You may or may not get an answer from them on this but here is another buck+fet anduril driver (lume1) from one of our members:
In the case of lume1, for batt V > LED V the buck portion takes over and has no PWM with max 3A current. Above 3A your only option is full FET (so no PWM here either).
Looks nice. Not really a budget flashlight though and out of my price range but if it gets REALLY spectacular reviews maybe after I get past Xmas and get a good coupon discount.
I wonder what their reasoning was in using XP-L2 HD
I think the era of dirt cheap stuff from China is passing.
Cheap flashlights from China are plenty if you look on Aliexpress and Amazon. But you get what you pay for. These new Fireflies lights are not in the same class. Everything is upgraded using more expensive premium parts. For example they will use an expensive Loneocean driver designed for FF. The Loneocean FW3A driver is sold for a whopping $25. This will be regulated and high efficiency unlike the typical Lumintop, Nightwatch, Astrolux drivers that can’t maintain a steady output for practical use. I heard even the springs will see a significant upgrade from the previous BeCU high current springs that were considered high end a few years ago. Even BeCu springs sell for quite a bit from Emisar and Mtn. I’m suspecting the new FF springs will be silver plated with improved mechanical property so they don’t lose resilience (poorer contact and output) that typical for the commonly used BeCu high current springs. I heard they also developed a new MCPCB that can sink 200W for the E21A emitters that is more expensive than copper mcpcb. FF also offers high flux bin, and good tint binned emitters; binned emitters are much harder to procure and more expensive than unbinned emitters that the typical flashlight manufacturer buys. There are other parts that are upgraded (more expensive) and sometimes a single component cost more than a cheap flashlight. FF is really going high end.
With the XP-L2 and high drain, I suspect we will be seeing 13K+ real lumens considering my Nitecore TM9K makes 9k+ lumens using a non high drain built-in battery. This will be like having the power of the Olight Marauder 2 in a compact size. This should be a good bit brighter than the two Matemino MT18S I measured.
Here are a few reason why the light will be more expensive than the E07:
-Almost twice the amount of LED’s
-Much better driver
-More mass = more metal
-Very few lights similar to this one on the market
At sub $100, its not budget by any means, but a similar light from one of the big brands like Eagtac, Fenix, Olight etc would cost well over 100$ for sure.
I think $80 would have been the sweet spot for such a light, but for the value it gives, I wouldn’t call it just an expensive flashlight.
sw45k would be nice but maybe those are depleted since it was said Nichia discontinued them years ago. The purchase page seems more like a place holder. Maybe he is still seeking binned emitters, which is very difficult to procure and will add details later. What I would like to see is tint mix option. I am using 5x 2700k XPL2 with 4x 6500k XPL2 in my Nitecore TM9K and the tint is gorgeous. Even CRI went up a bit after tint mixing. Maybe add a small fee for tint mixing option?
I kind of explained the reason a few post above. I have two MF01S and I never use them because of the size and because it does not have a regulated driver. The 7135 and FET drivers on the Astrolux, Lumintop, Hakelite, Nightwatch have the same problem. Very inefficient and output drops quickly to impractical levels.
My E07’s have had great quality, no complaints there. This E12 has more LEDs, built-in charging and a better driver. Plus, I’m sure there’ll be coupons or group deals coming out soon which’ll reduce the price.
The truly overpriced flashlights are those ‘custom’ titanium ones that have like 600 lms and cost $400.