NextLED NT-2143C-B Auto Detail Headlamp - Motion Sensor Light, CRI 95+ Paint Inspection - 3000/4500/6000K, 300 LM, Car Detailing, Paint Correction, Swirl Finder

Excellent

This is clearly a professional focused product on a variety of fronts. The cloth headband's inside area is rubberized, it only works at full 300 lumens brightness, and its half-baked charging is the equivalent of cheap generic flashlights. I'll be using it for professional purposes, but be warned this is not designed to be consumer friendly. BEAM & OUTPUT Anyone claiming here that the brightness can be "dialed in" is wrong. It has color temperature (3000/4500/6000k) selector / power on button and a motion sensor toggle button--that's it. The default 6000k color temp will look the brightest, because that's what a cool white / blue light bias does to perception of brightness. Runtime cannot be improved by backing down to say 200 lumens, which would likely be completely fine for most people's purposes. They likely skipped the ability to adjust brightness to ensure no tint or color temp shift at reduced brightness levels--pro focused. Its beam is flood style, and also cannot be adjusted via LED selection or a zoom mechanism like the bulk of consumer-focused products. CHARGING I read about users having charging issues, and weird warnings about using power adapters capable of beyond 1A / 5w charging. I tested initializing its charge on a high amperage USB-A charger, and it still pulled only 4w while monitoring on a power meter. This < 5w warning seemed strange for a product at this price point, but sure enough the USB-C port is "fake" / cosmetic only with out of spec USB-A only functionality. Yes, like cheap generic flashlights. It cannot function / initiate on USB-C PD chargers because it does not confirm to proper USB-C standards. This means you must use a USB-A to USB-C cable like the (very short) one provided, due to this lazy and cheap charging design. Not really acceptable at this price point, but again a pro-focused product so they probably don't care much. Proper USB-C PD charging would also make the device specify a 5w rate from the charger (regardless of its max output capability), and negate their need for > 5w warnings as it would be impossible on modern chargers. From a technical standpoint, I love finally having a full CRI headlamp (albeit stuck at full blast output) in a small package. I'd probably buy it again, as I had done my research and suspected most of these limitations going in. The battery is also non-removeable, but it's the equivalent of six 800mah AAA NiMH (3.7v x 1500 mah) so it should maintain ok runtime re the 3 hrs claimed. Chances are it would be 5+ hours if they had allowed it to be backed down to 200 lumens, as LEDs have reduced efficiency at max output. We'll see how its simplistic charging interface manages that battery, but if it does a decent job it should be usable for many years as the battery should be industrial quality (Sony, LG etc) from a pro-focused manufacturer like this. Definitely buy this headlight with your eyes open--if this wasn't a "pro" product, I would have given it 3 stars for the broken USB-C PD charging.

It works exceptionally well