Will the $10-$15 Cree be a lot brighter than a 1w 3AA miniMaglight?

I'm looking for a few new flashlights, i'm turning into a flashlight freak, but don't have a lot of money right now. Those $10ish Crees from dealextreme are really tempting. Will they impress me when the brightest i've seen so far is the 3aa minimaglight?

yeah they will be bright even the 1xAA one like MTE SSC 1xAA but dont expect to much one quality side. They are OK for the price if that is what you are looking for.

HexiumVII said:

Will they impress me when the brightest i've seen so far is the 3aa minimaglight?

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Just took my Minimag 3AA and my Deal Extreme MTE SSC 1xAA outside, and my Minimag out-throws the MTE because it can be focused to a small spot. But then, that damned MTE isn't far behind, and it's almost a third the size as the MM. The MTE sacrifices throw to give more spill, which is a good thing when illuminating things nearby.

Yes much brighter

get the $15 cr123a from dx that says "superbright' on the side. you will be amazed! i use mine all the time with rcr123....so bright!

link added

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.2821

That depends - if you are talking 1AA lights on regular batteries (e.g. alkaline, NiMH), then the answer is no, they won't have more output than your 3AA MiniMag LED. If you are talking about the 14500 Li-ion rechargeable versions, then yes they will blow it away. The RCR lights should be similar to the 14500 ones.

According to Quickbeam's FR.com numbers, output of the Fenix L1DCE on Turbo is only about 10% brighter than the 3AA MiniMag LED (i.e. 44.5 vs 40). And I doubt any of the Kai/DX lights will match the L1D-CE on regular batteries.

If you look at my review of the high-end multi-stage lights (i.e. >$25), the only one that outputs more than the L1D-CE on regular batteries is the Rex 2.0:
Rexlight, DX X.1 & X.V, Jetbeam MkIIX & CLE, Fenix L1DCE review: RUNTIMES + BEAMSHOTS

As an aside, my numbers correlate very well with Quickbeam's, although you need to increase my results by about 10-15% to get a close match. So, the 3AA MiniMagLED would be about ~36 on my output scale, for comparison.

I've got a number of the <$20 DX/Kai multi-stage and single-stage Cree/SSC lights on order, and will do a similar runtime review when they come in.

have the minimag run for ten mins and most any light will be brighter
:Evilgrin07:

I just bought a 1xCR123 Cree single stage light from Dealextreme. Neat little light ... quality only fair. I would say the output is a match for the 3AA Minimag ... but the Cree has more of a flood pattern and a better tint. The lil' light gets warm pretty quick ... a bit disconcerting after 10-15 minutes. Run time on mine seemed to be about 45 minutes on a 900mAh rechargeable ... then it suddenly winked out. I could get it fired up again for a few seconds a few times ... but it was obvious the battery was spent.


Anyybody have the CR123 1 mode Cree and the 1xAA MTE SSC? Does the AA light have the same output as the CR123 light? Get warm quickly as well?

I'm thinking of getting a handful of the AA lights as gifts, especially for lady friends. :kiss:

just got my MTE ssc 1xAA put a energizer L91 I would have to say its is much brighter than 40 lumens and a great light for $15.00 I will be getting more for gifts

I have a Fenix P2D-CE and L2D/L1D-CE. I like them a lot and they serve as backup lights when I go out.

But I am keeping my 3xAA MagLED because it is very useful indoors with a bottlecap diffuser on it: the output is not so bright that I blast my eyes with backwash. I also *really like* to twist the head off all the way to use it in candle mode for mood lighting. After about 5 hours or so of continuous runtime (on alkaline batteries) the light goes into a very, very long moon mode which lasts several more hours.

I do not use it outdoors as it is too long for that purpose for me.

Eu