http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.8923 is the laser I ordered from Deal Extreme. I also ordered a 20 mW laser pointer for my brother. Like most people I waited and waited and watched my order status shift forwards and backwards until finally they shipped... my brother's laser... mine took another week to arrive via registered mail which meant another delay and a trip to the post office... 
So I go to the post office on my way to work in the morning
and pick it up - it rattles - loudly. Opening the bubble envelope I find a box exactly like the one pictured on the DX website. It's a cardboard box with a wad of cotton or foam in the bottom covered with a piece of silk-type fabric, so only the bottom of the box is padded which leaves the laser and the un-installed battery to rattle around in the box. It came out of the box without a scratch on it, so the packaging must work, it's just not as nice and secure as most of the laser pointer boxes are. The included instructions are for a laser pointer and do not match or help with this laser which doesn't use 2 AA batteries as the instructions suggest. Thankfully there is a diagram inside the laser to indicate which way the + end of the included 123A battery goes.
I put the el-cheapo brand battery that came with it into the laser and begin to tighten down the end cap. Just as the cap cinches down tight, the laser comes on and stays on. I try to click off the "Clicky on/off" button and discover it's not a "Clicky on/off" at all but a momentary contact switch - and it only works if you don't cinch the end cap all the way down. If you turn the end cap past the last 1/2 turn then the laser stays on, so you can turn it on and leave it on if you want/need to. Thankfully I was smart enough not to be looking at the dangerous end while I tightened it down.
When it came time to shine it on the wall, the first thing I noticed was a smeary line that intersected the green point on the wall. A quick wipe with a clean cloth on the flashlight lens made the smear go away, but there was still a "starry nights" look with several hundred tiny green spots surrounding the main green point (see the dot picture on the DX website, only imagine it twice as bad). I later discovered that this was due to the laser bouncing back off of the lens and then bouncing back off the reflector cone. When I removed the front lens it went to a single (and much brighter) green dot. Note: the front lens on this "10 meter waterproof diving laser" is a flimsy plastic disc, you can easily bend it with minimal effort and it would surely be the failure point if taken underwater. All three threaded sections have multiple threads and decent O-rings (the front lens ring is the skimpiest of the 3) and I have no doubt that with a better lens (preferably one that is more transparent to a green laser) it could be made waterproof.
Now, with regards to the brightness of the laser. I have no way to test it other than by comparing it to other green lasers. My brother's laser is the 20 mW from DX (http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.7544) and there is an obvious difference between the beams and dots from our lasers, with mine being substantially brighter. I used to have a 5 mW green laser and his 20 mW is significantly brighter with a more visible beam than I remember ever seeing on my old laser, so I'm inclined to believe that is laser is close to the 20 mW mark. Based on that I'd say mine has to be at least 40 mW as the dot is at least 50% brighter and the beam is much more visible to the naked eye.
From within my office, I can shoot the beam through a window, across the parking lot to the roof of the storage shed out in the satellite farm (about 25 yards) and see the dot on a black shingle roof in broad daylight. I can't really go any further without worrying about traffic or other windows.
I'll dig out my digital camera and try to get some pictures of the dot and beam if people are interested.
Bottom line bullet points:
+ For the money, it's a heck of a bright, clean laser (with the lens removed).
- I wouldn't recommend buying it if you plan to dive with it straight out of the box. There is nothing on the packaging or instructions or labeling to back up the claim on the DX website that this laser was intended for underwater use.
+ It's very sturdily made (except for the lens) and has a real nice heft to it.
- If I had waited another 48 hours for the release of the 90 mW version I'd have spent the extra $10 for it instead.
- Does not have a Clicky On/Off switch as advertised, but it can be easily set to stay on with a twist of the end cap.
- The flashlight form factor does have the disadvantage of tricking people into thinking it's a flashlight instead. I can easily imagine someone picking this up thinking it's a flashlight and pointing it at their face while to try to figure out why it's spitting out a tiny green beam instead of traditional flashlight beam. It does have the standard class IIIb warning label applied, but I doubt that's enough against a determined Darwin Award candidate. I have 4 other flashlights of almost this same size, so I'll have to be extra careful to keep this one out of the hands of others.
So I go to the post office on my way to work in the morning
and pick it up - it rattles - loudly. Opening the bubble envelope I find a box exactly like the one pictured on the DX website. It's a cardboard box with a wad of cotton or foam in the bottom covered with a piece of silk-type fabric, so only the bottom of the box is padded which leaves the laser and the un-installed battery to rattle around in the box. It came out of the box without a scratch on it, so the packaging must work, it's just not as nice and secure as most of the laser pointer boxes are. The included instructions are for a laser pointer and do not match or help with this laser which doesn't use 2 AA batteries as the instructions suggest. Thankfully there is a diagram inside the laser to indicate which way the + end of the included 123A battery goes.
I put the el-cheapo brand battery that came with it into the laser and begin to tighten down the end cap. Just as the cap cinches down tight, the laser comes on and stays on. I try to click off the "Clicky on/off" button and discover it's not a "Clicky on/off" at all but a momentary contact switch - and it only works if you don't cinch the end cap all the way down. If you turn the end cap past the last 1/2 turn then the laser stays on, so you can turn it on and leave it on if you want/need to. Thankfully I was smart enough not to be looking at the dangerous end while I tightened it down.
When it came time to shine it on the wall, the first thing I noticed was a smeary line that intersected the green point on the wall. A quick wipe with a clean cloth on the flashlight lens made the smear go away, but there was still a "starry nights" look with several hundred tiny green spots surrounding the main green point (see the dot picture on the DX website, only imagine it twice as bad). I later discovered that this was due to the laser bouncing back off of the lens and then bouncing back off the reflector cone. When I removed the front lens it went to a single (and much brighter) green dot. Note: the front lens on this "10 meter waterproof diving laser" is a flimsy plastic disc, you can easily bend it with minimal effort and it would surely be the failure point if taken underwater. All three threaded sections have multiple threads and decent O-rings (the front lens ring is the skimpiest of the 3) and I have no doubt that with a better lens (preferably one that is more transparent to a green laser) it could be made waterproof.
Now, with regards to the brightness of the laser. I have no way to test it other than by comparing it to other green lasers. My brother's laser is the 20 mW from DX (http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.7544) and there is an obvious difference between the beams and dots from our lasers, with mine being substantially brighter. I used to have a 5 mW green laser and his 20 mW is significantly brighter with a more visible beam than I remember ever seeing on my old laser, so I'm inclined to believe that is laser is close to the 20 mW mark. Based on that I'd say mine has to be at least 40 mW as the dot is at least 50% brighter and the beam is much more visible to the naked eye.
From within my office, I can shoot the beam through a window, across the parking lot to the roof of the storage shed out in the satellite farm (about 25 yards) and see the dot on a black shingle roof in broad daylight. I can't really go any further without worrying about traffic or other windows.
I'll dig out my digital camera and try to get some pictures of the dot and beam if people are interested.
Bottom line bullet points:
+ For the money, it's a heck of a bright, clean laser (with the lens removed).
- I wouldn't recommend buying it if you plan to dive with it straight out of the box. There is nothing on the packaging or instructions or labeling to back up the claim on the DX website that this laser was intended for underwater use.
+ It's very sturdily made (except for the lens) and has a real nice heft to it.
- If I had waited another 48 hours for the release of the 90 mW version I'd have spent the extra $10 for it instead.
- Does not have a Clicky On/Off switch as advertised, but it can be easily set to stay on with a twist of the end cap.
- The flashlight form factor does have the disadvantage of tricking people into thinking it's a flashlight instead. I can easily imagine someone picking this up thinking it's a flashlight and pointing it at their face while to try to figure out why it's spitting out a tiny green beam instead of traditional flashlight beam. It does have the standard class IIIb warning label applied, but I doubt that's enough against a determined Darwin Award candidate. I have 4 other flashlights of almost this same size, so I'll have to be extra careful to keep this one out of the hands of others.
