Me too.
Same idea,
Lennart
1.8A on AA, .8A on tired 14500 (noticeably but not incredibly brighter). used my cheap meter (batteries dead in decent one) but the tail cap spring is pretty thin so that's probably close to current when assembled.
emitter had major smudges that cleaned off, otherwise perfect condition.
H-L-Strobe
knurled ring at tail changes emitter position through internal mechanism.
donut hole at full flood, 270 degree range of travel on the knob, ~220 degrees is best focus, ~30 degrees removes donut.
fairly typical tir beam pattern but larger hotspot and less spill at focus (center section of this tir is quite large)
lens/head/bezel are screwed onto the plastic diffuser and are easy to remove (plastic diffuser is not but can be pushed back in).
sliding the head slightly forward (enough for a bit of spill through diffuser) will give fully focused emitter image but w/ less lux than w/ head fully seated and tail ring turned to best focus.
head fully extended makes a fair lantern. some light still goes through the lens...slightly more lux than the spill, w/ a donut hole. the tail adjustment does slightly affect the angle of spill in lantern mode.
tail switch and spring are retained w/ aluminum screw in cover.
emitter is on very small pcb and apparently retained by leads/solder which use through holes. not an easy swap if you wanted xm-l.
this is a decent light, but it is what it is, I won't bother trying to mod. It might be a little more impressive w/ a quality, fully charged 14500, but there's no way it will throw like a sk68
Campers that are not addicted to high power lights might like it quite a bit for versatility, but it isn't great at anything.
It will get an energizer lithium, a lot of glow tape, and then spend its remaining days in my 2-3 man tent bag (or until a fellow camper offers to buy it lol).
Make this light 18650 w/ xml and no tail adjustment (ie just slider that over extends), then add a clip and you've got a big winner around the campsite.
Thanks for the write-up!
Still waiting for mine... :tired:
Glad to see this one came back around. Thanks for the update.
@dthrckt: Thanks for the feedback. You don't sound very pleased with that light. With the Meritline discount it's only $8, though.
@weiser
Any link for that another one (18650)? Thank you.
I'm pleased for the price, but it isn't very exciting either. I wish it was easier to stick an xm-l in there.
It does make a decent lantern, and you won't loose the diffuser...
I've only seen it on Taobao, which definitely isn't worth the hassle for such a cheap light.
Roger that. Thanks. 
I got mine today from Meritline and the description is misleading. These do not have XP-Gs, they have XR-Es.
I am not all that impressed with the beam pattern, the flood beam has a dark spot in the center of the hot spot and the tight beam really isn't that great, especially when compared to a SK68 which overall puts out a better quality and much brighter beam.
The only pros to this light are the build quality, the focus mechanism is built solid and I am surprised at the lantern function. I thought it was going to be flimsy, but it is solid. The head won't budge unless you want it to and the light output of the lantern is actually usable.
I am disappointed, I really wanted to play with a XP-G.
Good to have you here, PDXoriginal.
Thanks.
Meritline is making me jump through hoops to resolve this... I sent them a pic of mine which clearly is a XR-E. Normally I wouldn't care over 10 bucks, but I waited almost 3 weeks to mess around with a XP-G to get let down.
That does look more like an XP-E (3 stripes) than XR-E... but you are right it's not the emitter that is advertised (XP-G 4 stripes).
Just checked mine.
Definitely XP-E (not XR-E or XP-G).
Funny I didn't notice when I spent 10 minutes trying to get the smudges off of it.
meh, should have xm-l anyway
I just checked and Meritline never mentions the actual emitter type... just the binning (R5)... but as far as I know R3/R4 is the max binning for XP-Es... so it is at least misleading.
Got mine from DX today.
Have not much to add to dthrckt's excellent description besides that the DX version has a rather nice forward clicky which is made as one single unit (like the ones Romisen uses in the RC-G2).
And yes, it's a XP-E. |(
when I was checking mine I took a minute to look at where the emitter is mounted. It might not be too hard to put an xm-l in there - it would be easy if I can get the whole center assembly out (could use a file on the mounting location) but even if I can't I'll use an end mill to remove the raised section that holds the little xpe pcb, which will make the mounting location wider/deeper.
I might even be able to screw it down.
More to come, but be patient :)
hm, Meritline is specifying this as an R5 emitter. ??
yeah, but they've specified xm-l and sent xr-e before so...
same think w/ the sk68...they show an r5 one now, might even say xp-g
I don't have a problem w/ that AS MUCH as I do w/ them continuing the false advertising after I point out the mistakes to their customer service