Changed my title again because manufacturer surprise us a few prototype images today. Not quite i have in mind but let me see if I am able to help them improve the aesthetic.
Astrolux maybe comparable to Imalent maybe but definitely nowhere near Acebeam quality and refinement. Acebeam is in a different class in terms of R&D and quality. They are in the same class as Olight, Fenix, and Nitecore.
This upper class system is mostly in peoples minds. Those 4 brands have just as many problems as anyone else. Just because they charge higher prices doesn’t always equate to better quality. The higher prices may simply be due to those companies having more overhead (more offices, employees, advertising, etc…) or having better/longer warranties. They are all still made in China. IDK, maybe they are just a tad better in certain areas, but not that much better. A lot of it is marketing and psychological.
I own many Olights and Acebeams and a few Fenix and Nitecore. Their quality is definitely on a different level. Not only is the build quality obviously higher (especially the Olights), everything else in there is far more refined and higher quality control. Just look at the driver efficiency, the Olight Perun can sustain true constant 500 lumens for a whopping 4 hours on a single 18650. No 18650 on the market can match that. That is not to say they are perfect without flaws as that is impossible. Even Apple had all kinds of gates (bend gate, antenna gate, touch gate, battery gate, etc.) and Samsung had exploding Note 7s and Galaxy Fold catastrophic failures. If you just pick up a light like the Olight M2R Pro and play with it, you can see how much more refined it is compared with our typical BLF Emisar, Fireflies, Astrolux, Lumintop, Convoy, Imalent lights. In fact I think Olights’ quality is better than any other brand flashlights in existence whether from China or elsewhere. They are like the Apple of flashlights, highly refined and reliable but doesn’t push cutting edge like Samsung and Huawei.
I build lights with active cooling. It’s the only way to sustain high lumen levels for long periods. I push 5000lm out of one of my projects and it will dump the batteries before it overheats. But these are big and not something you stick in your pocket. Still waiting for when they build something pocketable and affordable like $50 that can do the same. I’d like to see this become real someday.