It is nearly inevitable that a flashaholic will become involved with P60 drop-in's at one point or another as it allows for a great variety of customization in terms of LED, output, tint, beam profile, etc. while utilizing a single host. Most of the old hands were likely initiated into it during their quest to upgrade their incan SureFire lights while the newer inductees were likely exposed via the wide variety of P60 hosts available now.
With the recent rebranding from tacticalhid along with a new and improved website, EDC+ also launched their very own P60 drop-in. Enthusiasts have the benefit of choosing between three different tints (cool, neutral or warm), however I was sent the cool and will be covering that in this review.
MFG SPECS
MSRP: $39.99 USD
- Powered by Cree XM-L
- Modes: 3 Mode (High, Medium, Low)
- Current: 1.5A +/- 100mA
- Input Voltage: 3-6v
- Supported Cells: 1x18650/17670 Li-ion cells or 2x CR123 Primary Lithium cells. Do NOT use 2x RCR123/16340 Cells.
- Dimensions--Length: 29mm (40mm with spring), Weight: 20g (0.7oz)
- Compatible with: SureFire P, C, Z
- Linear current regulated. No PWM.
- Over-discharge protection ~2.75v (applies only to High and Medium modes)
PACKAGING / CONTENTS
The X60L was shipped in a padded envelope but amply protected within a zip loc & 35mm film canister of which both have a label identifying the drop-in as well as the specs. Aside from the drop-in, an outer spring and the instructions/specs sheet were included:
DESIGN / FEATURES
While the P60 form factor has stayed the same throughout the years, the major thing that has changed is the light source:
L: The one that started it all, SureFire’s Incan P60 | R: EDC+ X60L
The X60L was designed as a single integrated unit in that the “pill” and reflector are milled as one solid piece:
Where it differs from most drop-in's is that it’s constructed from aluminum (Al) over the more commonly used brass or bronze with the inherent advantages of better thermal and electrical conductivity over the other two alloys (which can be roughly two to four times in both categories respectively depending on the copper content).
That’s to say nothing of the weight savings as well. In measuring the weight difference between the highly vaunted Malkoff M60 which is also a uni-construction but made out of brass, it is nearly twice as heavy:
This can be a nice touch for those looking to utilize the X60L in a small host and wishing to keep weight to a minimum.
Although some might argue that more mass means more heat sinking capability, I believe of more relevance is where exactly is this heat going to? While the mass may initially allow absorption of more heat, ultimately, it needs to leave the body (heat always flows from hot to cold) and this is where the better thermal conducting properties of Al really come in to play as the faster heat can leave the host (hot to cold) the less there is within the light (and thus the LED). This is also why many P60 owners wrap their drop-in’s in copper tape and it isn’t to add more mass but rather allow better contact between the drop-in and host to allow heat to leave the body.
The X60L’s uni-construction further aids heat transfer as there are no gaps between the threads as is the case with 2-piece drop-in's where the pills are removable from the reflector as with this generic P60 drop-in:
Those who are keen to squeeze every last lumen out of their P60’s have gone as far as applying thermal compound between these threads.
Of course, the uni-construction does have one disadvantage in that it means that one will need to buy a whole unit should one desire different tints or if smooth reflectors should ever become available.
Speaking of a smooth reflector, EDC+ decided to utilize an OP instead in order to obtain the smoothest beam possible with no artifacts or rings and I believe they were successful at that (check [upcoming] TINT & BEAM PROFILE section below for further details):
The LED is perfectly centered on my sample:
There is reverse polarity input protection which I tested w/a non-protected battery and indeed, nothing fried when I took current draw measurements:
L: correct battery polarity | R: battery reversed
This will be a huge boon to prevent accidents. I once had one of my drop-in’s fried as my son “borrowed” a G2Z to play with and got a little curious as to how it all worked, removed the battery and replaced it in reverse and then proceeded to turn it on... 
.
He then came back to me inquiring:
(although I gotta admit, it wasn’t quite funny at the time…)
SIZE 
From L to R: Malkoff M60 | SureFire Incan P60 | MF XM-L | EDC+ X60L
I took the following measurements for the X60L:
Reflector diam - 26.3mm (at the top of reflector opposite side of spring)
Length - 40mm w/spring uncompressed
Base diam - 18.4mm
I had no problems installing the X60L in a SureFire Z2 & G2Z without the spring albeit there's a very slight gap between the head and body which seems to be a problem w/certain SureFire hosts:
As this was the case w/the Malkoff as well:
Although not so w/a SolarForce L2M (in which case the spring was used):
FIT & FINISH
The build quality of the X60L is simply superb. Of course that'd be tough to assert without a highly regarded competitor, as such, I've enlisted the Malkoff M60 for this purpose as the two are very similar in build (I didn't bother comparing the other end since the M60 is an optic):
The X60L is the first drop-in that I'm aware of that features laser engraving that was sharp and crisp:
While there is no anodizing, the rim does feature a textured finish that was done through an electroplating process:
Note: I've confirmed w/EDC that the yellowish marks are residues from the process.
As previously mentioned the X60L is thermally potted and neatly done. I didn't notice any overrun around the edge of the base:
While not necessarily directly an indication of quality, speaking for me personally it exhibits a level of refinement and care that went into the X60L's production.
UI
The X60L features 3 levels w/no memory nor any sort of blinky levels. It will always come on in H and then cycle to M then L. This mimics a single level driver in a way except that you can't use it for signaling but you do receive the added benefits of lower levels should you need or desire them.
Incidentally, EDC+ has confirmed that they will in fact be releasing a single mode version soon (check reply #56 here).
MEASURED PERFORMANCE
I continued to be impressed by how reasonably in the ballpark my PVC LMD continues to be. I first calibrated w/the G10v2 then took measurements on all 3 levels @ 31 seconds (to conform to ANSI FL1) using a SureFire Z2 host w/ambient temp @74F (23.3C). In the event of Medium, I took two measurements since my light meter covers ranges @ 400/4K/40K/400K. So I took them at 400 (more accurate for this range) & 4K.
EDC+ has quoted the following (non-ANSI) values for the cool white version of the X60L:
High (440), Medium (160), Low (10)
Good to see that I was able to validate their claims for OTF readings.
High - 469lms | lux
Medium - 153-164lms
L: X60L on Med @ 400 range | R: X60L on Med @ 4K range
Low - 10ms
L: X60L on Low | R:Quick calibration at start of testing w/G10v2 on Med
MEASURED TINT - ~6500K
I decided to try something a little different this time around by grabbing one of these from my local Home Depot to help with getting a good idea of the tint of a common object illuminated by the X60L:
My camera has the capability to adjust WB by Kelvin (betw. 2.5K - 10K). This forces the camera to apply a white balance using your input as the baseline temperature. If what you've input is lower than actual temp, the picture will come out cooler and if above then the pic will come out warmer. Using this feature, we can get an idea of the color temperature by what the final setting was before the "Polar Bear 1875" (1st row, 3rd column from left) turned truly white. In the control shot above, I used the camera's custom white balance setting under fluorescent light so it's pretty realistic to what my eyes see.
I used the following three color temps as a baseline and what the type of color it is representative of in real life:
2800 - 100W Incandescent bulb
4800 - Direct Sunlight
10000 - Blue Sky
Here is the control sheet shot w/the above settings respectively (also under fluorescent light) from L to R (2.8K | 4.8K | 10K):
As you can see, the color temp runs from cool to very warm (since the particular fluorescent light I have is a bit on the warmer side). Given I forgot to take the ideal sweet spot for this pic, we can however estimate that my fluorescent light falls between 2.8K to 4.8K.
Now here is that same sheet but illuminated on High by the X60L:
Taking a look at the above, 2.8K is obviously too cool, while 4.8K comes close and 10K is too warm. As such, you know the temp of the X60L should fall somewhere between 4.8K and 10K (but closer to 4.8K).
I finally got to what I thought was in the ballpark for the Polar Bear to be white and this was taken at 6.8K:
But as you can see, Polar Bear white has just a hint of bluish tint in it so I'd say final ballpark would be roughly 6.5K.
By comparison, here's a light that has a neutral XM-L 3C tint:
Let's go through that drill again, 2.8K? Nope, too cool. 4.8K - wow pretty close! 10K, nope too warm. In the end, 4.8K (likely closer to 5K) was closest to turning the Polar Bear paint pure white.
Obviously it's no Spectrometer but great for comparative purposes and to get a rough idea of the color tint. If your camera has this feature, it's worth giving it a shot. It doesn't have to be the palette above and can be any old white sheet of paper.
Tint ShiftThe X60L's output is current controlled at all levels. The advantages are that there is no flickering of any kind which can be quite noticeable to eyes sensitive to PWM (depending on implementation). However, LED's that have their outputs current regulated are prone to tint shift between levels. As such, I fixed the WB at 6500K in Av mode and let the camera control the shutter (to prevent blown highlights from washing out the colors) then took all levels against a plain sheet of white paper:
I used the light meter to help correspond the level for each shot. At the end, I determined there was very minor tint shift between levels.
BEAMSHOTS
Beam angle
L: Total beam: ~70deg | Hot Spot: ~20deg
Indoors (5m)
High
Med
Low
For details of the above indoor shots and comparo vs. many other lights, please check Part 1 of my Epic Indoor Shots.
Whitewall Hunting (.75m)I've been receiving a bunch of requests to produce white wall beamshots so I decided to use selfbuilt's format (light ~.75m to wall / camera ~1.25m) to allow for some consistency (and thus reference) in these shots. Of course they will never perfectly match up due to differences between our cameras.
[PICS TO COME]
As mentioned above, the use of an OP reflector completely smoothes out the beam profile producing no artifacts (especially rings), case in point:
[PICS TO COME]
X60L is on the left and a similarly driven G10v2 w/smooth (albeit slightly larger and deeper) reflector on the right, notice the ring? however, I do notice that the center of the hotspot of the X60L is just a tad darker than the surrounding. This isn't really noticeable when not white wall hunting.
RUNTIME
The relevant battery stats are provided above each runtime graph along with:
- Voltage of the battery at the start and end of the test
- Current draw as taken right before the test
- Actual runtime using ANSI FL1 (first in HR and then in M so for the AW 2600 read this as 1.8hrs OR 110min)
- Also for High, captured the temperature: ambient, the head at start and the max it reached (fan was used for all bats)
I was able to slightly exceed runtime on High (1.8hrs tested vs. 1.5hrs claimed by EDC+ on 2600 mAh capacity battery) using an old AW 2600 w/quite a few deep cycles on it so you are likely to achieve at least that if not better on fresh quality batteries w/that capacity.
For Medium I came in just shy of 6 hrs (@5.6) and didn't bother using a fan since the host didn't get meaningfully hot (roughly low 90's). Just out of curiosity though I turned on a fan towards the end of the run and did notice an "artificial" bump in output (black AW2600 run in medium graph). The reason for the quotes around artificial is that the X60L will try to induce a mild boost towards the end of the run to maintain steady output (easily seen by the upward curvature of the RL3100 run). The interesting thing though is that once the X60L's output drops, there is still usable light and it will just keep running in this mode for hours. Case in point, I left running w/the IMR run as I wanted to test the low voltage cut-off but even when I ended testing at close to 10hrs, there was still some usable light left. I wasn't able to achieve low voltage cut-off in either High or Medium. It's almost as if it refuses to discharge the battery below 2.78V (this was using various cells).
As for low, given I can't afford to have my light meter locked up for days, I've measured the current draw to be 45mA which would produce calculated runtimes of: 68.8hrs for RL3100 / 57.8hrs for AW2600 / 46.7hrs for Sanyo / 35.6hrs for AW IMR.
INITIAL CONCLUSION
The X60L is a solid drop-in offering a good balance of output and runtime. The laser etching adds some eye-candy elements but ultimately is irrelevant once inside of a host. For now, here's my take:
turboBB-licious
- solidly crafted utilizing uni-construction fabricated from Aluminum for potentially better thermal and electrical conductivity vs. brass counterparts
- electronic reverse polarity protection
- good balance of output and runtime
- current controlled for near table top flat regulation at all levels
- aesthetically pleasing laser etching
turboBB-wishes
- super high output enthusiast version
turboBB-cautious
- reflector not swappable so take care not to mar the finish
- mild tint shift between levels
- slightly darker center in hotspot
Whoa there Turbo - nice dropin and sweet review :-)
Thanks a lot
Another nice drop in but not the price tough!
Nice drop in and great review. I really like the design it's to bad they didn't drive it harder.
Thx guys! I've added some new material and the tint section (also since I thought it was pretty neat, I copied that section into its own thread in the General forum).
Cheers,
Tim
Yeah this is a fantastic review and I've been eying this dropin if not for anything else just to be interested in a different P60 dropin design compared to others. That said, I've put in my 2 cents on the EDC+'s sales thread of this dropin over at CPFMP. I too wish they would've provided more driver options, a 3A version that has and a smooth reflector version as I prefer to have as much light reflected as possible. Just recently though, I'm surprised no one has come out with a hybrid reflectored P60 where it's textured on the inner circle of the reflector and smooth on the outer circle...to me would provide the best of both worlds.
I agree on the price thing, but I'm sure on some level it's warranted since apparently this is considered a premium quality dropin. I was almost surprised to see it posted here since we are a forum full of cheapos.
All, bunch more new material added (including performance data). So this review is pretty much wrapped up w/the exception of the white wall pics. I need to find a method to be able to consistently reproduce them for comparitive purposes and an ideal dark location in my house has thus far eluded me. I'll get to it sooner or later and post them whenever I can.
@ace - a hyrbrid reflector would be pretty interesting!
Cheers,
Tim
excellent review and excellent info. thank you for taking the time.
Outstanding review... I have two of these dropins, CW and NW and I just love the Neutral White tint... great runtime and output, especially when used with 3100mAh battery...
It would be great to see 3Amp version... but that's only for real enthusiasts...