I totally agree with your valid points but was just wanting to get peoples views on these fairly rare beasts. The DQG thing I mentioned at the beginning was definitely compact, certainly in terms of the direct competition if not in comparison to some of the very nice 18650 lights that can be had. In terms of most of the usual 26650 lights, they have very big heads. That just doesn’t appeal to me. I’m not in the market for one of these things by the way, just wanting to chew the fat a bit about them.
Trustfire A8 is probably as compact as you can reasonably get. It’s essentially a 26650 tube light.
I daresay with some careful design you could make it a tad shorter and maybe thinner walled material for the body.
It’s about the same size as a p60 such as the Solarforce L2 series, just with a fatter body. It’s actually quite a nice light to carry and use, and you can notice the extra runtime. But you also notice the extra weight and bulk too.
I admit, I don’t really know of any other lights this size and design.
The Trustfire/BLF A8 is fairly compact as well. The Uniquefire UF-2200 is another fine 26650 tube light. But the DQG is by far the smallest, but does not look like a good hand fit to me.