Thank you Monocrom. Here is absolutely fine as you have me convinced with this light.
Sorry about a bit of a late reply. Real world has a nasty habit of getting in the way of enjoying one of my favorite hobbies. Okay..... You asked why I like the Streamlight Protac 2L-X so much that I bought a 2nd one.
Honestly, it's the total package that you get with the light. Sometimes one thing being idiotically designed is enough to ruin a light. Two examples: The old Night-Ops Gladius, and the current SureFire EDCL2-T. Now the Gladius suffered from two things: One, it was about a decade ahead of its time. Meaning that LED technology back when it was introduced simply was not advanced enough to give this light the output it deserved at the upper end, along with the needed range of output it could put out on the mid. range.
Ultimately, that wasn't the fatal flaw that caused the Gladius to temporarily be a dead-end on the evolutionary tree of flashlight development. To see where the Gladius would have gone had it been introduced later, look no further than Olight's current Warrior model.
No, what ruined it was that absolute, cheap, miserable joke of a tailcap. It's as though Night-Ops ran out of money, and just tacked it on there. It's like trying to get maximum performance out of a Corvette by putting four used, bald tires on it; and hitting the track. It's just moronic. The fact that you had an overly complicated procedure for swapping out batteries, didn't help either.
One thing.... One thing was all that was needed to kill a light that should have been popular far longer than it was on CPF. After the Gladius, Night-Ops put their name on a bunch Made in China junk No-name lights and the brand isn't even mentioned on these boards anymore.
SF EDCL2-T. 1200 Lumens in a relatively compact package. What's not to love?.... How about the idiotic placement of the clip that causes the entire tailcap to stick out above from a pocket seam when carrying the light. Great way for your light to snag on EVERYTHING and fall out of your pocket! Why did SureFire do that? They went to their parts bin and that's literally the longest two-way carry-clip they have. So instead of having their R&D department make a new clip for it, they simply cheaped out and went with an existing clip that works fine.... on their shorter pocket-carry models.
The Streamlight Protac 2L-X literally got everything right. From it's dual-fuel option of 1x18650 ~or~ 2xCR123s, to the excellent U.I. that can be programmed to give you the type of modes that YOU want. To the two-way pocket-clip that sits flush with the top of the tailcap so it won't snag. And for the fashion conscious, it won't cause the light to stand out when clipped to a pocket. Wear a pair of black pants, the light and clip literally become invisible. Nice selection of modes. Strobe if you want it. Program it hidden away if you don't. Not just bright as hell and a low option like with SureFire. But good medium settings too. The beam is an excellent combination of throw and flood, with throw being favored a bit more. Just works fantastic for my needs. A bezel that isn't too fat for pocket-carry.
This light shows what happens when every detail is properly paid attention to.
