Hugsby XP-1 / XP-2 issues

Based on all the positive reviews I read on both the Hugsby XP-1 and XP-2 I decided to pick up a few. I ordered them both from seller tomtop on eBay. While overall I agree that these are very nice for the money almost all of mine have off-center emitters. I bought a 5 piece bundle of the XP-1 for. One of them has a nicely centered emitter. One is off a little but acceptable considering the price. The remaining three you can easily see looking through the lens that the emitter isn’t nearly centered in the reflector. I’d say it’s off by 1mm which is very noticeable in a light this small. It’s also very noticeable in the beam as the hotspot isn’t centered in the beam pattern. The XP-2 I only bought one but it too is off-center. The lights are still usable but a little disappointing considering how hard it is to take the head apart on these little things. Has anyone else out there experienced the same? Anyone bought a 5 pack of either and gotten 5 good lights? I know for the price you can only ask so much but everything else about the lights is so nice that this seems odd and I haven’t read about any others that were off like mine. I want to buy more of these but if it’s a lottery situation I probably won’t so I’d like to hear some others experience with this light. If you have a source that’s reliable please share. Thanks everyone.

I think this is due to the small size and construction of these lights. The LED MCPCB cannot be screwed down and is thus free to move around. They could have made the MCPCB fit tighter into the head to restrict the movement, but there will still be variations depending on how the LED is positioned when soldered. Using a centering ring is probably not practical due to the small size.

I just checked the last five I received from this vendor (tomtop). A couple are very close to centered, the others are off slightly but not in a way that obscures the led. Can’t tell any difference between them when it comes to the beam pattern. Got these in late 5/15.

Thanks for the feedback. Any chance you could take a picture of the ones that are off? I received mine roughly 2 months after yours. On at least 2 of mine the dome on the emitter is actually touching the reflector, or at least so close that I can’t tell the difference. If I didn’t see the very noticeably off-center hotspot in the beam I wouldn’t have said anything but on most of mine it’s very noticeable at least to me. I don’t expect perfection at this price but with such good reviews from others it seems odd. Any help here is appreciated.

Have you tried rotating the reflector a little to see if you can get it centered?

No, but I’m willing to try if you can tell me how…

I have an SP1 and it seems fine to me. Had it for approx 5 months and cant remember where it came from but I do know it was Ebay. I recently bought a SP2 from TomTop but am yet to receive it to see if that one is off centre.

On mine, I can unscrew the head from the body and then unscrew the top of the head and remove the reflector and lens. It unscrews right at the bottom of the heads knurling. Keep in mind, my XP-1’s are most likely fake so I’m not sure if the real ones have this ability.

Never thought I’d say “I wish I got a fake” :D. On mine the entire head is one piece so you can’t get at the reflector without somehow breaking the glue used in assembly. I’ve read of others with more skill the I trying with mixed results. I contacted tomtop about it. Their response was
dear buyer,
sorry for any inconvenience,
in that case,could you please tell us if you can work well?
thnaks.

I t hi k the heads are 2 pieces, but probably glued..

If I remember correctly, someone used a saw to open the head and found there was threading, but full of glue. Must be in the xp 1 thread.

Well I guess that proves I got ripped off with fake ones!!! :slight_smile: They’re really not all that bad but it’s gonna be interesting to compare them to the real XP-1 I just ordered.

Yikes! That’s farther than I’m willing to go. Looking closely I think I might see the break point you’re referring to where the knurling meets the smooth part of the head but I don’t want to destroy it trying to get it apart. I’d be happy just to have a source to buy more that are put together properly. Unfortunately I most often read that people got them from tomtop which is exactly where I got mine. Based on their response I’m assuming they think if the light turns on I don’t have a complaint. I guess I’m just too picky. :weary:

Can you post a picture of the fakes?

Kinda funny J-dub, I sent an email to the vendor who sold me the fakes. I was able to translate their response, ” The ones you received are the new improved version”. Lucky me!!! :slight_smile:

I’ll try to post pics when I get back from a fun weekend at the cabin.

Nice. Did they end their response with “thnaks” like they did mine?

well my xp-1 had an obviously terrible off centered xpe2 in it

but overall the beam looks close to perfect to me.

I wouldn’t call mine fake/faulty for having off centered LED as mine had quality anodizing, ar coat, solid printing, nice LED brightness and tint, and bright for an aaa light

I got mine from aliexpress though

I bought 5 of the real Hugsby XP-2s about a year ago. They had glued heads. All except one has gone kaput.

I just got 2 “fakes” off EBay for about 1/3rd the cost of the “real” ones. They have screwed on heads and a rounded and protruding tail cap button which are two improvements to the “real” ones. My “fake” doesn’t say Hugsby on it. It says “ENJOYDEAL”.

The pocket clip is not as nice as the Hugsby but for $3-4 instead of $10-12, it’s a better deal. It’s not like the “”real” Hugsby was all that great. It cost half as much as a good penlight like a Streamlight or a Pelican but is not 1/10th as good. For $3-4, it makes a lot more sense.

If you are considering spending $10-12 on a Hugsby XP-2, just buy a Pelican 1920 or a Streamlight and you will have a much much better light that will last and work every time. They also have lifetime warranties.

To sum up, For $3-4, these “fakes” on EBay are a good deal. For $10-12, the Real Hugsby is not a good deal.

I’m not calling mine fake either. I do believe mine are genuine but wonder if they were blems or something since I bought them as a 5 pack for about $25 shipped I agree with all the positives you listed. My only concern was that 2 of the 5 were so off-center it was very noticeable in the beam. Other than that I am still very impressed with the quality per dollar. To find any light under $10 with good threads, an AR coated lens and excellent anodizing is almost unheard of. I have two of the Olight i3s that I paid almost 4 times as much for and the XP-1 is brighter. For the record, I’m not complaining about the i3s as they are great lights and much more compact. If you don’t need ultra compact the XP-1 has much more throw yet at the cost of flood. The deep reflector greatly reduces the width of the beam. Speaking of throw, I did as a few other members suggested and put the head of the XP-2 on the XP-1 and run it on a button top 10440… WOW does that little thing impress. More throw than I thought possible out of such a small light. Of course with that setup it gets warm fast and doesn’t give you great runtime, but it’s a lot of fun and I’d be shocked if it was putting out less than 300 lumens. I’d guess quite a bit more but I don’t have a way to test.

Speedsix, it sounds like maybe you got a bad batch. I haven’t heard any complaints about reliability like that before. Hopefully mine will not have the same reliability issue. So far I have no reason to believe there will be any. Other than a couple off-center beams the quality on mine so far seems to be quite good. The tint seems the same on all of mine (on the cooler side of neutral) and the switch seems pretty darn good for such a small clicky. Though not a forward clicky, it’s very usable for signaling/momentary on. The anodizing is excellent and these little things are much brighter and “throwier” than I expected. The protruding tailcap would be considered a negative to many since it can’t tail stand but if you have larger fingers or wear gloves I could see your point. At the $5 each that I paid for mine I’m very happy so far. I’ve intentionally dropped/thrown mine around a bit and it has not had any effect on performance as of now. Oh and for the record after I was able to make clear what the issue was, tomtop_auction said they will refund $10 of the $25. That exactly covers the 2 lights with off-center emitters. Provided they are true to their word I’ll buy from them again. They also said they would personally check each light in my next order before shipping. So, I’ll likely be buying more of these. They’re great gift lights and I’ve carried one for the last few weeks. They seem to burn a hole in the dark quite nicely. I did check out the Pelican 1920 you mentioned. That looks pretty sweet and I like having more than one mode, though it does cost 5 times more…