QualityChinaGoods confirmed - their red label Xtar are Sanyo cell, the purple label Xtar are not Sanyo cell.
That’s actually more strange to me now - in sz-wholesale they say the purple ones are Sanyo. 
I emailed Xtar to verify.
Purple(and red) 18700 are Sanyo. Purple 18650 are not
Thanks, I didn’t know that.
I wish they were more clear on the issue.
Xtar customer service just made me totally confused.
The email exchange went something like that:
me: “Some sellers say Xtar 18700 2600 mAh RED label have a Sanyo cell inside, some say the PURPLE ones do, which are correct? Maybe both?”
Xtar: “For Xtar 18700 2600mAh,they only have red label and Sanyo cell inside. But maybe you are refer to our 18650, they both have red label and purple label, but not Sanyo cell.”
me: “But szwholesale.com have 18700 2600mAh purple label and they say ‘Sanyo inside’…”
Xtar: “I’m sorry that the describle of color in the last mail are wrong. I have corrected it as follows:
For Xtar 18700 2600mAh,they only have purple label and Sanyo cell inside. But maybe you are refer to our 18650, they both have blue label and purple label, but not Sanyo cell.”
me: “If the 18700 only have purple label, why is there a red label 18700 on your site?”
Xtar: “I’m sorry make you confused. I just mean that this colour is purple.”
me:
Lol.
Really confusing also they mention blue which are the 2400mAh ones…
The 18700 seem to be all purple also the one in the picture is a purple one.
And in these seem to be sanyos…anyone ripped one wrap down…?
I like the black color so I won’t going to de wrap one as I have only the blue shrink wrap which doesn’t look so cool.
In what picture?
I just guessed that the one in the picture is a purple one but looks like red…
But I don’t know it exactly, perhaps this isn’t a real picture just an animation…or so
I thought the xtar 18700 were always purple(like the wallbuys ones), isn’t that fact?
Never heard of Xtar cell manufacturer, as I’ve just seen by a glance, they are Sanyo cells, so just get Sanyo cells. Why pay somebody for rewrapping and writing an XTAR on it?
Makes no sense to me. You can get both unprotected and protected Sanyos from FT, I have the protected ones, made a review too. I like them, work fine. I don’t notice output brightness drop and if then it’s slightly and the battery is about to need a recharge and the light warns me soon.
Why?
because they were sold for 3.86$, so I bought 3 of them, too.
Also these are a bit smaller tan the FT Sanyos and have a nice black shrink.
I will charge mine up and then see if they have an overcharge protection, if not i will tear the wrap down to see if it is a 18650ZT…
I have a 2600 that trips the protection too easy. I’m ripping it apart. Is that stupid??
Is this a Sanyo? Wow that button top sparked when I tried to pry it off!
Broke the metal strip off, plopped it in my Uranusfire X10 and got an extra 50 lumens above the protected ones.
have you googled the numbers?
Is that bare metal tube which is just a bit colored?
I unwrapped a purple 18700 that had a broken protection circuit, it was a red Sanyo inside just like Tecmos.
I have a sanyo 2800mAh 4.3V 18650zt, and the numbers are PHDZTAD.
is that written on the Xtar 18700 too?
If it are the FM than FM should be perhaps there…? or OM perhaps…
please provide the number, more pictures
kk0m2a8
054943
First sorry for my links. I don’t recognized, that one batteries are 18700 and the other are 18650.
Some more information about the 18700 and color of the letters:
It starts with the red letter on the 18700 2600mAh (I think 18-24 months ago). They look like on the picture in the thread and I ordered a few from Serena (works for XTAR and offered a group buy 18-24 months ago).
Here are some of the batteries, I got (they have red letters, but it is a bad picture)
Here is another picture:
After a few months I didn’t find any new red letter versions - only the purple letter versions. I think they are the newer versions (like a facelift by cars) - I have never heard about somebody received red letter versions in the last year. HKJ test the purple letter versions:
http://lygte-info.dk/review/batteries2012/Xtar%2018700%202600mAh%20(Black)%20UK.html
Unprotected cells always deliver more umph than a protected cell ... I was a little surprised how much more myself .
Okay, ordered the purple ones from SZWS/CQG.
Why couldn’t Xtar just print the cell type on the labels… at least when it’s Sanyo that they are so proud of.
XTAR 2600? Mine too! It kept tripping easily, so I took the protection circuit off. It was Sanyo 2600 like your picture. Seem there’s a quality problem with these XTAR. But at the price WB sold them I can’t complain.
Though, this delivered only around 2400mAh @ 1A. Weirdly, that also coincide with FT unprotected Sanyo 2600, I also only got close to 2400mAh with them.
fonzeka mentioned a faulty protection also. Must be some variation in them.