I saw one of these in person yesterday at the COPSWEST LE convention in Ontario CA. Streamlight was there and had all of their new offerings to test. I must say, even in a well lit convention center room, the hotspot and throw was impressive. It is a really tight beam and should throw well. As far as spill, I cannot really say, as there was too much ambiant light. It did out throw all their other lights, including the HP, and had a brighter hotspot than the Surefires on display at their booth. I know the comparison is apples to oranges, but this was just for reference. Also, the light has two switches (one on the tail and one on the body) which work like a three way in your home (one can turn on, the other turn off and vice versa). Nice feature.
These lights have a low med and low mode for extended runtimes, as well as strobe. While all of these are accessed throught he primary switches, the UI is such that you shouldn't be able to access them accidentally. Strobe, for example is accessed by double tapping the switch, not just "on off" within so many seconds. It is a little difficlut to explain how this is different, but all I can say is you have to deliberately do this to make it work. In fact, I had to ask the guy how to access strobe because I couldn't figure it out on my own. For those of us who wil never use this feature, its nice to know we won't activate it unintentionally. The med and low modes also are accessed from the primary buttons and are changed by pressing and holding the button for a few seconds. Again, it has to be deliberate, they won't change unless you really want them to. When the light is turned off, it returns to "hi" mode again. They are not upgradable and the head is not removable (not easily anyway), so what you buy appears to be what you are stuck with for the life of the light. They also only come in aluminum, there is no poly option for these.
Overall, it appears to be an impressive light worth considering for LE use. I have mine on order (back that is) and should have it in a week or so. We shall see how it performs in the field and in real life settings (not just beamshots and litebox readings).
Oh, one more thing. Unlike the regular stinger which has a hybrid OP/SMO reflector (OP by the led and SMO up top), this one is a full SMO reflector. I was surprised, but I saw no noticeable artifacts in the beam and the LED was well centered, making the hotspot a true circle and not a funky oval at distance.
One last thing: Lifetime warranty, even under harsh proffesional use! Drop it and break the tail switch, send it in to be replaced.
