Irreducible simplicity is lofty design goal. Achieving it is a daunting proposition. In one of my favorite sci-fi series, Dan Simmons Hyperion, there is a lot of ultra high tech far future tech that is has no moving parts, no displays, no buttons. In many ways, this, not some blinking holographic display, seems impossibly high tech. The Tiny Nugget is as close to that as flashlights can come. It is DEAD simple. No buttons, no selector rings, no clip, no screws—just two metal components and a lens.

And yet, this is a light that can do a ton of stuff. First, of course, it is a QTC light (Zero Air beware). So it is a twisty that has the simplest possible UI—twist more for more light. Second, the emitter is easily user replaceable. No drop ins or soldering required. Third, the light has a design and build quality that is unrivaled in terms of durability. If you thought the HDS Rotary was a tank, check out this video of the Fraz Labs folks using the torch as a baseball during home run derby. That is one tough light.

Super clean simple design, user-replaceable emitter, and indescructible build quality? This is interesting. Oh and I forgot to mention—its pretty inexpensive. The top end Tiny Nugget goes for $110 when in stock.

Here is the product page. Here is ZeroAir’s review of the Tiny Nugget’s brother the Golden Nugget (it is made of brass). There are no written reviews. There are two primary variants—the Tiny Nugget and the Tiny Nugget SL. The SL stands for slim and the review sample here is an SL. The only difference is that the rear portion of the light is slimmer in diameter than the emitter end of the light. I purchased this review sample almost a year ago with my own money and I plan on keeping it. Here is light:

Finally, here is my review sample:

Quick Review Summary: Innovation embodied.

Design: 2

I am the first to concede that some people just don’t like QTC. The main complaint is that it is finnicky and imprecise with huge jumps or drops in output with little to no tightening of the head. It helps to know a little about how QTC pills work to understand the criticism. QTC material is made in sheets with metal filaments impregnating a rubbery substrate known as the elastomeric binder. The sheets are cut into small squares, called pills, and are placed between the battery and the emitter head. As pressure is placed on the pill, the conductive material gets closer together and the electrons tunnel a path through the material. This behavior is called quantum tunneling. This is the limit of my technical knowledge, as the quantum tunneling effect is pretty complicated.

Because the QTC pill is so sensitive to the amount of pressure applied, the threading on the head of the light, which is tightened to apply pressure, is really important. If the threading is sloppy the pressure is inconsistent leading to jumpy outputs. If the threading is too steep the pressure spikes quickly eliminating the intermediate output levels. Getting QTC right is a matter of very, very precise machining.

I have had three QTC lights—the Tiny Nugget, the 40DD from Veleno Designs, and the Peak Eiger. The Eiger had some thread slop leading to jumpy outputs. The 40DD was very precise and the threading was shallow, but the entire light is smaller than half of my thumb and dialing in the pressure was difficult. This light fixes both problems. The threading is nice and there is plenty of space. You do have to crank the head to get max output, but it dialing in light is precise and consistent, something the other QTC lights couldn’t claim. The benefits of QTC are obvious—easy to make, robust, and a dead simple UI (more on that below). Without QTC, the fully sealed Tiny Nugget wouldn’t work. Somewhere there would need to be a switch. But with QTC (or something like the potentiometer on the old Surefire T1A), you get a dead simple light. And unlike the potentiometer, QTC makes for a light that can take an absolute beating. If you like QTC, this is the best implementation I have seen and a great design. If you don’t subtract 2 point here, or, more advisedly, just sit this one out.

Fit and Finish: 2

As you can imagine, given the precise QTC performance, the Tiny Nugget is well made. The threads are clean and slop-free. The exterior is clean and crisp. This isn’t the most complex external machining in the world, but it is very well done. Inside the light, everything is equally clean—no globs of solder or random wires. I mention this because unlike most lights, the Tiny Nugget is designed to be taken apart and so the internal fit and finish is important. In many ways, a light designed to be taken apart, like a knife similarly designed (see e.g. the Chris Reeve Sebenza).

Grip: 2

Thanks to nice gearing around both the head and the tail and a wonderful hourglass shape, the Tiny Nugget locks into the hand and stays there, no matter what.

Carry: 1

This is a very large light for a 1x18350. With a head the size of two 47 Mini Turbos and a body/tailcap the size of another, you can’t really easily carry this in a jeans pocket. Its possible, but you may have to answer questions about you being happy to see people. As a nightstand light or a pack light, you can’t find much better thanks to its hardy build quality. Also no clip, not that clipping a light this big is all that practical.

Output: 2

One of the advantages of QTC is that you can dial in VERY fine output differences. With the Eiger dialing in moonlight low was challenging as it wanted to jump all over. With the Tiny Nugget, you can get super low lows, well below 1 lumen and significantly lower than something like the HDS Rotary. In fact, you get the light so low that you can’t tell if it is on or the tint of the emitter is a bit different. Of course, high is plenty bright, around 650 lumens. Tint is good here, but not Hi CRI. I’d prefer Hi CRI, but this is not a laser light at a dance club, so we are okay, especially considering how low this thing can go.

Runtime: 2

Your guess is as good as mine. With no defined output levels other than max, it is hard to say what the runtimes are. How about this? Plenty. One of my children left this light on over night at around 5-10 lumens and it was still running the next day. I haven’t switched the battery since and it seems to be doing fine.

Beam Type: 2

This more throw than the normal light, but only because the lens and emitter head is so big. Overall, I like it quite a bit. Its good without being compromised too far in favor of throw or flood.

Beam Quality: 2

Just a BIT more space on torches does a lot for beam quality.

UI: 2

And finally the promise of QTC has been realized. This is the perfect implementation of an amazingly promising technology. It is an amazing UI—need light? twist more. It has been close to a decade since I purchased my first QTC light and this one, above the others, nails it. One thing that might be missed—there are multiple advantages to having no button. The tail cap is easier to machine and more robust. There are less points of entry for water and other liquids. Tailstanding is absolutely rock solid. There are less parts to wear our and need replacing (both a switch and the switch boot are gone in favor of a small QTC pill). If all QTC lights were this consistent, I don’t think there would be such a polarizing reaction to them in the community.

Hands Free: 1

Tailstands like a traffic bollard, but can roll a bit and is too big for the emergency between-the-teeth move.

Other Considerations

Fidget Factor: Moderate

Dialing in the perfect output is a bit engaging, but beyond that, there is little to do with this light.

Fett Effect: Very Low

I guess the bead blasted finish will wear, eventually, but if there is any gear I own that could survive a mudslide and work, this is it.

Value: Very High

This is a truly remarkable and innovative torch for just over a $100. If waiting for a batch to be released is not considered a cost, this is an astoundingly good value.

Overall Score: 18 of 20

I love this light to bits. It replaced the HDS on my nightstand and everyone in my family uses this light at one point or another. No one misses the simple but not as simple Rotary. This light has accompanied me on a lot of “what the hell was that missions” at 3 AM and I am very happy about that. I have EDC’d if a few times, but it is pretty terrible. In the same way that that doesn’t prevent me from liking a good camp knife or chopper fixed blade, there is so much to like here that I don’t really care that it is a below par light in terms of pocket carry. I am working on an article on this use case for flashlights, what I like to think of as a “Bump In The Night” torches, but suffice to say, even without a definition, you can see how this light fills that role exceedingly well.

On a side note it is important to point out that this is a product where the score and my sentiments about it are misaligned because of how the scoring system works here. 18 is not a bad score, of course, but it is significantly better than an 18 would indicate. I really love this torch. A LOT.

Competition

The HDS Rotary is still out there kickin’ ass. The JetBeam RRT-01 is also still around. Both are good and tough, but more complicated to use and have more parts. Other lights that have twist-twist more UIs are pretty rare. The Muyshondt Aeon Mk. 2, which is a light near and dear to this sight, has a similar built and UI. It is basically this light shrunk down. That light, like this light, has a lot of great features, but its pocketable. The fact that this light is similar to that light, which I believe is very close to the zenith of EDC lights, is a good thing. There is NOT much that compares to this that is readily available and that is a sign of how great it is. One light that is smaller and not as bright with a twist-twist more UI is the Sofrin SC01, which just arrived for review. It is truly astounding light for the $25 price tag.

For the record, the lights in the above picture are my current roster of custom or small batch lights: the Tiny Nugget, the HDS Rotary, the Muyshondt Aeon Mk. 3, the Laulima Hoku, the McGizmo Haiku (with drop in), the Torchlab Oveready BOSS 35, the Frelux Synergy, and the exquisitely beautiful Prometheus Delta.

Amazon Links

JetBeam RRT-01

Sofrin SC01