Color temperature may be similar, however the Nichia 219 shines with its high CRI. Normal Neutral XM-L’s are 70-75 CRI. This is 92 CRI. So I guess it depends what you are after, more light or the highest quality light.
Hi Ouchyfoot, got my Blue L2P today and it’s very nicely made, as usual. I now have a black one with M3 head and SS tail crown, Gold, Gray, Black and Blue. The gold one now has a McClicky for higher amperage, waiting for Matt to get his awesome Triple XP-G2 done with some 5+Amps!! 
It does look like the blue is not uniform in color though. Not a biggie to me, can’t see that well in the dark and it’s nearly impossible to detect when the light is putting out major photons to the front. 
Here it is helping the HD2010 guard my wife’s new Preon Pen Light, also blue. Also a very cool little light in it’s own right!
And by the way, the lighting for this picture is provided by a black L2P with EDC+ Triple Nichia 219 aboard, running in Med mode and about a meter away.
This might help you jump on a new Blue L2P, might not. My little boy is 5. His favorite color is red. He’s now undeniably a flashaholic. He has 2 lights of his own, one of which is the Sipik clone giveaway from O-L. And yes, it’s running a protected 14500 for max brightness!
That said, this blue L2P came out of the package and he said “That one’s gonna make my lights jealous! They’re gonna want to kick it’s tail for looking so good!” I kid you not…I think he’s got his eyes on my new host, which is now sporting a Vinh Ngyuen drop-in with XM-L2 at 5000K and Hi-Lo only modes at 3A. I thought it was only really good for in the house, but it lights up the side yard pretty darn good! (about 45 yds square)
Niiiiiiice!
I’ve been mulling over a mocha preon.
My Blue L2P was mailed today from Texas. I also ordered a SS flat bezel to go with it.
Thanks for the reply, I’m going to try the N219 in either your red Eo3 or an L2-L10 from SB, just have to decide which one. Then if I really like it I may also get your Xeno F7 w/Nichia 219.
Get the F7 Nichia.
I would say that its a money thing. Production lights are made to be budget friendly, but also be good quality. And nichia 219 LED’s are pretty expensive, so if production manufacturers started putting custom level materials into their products, their prices would go up, and if people had to pay custom prices for production models, then what’s the point of productions? People might as well just go put and buy a haiku.
And uninformed (and informed) people is now buying all sorts of fake Cree leds which are just blatantly ludicrous, colour rendition wise. :FACEPALM:
Cheers ^:)
Wow, thread dug up from the grave.
Anyway, I wonder if more manufacturers might start using the Nichia 219C in some of their models, given that its brightness and efficiency is closer to some of the standard Cree LEDs.
As much as I love the 219A, it was only about half as efficient as the best Cree XM-L2 from the same period.