This is a great light in its own right, and I’m afraid I’m going to compare it with its predecessor, the VG10, which is an extremely hard act to follow, as the VG10 is one of my absolute favorite lights. (In fairness, I need to mention that I was given a discount code for my VG10S to replace a VG10 that had a minor issue. If anything, that’s a big nod to Thorfire’s excellent customer service, as I didn’t expect essentially a whole new light just to fix a minor issue!)
Both lights are stoopit-bright, the VG10 is rated ~850lm and the VG10S 1100lm. If either of these isn’t bright enough to light your way, well, wait ’til sunrise. Side-by-side, both seem equally bright. Characteristics of their respective beams are different enough to make any “objective” sense of brightness iffy at best. The ’10 has an absolutely beautiful white but slightly ringy beam, with a faint yellowish halo around the hotspot, but not much tint-shift. The ’10S has a warmer but quite ringy beam, a stunningly beautiful warmer-white hotspot (love the tint!), but with a thicker yellow halo around it, and several “zones” of different shades of light from warm to cool as you work your way outwards. In practice, I don’t think anyone would really notice or object, but when white-wall hunting, it’s a bit disturbing.
The ’10 has a forward-clicky switch (momentary-on from off), which put me in Hog Heaven, as not many lights have FC switches, and I love FC switches. The ’10S has a reverse-clicky (momentary-off from on). I guess people who weren’t used to FC switches got confused at how to switch modes, so Thorfire went to a RC switch to make it easier. Okay, I dislike that (much preferring a FC switch), but I respect their decision.
Both the ’10 and ’10S come with pocket clips. I hate clips, so I immediately removed mine. 
The ’10 comes with a tactical-ring, whereas the ’10S doesn’t. No big deal, as I immediately removed the tactical-ring from my ’10, too, anyway. Both come with a packet with spare O-rings.
Modes, ah, modes… The VG10 has 4 absolutely perfectly spaced modes: moonlight, low, medium, and high. The VG10S also has 4 modes: a much lower firefly mode, then low, medium, and high. Unfortunately, the jump from firefly to low is quite jarring (from the lumen specs, 50:1), and the other 3 seem “bunched up” on the high-end of the brightness spectrum. The ’10 doesn’t suffer from blinky modes (strobe, “SOS”, etc.), whereas the ’10S has a hidden-strobe which you get to by doubleclicking. I hate strobes. I’d prefer a doubleclick to turbo or something, but not strobe. Oh, well…
Both the ’10 and ’10S have seemingly identical cases (battery-tube, tailcap, head) with only minor, minor differences. Eg, the bezels. The ’10 has 4 recessed sections whereas the ’10S has 6, and the bezel on the ’10S sits flush on the head, whereas on my ’10 there’s a slight “gap” as if it could be given an extra half-turn. So the fit is a bit better on the ’10S. Both lights tailstand perfectly if you want to use them in “candle” mode (ie, ceiling-bounce). Nice chamfered holes in the tailcap let you attach a lanyard that wouldn’t interfere with tailstanding if you so desire.
Both lights feel hefty and solid when you hold them. You know you have a good solid product in your hand when holding either one. Each one is a solid hunk of metal that will handle the insane levels of heat generated by the LED emitter in putting out ~1000lm of light. Don’t forget, 1100lm is about as much light as a 75W incandescent bulb in your house puts out! And you’re holding that in your hand. Like I said, the VG10S is stoopit-bright!
So, despite what sound like negative comparisons with the original VG10 aside, definitely, if you want to go from firefly levels of light (to not ruin your night-vision in the middle of the night) all the way to daylighting the path in front of you, you can’t go wrong with the VG10S. I’ve got… I think 6 at this point… Thorfire lights, and all of them are excellent. ’Though to be perfectly honest, while I prefer its predecessor, the original VG10, the new VG10S is no exception, and is an excellent light. And for the sale price, you can’t go wrong.
Beamshots! :sunglasses: