I have more than a dozen of 2022 to 2024 Nitecore flashlights.
None has given up on me.
Of all Chinese manufacturers, Nitecore is the one which iterates faster and, for some of their models, they introduce a new version every year. Sometime thought, just like with Apple iPhones, the new model has just some minor incremental improvements.
Of all Chinese brands, Nitecore is the brand that applies the biggest engineering safety coefficients, followed by Fenix.
An example of safety coefficient is the peak working voltage of a capacitor. If the capacitor usual operate with 18 Volts across it, any designer would use a 20 Volt capacitor, while in a Nitecore I expect to see a 25 Volt capacitor.
In modern flashlight, the other very important number is the Vds(max) of the output MOSFET.
One of the feature of Nitecore flashlights is the thermal throttling they apply to their lights. By many, it is deemed eccessive. By a design engineer, it is considered just right - so to ensure that the 50,000 hours LED lifetime remains true, and no delamination (phosphors detaching from the InGaN die) occur before then.
So, while I praise Nitecore for their true-to-form way of engineering their flashlights, other trash the brand for exactly the same reason: brightness drops too early.
In my view, the Chinese flashlight manufacturers have collectively shoot themselves in the feet: by advertising and trumpeting 5,000 - 10,000 - 21,000 lumens flashlights, printing it prominently on the boxes and on web adverts, common people have come to expect too much of a pocketable light. Their P20iX is a wonderful lighting tool, but the way it is sold and advertised is dislikeable. It is not a 4,000 lumens floodlight, it is a outstanding 1,000 lumens light! People on YouTube checking how many seconds of "Turbo" their light is capable of. Sneeze.
I needed a very good dual beam search/flood light, so I bought a Fenix LR60R (kinda dear), and Fenix sell It as a 21,000 lumens flashlight! It is a outstanding 4,000 lumens light, which is more than honourable in my view.
Why SF and Maglite don't use peak lumens to sell their lights? People who understand flashlights don't consider peak lumens a measure of quality.
Regards
Anthony