I just received my Cree L1 today and it is awesome. It's my first Surefire, and I can see what all the fuss is about with this brand. It's a fantasically well-built little light.
I compared it to my Fenix P2D CE and the hotspot seems a bit bigger, and much, much warmer. It appears (to my eyes, anyway) that the L1 on high (advertised 65 lumens for 1.5 hrs) is brighter than the P2D on high (advertised 80 lumens for 2 hours), but not quite as bright as the P2D on turbo (advertised 135 lumens for 1 hr). The reflector in the L1 is smooth, and the lens is frosted a little bit to smooth out the beam a bit. All-in-all, it seems like a fantastic torch. I'd take some beamshot pictures, but my camera stopped working last week while on vacation (perfect time for a camera to stop working, of course).