Got mine today also. Exactly the same results with the OP reflector. The beam is a bit throwier than an XPG close to an XPE, but nowhere a replacement for an XRE. The ugly beam pattern can be easily forgotten outside though. It is a bright and throwy drop-in as is.
Have you really never had any problems? It's common for me, with my normal assembly being done inside with central heating on.
It only normally happens with drop-ins driven over 2amps when in use outdoors for more than 2-3 minutes continuously. It has also happened with well-driven lights in stock form as well and is very common with bike lights as they have a lot of airflow onto their lense. Another thing to note is that the wider the lense is the greater chance that it will mist up.
From the Cree datasheets, at 1 amp the XP-G R5 is 348-370 lumens while the R5 XT-E is 320-340. So the XT-E is acting a little more like an XP-G R4. However the XT-E output is rated at a higher temperature and if the XP-G were rated at the same temperature it would be a little lower too. So apples to apples, you could increase the XT-E output by 15% and get 368-391 lumens at 25 degrees C to compare with the XP-G. Now the XT-E is a bin brighter at 1 amp.
Around 260-300 OTF depending upon conditions and lense/bezel used according to my own measurements. The XT-E should be around 8-10% more efficient in total output.
At Vin of 3.3V, you are getting below Vf at 1A for the LED so the current draw is probably down as well. The driver is taking some of the Vin for itself.
I don't think the spec temperature means anything. It is just a setting at which they measure performance. Maybe some people complained that Cree was evaluating their LED's at room temperature when, realistically, the LED is going to get hot very quickly and it would be more realistic to measure the output when the LED is hot. The datasheets allow you to generate numbers at any temperature you want, it's just the default (100%) value is at 25 degrees for the XP-G while for the XT-E it is 100% at 85 degrees.
I wonder why they changed the temperature? Could it be that the carbide base of these chips doesn't transfer heat as well so they expect them to actually run hotter?
On the contrary, XT-E has a thermal resistance to the base = 5 degr./W and the XP-G has 6 degr./W
I think they started binning XB-D and XT-E at 85'C as a new policy. You can easily make a verification test at that temperature. It is more difficult to set up a test at the north pole
Got my XT-E drop-in from KaiDomain today. I love that it has 3 modes using the NANJG AK-47A driver. The drop-in has a smooth reflector, but the beam has a definite yellow center. The edge of the hotspot is a little green or yellow. Not sure if Cree will be able to work this out.