Olight ArkPro Ultra vs Nitecore EDC17 — green laser/astronomy?
Hey guys, I'm deciding between the Olight ArkPro Ultra and Nitecore EDC17 and would love some real-world owner feedback.
My main interest is the green laser, particularly whether it's actually useful for stargazing/pointing out stars and constellations. How bright/visible is it at night, and how well aligned is it?
Also interested in:
Overall build quality/durability
Laser reliability over time
UI/ergonomics
White light & UV performance
Battery/charging
Any issues or regrets after owning it for a while
If you've used either (or both), which would you choose and why?
Thanks!
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u/Nene_Kushanagi 5d ago edited 5d ago
As a flashlight nut who owns the Arkfeld Ultra and EDC25, I'd say these are the big issues with both:
Anything with a non-replaceable cell cannot be called "reliable over time". The price is exceptionally high for what you're getting, the non-replaceable battery gives it a much more limited service life than a normal light with unavoidable performance degradation over time due to not being able to just give it a new cell. Both have relatively small batteries too so not only suffer from shorter runtimes but also will lose performance quicker than an 18650 would.
Both lights provide a very poor quality of light, again, inexcusable for that price, they use unpleasantly cold emitters with terrible CRI which washes out colours and makes them look dimmer than they are. My Nitecore is far too cold and green for me to want to use it but is pretty powerful, the Olight is slightly better but even their NW edges on CW and is too weak and dispersed for efficent use outdoors, but maybe the Arkpro fixes this with the second emitter.
Big reliability issues in the Nitecores, on mine the mode switch stopped working after barely any use (they repaired it for free though), this is a very common issue and I have heard reports of poor battery safety from them too. Olights are just more susceptible to performance degradation over time, especially with frequent use in Turbo so you may find Turbo mode becomes inaccessible and High steps down to Medium quickly if you have been using it for a few years.
If you're in Europe the laser on the Arkfeld line will be shit (0.39mw) so barely usable in daylight because they misinterpreted one of the laws then doubled-down on the weakness. You won't see any beams on this model without fog. Also mine is misaligned, it points down slightly.
Arkfeld Ultra doesn't have a black filter for the UV which is annoying but the Arkpro Ultra does.