Unless it was significantly discounted I wouldn't buy one because of the clip. Who the hell would clip a light lens out like that to it is exposed to dirt and scratches and the switch can get pressed in your pocket when you sit or something. Stupid design, IMO. :~
hows the low? its probably gonna be another xeno without a low enough low...
some critical points to consider:
- xeno's E03 is not known for perfect stabilization of brightness versus runtime, see quarks and zebralight: the E03 dims on HI-mode both on Eneloops and on 14500's.
- too long and heavy-ish for clipping to my trouser pockets. the 18700 XTAR cell alone weighs 48.1grams. i am not going to carry a 100g light in my pants, no way. (my Tank E09 with 10440 weighs 20grams!). the bezel-up pocket clip idea was exploited in 1xAA lamps for clipping to baseball hats and the E03, with a LD20 clip, works beautifully this way; weight and size suited the baseball hat well. however the S3A .. erh..
- the physical switch ("clicky") is the same el cheapo as known from the E03. the clicky will cause flickering at some point and then you either have to bath it in WD40 (or deoxit) or replace it with the spare el cheapo clicky. guess why Xeno has included a spare one in the accessories bag. it's not because Xeno is more generous than 4sevens with the packaged accessories. it's because the Xeno clicky is one of the cheapest and weakest point in the entire design.
- if you're a flashaholic then you probably like its optical design esthetics for 2 straightforward reasons: it's new, and it's a Xeno! and anything else doesnt bother you much and you are already about to pull the trigger no matter what because you love brand new lights especially if they are released by great flashlight brands. a true aficionado or collectionist you are, good for you, good for Xeno sales, i dont mind! [...] On the other hand i need to be honest and ask myself if i really do enjoy how a brand new torch looks .. and spontaneously i am thinking that the new Xeno doesnt match my taste; then again i dont like the optical designs of Balder's, Zebralight's, Sipik clones and so many other brands either, and hopefully the S3A meets the taste of many potential buyers! imho the E03 was kinda good-looking with an overall harmonic optical design. Btw, it's interesting why man finds something beautiful and why something isnt perceived as beautiful although only very very little differs, a subtlety maybe:
This topic was covered in a BBC documentary (episode) about "What is beauty?". They found out that in general most people found something more beautiful when the item/object/subject/person/thing/etc was rather simple, symmetric, and had "perfect proportions" and thus produced harmonic looks in the eye of the beholder. When things got tangled, complex, complicated, asymmetric, disproportionate, distorted, the viewer had a hard time to call it "beautiful". No offense, I am not saying that i find the S3A ugly .. but i am saying that the left photo of the girl looks more beautiful (and harmonic and with better proportions) than the right photo duh.
:D
@saypat - that's an old Fenix LD10 Q5, my 2nd/3rd LED light I believe.
@johnnymac - yeah, I'm never fond of bezel up carry for the very reasons you cited. I was clipping the light to the side of a pocket in my messenger bag last night and decided against it and instead left it bezel down within the pocket. On the plus side, one could clip this to the bill of a hat for hands free use but would've been great if one were able to reverse the clip.
@overclocker - the "Ultra Low" is quoted as being 20lms OTF. I'll have measurements up later tonight.
@cabfrank/kreisler - as with the G10v2, they have decided to drive the light moderately to increase runtime and prolong life of components, etc. With that said, these two lights run nearly perfectly regulated. The G10v2 does drop a little on High after turn-on but starting around 3 minutes (and provided there is sufficient cooling) will run perfectly regulated. I conducted a run of the S3A last night but due to 9999 row limitation of the Extech software logging, it got cut off but it runs perfectly regulated on High. I'll redo it tonight and post the graph.
As for the design, obviously beauty is in the eye of the beholder but I'd have to agree that the better proportions in the top pic is definitely more agreeable than the one on the bottom.
However, I suppose there is only so much you can do with a minimalistic compact form. Subjectively, I really like the design of the G10v2, but that has a substantial amount of extra material to it with which one could sculpt/mill with. The S3A is the polar opposite of that. The good thing is that XENO has been receptive to feedback and constantly upgrades their products.
Hey, Turbo...do you have a Zebralight SC60 you could put the Xeno next to and take a pic? I'm curious how they compare in size.
$60 is too expensive
You can get 4 x uniquefire 2100 for that price.
Sure it's nice but nothing special.
Johnny - sorry I don't have a SC60 but I did post up a side-by-side comparo with a SC30. Hope that helps.
All,
5m indoor shots now added and review fleshed out some more. Also as a new procedure, I will be doing one bounce shot on max ahead of the beamshots to give a rough idea of total output. These will be added to the Epic indoor shots threads over time but for now, I have the S3A and G10v2 up.
Cheers,
Tim
Off topic but: for I second I thought you were going to say the bottom picture was more attractive... that's what I thot minus the huge forehead =P
have changed the photo and added a link 
in the post hehe..
BFL and off topic threads? -- that's rare ;)
Thanks for the nice pics + reviews but $60 is not my cup of tea!
Oh oops, I was looking from my mobile so I said bottom pic. I meant the pic on the right with the shifted eyes is more attractive – at least to me
Great review as usual, thanks very much! And that’s a very sweet flashlight.
Frontpage’d and Sticky’d.
Thanks for the review turbo!
It's a beautiful looking light! 
Thx guys!
All, new material added along w/Fit & Finish & UI sections (search 6/11)
How good is stabilization on NCR18650A-based batteries? I’d guess just as flat up to ~2500mAh drained, then starts to gradually drop down?
I'll conduct that run tonight and post the results but yes, i'd expect it to be more or less as you've said.
Thanks for taking the effort, looking forward to the results 
Runtime chart now updated w/RL3100 and details. It's about 50 extra minutes of runtime vs. AW2600.
That’s quite nice regulation, thanks! Going to buy this one soon as E03’s 30 minutes (on 14500) aren’t good enough… I guess :Р
Add'l material and pics added along w/updated runtime graph and Initial Conclusion section (search 6/20).
Cheers,
Tim