You’re misunderstanding a bit how LEDs work.
A LED uses exactly as much power as driver feeds it with. No matter whether you grab 10A / 40W SST-90, 3A / 10W XM-L, or 3W / 1A XP-E, if you drive them with same constant-current driver, they all will use same amount of power.
To further clarify, the XM-L2 LED's should produce more output when driven by the same amount of power as an XM-L. This is their advantage - next generation, more lumens/per amp at the same voltage and same temperature, same package size. So, if the cost is the same and the bin, tint, and beam pattern&color is all the same, and they actually do perform better as stated, they would replace XM-L. There are a lot of "if's" there though and CREE doesn't have a stellar record with filling out the product family offerings, or filling them out quickly.
But if direct drive, say an XM-L will pull 3A, but an XP-G will only pull 1A. If my understanding is correct. Which would be valid to the original question. Basically asking if XM-L2 would handle more amperage or be more efficient with the same amperage.
Yes, it’s not as efficient as driving an LED at 1A or 2A but we do get the peak brightness of an XM-L at 3-4A.
Plus, LED’s just don’t go poof at even 300%+ of their recommend current, specified by the manufacturer.
The HD2010, one of the most highly regarded budget lights, is in fact directly driven at High mode.
What’s wrong with driving at whatever current you want using a constant-current driver? Direct drive has no advantages over constant-current drivers at all.
Nothing at all, except linear driver using AMC 7135’s burn the excess power as heat.
Other than that, using a constant current drivers does enable you to control the brightness.
Linear drivers aren’t great either. Especially AMC7135 based ones - you can only regulate current in 350mA steps using them, so no option for moonlight and low modes without resorting to PWM.
Synchronized buck/boost drivers would be best, for those who want to run 1 cell. Buck/*boost* because draining modern 2900/3100/3400mAh cells requires boosting due to them having not-so-high voltage.
Mouser shipped mine out, Qty 3, XM-L2 T6's. We will see. I got 2 cheapo Sipik SK73 zoomies, 1 with a U2 1A, other with a stock T6. I can do ceiling bounce measurements on these 2, then swap the XML T6 for the new one, interesting comparison then...
33696933 - Wow! That was fast! Dunno about the DRY - single or multi LED? Was the form factor the same for mounting? Height the same? What's the tint comparable to warmer or cooler than a T6 3C? Can you notice brightness diff or can you do a ceiling bounce test w/meter?
Sorry - lots of Q's... You are the first one known to get, see, and install these things...