this is a false xp-e
yeah, that’s how mine look as well, phosphor even outside of the die, and maybe yours has a smaller die than an original xp-e as well?
Mine comes in a flashlight zoom, and the projection is the size of a xre, and bluish, like the fake Lattice xm-l
I’ve found several like this in my cheap lights as well.
What you are talking about, frustrated with, and experiencing disbelief over was exactly me as a newbie a few years ago, and then I found this forum.
They do put lots of fake reviews up, which can be bought for very cheap. But I don’t think most of them on many sites even need fake reviews.
I think the real reason is what I have tried to explain quite a few times, at least in Ebay and Amazon type sites goes like this…in shortened form: newbie buys a fake Cree “2000 lumen super bright!” (really 500 lumen XML2 T5 or LatticeBright) light with ultrafire “5000mAh” battery (really 1500mAh recycled battery) and goes to try it. Since his old light that he thought was bright is 150lumens, this new light outputting 500 lumens is incredible!! His run time from his Ultrafire batteries are really only 1500 mAh, but since the LED is only driven at 1.5A max, he can get a whole hour runtime, which to him seems reasonable. He probably doesnt even use it on max very long and probably doesnt use the flashlight often. He really doesn’t have much else to compare to except his old 150 lumen light, resulting in a really “AWESOME BRIGHT LIGHT” review and “REAL POWERFUL 5000mAh battery runs my light a long time!!” review for the battery.
To make matters worse, most flashlight users don’t run thier flashlights for very long anyways, some barely turn them on for 5 mins a couple times per year. He probably is also pretty used to batteries getting old and failing, and so he’ll never notice his batteries only would last 50 recharges and drop capacity the whole time. In fact he probably barely gets the light out and 1year later just tosses them and buys more “Ultrafire super power 6000mAh!” batteries next year, because, well they must be better! And then he writes a positive review for these too…
Repeat this pattern for most uneducated consumers and you get an avalanche of happy customer 5/5 star reviews on fake bad products.
On ebay, there is the addition of this “feature”: sellers will reward any complainer who recognizes they got a bad product with free items if they write a positive review, or don’t post/delete the bad review at least. Why not, Ultrafires are $.25 each, if the seller sends off 4 free batteries to replace the dead/bad batteries the buyer bought in the “$8 for 4 Super High Power Ultrafire 5000mAh!!” deal, he still makes money: $8 - supplies (.25x8=$2) - shipping ($2?) = $4
Very noticeable difference.
Thank you for your insight. Right now, I am convinced that probably none of these cheap flashlights has authentic Cree LEDs. Can someone tell me where I can find AA/14500 LED flashlights with Cree LEDs fore sure?
Whats your budget?
Say < $10.
RMM looks rather hard at his stock and is looking for authentic emitters, he knows the lottery is strong.
His SK68 clone is out of stock right now but a likely bet for what you want:
http://www.mtnelectronics.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=319
Thanks.
The only thing I am not like particularly is that it has cool white tint. My old SK-68 is neural white. I just cannot find anything as good nowadays. However, I may get one anyway for comparison when it becomes available. If I don’t like I can always give it to someone.
The tints & lumens output of the fake Cree Latticebright LEDs are horrible. i just checked a camo SK68 i recently received that has a eye-searing blue-white and poor output and its a Latticebright XP-E fake.
Same with the Latticebright led of post 113. Unknowingly that the led was not Cree it even features in a luxmeter comparison test that I did in september last year, (I estimated 7000K so I was aware there was something horrible about it :-D )
This is all really frustrating and disappointing. How did it happen so quickly?
Not so quick, it's been going on for at least a year already, we were just late to notice, and discover them all over the place now.
Yeah. Guess so.
Not really a fake Cree, looks like fake LG, but I found these for sale at dx, looks kind of interesting with the 2-banded die, http://www.dx.com/nl/p/3w-180lm-6450k-white-r3-led-emitter-for-flashlight-dc-3-2-3-6v-5pcs-398686#.VdGL0Bp1FDs :
And these, http://www.dx.com/nl/p/3w-warm-white-3200k-flashlight-led-emitters-set-dc-3-0-3-2v-10pcs-398671#.VdGOBxp1FDs :
And this one is creepy, a two-led bicycle lamp for just 19 dollar, with no mention of Cree, brand name is N/A, but the leds in the pictures look XP-L alright. But I can not find a convincing counterfeit XP-L in the Latticebright collection.
yet..
Confirmed: The GearBest Camo-SK68 has fake CREE LEDs. Boy, am i angry about that! They always refused my complaints about the horrible tint and poor output They wrote, their manufacturer claimed the tints are on par with “their” specs. They only offered some minuscule refund, which i finally accepted. Should have made a full refund reclaim via paypal, for fraud product… 
Hmm, I’ve already dedomed my gearbest sk68. The tint is better but not sure about the throw. The dome didn’t fall off as easy as it usually does with cree leds, but if it had a fake led that might explain why…