7w light comparison- help needed

LED Flashlights – General Info 1 x AA / 1 x 14500 Flashlights
1

i bought 8 of these to give away for Christmas, a guy I know had one and they were impressively bright to me, at the time. Advertising 350 lumens they were the best I knew of in the smallest package a month ago.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00CEOII9K/ref=mp_s_a_1_fkmr0_2?qid=1419785360&sr=8-2-fkmr0&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70

Now joining this forum, I see a lot of other "Q5" lights rated for twice the lumens with the same q5 emitter. This is just one example that I am thinking about buying, the "host" looks more appealing to me but if you insist I will dredge up a link to the same zoomie host rated 6-700lumens.. :/

http://m.banggood.com/CREE-XPE-Q5-600-Lumen-7W-Zoomable-LED-Flashlight-1x14500-p-907006.html

I realize these lights never put out as much as they claim, but if the 300 lumen light puts out 150 and the 600 lumen light puts out 300, then it's still brighter! What is the difference, what am I missing? Is the 600 lumen claim just a marketing ploy and it's only the same lumen output as the other light? What about the other seemingly same host as first link ones that take an 18650, are they double rated too?

2

The first one is called an SK-68 clone. It is the standard cheap flashlight. I don’t know about that brand, but they are usually well made, except that the cheapest ones have poor tail threads.
The second one has no real name, as they appeared with a variety of prices and sometimes brand names all at once. It is sometimes called a #3 Zoomie. The light output is less because of the smaller lens, but still very good. The small size makes them very practical, but I don’t like them esthetically.

3

Lumen counts for cheap lights are meaningless. If you know the emitter bin and drive current, you can estimate the output, but they lie about emitter bins too. Don’t forget to subtract about 40% for the cheap zoom lens.

All that said, for the pocket change they cost, these lights are a good value.