Nu-Flare Rebel 90 Flashlight

The market is full of flashlights these days, ranging from the cheap China knock-offs to premium quality torches from the USA.

I was highly fascinated with flashlights as a young boy even before my teens in the late 80s, and had this need to own the brightest flashlight available in the market. Or at least owning the brightest one amongst friends during an outdoor camping trip.

Maglites and their xenon-fired lamps were popular in the early 80s up to the mid-90s, and I sure as hell had one of those, a small one nonetheless.

As I grew older and had a little more money, I began to buy submersible brands such as Streamlight, Pelican, and Underwater Kinetics. I had to own one which could go underwater. This was even way before I was a certified diver as I am today.

These days SureFire tactical flashlights are becoming more popular with their LED lamps.

However, they are a lot more expensive than your usual off-the-shelf flashlights. Presumably created originally for military use, they are now marketed for civilian use.

Still, lumen to the dollar, I find them more expensive than what other brands can offer.

So today, I am going to introduce a similar LED flashlight under the tradename Nu-Flare.

These flashlights are in my opinion at considerably better value than most other brands in the market in many aspects as I will discuss below.

NuFlare Rebel 90 – A Viable Option

The older Nu-Flare had between 100 to 160 lumens of firepower depending on the model you chose.

The latest one which we will be looking at today is 210 lumens. Lumen to lumen, they are a fraction of the cost you would pay for some premium flashlight brands.

Perhaps the premium and high cost of the SureFire flashlights could be justified, but for the casual user amongst us who need a daily-use torchlight, the Nu-Flare offers everything you will need, and then some.

Personally, I use the Nu-Flare during my construction work, and its aluminium body is durable enough for the rough handling at my construction sites.

I do not deliberately toss it around, but have accidentally dropped it once onto some rough concrete slab from waist height while trying to put it back into the holster; the cosmetic damage to the finish is very minor and unnoticeable.

The Nu-Flare Rebel 90 remains in perfect operation state today as when I first bought it two years ago.

The high-quality Luxeon LED bulb emits a useful 210 lumens to illuminate dark areas giving very good visibility, and made possible in a compact shell thanks to the use of two CR123A batteries – small compact lithium-ion batteries that pack a powerful 3V each.

A conventional flashlight would need to fit in four numbers of AA alkaline batteries at twice the length each to achieve the same total 6V output of these two CR123A lithium-ion batteries. This allows the package to be highly portable and yet packs a punch in candlepower.

Operating the Rebel 90

The on-off switch is located at the tail-end on the battery cap, most comfortably operated with the thumb.

Unlike some other similar flashlight models in the market where this button has to be fully depressed and clicked to turn it on, the button on the Nu-Flare can be depressed halfway for momentary use, which is most often the case. I find this to be an important feature on any flashlight I consider as a favourite.

The rotatable head of the Nu-Flare comes with a focusing lens that allows you to start from a very focused square spot, and gradually to a more diffused round floodlight on your target. I usually keep mine in focused spot mode as I find that to be more useful in most cases of my work.

Here are the contents of my 210-lumen Nu-Flare Rebel 90 set after removing from them from the original packaging shown below:

Conclusion

All in all, I have to say that the Nu-Flare Rebel 90 is a highly recommended flashlight.

It is excellent value for money at this price for the 210 lumens that it is capable of producing, and most importantly the light throw (light spot distance reached) that it can achieve puts many other similar products in the market to shame.

I have tried a number of other makes in the past, but nothing at this price range comes close to the Nu-Flare Rebel 90 in terms of portability, durability, LED brightness, battery lifespan and power output consistency. That is, with all these attributes considered in combination as a whole.

To keep it in optimum running condition, I use SureFire rechargeable CR123A lithium batteries charged with the Nitecore IntelliCharger i4. Although the manufacturer recommends only Duracell, Energizer and Panasonic lithium batteries, I have used SureFire lithium batteries with very good results. See product links below for latest prices.

SEE ALSO:

• Nitecore SRT7 Revenger Flashlight
• Nitecore IntelliCharger i4 Li-ion/NiMH Battery Charger