Which is better? COB, CREE XP-L V6 or XHP70.2 LEDs

[FrankTruth]

Which is better? COB, CREE XP-L V6 or XHP70.2 LEDs

What are the best LEDs available today in order?

 

[Shorttime]

I'm new to really paying attention to flashlights myself, so I pulled up some PDFs, to see if I could figure it out.

First, let's get some tedious pedantry out of the way. A COB (chip on board), is different from the other two. Where the XP-L and the XHP are single LED emitters, the COB is a group of emitters, stuck together on one board. You can have a COB that's made with XP-Ls, or XHPs, but you really can't compare the three of them on an equal basis.

I'm going to link to the two PDFs that I found. Both are from CREE, I may be in a "gray area", forum-rules-wise, but they're for information purposes.

https://www.cree.com/led-components/media/documents/ds-XPL.pdf

https://www.cree.com/led-components/media/documents/ds-XHP702.pdf

If you read them, you may find your eyes glazing over, like mine did!

Near as I can tell, the XHPs are brighter, as in, they put out more Lumens. You have a lot (a lot!) of choices of how "white" or how "yellow" those Lumens look.

If I know anything from other gear-related forums, there is no such thing as an objective "best". If you're looking at the LED as the start of buying or building a light, I would argue that there are many other more important factors than the alphabet soup on the emitter. These include, but may not be limited to:

Cost
Size
Weight
Body material
IPX rating (dust and water "proofness")
Carry method (pocket clip, belt holster, sling)
Battery life
Battery type
"Throw" or "flood", or a little bit of both?

And, if you're secretly an engineer, and you're just trying to get a feel for what CPF considers the "best", then I'm just gonna go chew on my foot, for a little bit longer.

 

[FrankTruth]

I'm new to really paying attention to flashlights myself, so I pulled up some PDFs, to see if I could figure it out.

First, let's get some tedious pedantry out of the way. A COB (chip on board), is different from the other two. Where the XP-L and the XHP are single LED emitters, the COB is a group of emitters, stuck together on one board. You can have a COB that's made with XP-Ls, or XHPs, but you really can't compare the three of them on an equal basis.

I'm going to link to the two PDFs that I found. Both are from CREE, I may be in a "gray area", forum-rules-wise, but they're for information purposes.

https://www.cree.com/led-components/media/documents/ds-XPL.pdf

https://www.cree.com/led-components/media/documents/ds-XHP702.pdf

If you read them, you may find your eyes glazing over, like mine did!

Near as I can tell, the XHPs are brighter, as in, they put out more Lumens. You have a lot (a lot!) of choices of how "white" or how "yellow" those Lumens look.

If I know anything from other gear-related forums, there is no such thing as an objective "best". If you're looking at the LED as the start of buying or building a light, I would argue that there are many other more important factors than the alphabet soup on the emitter. These include, but may not be limited to:

Cost
Size
Weight
Body material
IPX rating (dust and water "proofness")
Carry method (pocket clip, belt holster, sling)
Battery life
Battery type
"Throw" or "flood", or a little bit of both?

And, if you're secretly an engineer, and you're just trying to get a feel for what CPF considers the "best", then I'm just gonna go chew on my foot, for a little bit longer.

I was looking for the latest, brightest, most energy efficient Cree LEDs.

I already took into consideration all the other criteria you listed, but I don't know how to compare the LEDs which are basically the heart and engine of every flashlight.

I ended up purchasing a Zebra light, but can't figure-out if it came with the latest, brightest most efficient LED. I am sure Cree LEDs can be graded by this criteria. And I was also looking for an LED with a high CRI.

I probably made the right choice, but it seem Cree ought to produce a comparison chart that would help consumers figure out the difference between their LEDs.

Obviously, everything being equal the higher K, cooler lights will put out more light, more efficiently. However, every LED with a high K rating should have a corresponding warmer, lower K LED.

So, to make it simple I was looking for the order of Cree LEDs by cost.

 

[Chicken Drumstick]

Which is better? COB, CREE XP-L V6 or XHP70.2 LEDs

What are the best LEDs available today in order?

Which is better? n.a. V8 engine, Turbo diesel or an inline 4 with a Turbo?

Answer - depends entirely on the situation

 

[prof student]

I was looking for the latest, brightest, most energy efficient Cree LEDs.

I already took into consideration all the other criteria you listed, but I don't know how to compare the LEDs which are basically the heart and engine of every flashlight.

Well, from what I've learned on here, that's just half of it!

You also have to look at the driver.......the volts and driving amps........& what type of battery you're using....not all 18650s are made the same....size of the LED.....how hard can it be driven.............then temperature/temperature control.....& even more stuff. ALL that + the LED comes together to make the flashlight what it is.

 

[yellow]

It depends on the power (runtime) you are thinking of.

If it is sheer output (with "no" runtime) its xhp.
Simply because these led can be pushed with a lot more power.

If "just" "normal" output - say something like 1.5-2 h runtime from one 18650 - there is pretty much no (visible) difference between xhp, xp-g, xm-l.
Here the differences in setup do have way more effect on the beam.

Xaggerated "robust" Example. 1*18650 light, all same power to led. (~ 2 A)
xp-g = smallest beam. = "brightest light" (if dont know what too look for)
Xm-L = larger surface area led die = wider beam
Xhp = widest beam. (Must be higher powered to make any sense at all.

As You mentionned the Zebralight:
I still find myself using my old xm-l one over the new model. Sure the superturbo level of that xhp model is brutally bright. But just for too much less time. And all the lower levels totally suck ... where the old model gives much bettter output. And its high level is still OK bright.
The newest, coolest musthave led seems not necessarily lead to the best light.