Tl;Dr: This is a great light if you need something extremely rugged and throwy. The performance, built quality, driver, water resistance, durability, and beam are all excellent. The UI, switches, and included accessories are good. The price seems reasonable to me. My only complaint is the magnetic charging instead of USB-C, but that may be a plus for some users.
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Nice review and, magnetic charging is way better than USB as there is no water entry point.
Until one manages to misplace, lose, or just forget to take the cable along… USB C cables are ubiquitous. Hard to be caught in a situation where one can’t be located. Plus there is the issue with them being unique to a specific light. I personally already have too many different magnetic charging cables to store and label.
Anyway, either method is some level of compromise. Water ingress is a concern, for sure. Though I have not yet had it happen. I have had batteries die and have the need to charge them on hundreds of occasions.
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Internal USB chargers are prone to problems all of which are documented on BLF. Not to mention tou cannot use the light while charging.
Bona fide battery chargers are also ubiquitous and most dont have any charging issues. Not to mention you can use the light while your spare battery is charging.
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Yes, I prefer no onboard charging at all, for the reasons that you mention. Even with the lights that I have that include it, I charge the cells externally. But if I am forced to pick a method, it would be USB C. As long as they use either a waterproof USB C jack or have a good secure, waterproof cover.
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Personally I’ve landed on USB-C for everything if I can get it. Proprietary cables are a pain and having to take the battery out and put it on a separate charger is even more of a pain. If the light is compelling enough I’ll use a separate or proprietary charger (Surefire G2X Pro + Switchback and Skilhunt MiX-7 Gen 2 Plus, currently).
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Very true, but if I have access to one of my chargers, I have access to spare cells. Much faster to swap cells than to plug a light in and wait a couple of hours before the cell is fully charged Though I do occasionally just top off cells in multi cell lights using USB.
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Not necessarily. Out of the hundred+ lights I’ve reviewed, i can count on one hand the number that have had charging related issues: Just two. One was a charging IC failure (TS26S) that Sofirn made right (and then some) and the other was a Amutorch 46950 charging adapter that shorted (really a bad design) and self destructed. The others have been 100% reliable amd functional.
I don’t deny that onboard charging opens a potential ingress point and failure mode, but some are now gully weatherizing the charge port so it doesn’t matter if it’s not covered, and charge port seals on mainstream lights are getting better all the time (like Fenix, Acebeam, Nitecore, Olight).
I personally am not a fan of magnetic charging mainly due to slow charge speeds, proprietary cables and magnetic caps. Either on battery charging or USB C is preferred.
Well I suppose I am just unlucky. The A54 Ultra that I got recently is one example (we discussed this on another thread). It severely overcharges cells. Others reported the same issue. I have three other lights that have similar defects. At least, I would urge people to check to make sure their lights with USB charging are not doing bad things. Even if occurrences are rare, they happen. Consequences are significant enough to warrant testing.
Incidentally, magnetic charging is very inefficient in addition to being slow. Significant energy is lost in the induction transfer. Just check the temperature of the adapter some time.
Countless stories like this one on BLF.
This has been my experience as well. I’ve reviewed over 150 lights and I don’t recall a single one of them have exhibited dangerous integrated charging behavior. I know it happens but I’m not convinced its systemic or more likely than in a bay charger.
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As a famous American once said…“Trust , but verify” I trust my MC3000, but verify its operation continually! 
Sure for phones and such. Flashlights aren’t using induction.
Well, cheap Chinese lights like the A54 are always suspect for QC defects. My A54 performed just fine. Charging went to 4.22 volte, which is a bit highbut not alarmingly so.
I agree charging is one area where you want to make sure. The likelyhood of a name brand battery (Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, LG) going nuclear even if abused by overcharging is still low: the internal thermal and overvoltage protection fuse pops before things grt out of hand, and that takes a lot. Charging to 4.3 volts will shorten the cell life, but won’t makeit go pop. However all bets are off with a cheap, no-name cell!
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OK… Then there are just electrical contacts in the adapter? If so, my mistake.