You want a forward tail clicky and a side switch on a AA 500lumen light? I can’t really think of one. I have a Thrunite T10 that works very well on AA or 14500 and it’s a nice NW. Lumintop EDC05 in NW is also a very nice light that I use quite often. If you would like a little bling with your AA light take a look at the Reylight Pineapple AA. It’s not real short or lightweight by any means. Enogear has a great stainless AA that takes both AA and 14500 and has a great NW emitter with a TIR lens. If you want absolute shortness with a NW emitter I would recommend the DQG AA. It’s a twisty but it’s super small and a really great light. I don’t think you would be disappointed with it. I never wanted a twisty light until I got that one. Now I have more than I care to mention. You can grab the stainless DQG AA for around $20 or so I think with a coupon from one of the guys. Even if it’s not your number one go to light, it’s worth having.
Everything except the tail-clicky: SP10A and TG05.
I hear you and a few others that go on about the SP10A. I think that is one of the Sofirns I don’t have. I will grab one off Amazon and check it out.
Edit, only found the B on amazon. Any difference?
The mt10a absolutely does fit protected 14500s. I use the NL147 and it fits fine.
Ohhh, man, my head is gonna hurt…
There’s black, and there are red’n’blue. Considering just the black ones for now…
The original A came out. It had/has a slightly greenish tint, but isn’t too objectionable, even to my green-hating tastes. Modes are low/med/high, 2click for strobe.
Then came the B. Really nice NW, paper-white, with firefly/low/med, 2click for high, 3click for strobe, 4click for lockout.
Then the B became the new-A, and was sold as the A even though the red/blue ones were still B. Identical in all ways except ano color.
Then at some point, the A got “revised” with some tweaks (ain’t got, so dunno what), and that’s the way it is now. Something like regular click to turn on vs long click, something along those lines.
Anyway, I got the old/original As and the regular/original Bs. Both are quite nice.
Either way, you can’t lose. Just get 5 or 10 of ’em and be happy.
Yeah, I was right, my head hurts now.
I think I was able to keep up with that. That’s enough to make anyone’s head hurt. I’ll pick up a few and check them out. Thank you sir.
One further bit of confusion, which may or may not still be true.
As for the black As, if you’d get ’em from Amazon, you’d get the old/original version (l/m/h+s), whereas you’d get the B-renamed-to-A version from the AX website (f/l/m+h+s).
On second thought since it’s a 1 AA/14500 light, I think I can ditch tail switch.
To be honest I’m really smitten by the Klarus Mi7 or Reylight TiLan but not having a neutral white option is a no-go for me.
I just pulled the trigger on an EDC05 from BG. First time shopping there, using one of those coupon codes. I hope it gets to me fine 
I did check out the suggestions you guys gave, and perhaps for my next purchase I’ll get one of the more expensive lights. Please do keep the suggestions coming, I wouldn’t mind having another flashlight or two to give as a gift!
Sofirn SF14
Drops mic…
Is the Sofirn SF14 really that good? At the price on Amazon I wouldn’t mind getting one as well.
Yes.
It’s the tail clicky version of the SP10 range. Nice neutral, great performance with a 14500, tail stands, solid clip (I EDC mine by the clip on the OUTSIDE of my Leatherman sheath.)
Simple UI, low, medium, high and always starts on low so you don’t blind yourself. Nice balance between flood and throw.Meets almost any need you could have. I have several popular 14500 lights to compare it to, Mi7, UT01, Jet 01 etc, and overall it is a clear winner unless you have a very specific need.
But the Sofirn SF14 and SP10B both use the Cree XP-G2 which doesn’t have a neutral white option right? Some reviews said it’s on the warmer end but still has a prominent cool white tint.
Advertised as 5350 - 5700, I consider that fairly neutral, mine is certainly neutral compared to any cool white lights I have, including the Mi7 and Jet-01. I would say it is comparable in CCT to the BLF A6 NW and Q8, which are both considered neutral. Some people argue that anything higher than 4000 is not neutral, others say exactly 5000 is neutral, but this is highly subjective, to me 4000 makes white things look muddy brown or orange, so how can it be called neutral?
To my mind if white looks white without a blue or green tint, grass looks full of life and not washed out or muddy, wooden furniture glows warmly, it is neutral and healthy, pleasing to the eye (or mine anyway).
People are somewhat confused about what a neutral temp is or isn’t .
I’ve always prefered to use the definitions that Cree uses …having said that I don’t remember what the top number is 5500K? But the lower number is definitely 3700K … that I do know .Seems like the easier way to standardize what NW temps really are rather than letting an insane vendor or re-seller define what is cw/nw or ww .
Edit from CREE xm lamps
CRI Color Temperature (K)
Warm White 2700 - 3750
Neutral White 3750 - 5000
Cool White 5000 - 8300
lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
From Cree XRE doc.
CRI Color Temperature (K)
Warm White 2600 – 3700
Neutral White 3700 – 5000
Cool White 5000 – 10000
It it helps, take a look here: DOUBLE 1 AND ½ "REVIEW": Sofirn SP10A and Sofirn SF14 *[added night / distance shots] - #2 by MascaratumB
EDIT: and here, for outdoor beamshots: DOUBLE 1 AND ½ "REVIEW": Sofirn SP10A and Sofirn SF14 *[added night / distance shots] - #19 by MascaratumB
That makes me feel better about the SP10/SF14. I apologize for my ignorance though, I’m really new at this flashlight hobby 
I probably will pick up a SF14 or two. Depending on whether I like the SP14 or the EDC05, I’ll give the others to relatives as a gift. Sofirn has fixed the battery tube inner diameter issue with the first batch of SF14/SP10 where Eneloops and protected 14500s can’t fit, right? From the latest comments on Amazon, it looks like that’s the case.
I also don’t get the clicky + side switch on an AA/14500
For clicky, the SF14 is great, I had one with a weird bug on high but perfect neutral tint. My my second and third don’t have the bug but are slightly warmer and I like the neutral better, so I swapped the 1st emitter into one of the newer lights and it’s 95% perfect AA/14500 flashlight. I’m only mad the clip can’t be set reversed for cap brim use XD. Perhaps you can swap the switch for a forward clicky if you remove the washer and slash the bump on the tailswitch, I’ve done it with other lights, but not this one
For side switch I like the Lumintop EDC05 a lot. The Utorch UT01 is almost the same but has a high rate of owners reporting switch malfunction. Bot are more expensive than the SP10A/B (don’t confuse with the SF10) thou, but I prefer them
Is the Utorch UT01 brighter than the SP10 or SF14 on AA?
Utorch ut01 is still the king of lumens output with AA.
I just received my EDC05’s from BG yesterday afternoon. Shipping was faster than I expected at 8 days to California! Still waiting on the KeepPower Sanyo 14500 batteries I also got from BG though. Honestly I’m amazed at how tiny it is compared to my ThruNite Archer 2A and TN12. Next on the list is to get a SF14
Quick question on the UT01 vs EDC05, aren’t they the same as the Manker E11 (or clones, rather)? The UT01 uses a Cree XP-L emitter also like the EDC05 I got but the quoted lumens are 1000 lm vs 800 lm on 14500 respectively. Are the drivers vastly different?
P.S. The tail magnet on the EDC05 doesn’t seem that useful, since it can’t even hold the flashlight in place when stuck on something horizontally, though it seems to hold in place vertically upside down.