From that picture it appears it could be real XM-L but I’ve seen a picture of a fake XM-L that looked close, except the emitter die was a bit too small for a real XM-L.
Emitter die looks a bit small to me.
Real XM-Ls
I say they are fake XM-Ls in that Tmart light.
I have not received mine from dx yet.
This is not good, I even prefer XMLs instead of fake XPLs.
Fasttech has asked me if I’d be willing to let them send me XP-L emitters so that I can replace the emitters myself.
Almost tempted.
But I have never soldered (reflow? is that the term?) to an emitter directly.
You think I should give it a try? Or play hardball?
FT was willing to let me return the light but shipping from Norway is expensive. Hence their suggestion of shipping new emitters. They no longer argue against my claim of the emitters being fake. And they write that they sell standalone XP-L emitters on their site that as far as they know are real XP-L’s. Humble dialog from FT now, almost makes me feel bad for them.
Not quite sure what to do…
^ Do you plan on modding lights eventually? If yes, I would take the offer. Reflowing is easy smeasy, but you need to practice on some throw away's first to get the feel for it.
Now wiring a multi emitter light is a real pain in the arse. At least in my book.
They could very well be real, they get $5.66 each
https://www.fasttech.com/products/1609/10009336/1826500-cree-xp-l-v4-3d-1186-43lm-4750-5000k-led-emitter
$ 5.66 x 9 = $50.94 for 9 of them to replace the “fakes”
Well, mine is a triple, not x9.
Oh, and are there any good guides on reflowing leds?
That is very, very interesting.
If they would offer me this, they had to send me 16 XP-Ls 
I would love to take them 
Well, the 9*“XP-L” Model is stuck in customs, I will get it friday.
The ticket for the 7* Model is open.
MaleNurse wrote:
. . . are there any good guides on reflowing leds?
Once you have the right supplies and equipment, reflowing is easy. Plus, with reflow skills you can make your own drivers and such. You just need solder paste, a cheap hot air gun (Harbor Freight has one on sale regularly), and helping hands.
Hot air is by far best way for me. It gives you a bunch of control over the heat. You just put a little dab of solder paste on the pads (just enough to coat the pads evenly if you were to spread it out). Then place the emitter on the pads and apply heat with the heat gun from underneath. The emitter will dance a little as the flux boils off and then "suction down" onto the pads. No need to push down unless you have too much solder. It's done when the emitter settles down and the solder is shiny. Remove the heat as soon as that happens. Generally takes less than a minute.
If you already have tinned pads and emitter, use plain flux (contains no solder) on the pads instead of solder paste.
EDIT: Clarified and fixed a typo.
dx has changed the title of the product as 720lm, which is very bad.
a light with multiple batteries and 9 leds has less output than a single XML!
Oh wow…
Fasttech responded me:
And yes, they changed the title - of exactly one flashlight: https://www.fasttech.com/products/1601/10014338/2418100
I will offer them, what I read here - If they send me 3 bare XP-Ls, I wilkl be happy.
On friday, I get the 9* Version… then this whole thing starts again…
L4M4: Be prepared to have to fight for it.
They suddenly turned on me again. They offer me to replace only ONE of the three emitters!
Update on the communications so far:
#1.
posted 7 days ago by ME
The flashlight does NOT have XP-L emitters as described. The emitters look quite different than real CREE XP-L emitters do.
Also, they are very very dim. Flashlight tested with two separate sets of high quality batteries. But that does of course not help at all, since the emitters are fake.
I have had many good experiences shopping at FT. This time I feel very disappointed.
Pictures attached. Comparison Pictures are taken with manual, identical settings on the camera.
The beam spot pictures show the SKU 2461800 compared to a Trustfire TR-3T6 light that has Three XM-L T6 emitters. Those lights should be pretty comparable, but as you see in the pictures the SKU 2461800 is extremely dim in comparison.
#2.
posted 7 days ago by justina Staff
Sorry to hear the issue.
Please tell me except the light is dim, can it work correctly?
You also can’t judge it is XP-L emitters or not according to the light.
#3.
posted 7 days ago by ME
Yes the flashlight works.
And no, one can’t (usually) judge what type of emitter it is just by the light itself.
But you CAN judge what type of emitter it is by inspecting the emitters directly.
And the emitters in this light is NOT Cree XP-L emitters as advertised.
The emitters in this light differ from real XP-L’s:
-XP-L’s have domes that completely cover the die size.
-XP-L domes are also vertically cut on all four sides, making them not completely round.
#4.
posted 6 days ago by justina Staff
As the item can still work normal, how about we give you $5 gift certificate as discount to keep?
#5.
posted 5 days ago by ME
Your proposed solution is not satisfactory at all.
The point of purchasing the light in the first place was to get a light with Cree XP-L emitters.
This light is completely useless to me.
Please offer me a better solution. I am prepared to open a case through PayPal if necessary.
Regards,
Hans-Petter Vikhagen
#6.
posted 5 days ago by justina Staff
If you don’t want to keep it, we can arrange return and refund for you.
Could you please kindly help us to check with your local post office the cheapest airmail to Hong Kong? If the postage is very expensive, you can check for the unregistered letter mail to return this item?
Please let me know so that I can arrange, thanks.
Sorry for any inconveniences caused.
#7.
posted 3 days ago by ME
Thank you for your reasonable response times.
Shipping from Norway is, unfortunately, rather expensive.
The cheapest way to send from Norway is by unregistered letter mail.
According to the post office, the price is determined by weight and size (thickness of the package).
Letters that is thinner than 7cm 13,79 US dollars.
Letters that are thicker than 7cm costs 19,54 US dollars.
In its original packaging the flashlight is just around 7cm in thickness. If it just lays on the table, then it measures a little more than 7cm. If it is squeezed just a little bit, then it measures less than 7cm.
I am not sure exactly how the post office measures the package, so I don’t know if they will judge it to be thicker or thinner than 7cm.
In other words, cheapest possible shipping will cost either 13,79 or 19,54 dollars, depending on how hard they squeeze the package when measuring its thickness.
Sorry that I can’t be more specific.
Regards,
(my name)
#8.
posted 2 days ago by justina Staff
As far as we know our website also have many XP-L led on sell separately.
If we send you the XP-L led light, can you change and fix it yourself?
#9.
posted 22 hrs 23 mins ago by ME
That will be fine with me. Looking at your pictures, the XP-L’s like these https://www.fasttech.com/products/1609/10009336/1826503 looks genuine.
May I ask that you send me 3 of the emitters listed as “Cree XP-L V5-2A 1186.05LM 5700-6000K LED Emitter”
(https://www.fasttech.com/products/1609/10009336/1826503)
Thank you for being willing to solve this. This motivates me to continue shopping at Fasttech.
Regards
(my name)
#10.
posted 1 hr 31 mins ago by justina Staff
Thank you for your response.
We can only send you one 1826503, if you want more, customer may need toplace new order.
How about we refund you $4.34 gift certificate and you can place new order for it yourself?
#11.
posted just now by ME
1: The flashlight you sold me contains 3 led emitters that are all fake. Not one, not two. Offering me to replace 1 out of 3 makes no sense.
2: I already refused to accept a $5 gift card as compensation. What makes you think i would suddenly accept a $4.34 gift card?
Please make this right. Do read through the discussion we’ve already had. And please offer me a more acceptable compensation. I’ll give this one last try before I am forced to take this to Paypal.
Regards,
(my name)
Well just like the regular flashlights you find in stores (lots of models), difference is those have plastic bodies.
I have received mine today, opened a CS ticket.
Mentioned this thread on my message.
MaleNurse,
I applaud your patience in dealing with FT. Certainly, you have been polite and given them a fair chance to make this right.
I'm trying to follow your lead in my communications with DX. I hope DX takes this opportunity to make this right. Here is their latest response:
Dear (My Name)
Please accept our apologies for the problem.
It appears that the supplier has provided the wrong information or an incorrect batch of the stock was sent to us.
We are contacting the supplier to determine the cause of the problem and a remedy. Please allow a few business days (no more than a week, 2 or 3 business days) for a solution on this. We will work with you on this problem.
Would you mind contacting us again 3days later?
Thank you for your understanding.
Yours Sincerely,
Chloe
what bs… they either need to pay for the cost of you returning the item, or refund you in full
Updated DX listings now - removed all mention of XP-L's, accept in the pics: dx.com/p/bestfire-xp-l-v5-9-led-8500lm-3-mode-cool-white-flashlight-torch-black-red-4-x-18650-388801#.VZPVSjjbLmH
Well, also still in the link ... 
FastTech is still being stubborn...
I have seen some of the "almost XM-L" LEDs in some of the budget lights over the past 6 months. They are only slightly different than the real deal.
When I talked to the Cree rep. a few months ago he told me that the counterfeits are getting better and better: "We have about 10 lawyers in our office, fighting the LED counterfeit issues we see out of Asia. It may look like Cree, it may say Cree, doesn’t mean it s Cree".
You've got to figure that 99% of these guys' customers have no idea what a real Cree looks like. It lights up and is way brighter than their old Maglite...
In this case, I don't believe it's an attempt to counterfeit. I got the same exact looking LED's in a cheap dive light and they look completely different from XP-L's - they look more like a Nichia than any CREE I've seen, plus they are maybe 30% to 70% lower output than CREE's. I understand there is a CREE countefeit problem, but I'm thinking that's a different issue from what we are seeing here. They are not attempting to make it look like an XP-L at all - I got these LED's in a light listed as XM-L2's, but in my case, the pictures on the TMART site showed real XM-L2's.
DX sort of has it right with what they are listing for lumens output. For the 9X they list 720 lumens, and for the 6's and 7's, even lower. Even stock, a 9 XML light usually is good for 2000 lumens minimum. 3 XML's are usually 1000 - 1500 or so, stock.