Review: XinTD X3 (3S AA / 26650)

LED Flashlights – General Info Multiple AA / 14500 Flashlights
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Date ordered 2013/06/28
Date received 2013/07/22
Price paid $45
From International Outdoor Store

Manufacturer/Vendor Specifications

Dimensions 155mm X 37.8mm X 54.8mm
Emitter XM-L2 U2 1A
Modes Firefly (5mA) -> Low (2%) -> Medium (25%) -> High (100%, 3.04A), memory sets after 2 seconds
Driver Qlite Rev.A 7135*8, 17mm
Battery 3xAA w/carrier, 26650 under 67mm
Switch tailcap reverse clicky
Lens AR glass
Pill Integrated pill, direct thermal path from MCPCB to cooling fins









Reviewer Specifications

Driver 21.5mm
Lens 49.5mm
Anodized threads Yes
Tailstands Yes
Lanyard Yes



Images

I'm still learning how to setup and shoot macros in my lightbox, and the white balance is horrible. It's too dark and red.


The steel bezel on this light is flat, so be careful when standing it on its head because you may not notice if it's on. The ridges along the body and tailcap don't quite line up. That tail cap looks like it will make it tailstand well.


And it does.


Unfortunately the bezel has a blemish above the warning.


When the tailcap comes off, the AA battery carrier is exposed. I've already put Superlube on the threads.


Here's what the threads really look like when it arrives. Dry. The inside of the battery tube is anodized.


Here's the guts.




Here's a better shot of the inside of the tailcap. Its threads are anodized too. That's not a scratch at 11:00, it's lint.


Now it's time to inspect the "unihead". There's no separate pill. The MCPCB and driver are mounted directly to the head which creates a direct thermal path. The driver is held in with a 21.5mm OD retaining ring. These threads were dry too.


At the bottom of this picture is the bezel. The bezel has slip-fit o-ring design like the head does in the image above. Above it is the lens, which is supposed to be AR coated, but I can't see it. Then there's reflector. Around the edge of the reflector is another o-ring, which is also of the slip-fit design.


This shows how the o-ring fits between the reflector and the head. The lens is on top. Can you see the AR coating?? Another BLF member says he saw the AR coating, and that's it's barely visible.


I haven't measured it yet, but I'm pretty sure this is a 20mm MCPCB. The only downside of unihead construction is that it's harder to reach the MCPCB. Too bad it's not a Noctigon.


Battery Fitment

One of the big attractions to this light was being able to use anything from a trio of AAA's in adapters to a 26650. Unfortunately the battery tube isn't long enough to fit protected cells. According to Hank of Intl-Outdoor, the XinTD X3 can only fit cells up to 67mm long.

Cell Results
Eneloop AA's Works, but high mode isn't fully achieved.
Eneloop AAA's Testing to follow...need more AA adapters.
Amazon Basics AAA's Testing to follow...need more AA adapters.
MNKE IMR26650, unprotected, button top Works, but the first time it turned on when tailcap was screwed on, and it wouldn't change modes. It worked normally when I re-tightened the tailcap.
King Kong INR26650, unprotected, button top Works.
King Kong ICR26650, unprotected, flat top Works.
Trustfire flames ICR26650, protected, button top Untested. It sticks so far out of the tailcap that I won't risk going further.
Keeppower ICR26650, protected, button top Untested. It sticks so far out of the tailcap that I won't risk going further.


Tailcap Testing



Cell Firefly Low Medium High
Eneloop AA's 4.7mA 16mA 67mA 2.1A
Trustfire flames ICR26650, protected, button top 4.98mA 16.85mA 70.9mA 3.02A



Construction

The unihead construction gets rid of the standard removable pill and mounts the MCPCB directly to the head. This gives heat a direct thermal path from the MCPCB to the cooling fins. During beamshot testing the XinTD X3 barely warmed up perceptively. As the picture shows below, the MCPCB is a 20mm aluminum MCPCB. It's supposed to have screws to hold down the MCPCB, but they were missing. Hank quickly offered to send out replacement screws when I told him about this. Even though the MCPCB uses screws to hold it in place, it still uses thermal compound (Fujik?), which will make modding more difficult than it should be.


Output

During outdoor beamshot testing, the XinTD X3 compared favorably to the HD2010. It has a wider hotspot that limits throw, has less spill, but has a nicer tint.

These beam shots were done with a fully charged flat top King Kong ICR26650 in the XinTD X3 and fully charged button top King Kong INR26650 in the HD2010. The HD2010 has Ultrafire branding with an XM-L T6, purchased from Tmart back when all the East92 drivers were still direct drive, and completely unmodified other than greased threads.

Here is a map of the testing venue.

XinTD X3 vs. HD2010 @61.45 meters

XinTD X3 vs. HD2010 @89.04 meters

XinTD X3 vs. HD2010 @162.51 meters



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@Home

On the trail

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SL3/JM25 holster

From: Intl-outdoor
Price: $6.35

Just in case this picture doesn't show it well enough, the bottom opening of the holster is a tight fit. Hopefully it looses with time.

The head is a great fit and the velcro aligns well.

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Subscribed.

5

Hey Leaftye, any idea if the lense on this light could be replaced with the after market wide angle lense from actionledlights?

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+1

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Unfortunately not. The XinTD X3 uses a 49.5mm lens and the wide angle bike lens is 39mm.

I ordered a 50mm lens from KD. It's supposed to have an AR coating. If it fits, may you could order that to mod. I like to accessorize my lights, so I'll keep an eye out for a wide angle lens and add it to the third part of the review I find one.

8

Waiting for this review, but I think atbglenn has me already convinced that this one is good. :wink:

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Can it be ran on Alkaline AAs? (I ask because I would like to buy this light for a non-flashaholic.)

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The driver is rated up to 4.5V, so it shouldn't have a problem with it. I'll try it out and pull some tailcap readings for you if I can find my alkaline AA's.

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yeah. got mine running on duraloops right now. i think _the_ recorder over an hour on high before it stepped down on nimh

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thats nice to hear that it runs well on NiMH batteries.

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Added outdoor beam shots. Still haven't got around to doing the beam angle picture and wall shots.

My multimeter refuses to work with tailcap current testing even though it worked with my charger a few days ago. HKJ recommends an alternative that derives the current by checking voltage with and without a resister...I'm working on this.

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I would like to say, anyone sitting on the fence about this light, just buy one and be happy, I love mine to bits, it has everything, options for modes, a brilliant moon low if you wish, emitter options to suit everyone, from cw to ho cri, will basically run on most common flashaholic cells, I believe that though its not recommended and I’ve not tried it myself, you can even force two cr123’s to run it although I dont recommend it. The reflector gives a smooth beam although you do get a couple of reflection rings from the bezel.

Put it this way, I packed up all my lights for my house move. The two I kept on hand other than edc’s, were my holstered trustfire t2 and my xintd x3. I got the 6a1 tint and it’s that good its bumped the 4c tint as my favourite, the high cri is just a thing to behold if you’ve not tried it before, cw lights suddenly become unusable because everything looks so bland and washed out.

The thick body tube also gives a very satisfying grip, it fits the hand just so.

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Do you own photoshop? Getting rid of that yellow is a snap. Gimp is a free alternative if you don't own photoshop.

Oh also, what's the best way to run this light. It seems like King Kong, rather than eneloops?

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Wow Gords, I'm in full agreement with you. The X3 is a brilliant design with many options. I'm hold mine right now.....I'm talking about the X3! lol!

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mines sat next to me whilst I enjoy an ale and a baileys in the new house, I’m watching the sun go down, pulled my convoy l2 out of storage and I’m going to introduce myeelf to the neighbours the only way a flashaholic knows how…….with a few hundred lumens of nw and hi cri throw J) 0:) :party:

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Gords, congrats on the new house. I wish I could be there to do a couple of shots with you. Hope all is well with you and yours

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I'm using gimp right now. I wouldn't say it's a snap. I can use a smart crop of some sort, but then I have to decide what to do about the shadow. I could use a color match to select and then crop or delete, but it inevitably matches part of the bezel. On my K2 review it matched part of the white side clickie and made it disappear in some of the 360° pictures. There's not enough data to do a good white balance or adjust the brightness or curves, which probably wouldn't have happened if I shot RAW instead of jpeg.

It would be so much better if I can master the use of a light box enough so that photos require nothing more than a simple crop and resize to use in reviews.

I might try more editing or reshoot the pictures, but I need to work on other parts of the review first. I might even leave the bad pictures up as a reminder of how much I've progressed...in hopes that my photography and editing skills progress.

Maybe I'll hit you up for tips if decide to go back and edit instead of taking new pictures.


Good question. I'll be adding lux meter and tailcap current readings to find out.

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I wish you could be here too buddy, the seller even left us bacardi and whisky, along with tools for the garden and a lot of other stuff, I’m really really stoked with the new house and I now have a workshop, the neighbours are soon to find out what a 5a xp-g2 vs dedomed 5a xm-l2 looks like, the lucky buggers, I also have an acceptable beam shot range from my back door with not too much light pollution. Gords has done good. I even have a street light to try and turn off from my bedroom window, oh the new neighbours will love me lol.