I've heard no word about any official release date of the PH45. Logic would have told me that it would have been released as soon as the PH50s were sold out. I think there were 20-30 of them. Instead, it seems that Polarion either continued making PH40's or perhaps that's "new old stock" that's being sold by the Polarion dealers, but this is all speculative on my part.
Regarding performance, the X1 seems to be the equal of the Helios if the wattage is the same. From that line of thinking a 40W X1 should perform nearly identically to the PH40. The X1 is a smaller light and to me something smaller with the same performance is very cool.
Every single HID light has its own personality even among other examples of the same model. I think this has mainly to due with the ballast output setting but possibly a little bit with the particular bulb used too. In any case, the comparisons of X1s that I've seen to Helios models leaves me with the impression that the X1 is slightly underrated. Most CPFers 35W X1's basically match the performance of the PH40. I can think of three examples where this was the case. Either the luck of the draw has for the most part favored our members or the X1 is set to a pretty high 35W. That being said, I don't know how the 40W X1s perform in relation to their stated output. It could be that they're all "dead on" 40W.
Given the choice between a 40W X1 and a PH40, I'd probably have to lean toward the X1. If the PH45 ever shows up, it should have a very slight edge in performance but with slightly less run-time.
. I just read the Polarion website and their was some contradicting info on the PH40 page. It lists it as a "45 Watt Powerhouse" 
. I really like the fact that it is smaller than the PH series lights yet retains the same output with a lower price. 
My wallet hates you sir!
