If this light just had a low that I could use, I would be all over it. My typical use is in the house and walking to/from the car at night. Any more than 10 lumens is too bright for my most used level. Rough number since its floody.
Has anyone changed the driver in one of these to get a decent low and maybe current regulation? If it comes apart easy, this might be a great upgrade.
Just got my Yezl Z1x in the mail yesterday. This is my first 18650 light. All my other LED lights are smaller lights using AA, AAA, or CR123 or similar sized cells.
My first impressions:
(1) Build quality looks rather shoddy - the anodizing looks cheap and the lettering looks painted on and is not at all crisp. Even worse, the bit of plastic at the base of the lanyard looks to have dented in the thin outer edge of the lanyard mount on the casing of the light. This dent is quite large - perhaps 2 mm deep and is very visible. The anodizing around the edges of the dent has cracked and flaked off. The build just looks and feels cheap.
(2) The tailcap unscrewed smoothly and the battery fit fine (I used an AW protected 2600 mah 18650). Turning it on... WOW! This sucker is BRIGHT!!! Far brighter than my Thrunite 1C (estimated at 450 lumens), or my Xeno E03 with XML (estimated at 490 lumens). The beam is ringy due to the small smooth reflector and large die, but this isn't really a problem because of the huge amount of light coming out of the front.
(3) Too heavy for EDC - The Yezl doesn't look that much bigger than the Thrunite 1C. They're almost the same width and the Yezl is only about an inch longer. But the Yezl feels like it weighs around twice as much. This is probably due to the weight of the heavier battery combined with the Yezl's thick pill. The Yezl fits in my pocket, but I don't think I'd carry it as an EDC light unless I knew I'd be needing a strong light.
(4) Grip feels decent - the knurling on the Yezl is very subtle. But it's enough to make the light feel secure in the hand.
Thanks for the review, firelight ;) That Xeno you bought from Tactical hid, right? Have you tried it with 14500? I mean, this Yezl is brighter than Xeno with 14500? Thanks.
The Yezl is much brighter than the Xeno with 14500. Another poster measured the Yezl at 814 lumens out the front, compared to 490 for the Xeno. It's much stronger. As it should be since the Yezl reportedly pulls 2.5-3.3 amps depending on the type of cell used compared to 1.56 amps for the Xeno. The Xeno using 14500 is a great light, but it's more of an EDC pocketable light. The Yezl is really just too heavy for EDC use.
The Xeno feels like a much higher quality product though. The built quality on it feels as good as my Jetbeam, Fenix, and Thrunite lights - lights which cost twice as much.
And what can you tell about beam profile? (Xeno vs. Yezl) Yezl should have tighter hotspot because of the SMO reflextor, or am I wrong? (does it have CREE rings)
The Yezl has a tighter hotspot because its reflector is smooth and is also wider than the Xeno. The Xeno, with its narrower orange peal reflector produces a very floody beam good for short range. Neither is a thrower, but the Yezl definitely has more throw than the Xeno.
The Xeno's beam profile is quite smooth due to its orange peal reflector. It looks a lot like the profile of the Thrunite Neutron 1C. In contrast, the Yezl's beam profile has LOTs of rings in it. If you want a ring-free beam, this is not the light for you. The rings don't really bother me though, because there is quite a bit of light between the rings.
If your goal is to just light something up as bright as possible, the Yezl is a far better choice. It uses an 18650 cell and is far brighter than the much more pocketable Xeno E03 which uses a single AA or 14500.
It seems this light got a sibling, the UniqueFire UF2100 at MF for 23$ (incl. shipping). High-Mid-FastStrobe though.
For US$13 or so less (with CN's shipping cost added), it seems like it would be worth sacrificing the low mode for a strobe mode.
Hm, the description changed to 1-mode meanwhile.
BTW, I love compact 18650 flashlight and modded a few to XM-L, but the YEZL Z1X slightly surpasses them according to my measurements, in flux (total brightness) as well as in thow.
I just realized I did this review before I had my integrating sphere. Updated the first post with lumen rating on high (814.2L).
Thanks for the update.
I don't have an integrating sphere but was doing a very rough eyeball ceiling bounce test comparing the Yezl to my brand new and very non-budget Zebralight SC600 which just arrived in the mail today. Amazingly the SC600 seems noticeably brighter. Too bad my SC600 has a defective switch (turns on when brushed against instead of clicked), so I'll have to send it back for repair. Otherwise, seems like a great light. Fits the hand better than my other 18650s (Yezl Z1X and Shiningbeam S-mini).
Bah! I'm still waiting on mine....Lillian from Zebra said it wouldn't ship until the end of the month.... I was hoping to have my SC600 by now to do a full review. I did read about your switch dilemma...something about a missing/bad capacitor?
I think it is interesting that you have a budget light sitting on top of near $300 knife.
Yes.
However, the switch problem seems to have gone away on its own. I guess I'll stick with it for awhile. If it stays away I'll keep it instead of sending it back for repair. It really is amazing light. Feels better in the hand than any other light I've ever held. I was skeptical when I saw the first pictures of the SC600 because it seemed to only have a little bit of knurling on the tailcap and on the center of the body. But having felt it in hand, the knurling and finger indents are actually perfectly placed. It feels nearsly as secure in the hand as lights with much more aggressive knurling such as the Shiningbeam S-mini.
You know, you're the first person to recognize it. I always end up using it for a light prop merely because it's always in my pocket and therefore handy. Good eye :)
I Am partial to OTF knives especially microtechs.
Completely off topic, but I've never handled a Microtech. I bet they are smooooth.
My favorite high end knife is the BM Osbourne 940, but the Strider I was gifted sure is build like a tank.
Yup...very smooth and double action Out-The-Front knives are fun as heck to play with. Click-clack, click-clack. Also, very strong and reliable, especially considering the abuse I've put mine through.
Microtechs, the Piranha Excalibur, and Desert Knifeworks Sandshark are some of the good ones, though the later being extremely hard to find. I also noticed that Microtech has reintroduced the Makora II! I missed out on one the first round...
There are double action knives? OMG. I did not know that. I need to get out more. But on the other hand, they are probably banned here anyway. So guess I'm just sticking with my old-school double action then. The loud one.