumen ultra low mode.
Seeing a display of the mode you’re in with real time information on how long you have left is just brilliant. From 60 hours in ultralow to 56 minutes in 200 lumen high mode. Turbo mode has up to 15 minutes but has temperature regulation and will step down when it gets hot.
Like the Nitecore TIKI the modes are very well regulated and all the modes up to 200 lumens stay very constant. And I got at least the full 500 lumens in turbo for around 2 minutes before it started getting warm and dropping its output. Which is plenty since you need to hold your finger down the whole time anyway.
In turbo mode you’ll get 2000 candela which equates to 89m of throw which isn’t bad for a mostly floody beam.
I measured a fairly cool but very neutral 5925K with a CRI of 71.
If you press the mode button with the torch off the display shows the exact battery voltage of the built-in battery with a graphical display too. And it shows the memorised mode you last used and if you’re in Daily or Demo mode. The battery voltage may not mean an awful lot to many, but a lithium-ion battery is fully charged at 4.2V and empty at around 3.0V.
The buttons are very easy to activate accidentally and I had it turn on in my pocket on several occasions. But luckily there are two lockout modes.WIth the light on press and hold the power button until Lockout 1 appears. Hold it a little longer for lockout 2.
In Lockout 1 you can still use the turbo mode if you hold down the mode button. In Lockout 2 mode you can’t activate the torch at all without unlocking it. To unlock, short press and then long press the power button.
I leave it in Lockout 1 mode on my keyring – I can still use turbo mode momentarily and it’s easy to unlock it if I need the torch for longer.
There’s no clip for pocket carry, but overall this is a great little torch that is almost perfect on your keyring.
Fenix E03R
The Fenix E03R looks very similar to the Nitecore TINI 2, and weighs pretty much the same at 22.2g. It has the same type III hard anodised aluminium body but a slightly better IP66 waterproof rating.
It comes with a keyring that you’ll need to attach yourself and includes a USB-C charging cable. It costs around £28 or $28. There’s a rubber flap covering the USB-C charging port for charging its 200mAh built in Li-polymer battery. You can use both the supplied cable, but also a USB-C to USB-C cable to completely charge the battery in around 80 minutes. You can only use eco and low mode whilst it’s charging.
The torch turns on and off with a half second press of the power button. When on, the power button cycles through the modes from a 5 lumen eco, to a 30 lumen low, a 80 lumen medium and a 260 lumen high. The last mode used isn’t memorised – it always starts in the 5 lumen eco mode.
I checked these outputs and they were spot on. Fenix provides accurate runtime graphs so you can see exactly how the torch will perform – and in my tests they were also very honest. In the lower modes the output is pretty much constant with up to 18 hours in the 5 lumen Eco mode and 1 hour 15 minutes in the 80 lumen medium mode. The 260 lumen high mode drops off quite quickly settling to around 120 lumens for most of its 45 minute total runtime.
The E03R also has a Everlight 2835 4 lumen red LED accessed with a long press with the torch off. Press the button again for a flashing mode. The red light is useful to preserve your night vision, and as an emergency beacon.
And you can lock and unlock the light with a double press of the power button with it off.
You can check the battery status with a single press of the power button with the light off. You’ll also see the battery status whenever you turn on the light.
The white MATCH CA18 LED provides 441 candela or 42m of throw – it’s a very floody beam with not much of a hotspot and is more useful for close work.
I measured a colour temperature of a pretty cool 7015K but without any nasty tint. It has a CRI of 74.
It’s a simple torch to operate, but it’s disappointing there’s no direct access to turbo – you need to switch the torch on and cycle up the modes. And the 5 lumen eco mode is too bright to be a true moonlight mode – for night adjusted eyes 1 lumen is usually enough and doesn’t disturb anyone if you’re getting up in the night.
But the red LED could be useful, and once you get used to the interface it’s pretty simple to use.
OLIGHT i1R 2 Pro
The OLIGHT i1R 2 Pro comes with a keyring already installed, a USB-C charging cable and a user manual. It has a built in 130mAh Li-ion battery and you unscrew the body of the torch to access the USB-C charging port. A full charge takes around 100 minutes – the small charging LED changes from red to green when it’s charged.
The torch has a IPX8 rating with the USB-C port well protected by the screwing mechanism and o-ring, but it does mean you can’t use the torch whilst it’s charging like the other rechargeable keyring torches.
Like every OLIGHT torch I’ve had it looks good and is well built, made from aluminium. I have the black finish but other colours are available.
It’s shorter and fatter than the i3E we’ve already looked at, and weighs a little more at 22.2g, but it’s still very compact.
It costs around £22 or $22, but OLIGHT have sales all the time so you should be able to get it cheaper – check the links down below.
It has two modes – half tighten the head for the 5 lumen low mode with 12 hours of runtime, and fully tighten the head for the high 180 lumen output with 23 minutes of runtime until it reaches half this initial output.
With a fully charged battery I got 172 lumens which slowly dropped to around 150 lumens after 5 minutes, and 108 lumens after 23 minutes – a little better than the manual’s 50% of initial output after 23 minutes. But the output is not regulated – it’s dependent on the voltage of the battery.
As the battery depletes, the output is less. So you won’t be able to get back to the highest output until you charge it up again.
OLIGHT don’t specify the exact LED used but I measured its colour temperature as a very cool 7251K without any noticeable unpleasant tint and with a CRI of 77.
The beam has a visible hotspot and in high mode has 580 candela of intensity equating to 48m of throw.
Again there’s no pocket clip and low mode is a little high, but it’s a well made, easy to use torch at a fair price.
RovyVon Aurora A8
The RovyVon Aurora A8 is the most expensive keyring torch in the roundup at around £49 or $49. But the slightly confusing Aurora range has 10 almost identical torches all with varying features and finishes, starting with the A1 at less than half this price.
The A8 comes with quite a few extras, including a magnetic pocket clip, a magnetic detachable base, a spare USB cover, two different keyrings and the user manual, all in a handy reusable plastic storage box.
It weighs 23.3g but If you don’t attach the pocket clip and the magnetic base, it ends up the second lightest in this roundup at 18.1g.
There’s a rubber flap covering the USB-C charging port which can charge its 330mAh Li-polymer battery with both a USB-A to USB-C and USB-C to USB-C cable in around 1 hour. You can use moonlight and low modes when it’s charging.
It’s made of a polycarbonate which keeps the weight down and it still feels tough. It comes with an IPX6 water resistance rating.
I did find the user manual confusing, but that’s partly because they are a few variations of this light. You can choose a brighter cool white 6500K SST-20 650 lumens main LED that I have or a 5000K Nichia 219C LED with a higher CRI but only 420 lumens. And then you have a choice of side lights – either UV, red and white that I have, or amber, red and blue.
If you press and hold the power button, the light comes on in turbo at 650 lumens which makes this the brightest torch in this roundup. Double press the power button to turn the light on and a single press cycles through the modes from a 0.5 lumen moonlight mode, to a 25 lumen low mode, a 200 lumen medium mode and the 650 lumen high mode. Both the high and medium modes will step down to 80 lumens after a minute. With a double press of the power button, the torch comes on in its memorised mode, but you need to have to torch on for at least 3 minutes in your desired mode to save it to memory. I have this set to moonlight mode so I can get quick access to the brightest and dimmest modes. Press and hold the power button to turn it off.
In my tests I didn’t quite get 650 lumens but it was close at around 570 lumens when I switched it on, which quickly dropped to 450 lumens after 30 seconds before settling to around 120 lumens which is still very useful and over the spec’d 80 lumens.
It should last around 90 minutes at this level and an impressive 72 hours in the 0.5 lumen moonlight mode which I did measure at just under 0.5 lumens. That’s one of the best moonlight modes I’ve seen and is still enough to see if it’s pitch dark. And it keeps your eyes accustomed to the dark.
I measured the main LED a little warmer than spec’d at 5848K with a slightly green tint and a CRI of 68.
For such a small torch it does have a fairly concentrated hotspot with an intensity of 2500 candela in high mode, equating to a throw of 110m which I find useful if I’m using it for night walk, if I’ve not got a larger torch with me.
If you triple press the power button with the torch on or off you get to the 365nm UV side LED, again useful for identifying counterfeit banknotes amongst other things. A single press in this mode takes you to the 20 lumen red LED and then again to the flashing red mode.
A quad click from on or off takes you to the warm white reading light with a 12 hour 1 lumen low mode. A single press in this mode switches to the 3 hour 20 lumen high mode. The low mode looked a lot brighter than 1 lumen and I actually measured around 7 lumens in my enclosure, and around 25 lumens in high mode.
With the torch on or off in any mode, 2 clicks always puts in its memorised more, 3 clicks takes you to the side UV light and 4 clicks to the side white light. Very handy once you remember how it works.
This warmer LED I measured at 3952K with a CRI of 71.
You don’t need to install the magnetic pocket clip and base but they’re both very useful. The torch is light enough to support itself with either the pocket clip or the base’s magnet, in pretty much whatever orientation you want.
And having a pocket clip is not only useful for pocket use, together with the side LEDs you can use the torch handsfree, clipping it to your shirt.
The clip fits either way so you could use it with a baseball cap too, but they’re not so common here in the UK. I’ve also used it with the flashing red LED on the back of my running shorts to be seen on night runs.
Overall this is an incredibly well thought out and capable torch once you memorise the interface, but it’s hard to ignore the price.
Conclusions
If you’re on a budget the Thrunite Ti2 is hard to beat. It offers plenty of light, couldn’t be simpler to use and feels rugged. If you still want a AAA torch but don’t want to bother with rechargeable batteries, the OLIGHT i3E runs very well even on an alkaline battery – there’s even one included. And it’s only a few pounds more than the Thrunite.
But my favourite keyring torch is the RovyVon A8 – it has nearly every feature I want and enough lumens for outdoors too if I don’t have anything else on me.
The Nitecore TINI 2 is a very close second. If I was going to buy someone a keyring torch, this would be the one. The OLED display with real time information on current mode and remaining runtime makes it so easy to use.
If you’re after a torch with more power and longer runtime for walking the dog, camping or anything else check out my roundup of larger EDC torches.
I’ve got torches with over 4000 lumens of output that still fit in the palm of your hand and the pocket of your jeans – some are only a little bigger than these keyring torches. I’d add a link here when it’s out.
Don’t forget to take a look at my YouTube video at the top of the page, and subscribe to my YouTube channel where I’m releasing videos every week on the latest technology and how to get the most out of it. If you tap the bell icon when you subscribe you’ll get a notification as soon as I release a video, and there’ll be a link to my site here for the written article. YouTube is also the best place to leave a comment. I read all of them and respond to as many as I can!
Company offers (I’ll try and keep this updated):
Olight don’t have any sales at the moment by you can get 10% off using my code TTM10 at checkout which helps support this site and my YouTube channel:
Store: https://www.olightstore.uk/s/REO74M
Olight Baton 3: https://www.olightstore.uk/s/EC41TI
Olight Warrior Mini 2: https://www.olightstore.uk/s/JPN2JR
Olight Baton 3 Pro: https://www.olightstore.uk/s/4YA99W
As an Amazon affiliate, I get a small commission from purchases made via any of the internation Amazon links below:
Nitecore TIKI: https://amzn.to/3u14Cu2
Thrunite Ti2: https://amzn.to/3gE6TII
OLIGHT i3E: https://amzn.to/3OG0Jo3 (Black Friday deal)
Nitecore TINI 2: https://amzn.to/3VseKb5
Fenix E03R: https://amzn.to/3XExfLw
OLIGHT i1R 2 Pro: https://amzn.to/3u0ShWL (Black Friday deal)
RovyVon Aurora A8: https://amzn.to/3ikahJ2 (Black Friday deal)
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