There is a pre-buy for the Stainless steel version of the S41, the S41S on banggood right now for a heck of a deal. Now is the time to grab one if you want it.
I hate to say it, but suspect the stainless version is more of a shelf queen. Like the Kronos X6 stainless, pretty too look, but weighs a ton. Certainly not pocket friendly at all.
Eh, I don’t really care one way or the other. I have a stainless light and I like how durable it is and don’t mind the weight but also don’t find it to be any better in a practical sense then aluminum.
I like my S41 but I find the S1 to be a more useful EDC myself. The S1 (or a custom built Convoy S2) is much more practical in a true EDC where you never know how or when you would need to use it.
The S41 and multi-emitter lights in general are great flooders but outside of ~200 feet or so you are blinded by the flood. It also takes way more lumens and power to light something up because of all the flood.
For example last night actually I was comparing a triple 219c, Triple XP-L HI and an S1.
While both of the triples are making over 2500 lumens, the S1 looks just as bright due to the much tighter hot spot. In fact it looks a bit brighter if you account for the warmer tint.
The triples are great flooders for around the house but for an EDC I want something that can throw at least 150-200m.
My goal is to get the S2+ I am working on now to 250m of throw.
Surely that’s making thinsgs difficult, why not just use a regular S2?? 
I have tried the S2 reflector, it works but I think the TIR I have picked out for the S2+ might beat it out and I like the beam from a TIR.
That said I recently tried the S6 reflector and I think it is the best yet for the tube lights.
I am also a big fan of the narrow TIR for the S2+. Based on my measurements, the TIR throws better than the OP S2 reflector, but not quite as good as the SMO S2 reflector.
However, the TIR hotspot is significantly larger and this makes it more useful for me.
On the left is the narrow TIR optic (from leddna) with XPL HI V2 3D. On the right is the SMO S2 reflector with XPL HI V2 1A. This picture pretty accurately represents the relative sizes of the beams, but not necessarily the relative intensities. See above link for measurements.
Don’t overthink it. Buy a 30q,hg2, vtc5/6… Bypass the springs and you’ll get real close to 1600 lumens on turbo… Gotta have the 1A cool white tint though for maximum lumens… Tint is more important to me than lumens. the 3D is beautiful!
Indeed, those are about the same results I got in my early testing. I have been carrying an S1 the last week or so, been trying to get a feel for what I do and don’t like about it. Gonna try a few S2+ builds over the coming weeks to see what I like best.
I do like the TIR lens though, the beam is very useful for a tube light IMHO. Plus I don’t know if it is just me but the tint seems to look better with a TIR lens vs reflector.
I got a 1A tint of Astrolux S1. How about samsung 25r? Can you give me an opinion about it over samsung 30q? Does 25r also give the same performance output compare to 30q? Though the former is of lesser capacity 2500mah only. 
Yes, the 25R is another perfectly good high drain battery.
Mostly because the sellers write their product description in Engrish and do not have the understanding of a BLF user.
Exactly. In other words… The requirement for a very good “high drain” battery here is mostly about the limitations of simple 7135 or fet drivers, and actually the LED itself. If a budget light like this had a (currently non-existent) durable, cheap, compact and efficient boost driver, almost any decent battery could(and all the high drain ones would safely) potentially meet and exceed the LED’s performance limits for almost its full nominal capacity. The batteries have plenty of power; it’s the coincidental compatibility with the high power LEDs that’s being exploited here for simplicity and efficiency.
Virtually the same, and two of the best cells currently available. *
Guess you might as well go ahead and get an IMR 18350 on the way too….you’re going to want to test shorty mode on the S1….inevitable. 
Thank you for your suggestion on the IMR 18350! I actually have a short tube which I am not using yet, since I still have to see some good 18350 suggestion, though i am looking forward in using my s1 on a shorty tube for compactness. Will look for brands and model of those high performing 18350s.
There is only one 18350 worth using IMHO. The Efest purple IMR. It is the best performing 18350 around by a fair margin, that is unless something new has come out in the last 6 months.
Certainly not doubting you. I only have some AW (red) 700mAh 18350’s I bought a few years back. I don’t use them much as I’ve always been massively disappointed with the runtimes.
I did try one in my S41 recently and it pulled over 7amps on startup, which was quite a surprise. Although dropped down to 5amps pretty quickly.
Just looking at HJK’s battery comparator and they seem to perform favourable compared to the Efests.
The latest AW IMR is rated for 800mAh, but I’ve no idea if it is of any improvement over the older 700mAh.
As for the Efest, IIRC I read few comments that the older purple Efest is better over the 2016 purple.
I’m using the new AW IMR and Keeppower IMR on my 18350-based lights including S41, Sinner, Rey, etc and no complaint yet.
The AW’s are also good and I think there was talk that the efest was simply an AW cell re-wraped at some point. The AW’s are prime counterfeit candidates though and the efest were much cheaper when I was looking so I got those. Either one will work fine though.
IIRC Dale also said he sees the best results from the Efest.
I was about to say the only one I have is what is “supposed” to be an AW IMR 18350. I bought from what was supposed to be an authorized US dealer…but who knows. Seems to work pretty well in the S1 in shorty mode. :+1: