The main answer is of course personal preference.
I initially thought I like NW more than CW, but having received many lights, I realise I seem to like CW more.
NW to me the light is yellow, but I know that neutral white gives better colour rendition.
In some of the pre-order threads, I see that there are WAY LOT more people opting for NW.
So the final question… Do you like CW or NW?
I like NW because it’s easier on my eyes, and usually provides better relative color rendition (although NW doesn’t necessarily equate to “high CRI”). One thing to remember is that there can be a lot of variation between CW lights. You really need to look at color temp. ratings. My ET D25A is a CW XP-G2 R5, and my BLF Saber 1A is a CW XP-G2 something (don’t know bin), but the Thrunite is very blue, while the ET is closer to cool daylight.
I find that some CW’s change my mood negatively. Especially when jogging.
Not a fan of 5000K NW white for general use but better than CW. 5000K seems to be what most consider natural. When its the “cool” side of neatural. Me and a few others would say 4500K is more proper neutral. Never touched my 5000K light after I got some slightly warmer ones…
Give me something in the 3000-4500K range and im much happier than something in the 5000-7300K range for a general purpose light.
For extreme high output flood lights , I can do 5000k neutral, maybe even cooler for maximum light.
For throw, I can do CW.
Basically, I can stretch towards CW depending on the use and the amount of light I want…
CW, makes stuff appear brighter on top of being brigher due to usually being higher BIN.
NW and WW are higher CRI, color rendering are much better. Blue-ish light is basically the opposite of nice too. Try it for indoor lighting and compare it with something warmer or neutral. I would guess 97% would prefer a warmer light. I would also guess 99,9% would prefer 5000K or warmer over say 7000K.
As ImA4Wheelr said, blue cold light can also change the mood. There is a reason why candles are cozy and are often used to make an environment nice and “joyful”. They can just make people in a better mood.
For flashlights. NW seems to be a golden middle way for many in terms of high output, perceived output and CRI. Also many people prefer to not have much cool light or warm light in their flashlights it seems.
I prefer warmer than the average person on this forum… But I also believe than many people who have only tried CW or 5000K NW white would under many circumstances prefer a +slightly +warmer light.
I have yet to hear someone in real life (not reading on this forum) who actually prefers CW over NW or WW. And I have shown my lights to several.
I would mostly hear something like “oh, thats a nicer beam” when putting on a warmer light or… “That was a bad colored light, way too cold, the other one was nicer”.
or “all colors look blue and cold now”… (using CW)
I have also made others be less happy with their new LED lights. Reason, they did not like the cool tint on theirs after seeing mine… 
Its amazing how many non-flashoholics who actually care about tint when they see the stuff right in front of them…
For those who have tried NW and did not like it above CW. Try another tint in that area… 3C could be a bit yellow for some. For those, a 3D could be better… Less yellow… And just because some might say 3C was slightly yellow, does not mean that they would not like a warmer tint. They could just be sensitive to the white/yellowish light. its all subjective, and there will always be a little tint lottery too when it comes to those small preferences…
Just my 2 cents and experience…
Thanks for sharing that RaceR86. You convinced me to try 4500. I have a couple 3000 T6 XML’s, but they were so reddish that I ended up mixing them into a couple CW multi-emitter lights.
Yeah my first experience with ‘NW’ was not a pleasant one. I made a 4D Mag with 3C XM-L in the incandescent reflector and it was U-G-L-Y. Fixed when I installed the Rebel reflector. XM-Ls, especially the NW and WW ones, tend to exhibit nasty tint variation from the normal to 90º from the normal, and thus beam tint uniformity can depend on reflector.
I’ll geek out here for a second to say that’s pretty cool! Cree actually recommends doing this (google ‘Cree Binonator Tool’ and click second link) to make the most of ugly tints.
I don’t. Maybe I’m not refined enough to be a tint snob yet.
I like cold white light. When I use a flashlight I am usually looking for something, CW gives me more contrast and makes it easier to find things. IMO, Finding things, including the path, make me happier than a warm light beam. :nerd_face:
That is a good point that I forgot to mention and I have to say +1. Different reflectors can make a noticeable to huge difference depending on the person. That could also be a reason why some are not happy with various tints/emitters.
NW for me. Except if I need more contrast.
NW is just more natural, especially when walking in nature. For example:
CW has clearly washed out colors, NW is easier on my eyes.
Good one and good point. I will say though, spotting brown things like snakes and such, is easier with better rendering of reds.
The CW hot spot does wash out colors, however I can see more detail in the trees with the CW. A more diffused and floody reflector would help eliminate the hot spot. The warmer light is a little easier on the eyes.
Spotting snakes is important, especially here in South Carolina. 
I agree. NW is easier on the eyes. Both in real life and in pictures. Im curious how people perceive these pictures on their monitors…
I would say more like 5500K and 4000K (in comparison to how I would perceive them outdoors)
Depth perception.
Very blue light >6000K makes outdoors look like a set of cardboard cutouts.
I have an old 3xK2 (Thanks Elektrolumens it’s great.) that makes depth perception impossible.
Indoors, I don’t care and CW tends to give more light.
Yeah. Appears around 5500 and 4000 on my monitor too.
Cool white gives better contrast but the blue headlights on the freeway make me very angry and give me a headache. Neutral white seems a good compromise between good contrast/high efficiency and good color rendering/lower efficiency.
Left side looks like 5500-6000 Kelvin.
Very blue headlamps are dangerous - those 10000K HIDs make depth perception nearly impossible.
Which is not a good thing when driving at speed at night.
I really like both, there are time and place for them. CW can be bright and fun at times.
But if I have to choose one, it has to be NW, coz it allows me to clearly differentiate between solid flooring vs roof ceiling when walking/working on roof. Seriously, the greys all look the same with CW, very dangerous when your safety depends on that!
EDIT: And I do mean only real NW around 5000k, not really yellowish “claimed” NW etc which actually turn everything yellow. A good NW light IMO will give soft & pleasant, white-ish light, and have good colour rendition.