Thanks for the very fine review.. Mine took a long time to arrive too, and
it only took 5 seconds for a 14500 to destroy the driver. Anyway put in a new
driver and now it works fine, but are only a one mode version.
Have made a claim to DX and will have to wait what they will say about it
Thanks for the nice review Old! Frontpage'd and Sticky'd. Sorry about the damage from the 14500 battery. Typical case of false advertising from DealExtreme. I hope they send you a replacement and update their product page....That'll be the day. :)
$hit, the same happened to fran, if I remember well 
I really like body style, but if with AA it's mediocre... will have to discard this light. Hope DX will send you a new light, Matt 
I seen a pic somewhere of the driver this light used. It is the same red one with the red trace that was in my K10 and C3SS and some F20's. This driver has been reported to always fry with 3.7V.
I wish I had read this sooner that you were going to try a 14500 then I could have warned you.
It was this red driver mine was issued with.
I think old knew it was a risk to use 14500´s in this light. I had writen it in another thread
about the G10.
I had to try the 14500 no matter what ... I have spare drivers , so it will become a dedicated 14500 light , but yeah , DX owes me a driver ..
old4570 you are so hardcore, testing this... knowing that it most likely would fail to withstand the test.
Had to do it .... No point testing stuff , if your not going to test it , or test claims ...
Another awesome review old4570! 
A mate in the office got the 5 Mode G10 from DX (grey annodised) and has had no issues at all with 14500 batteries.
Thought you may like to know
I got a full refund from DX on my G10 which was fried by a 14500 battery.
I have one of these coming in a few days, supposedly it is an XP-G
Does anyone know which driver doesn't get fried by a 14500?
OK, mine came today. This is the back of the driver that is in it.
Can this one run on a 14500? Thanks...
I posted my thoughts below your post on the what you got today thread
That is different to the one I fried ... [ not the same driver ]
I guess it is a good thing my 14500 batteries are still in the mail, looks like they may be too much for the driver. Mine is a 6-mode (what a waste of 3 clicks, getting past the blinkies). Since DX is still shipping them I wonder if they now have a true 4.2v capability?
Hmmmmmmmm
BTW, this light on AA and "High" mode is not quite as bright as the Jetbeam BC10 I got last week, which they advertise at 160 Lumens.
If the Jetbeam really is 160 (I doubt it) then the G10 is probably about 120.
I put in a 17 mode / 3 level 1A driver , and its fantastic on a 14500 ..
Just wish KD still had there buck boost drivers , in fact I might have to email them and find out if there getting more .
Or order a few more DX ones ..
This driver WILL FRY!
Mine was exactly the same and it went up in smoke in 5 seconds.
Have two of the G10's (DX sent me a replacement for the first without requiring a return). Unlike the other reports I'm seeing, mine didn't fry immediately, but after a bit of use. The first one went completely dead four minutes into a 14500 rundown test (after having played around with it on both NiMH and 14500 for a while and done a NiMH rundown test), the second one now works only on 14500s. Both have the driver with the partial-circle circuit trace shown above.
After DX told me they were sending a replacement and to do whatever I could with the first one, I took it apart and started experimenting a bit with the idea of turning it into a direct drive light. In the process I discovered that if I connected the LED+ lead to battery+ and the outer contact ring on the bottom of the driver board to battery-, all six modes worked perfectly (on 14500 only, of course). Clearly, the boost circuit had died. I found that the near side of one of the SMD components next to the LED+ solder pad was connected directly to battery+, so I shorted the two together with a bit of solder and wound up with a working 14500-only flashlight.
The second one fried a couple of days ago, but since it still works on 14500 even without the above mod, I haven't yet decided whether I should see if "third time's the charm".... It does draw noticeably less tailcap current than the other one, so I might go ahead and short LED+ to battery+ on it as well. On both, H/M/L currents are in the ratio 100/50/8. PWM is fast, only visible on my PC's CPU fan.