Nitecore has really been coming out with some amazing flashlights. They’ve always been great about delivering high quality tactical flashlights that you can rely on. Nitecore flashlights are often beloved among law enforcements, security, search and rescue, and then of course outdoor enthusiasts such as hunters, hikers, campers, etc.
It seems like this year, Nitecore has really been pushing and challenging themselves to see what new product they can come out with that can wow their followers and be practical in a variety of situations. Today, I’ll be reviewing the Nitecore SRT9 Tactical Flashlight.
This is definitely not your average flashlight and comes with some interesting features. Just by looking at this flashlight, you can tell the SRT9 is something completely different. In this tactical flashlight review, I will go over the features of the SRT9, the pros and cons, what you need to take note of before buying it, and other important information you might want to know.
Let’s jump right into the features. The SRT9 is an incredibly powerful flashlight delivering 2,150 lumens of blinding power. That’s an awful lot of lumens for a flashlight that just rests comfortably in your hand. It’s guaranteed to illuminate the area around you and beyond. It’s equipped with a CREE XHP-50 LED that delivers that amount of power. As impressive as 2,150 lumens is, that’s not what makes this flashlight special. It actually has several LEDs of multiple colors to cope with a variety of different situations. You have the white primary LED. You have a red LED, green LED, blue LED, and a UV light. You may wonder why you need all these different colors, and I’ll go into why each one has a specific purpose.
Starting with the red LED, this one is 13 lumens. Now, red light can protect your night vision, the wildlife, or the environment. It’s a great LED to use for observation, astronomy observation, night photography, or even nighttime hunting if you’re into that. The green LED is 19 lumens. Now, this green light is excellent for sensitive eyes. It’s a softer light and it’s widely used in hunting and military, specifically for searching at night, or for checking documents at night. It provides a good amount of illumination while not blinding you or drawing attention to yourself. The blue LED is also 19 lumens. This light helps identify blood. It’s great for tracking when you’re hunting or for battlefield medical treatment. Okay, let’s talk about the last light, which is the ultraviolet light. This light is widely used in authentication, criminal investigation, and things like that. An average flashlight user probably won’t be using the UV light very often.
The SRT9 also has a micro-textured orange pure reflector, so it’s going to give you a nice floody beam, a very wide angle rather than a more focused spot beam. That floody beam is really great in outdoor flashlights. Especially with those other colored LEDs, it’s really great to have a floodier beam.
Now, I want to talk about the user interface because it’s definitely different. The SRT9 has a smart selector ring, located just below the head of the flashlight, right above the body. Simply twist that selector ring around to pick which brightness level or LED color you need. For those who are familiar with the SRT series for Nitecore, you may already know how this ring works. SRT actually stands for Smart Ring Tactical Series. If you don’t know how that smart ring works, I highly suggest you read the user manual just so that you can know what everything is. Also, be sure to play around with it just so that you get used to all of those settings.
Now that you know a bit about the user interface, let’s talk about the different brightness modes. With that primary white LED, you have the turbo mode, which as you know is 2,150 lumens. Then you have the ultra low mode which is .1 lumen. Then of course you have the red, green, blue, and UV light along with a strobe mode. With this in mind, this tactical flashlight really shines using those multi-colored LEDs. If you’re looking for a flashlight where you just need that primary white LED, I might steer you away from this one, simply because it does only have the two brightness levels for that primary white LED. However, if you’re an outdoors person and you need all these colors, you need those four colors, this is an excellent light. It’s easy to get used to and those different colored LEDs do come in handy.
Let’s move on to the batteries. The SRT9 is powered by either two 18650 lithium ion batteries or four CR123 batteries. It’s always great when flashlights give you options knowing you don’t have to have a single battery, so if you have two 18650 batteries, they run out, you can go ahead and put some CR123s in there and know you’ll be fine. That being said, I do think that the 18650 batteries will serve you a lot better. They guarantee higher run times and with that turbo mode, you really will want that.
The SRT9 Tactical Flashlight does come with a battery power indicator, and it’s a little blue power indicator on the body of the flashlight that blinks once ever two seconds when the battery power level is about 50%. Then it will blink rapidly when the battery power level is low. This is a wonderfully convenient feature, as you don’t have to worry when your batteries are going to run out. It’s great to have an idea as to what the voltage is at.
Moving on to the design of the flashlight, it has a really creative design to it. It has a grip texture along the body. However, it also has these ridges along the head and on part of the body as well. Those ridges will help dissipate the heat to keep your flashlight working at its highest efficiency longer. It has ATR intelligent temperature regulations, which if you don’t know will regulate the output of the flashlight to make sure that it performs at its best and that there is no damage that will happen to the flashlight or the components. This tactical flashlight is constructed from aero grade aluminum alloy and I expect nothing less in a Nitecore flashlight. It has a stainless steel retaining ring on the top of that flashlight that protects the glass as well as the LED, and the lens is made from a toughened ultra clear mineral glass that has anti-reflective coating not only to protect the LED but to make sure that you get the best light out of that LED possible.
The SRT9 also has tail stand capability. Now, if you have a flashlight that has this ability, you already know how excellent it is. It allows you to set the flashlight up and continue working on something hands free, whether it’s putting up a tent, looking for wood for a fire, anything you might need both hands for. This tactical flashlight is also impact resistant up to 1.5 meters. There is peace of mind knowing that if you accidentally drop your flashlight, it will still work just as perfectly as if it was brand new out of the box. This flashlight is also waterproof in accordance with IPX8 standards. This means that you can submerge the flashlight in two meters of water for 30 minutes, pull it out of the water, and it will still work just fine. If you’re outside and it starts heavy raining on your camp, you don’t have to worry about sheltering the flashlight while you gather all your things. You can go ahead and set the flashlight out and collect the things you need knowing full well that your flashlight is taken care of.
Okay, so let’s talk about the pros and cons of the Nitecore SRT9. We’ll start with the pros. This is definitely a unique flashlight, one you won’t see very often. I really like that it combines all these different colored LEDs into one light. Users often have to buy specific lights that come with a blue LED or a green LED. Sometimes you may be lucky enough to find a flashlight that comes with a white, red, and green LED, but it’s excellent that this one actually comes with five total different colors. I like that all in one flashlight. I also definitely like the feel of the flashlight. It’s very comfortable in your hand. It has a very ergonomic grip. Of course, I do like that floody beam. As I mentioned before, outdoors it’s important to have that wide angle beam. Another feature I really love is the battery power indicator. Once you have a flashlight that has a batter power indicator, it’s difficult to get one that doesn’t have that. It’s really great that the SRT9 does come with that power indicator light.
In conclusion, this is an amazing outdoor flashlight. It is a multi-function tactical flashlight, and if you are in law enforcement, security, search and rescue, or you’re a hunter or a camper, I might recommend this flashlight to you. It’s definitely worth a look. Nitecore has never let me down and I’m certain they won’t let you down either.