Great review Steve, thanks for taking the trouble 
I don't normally like the penlight form factor (not sure why, just never been keen) but that is one nice looking little light! Shame about the pocket clip; I guess that's one area where this type of torch really can't get away with weakness. Maybe it'll turn out to be stronger than it feels.
Thanks for the great review. I've been thinking about getting the 2xAAA version, as $27 seems like a really good deal for a SS flashlight.
Question: is the clip removable?
Thanks guys!
The clip is removable. You have to unscrew the metal cap around the switch, it holds the clip in its place.
I just did that and bent the clip a little in shape, it has more tension now. It was bent quite easily though, don't know how long it'll hold the tension.
Very nice review Steve! 
I was just looking at these on SB Yesterday. Thanks for the review.
Thanks for your nice comments.
Yesterday I wasn't able to take a good makro shot of the clip because of the lighting. Today was better so I edited it into the review. It's hard to take good photos of shiny things though...
HYPE-tac?
Are we in for a bunch of XXXtac names now that XXXfire has pretty much been mined out?
Very nice photos Steve! 
That new pic of the clip is encouraging; to be honest I was expecting it to look much more frail.
I meant to ask you about the switch. Does it stay locked down when the light is turned on?
The switch sticks out 3 mm no matter if it's on or off.
Nice! Decent price for a Shiningbeam light. Thanks so much for the great review! Frontpage'd and Sticky'd.
Yesterdays Fire is today's Tac!
Marc.
Wait, no more fandyfire?!? No!!! 
Thank you Mr. Admin!
BTW, maybe I should reserve the brand name "FireTac" 
Over on CPF is a review of the Bronte RA02. This is probably the same light as the Hypetac P1A in a slightly different exterior and with minor tweaks on the electronics. By the way, that review is a lot more thorough than mine and every interested user might want to double check, because most of it applies to the P1A as well.
The packaging looks the same, overall design is the same, the underside of the circuit board looks the same, brightness levels are also in the same range.
I think that Hypetac and Bronte are just sales brands and their flashlights are manufactured in the same factory.
After having used this light for some time I discovered a little design flaw that sometimes shows when using rechargeable batteries.
I noticed that sometimes when shaking the light it would flash on even with the switch in the off-position, other times after switching off it would stay on and needed a few shakes to go off.
To illustrate what was going on, first I'll show you a side-by-side-shot of an alkaline AAA cell and a rechargeable AAA cell. Note that on the rechargeable cell the negative pole takes up the whole area of the cylinder bottom:
And here's a schematic drawing of the P1A battery tube (click to enlarge):
At the end of the battery tube, there is a metal ledge around the spring with very little clearance to the negative battery end. When using a rechargeable battery, the negative pole sometimes touches that ledge and, bypassing the switch, closes the circuit.
My solution was to cut out a washer with an outer diameter of 10mm and an inner diameter of 6mm and place it inside the battery tube on top of that ledge. At first I cut it out od a .5mm guitar pick, but that was already too thick. I am using .2mm carton now and I didn't encounter this effect ever since.
I guess in Germany you have different types of batteries. In the US negative poles are always flat and take up the whole end.
That's interesting, didn't know that! That means even more batteries would be affected.
Of course there's also a possibility that my particular light is missing some isolation piece in the bottom, but I somehow doubt that. And I won't order a second one to check
Just a minor status update - I have grown so fond of that little bugger that I almost feel naked when I leave the house without it.
The pocket clip is doing a great job since I bent it to increase the tension, and the light it is perfectly reliable with the diy washer mod.
You have to carry it clipped to a pocket though, I had it in a jacket pocket a few times and it managed to turn on and drain a battery once.