Eciton, what brand are your 16340 cells?
They’re AW, so they’re protected and I half expected them not to fit. But the specs say “16340/CR123” and I tried two different Panasonic CR123 primaries, which didn’t even slightly fit.
The product page does say that only narrower batteries will fit, but I have had no luck finding 16340s that specify their width!
Recieved mine last Saturday, and it’s a complete disappointment.
I asked Ric directly if this light works with primary CR123A’s (this was supposed to be a birthday present for my friend, and he hates rechargeables), and Ric’s reply was positive. Now that is a lie.
Light came in a bubble-wrap and two ziplocks - one with the flashlight itself, and another with spare glass and five (!) o-rings
The crappy ‘2000mAh’ 16340 was inside the light. CQG Bullet Shell is really small actually:
LED tint is nowhere around 4C - it’s pinkish, most likely 4A or 4D. Here’s the beamshot with T6-3C (left), CQG (center) and T5-5C (right):
And here’s T6-4C (left) and CQG (right):
Beam is nice, no artifacts, pretty large spot for XP-G.
The driver sits in a small brass pill (the whole thing heats up pretty quickly, BTW). It’s definitely a linear driver, so, like I said, it doesn’t work correctly with primary batteries. Even on fresh CR123A the Hi mode is missing.
Low Low mode is just 2-3 times dimmer than regular Low. Definitely not the 6mA/120mA difference claimed.
There is a PWM on all modes (except of Hi, of course). Not very visible though, several hundreds Hz I would say, no whining sounds.
Tail button is reverse clicky, looks like Omten 1288
Description says “always starts on Low Low” - well, it does and it does not. The light resets only after 2-3 minutes; before that it acts like classic Chinese “next mode memory”. Yuck.
Battery tube is tight, as Eciton said. i mean, REALLY tight. I was able to push Kodak CR123A (about 16.6mm diameter) there, but the battery sleeve was damaged. Efest IMR16340 (the same 16.6mm) doesn’t fit - I guess it’s sleeve is just more rugged 
And the last observation - looks like this light doesn’t have battery overdischarge protection/indication. I’ve tested it with used CR123A (2.97V with no load, about 2.8V loaded), and the light still works - just all the modes are much dimmer (about 50 lm on Med/Hi). And protected batteries don’t fit, mind you.
Maybe the protection/indication is there, just with lower threshold?
So that’s the story.
My main complaint is primary battery incompatibility, of course. I’ve contacted Ric again, but he answered with standart rubbish like “we’ve tested the flashlight before sending and it worked fine” and “I can send you a new driver”. I can imagine these answers from some dumb reseller, but not from the qualified person which we all know Ric is.
Looks like dispute - huh, Ric?
AlexTG you have an old/early version? I see yours got an XP-G1 not an XP-G2 as specified in the OP.
Thanks for the quick review. Pity that it is a failure. It looks pretty…
There’s only one version - with XP-G.
I’ve bought my flashlight at Ric’s Aliexpress store, and XP-G2 LED was stated in the specs at the moment of buying (Aliexpress makes a snapshot at that moment). Now the description is corrected to XP-G (both at Aliexpress and CNQG website).
ouch, that is not right! The Efest 16340 is really small and it does not fit!
It makes no sense: there must be some love involved in designing the light, so small and elegant, and on the technical side everything is done wrong: size of the battery compartment, emitter, again the silly idea of the emitter on the driver board...
The lesson is: however appealing: don't buy a new light at cnqg, wait for version 2, no that one's not right either, wait for version VI and for the review that finally every issue is solved.
Received my “bullet” 2 days ago.
PWM frequency 488Hz.
And the worst thing for me-It should start every time on Low Low,but it needs so much time to reset,it is mostly like next mode memory.
High mode is too high for this thin light,gets really hot.
The beam of mine is also pinkish.
No chance to put protected 16340 in it.
Pity for the nice design.
I will try to add a resistor over the capacitor,but it should be SMD or any really small,because there’s not much space. I use the AA zoomy light with 47kOhm resistor and the reset is in about a second…
Right, forgot to mention that, thanks!
Mine needs 2-3 minutes to reset. Updated my review.
Mine is almost perfect for my needs.
Just wish it were a bit grippier. The smooth body tube is a bit slippery.
But the size for a clicky is terrific!
For me,EDC light with next mode memory is unusable,so I decided to add resistor to clear that memory.
The highest SMD resistor I found is 10kOhm. Now the light starts on Low Low mode,no matter how fast I will restart it. No memory at all. Don’t know how good is this value for the circuit,but works great so far.
Before
After
Resistor 01C added.
That's awesome, FL! The Bullet does have last mode memory but it has to be off for a minute or so. Far too long for my taste. Nice job!
Mine arrived last night and I'm enjoying it thoroughly! Nice output, great switch feel, decent mode range but I would like a little lower low and a bigger step for medium so it's more in the middle of low and high. Turbo is nice but timed to step down to high after about a half a minute. I have no issues with battery fitment at all. Any unprotected cell fits right in perfectly. Unprotected being the key word. Cells with protection circuits are too tight due to the ribbon from the protection circuit. Regular CR123A cells fit just fine for me. Unprotected Trustfire 16340 fit fine as well.
Pictures for the review are taken and uploaded. Now I just have to take measurements and write out the review.
Why not just use the pencil technique? So far I found it works great and is even adjustable, make a light mark and if it doesn't drain the capacitor fast enough just go over it again until it does. Too much? Erase it and start over.
So, new update from me.
I ordered some AW IMR cells, unprotected. They just fit with some minor damage to the plastic coating.
Also, mine absolutely does not have an ultra-low mode. High>Medium>Low>High>Medium>Low.
Anyone else experienced the same?