Thanks for the link.
Can they really attain 3hr at full current? That seems like it would be ~13.44Wh at the LED based on info from djozz. Allowing for 90% efficiency you get 14.93Wh. That’s more than any 18650 holds I think.
Oops. When I wrote the above I thought the flashlight used a Nichia 219B. That could be a major hickup in this comparison. I don’t see an 85CRI part at a glance (probably looking at the wrong datasheet), but I do see an 80CRI part that can supposedly do 300L at 1.0A at 2.86Vf. I suspect that using Luxeon T has as much to do with their runtime figures as a fancy buck/boost driver might. FWIW if Vf is as low as Philips says then ZL would use a straight up Buck driver!
Looking again, I do not think ZL is correct about using a Luxeon T. More likely they use Luxeon TX # L1T2-5085000000000 since that matches the spec they give. Vf is still low, they’re still running at close to 1A (a little over it seems) - an efficient buck circuit should give them the runtime they claim?
Shortly after initial turn-on with your light you should be looking at 80+ efficiency. Efficiency gets higher as Vbat drops w/ the linear driver. So like 90 before an NCR18650B is half empty. Since this comparison is a long ways from apples-to-apples it’s hard to say how they compare. I would expect the linear setup to do well.