You can measure the difference. It's something like only a 70% ratio on lithiums, but significantly different on nihm.
I thought about doing that but was feeling lazy.
1.4 a
.94a
.28a
Must be my eyes. I can't see any noticeable difference. Battery is at 3.89 V. Might recharge it and try again.
Speaking of laziness, I was wondering how this driver actually worked, since PWM drivers usually have constant fixed ratios. I tried shaking it fast, but didn't see any telltale signs (broken trail), which means if it's pwm, it's at least quite fast frequency (uses more power, but less visible). A camera might help, but I didn't bother checking.
Also, 30 to 40% is only like 15-20% apparent difference in logarithmic brightness.
E03 doesn't use PWM.
Do you know what driver chip/setup it does use?
This claims it's a linear driver, but that's clearly untrue:
new tailcap reading
tf flame 4.15 v (damn xtar charger)
1.81
1.2
.34
My flames are fairly new. Maybe only 3 cycles.
Might have to buy a cool white as well
Ok, received my XML CW version today. What can I say? Yeah, the hotspot is big but not huge :bigsmile: (Man, I thought it will be like ZTT light zoomed out, lol :bigsmile: )
OK, here's my review (at 15PM, so no real brightness perception): (will add more cons, pros, etc after testing it this night)
PROS:
- Nice build quality. HAII probably, but again, no flaws here, nicely done. Quite heavy (because of that bezel, a very nice touch for the light btw :) )
- Lubed threads with good sealing (double o-rings). (my first light with square threads. I like it. Only 2 full turns needed to screw/unscrew it)
- Came with extra switch, lanyard, and spare 2 o-rings. Good package set. (manual included)
- Clean assembly: good soldering job, clean emitter and good centered (0.1-0.2 mm off center), clean glass lens (don't know if it has AR coating).
- No batt rattling.
- Tailstand (a pro for me)
- Compatible with multiple type of batts/cells.
- Silent and no PWM on all modes.
- Well regulated
CONS:
- Gets unpleasantly hot in less than 10 sec on HI with 14500.
- No memory. Nowadays, I think all lights should have memory :~
- No anti-rolling design (a con for me)
Various:
- Tint: 1B, according to the specs. To the eye: not so bad and not so cold. Similar to my P60 UF host. Apparently, both have slightly yellowish/greenish hotspot and purple spill, but Xeno tint is nicer, it has less purplish spill. But still, waaaay too far from my lovely Kingpower and ITP white tints :love: So if you want whitest tint possible like me, I think CW will suits you well, NW could be more orange than white.
- No strobe, SOS, disco modes.
- Well, not a con really, but MED and LOW should be lower with li-ion (and AFAIK, everyone thinks the same)
- Switch: it works and w/o problems so far, but it has... somewhat awkward and cheap press feeling :~ Quite stiff.
- Good grip with heavy and sharp knurling (I personally prefer not so sharp knurling, but yeah, no prob here)
- SOP reflector helps smoothing beam pattern, but still not 100% perfect (btw, looks like all XML have it. I can't describe it very well, but beam patterns on my Kingpower (OP) and ITP (SMO) (both Q5) are perfect :| Zero problems in real life (you can see those "flaws" on white wall only)
Ok, now about brightness: bright with 14500 and dim with NiMh. Comparing to my ITP C7 with Q5 for example... not a big difference: spill almost the same, ITP has tighter and brighter hotspot, Xeno - bigger and dimmer.
To sum up: nice light, high quality, well worth 30 bucks. But, you should know that this light (with XML) is better for close-up jobs, don't buy it if you need throw. For me, no more XML small light because I prefer more throw.
Only 2 modes with NiMh!
It has three modes, mlh. Med and high differ little but they are separate modes.
Not on mine. Press once - HI, another press - LO, another press - HI, another press - LO.
But it has 3 modes with 14500, so, as I said before, I like it has only 2 modes with NiMh.
BTW, serial number is 0311 2218 (first 4 digits: MMYY, month-yeah I think. The other 4 digits - could be a total number of lights they've made)
Mine is 0311 0303. That is an interesting new design. Right, I can see how having only two modes is more convenient.
The medium is useful for me because on high it gets really hot after a while. On medium it doesn't. I think the way they did it is to ramp it up as high as they can get without overheating and make that medium. I like it that way.
Yup, agreed :) Gets slightly warm after 1 min on MED. But it gets too hot after 10-15 sec on HI. It's strange, because HI is about 20% brighter than MED :| With 14500 it's: HI-MED-Turbo :bigsmile:
BTW, I like it more now, after "playing" with it for a while :D I think it will replace my zoomed-out LedLenser for close-up jobs. Quite useful that floody beam.
Ah, other things about serial number: as I said before, first 4 digits could be the date, but no of the current batch, it should be the date when they started to fabricate that model/version. 1110 (nov. 2010) - XPG version, 0311 (march 2011) - XML version. And the other day I saw V3 model, SN started with 0711. Apparently that model has bigger rubber tail cap (and black instead of GIND). Check this site for pics and more info (if you understand Japanise :bigsmile: )
SashiX, those are Japanese.
If your only has 2 modes on nihm, then unfortunately it's defective.
It should be more like the 14500's have two modes, because hi and med only differ by 30-40%.
OK, now it has 3 modes :~ I've changed the batt. Strange. Don't know if it's an issue, but my unit has a very short delay when turned ON with NiMh (about 0.2 sec). No such delay with 14500. Now HI works. Before it was only MED-LO.
UPDATE: ok, I have to change between modes faster :bigsmile: Looks like I was doing it too slow. Could be the switch also, it feels somewhat cheapy. Anyway, excellent light. Thumbs up.
D'oh! :bigsmile: Thanks for telling me that, will update my previous post as well. ;)
My friends 2 year old grabbed hold of mine and ran off with it.(he loves playing with my lights). His 4 year old sister tried to take it off him and after a struggle my Xeno went flying through the air and hit a hard tiled floor. 
Still working perfectly. 
My friends were laughing at me because I was edc-ing 5 lights. They also found it amusing that look at flashlight forums. Soon after we had a blackout. They stopped laughing and I started laughing.
Sure it was like "Muahahaha" J)
edc, you bid me. I only carry 4 lights on me.
Just received my 2nd xeno E03 today... dated 07-11 on the serial , my original was 03-11
Looks like they have made a few changes. It no longer has the smaller GITD tailcap button, instead it has a regular 14mm black button.
The inside dimensions of the tail cap have also changed to accommodate the larger tail cap button.
It also has a less knurling (finer) and the finger grooves seem to not be as deep as the original.
My views:
LIKES : I like the larger tail cap button, since I have spare 14mm's I could replace them with any color I want, or change a damaged one. I wish it would have came with a GITD as stated by the seller. (that's me just be picky)
Dislikes: I miss the more rugged knurling on the body and the deeper finger grooves.