Hello, if you dont know Balder and Xeno yet, then you must be new to the flashlight scene. THEN i heavily recommend taking your time with the choice.
i dont like the design (optical) of the Balder, and i got the Xeno as one of my very first flashlights when *i* was new to the scene in fall 2011. i regret having purchased the Xeno although everyone likes it (except for its cheap switch - everybody hates it. it's all plasticky and cheap). When you buy your new AA light make sure that it compares well/competes well in this table:
table comparison AA lights
i was the one who measured and published extensive runtime data for all those lights (xeno, romisen, quark x aa, klarus p1a). i havent measured quark x aa on my Eneloops yet -- sorry. the quark is REALLY REALLY greenish on all levels, it's its only gripe. but this looks great when you shine against green trees, and nature is all beautiful and green and happiness :D
quark x aa2 tactical is on sale EVERYWHERE (~43$ with cpf coupon code), and the AA body costs 18-20$ (with cpf code), so that makes ~63$. that is surely overpriced for what you get (built quality, tint, beam imperfection, etc), and i am NOT, personally, going to recommend it. i had reviewed the quark on this forum and never cared to finish the review (for various reasons), and my review stub matches exactly the worth/value of the reviewed content ;)
what *is* true: the Quark is a highly versatile and practical, flexible EDC. supersmall, super light-weight, lego-ability (which i use!!), and 10yrs performance guarantee: if you smash it against a wall, 4sevens will not replace it. if it breaks (driver, switch, ..) with NORMAL usage (incl. normal drops, ANSI FL-1 STANDARD), then you send it in (with your money), and they repair/fix it and ship (with their money) the fixed torch back. for 10yrs. (well, the company is 4-years young, so.. )
a quark clone would be the Shiningbeam ( i think i-mini series ). i never tested them. if you enter the Shiningbeam in the comparison table, then you'll see that it is inferior to the quark (no tailstand, no published tests/runtime data, no further info on them, ..).
thats the advantage with premium flashlights: you find professional (HKJ, selfbuilt) and not so professional (kreisler, ..) reviews, but you find them.
with music CDs i sometimes buy a CD only because it's new and is by my favorite artists, without knowing what the music is and if i like it. with premium flashlights, some people do this too (it's called fanboys, or pre-order mentality, or ..etc..). Only because it's new and by 4sevens (or Zebralight), people would pre-order it WITHOUT knowing more info (tests, ..) about it. that's fine with me, but it's not me.
Shiningbeam was NEVER reviewed professionally (runtime graphs, discharge, brightness, tint, beam beauty/shots, etc.) and it probably will never be. On the other hand, you hear never anyone complaining about them. So users seem to be happy with the Shiningbeam lights (and dont care to publish their own reviews .. like i do publish. i have reviewed all of my lights which "needed" a review. i didnt review for example the Xeno because enough has been said about it, many reviews exist), and i would guess that price and quality are matching.
With quarks, price and quality are not matching but whaddyagonnado? They are still the best so far (in actual daily use), and you can get better tints too (NeutralWhite, HighCRI, WarmWhite runs). People on cpf have entire collections (LMAO) of quarks, and they buy multiple copies of them (e.g. quark aa, aa2, x aa2, neutralwhite aa, highcri aa2) whenever 4sevens releases new runs.
Sales (like now, because of rebranding and clearance) are a great opportunity to pick 1 quark and assess their intrinsic worth critically. And after doing so lemme tell you, personally, I am NOT going to buy any further quark in future. 1 quark is enough. will last me 10yrs. why would i want to buy another one?
ATTENTION: i am going to delete this post within 48hrs H)