I dont know the specfics but the m40a xml was launched a few months back over summer. You are correct that the Alkaline is referring to aa that are non rechargeable and bought in the store which have 1.5 volts. You should be able to get the full 600 lumens from all the batteries but some nice nimh batteries would be ideal. I just tried my light with alkalines and it appeared to be just as bright as when i use my eneloops. But runtime would surley suffer with alkalines and if you spend $130 or so on a light i would not risk using alkalines unless if you really are in a pinch.
I dont use alkalines in any of me battery powered devices. I have sanyo eneloops for everything. The light should be fine as long as the alkalines dont burst. Thats why a lot of guys on the forum dont like alkalines and perfer nimh to power their lights. If the battery would leak, it could cause damage phyiscally to the light. I should add that lithiums and nimh both are safer bets.
Sunwayman i believe used 2600mah batteries when calculating runtimes. Sanyo eneloops that i have are 2000mah but are low discharge. So i did a few calculations and 2600mah batteries run it for about 90 minutes which means the eneloops with 2000mah should run it about 70 minutes. But you can also buy lower and higher capicity batteries as well.
Noob here... I wonder if anyone has tried this with those 14500s? according to this: http://www.sunwayman.com/html/products/201005/26.html
"Working voltage:3.3~7V" does it means I can put those in w/o killing the torch (and myself)?
Yes you will kill the light. LiIon 14500 nominal voltage is 3.7volts, 3.7x4=14.8v will into the magic smoke range.
=D~~ Kilted