Johnny,great review thanks for taking the time to do this.I have to say that I'm astounded by the build quality of the guts and driver.It seriously puts alot of the"big boys" to shame.U3 version of this has me very interested,I just hope they don't convert to xml2 after I get it.
Dengoh, I find the amount of light coming out of the switch to be almost too much. In my bedroom with no lights but the green glow of the switch in standby, my entire room is lit up and it’s almost too bright to sleep with. I do agree that a 3 lumen moon mode would be a nice addition as low mode on this light is a little too high at almost 500 lumens. Definitely an outdoor light unless you are tailstanding in an outage.
As long as you use a matched set of quality cells (I use unprotected Panasonics a whole bunch) and monitor the voltage to make sure it doesn’t get too low you should be just fine. The light will let you know when you hit 2.75v by the power light turning red and flashing but I’m not comfortable letting them get that low.
It is safe to discharged to this level. I have two times seeing the red LED flashing even after I switch off the light, then I took the batteries out, both times measured 3V on my batteries. I guess under load, it will be below 2.75V. When I put the depleted batteries back, it will be green LED. If she has something like EA4 that can measure batteries voltage, she will be perfect perfect. She is already perfect with this low voltage warning feature as on par with many other new flashlights with low voltage protection.
Again, no matter how good or safe 18650 flashlights are, everyone should have at least one good multimeter if want to use 18650 batteries, I have two and put them in different houses. And treat batteries with respect and don’t abuse it.
Ok, very interested, so I would definitely want the U3 or XML2 version, how would I go about ensuring that I got the latest, greatest, finalized version?
You have to remember that this is definitely an outdoor light and not one for regular indoor use due to the nearly 500 lumen low. Having a light made for lighting up a lot of area at a good distance you just may prefer the U3 over a neutral T6. There will be a noticeable difference in output between the two. I measured a 400 lumen increase over the U2 version with the U3. You should see at least 400 lumens less than the U2 with neutral T6 making a difference of around 800 lumens between the U3 and NW T6. Outdoors that difference should be noticeable but, granted, only if you ever saw them next to each other. As they say, ignorance is bliss but for many here, just knowing they could have had it brighter is enough to cause dissatisfaction.