CREE MT-17 XP-E 14500 only introduction/partial review

I got this little light to see what it was all about

MT-17 CREE XP-E

Not highly impressed!

Plastic reflector and simple bezel

Driver with plastic retaining ring and not so great threads

Driver, you have to go thru all the modes to turn it off, no memory…because you have to go all the way thru…bleh

Emitter

Pill? Pill!!? We don’ need no steenkin’ pill!
Seriously…this ain’t a pill, some sort of holder with almost a non-existant lip and NO meat whatsoever…I mean cmon!

Size next to my EDC Convoy S5 and a Ganzo G101-S mini multi-tool

Pros:
When I start thinking about it, really can’t name many

Cons:
have to go thru all the modes to turn it off…seriously…uggh!
plastic reflector
NO FREEKIN’ PILL
charger port direct connect to battery
Hi and Lo really aren’t that far apart
Even the clip interferes with a tail stand…it hangs off just a few mm making it lean over teetering on falling over

Honestly…I give it a 1.5 out of 5 stars

Mod-ability…dump the “holder” of the pill, solder together 3-4 pennies or 20ga 16mm copper rounds and mount a 16mm copper star on it [drill for wires of course](that might up the heat sink capabilities), replace craptastic round robin to turn off driver with a custom driver (need a custom DD driver w/ side click switch built in), possibly replace plastic SMO reflector with a 10 degree TIR

You would end up spending more in mod parts that you would for the entire light to get a “decent” light out of it…just not a flashlight that I would call good…looks good from far away but the closer you get shudder

Yep… I agree, I have used this one with a Nitecore headband a couple times for some close up work. It is pretty much relegated to the parts bin these days, just not really worth upgrading and I find the need of going through all modes to turn it off irritating.

Thanks for the review.

I actually dig this little light. It can be resistor modded and you can put a sinkpad in that will transfer plenty of heat quickly enough. Put a de-domed XP-E2 in there and it will rock out.

It’s a cheap little light with a side clicky. Not many like it around. Not much to write home about stock but with a little bit of modding it’s pretty cool.

I will say this, it should only be about half that price.

Please inform me of how you can resistor mod a momentary side switch driver without replacing the driver. I don’t doubt what you say. I just didn’t think it could be done.

Perhaps you are referring to resistor modding for more current flow? of course. I thought I had just discovered the jackpot on fixing these side switch lights that require you to go through all the modes to turn it off.