I bought one last week and I'm in the middle of still testing it. A full review will come later once I've really put it through the wringer.
As of right now I am happy with it. It feels solidly made and the use of 2xAAA instead of 3xAAA means that it's simple to recharge on any NiMH charger. The battery latch has not opened accidentally yet and seems fairly sturdy.
The white LED is a bit on the warmer side compared to most cool white LEDs and is very nice for walking around. The red is dim but perfect for close up tasks.
The user interface is so-so: it always goes from off-> red -> low white -> high white -> off. Unlike many other headlamps, you must click through the other levels to turn it off. However, the simplicity is appreciated.
It advertises IPX4 water resistance so I took it to the shower. The lens fogged up and the batteries got wet inside but it continued to function just fine. The switch did require more presses than usual to get to the right mode but once it dried out it worked perfectly again.
I could not replicate the issues I heard about in other reviews.
For the price it is hard to compare to anything else. The Petzl Tikkina 2 at $20 uses two 5mm LEDs and has no red LED. The Princeton Tec Fred at $20 might be comparable: one red LED and three white 5mm LEDs. Higher up in the price ladder ($40) gets you the Petzl Tikka 2 Plus which has a Seoul P4 and a red LED. The Mammut S-Flex and S-Lite offer similar functionality at $30 and $20, respectively, but I have not tried those yet.
Thus far I am cautiously optimistic about it being an excellent low-cost headlamp and so far others who attended PF16 agreed with me: some mentioned they'd like to try them out for their kids, since they already have high-end headlamps for themselves.
