Maglite XL-100 Reviewed

[Zelandeth]

So I finally got around to reviewing a light again...has only been three years since the last one.

The full review is here on my website. I've summarised the main points and some of the photos for convenience below.

I picked this up on the last day of my holiday in the States in May this year, as I had some money left and it wasn't going the be worth the hassle of getting it changed back - and it had been forever since I'd bought a light, and we were driving past a Target...and this little Mag caught my eye.

Have to admit that I've been very pleasantly surprised by this little light, it really does seem that Mag have done their homework in most respects.

My only real gripes at all with the light being the lack of any form of lanyard attachment point or anti roll device, and that the lens seems awfully cheap and nasty compared to the rest of the light.

The motion-sensing interface system, while initially baffling if you've not looked at the instruction manual does seem to work really quite well, allowing a bundle of different modes to all be accessed without hindering the ability to just grab the light and switch it on at a moments notice.

http://loz.zelandeth.org/cpf/maglite-xl100/tailcap.jpg[img]

If there was one way in which I would criticise this system, it's that actually holding onto the light while trying to change modes isn't the easiest of things to do, with the light tending to slide through your fingers thanks to the texture of the body and lack of any real knurling - though this does at least mean that the very pocket sized light won't shred the insides of your pockets.

Beam quality - surprisingly given the blotchy tendencies of their incandescent products - is actually very good. While the beam's not as smooth as that of a $200 Surefire with a stippled reflector, it's perfectly presentable, and I wouldn't even have noticed the slight irregularities in the main hotspot if I wasn't actually reviewing the light. The beam consists of a really rather bright central hotspot, a fairly narrow medium spot surrounding it, and a wide, gently dimming outer corona, with an abrupt cutoff at the edge. Despite a couple of minor artifacts in the hotspot itself which you can just about make out looking at a white surface, it's about the perfect beam for wandering around inside the house or walking around outside. The main hotspot is tight enough that it's got some real throw for such a small stock light, but there's enough sidespill that you're very unlikely to trip over something close-by.

[img]http://loz.zelandeth.org/cpf/maglite-xl100/beamshot.jpg

Apologies for the less than stellar beamshots...This apartment is nowhere near as well suited to this sort of thing as my old one, getting more than a couple of metres away from anything in here is somewhat of a nightmare as the place is about the size of a shoebox.

The camera unsurprisingly makes the hotspot look brighter than it actually is.

Here's a very off-centre (my fault, not the light's!) posterised image of the beam showing the overall profile outside the main hotspot.

The head can be unscrewed as with most Mag's to widen the beam - but I really wouldn't bother. This simply causes the beam to degrade into a horrible splodgy, ringy mess - and get dimmer due to the LED disappearing behind the reflector. Overall it doesn't actually get any broader either, as the outer edges of the beam are defined by line-of-sight with the LED within the bezel, the hotspot just gets more diffused.

Overall this is a light which I am very satisfied with and would definitely recommend to anyone for daily use. Score for this one came in at a solid 88%.

Marks were dropped for the following:

- Lack of any form of anti-roll or lanyard attachment points.
- Lack of a high quality lens to match the rest of the light.

My main niggle with the light lays with the battery holder, which makes it nigh on impossible to change the batteries in the dark.

Was nice to actually run something through the review process again - has been far, far too long! Especially nice in that it was something that is a little bit unique.

 

[o0o]

I just got mine.

I don't like it.

I generally like Maglite, but this thing is way overly complicated. I've read the instructions and am strugging with the UI.

First, let me say the build quality is very good for its price range. No faults here. Like other Maglites I own, it is of high quality workmanship.

Beam quality... pretty good. Unlike the incandescent models, this one puts out a beam that is usable.

Now, on to my peeves...

Size... ridiculously big for a AAA flashlight. At this size, why not just make it a AA light? This is by no means a concealable flashlight.

Battery holder... I hate it. While I'm sure it is relatively well made and sturdy, it is another piece to add to the complexity. And I can see this getting lost easily.

Back on the UI (user Interface)... instead of a billion settings, I would have preferred Low-Medium-High. I don't use SOS, strobe, etc....and I don't like having mulitiple modes and then settings within a mode. Keep the UI simple and have only 3 brightness settings, IMO.

Overall... too complicated and confusing to use for me to consider it for EDC. Its a step in the right direction compared to what Mag has done before, but my preference is for simplicity rather than having a ton of features I don't use. I give it a "C-" rating.

 

[Colorblinded]

The concept behind this light is brilliant IMO (no pun intended) but the implementation/execution of even the motion control mechanism alone just seems ill-conceived. It's disappointing, and I'm not sure how easily someone else will be able to move in and try something else without Mag trying to sue the pants off them.

I'd love to get my hands on one of these to test it out and do a review of it against some other lights and then break down the interface and how I think it could be improved. I just don't have the spare change to blow on picking one of them up.

 

[JNewell]

All I'll say is that it is GREAT to see an American company trying to do something that's innovative. Most US-made lights are either not very innovative or vaporware. And the made-in-China all-the-lastest-bells-and-whistles lights are not necessarily high quality and are coming from overseas. I bought one of these to give Mag a vote of support and to see what they were up to. I use very few of the "features," but the one thing I really like is that unlike many lights it has a very low low, which is too rare (but YMMV on how useful that is). So my bottom line: far from perfect, but a great and very welcome effort from a US company.

 

[Zelandeth]

I admit that I was sceptical about the UI...and spent a good while trying to figure out how on earth to make it work, eventually having to resort to the instructions.

What I like about it though is that it does give you access to all of those modes on the odd occasion that you need them without getting in any way in the way of being able to just pick the thing up and switch it on. Which let's face it, is that the vast majority of us do when we pick a light up.

I've used the dimming mode a couple of times when working close up (this evening when my PC threw a hissy fit for one), and the nightlight one evening a couple of weeks back at my parents place when we had a blackout - which is in the back of beyond, and when it's dark, it's DARK.

Yes, the UI does take a bit of learning, and certainly won't be to everyone's liking. I think that a couple of the modes could be dropped - strobe and SOS probably could go for a general purpose light, and rather than having the ramped brightness setting, maybe having a few preset steps. Again though...having the full variability is nice sometimes though.

I think it's a really clever idea, and I can't really see how you can execute something based on this principle all that much better without as indicated above, pulling modes out. Definitely open to hearing peoples suggestions though! I'm not saying that this is the best light ever produced and can't be criticised, I'm really curious to hear other people's views.

Definitely true that the system isn't going to be to everyone's liking, I think Mag deserve credit where it's due though, especially given how stuck in the Dark Ages they've seemed for a few years since high power LED's started to become common. It's nice to see them not only embracing technology like this, but actually thinking outside the box and doing something innovative. Even if it's not an instant roaring success, that innovation itself deserves a mention I think.