Nitecore EDC37 long-term review: Bright flashlight has a practical OLED display

The Nitecore EDC37 is a great companion for daily usage. Two boost modes can immediately and effectively illuminate a dark area, even during the day. However, it takes some getting used to keeping the flashlight cool enough to maintain access to these boost modes. This is especially true when using the 1,500-lumen setting. Thanks to the practical OLED display, users have a good overview of everything. The only thing that really bothered us was the lock switch. In certain situations, it was a bit too easy to turn it on accidentally.

This is also evident when looking at the LED arrangement. The EDC3x has a setup with eight small LEDs around a main LED, but the EDC37 uses two sets with eight LEDs each side by side. The large LEDs are only used in the 15, 100, and 3,000-lumen modes. The latter is the search mode and can be activated by a half-press of the boost button. In the 400, 1,500, and 8,000-lumen modes, the additional eight LEDs around the main LED are turned on, which illustrates that the outer LEDs are quite powerful. The light characteristic also changes slightly. If you look closely, you can see a difference when switching from 100 to 400 lumens. There's a very slight, perceptible delay when the outer LEDs activate.

As usual, you can pre-select the output with the main button (half-press). The available options are 15, 100, 400, and 1,500 lumens, which can also be used continuously. If you half-press this button for about half a second, the Nitecore flashlight will provide 15 lumens, regardless of the pre-selection. This is useful when users want to illuminate something quickly without a blindingly bright light. A regular full press of the button turns the EDC37 on or off.

With the boost button next to it, the search mode (3,000 lumens, half-press) and the Lumin Shield mode (8,000 lumens, full-press) can be accessed directly. The EDC flashlight shouldn’t be pointed at people in this case, as it gets very bright. However, this brightness is very practical during the day. For example, we repeatedly used it to illuminate corners in a hotel in order to make sure we didn't forget any cables or other small items during check-out.

The aforementioned Lumin Shield mode also pushes the outer LEDs to their performance limits. This changes the light characteristic from a spot beam to a floodlight. This feature is already known from the EDC35, but the EDC37 illuminates a significantly larger area. The EDC35 can't do that as well. Other flashlights need an optical zoom for this feature, but both methods have their pros and cons.

High performance comes at a price. While 1,500 lumens can be used continuously, the boost modes are only usable for a few seconds, which heavily depends on the ambient temperature. In a warm night, the mode can only be used briefly, while it lasts longer during the winter, as the flashlight cools down more quickly. The boost mode can make the EDC flashlight so hot that it throttles to 400 lumens. During our review, we were able to provoke a fall back to 100 lumens and even a forced shutdown, which only lasted for a short time.

The display will show bar to indicate how much power is remaining. When we push the flashlight back to 1,500 lumens, it has little effect on the bar in the summer. This is the area where you need some practice to keep the boost modes available without having to switch the flashlight lower than 1,500 lumens. Although Lumin Shield with its floodlight characteristic is still available, it's very weak.

Of course, all of this only applies if the lock switch is off. It is located behind the display and is very robust. But in practice, we accidentally deactivated lock switch with our belt, which allows the flashlight to be turned on. If you carry a few things on your belt, this can definitely happen. Compared to the EDC35, the slider switch on the EDC37 is slightly more exposed.

Nitecore EDC flashlight with a big battery

With a solid 28.8 watt-hours, the battery is very large. The display shows the runtime for each continuous mode. For example, the 1,500-lumen mode supposedly lasts for more than 7 hours, while 15 lumens can be provided for almost 170 hours. That's great for an EDC flashlight. Of course, search and Lumin Shield drain the battery much faster. A percentage display and bar provide information on the remaining charge. In practice, we never had to worry about battery life. Even if you need the flashlight for work, it should be more than sufficient.

The flashlight can be charged via USB Type-C. The port is secured by a cap. However, the entire flashlight is only IP54 rated against dust and water. It's fine for rain showers, but you probably shouldn't take the Nitecore EDC37 on a paddleboarding trip.