Where is the current entrant to match this one from 2013?

Will anyone anywhere ever build a flashlight to match or exceed the all-around excellence of the discontinued ArmyTek Predator Pro V2.5 (XP-G2) or its almost-twin Viking Pro V2.5 (XM-L2)? Sad to say, the Predator Pro V3 Limited Edition (already sold out), though excellent, doesn't quite measure up.

These lights were single-18650 (with other cell capabilities also).

I can't possibly do justice to every one of the staggering list of features, but some of the highlights are:
Overheat early warning
Overheat protection
Overdischarge early warning
Overdischarge protection
Ability to set regulation to either absolutely flat all-or-nothing, or auto-stepdown
Lumen output state-of-the-art for the time of introduction[*]
Ability to query battery state in volts and tenths of a volt
Full customization of settings profiles including NUMBER of distinct states
Flexible firefly states from 1.5 lumens for 40 days, down to 0.1 lumens for 130 days
Ability to set memory of last-state enabled or disabled
Full IPX-8 water protection to 50 meters
10 meter drop protection

The incredibly high-quality of construction figures in, but can't really be quantified

* obviously the lumen value doesn't impress as much in 2015 as it did in 2013, which is more or less the whole point of looking for a successor

fnj, I'm interested to hear what characteristics of the PP LE have fallen short of your expectations, aside from the lack of programming. Thanks.

scs said:

fnj, I'm interested to hear what characteristics of the PP LE have fallen short of your expectations, aside from the lack of programming. Thanks.

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I bought a Predator Pro v3 XP-L HI Limited Edition. I'm not disappointed in the light, in fact I quite like it, but it does fall a bit short in performance. Don't get me wrong, its still a damn impressive little thrower, but I measured mine at 48,025 cd, which is 438m throw. That's great, but its a looong way from the 540m those lights are advertised to produce. Its also a pretty "dirty" beam, very ringy. So all-in-all, I'm not sure its really up to Armytek's normal level of standards.

scs said:

fnj, I'm interested to hear what characteristics of the PP LE have fallen short of your expectations, aside from the lack of programming. Thanks.

Click to expand...

If I may be permitted a slight deviation, I wouldn't say it falls short of my expectations, but my ideals. The Predator Pro V3 Limited Edition is clearly an excellent offering; the lumen output is stunning, but it would only be fair to mention the ways it seems to have strangely declined from the V2.5. Now some of these may be mistaken impressions, so corrections are welcome. I can't for the life of me find a link for a current manual, so I'm only going by the specs listed.

The first problem is that the V3 is sold out, so it is not even a candidate. There is no promise that it will ever have another production run.

The V2.5 allowed you to customize two "lines" of settings, choosing anywhere from 1 to 10 states for line 1, and 1 to 5 states for line 2. Any state could be one of 3 firefly modes, or any linear setting up to 100%. The V3 only mentions "7 modes", without any mention of customization.

On the V2.5, you could enable or disable last-mode memory. The V3 does not mention the ability to turn memory on or off. It is not clear whether it has memory.

The V2.5 could run 130 days at 0.1 lumens. The V3 only mentions 100 days at 0.2 lumens.

I can't identify anything else that jumps out at me, but I suspect that there may well be surprises in terms of lowered capability.

fnj said:

I can't for the life of me find a link for a current manual, so I'm only going by the specs listed.

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Best I can tell this normal V3 manual is the only one available. The specs in there are not for the XP-L HI version though.

emarkd said:

I bought a Predator Pro v3 XP-L HI Limited Edition. I'm not disappointed in the light, in fact I quite like it, but it does fall a bit short in performance. Don't get me wrong, its still a damn impressive little thrower, but I measured mine at 48,025 cd, which is 438m throw. That's great, but its a looong way from the 540m those lights are advertised to produce. Its also a pretty "dirty" beam, very ringy. So all-in-all, I'm not sure its really up to Armytek's normal level of standards.

Click to expand...

Measurement on mine was just above 50k CD, so like yours, still substantially below that advertised, but AT is sticking to their numbers. Nevertheless, people are buying the lights. We'll just have to wait for more impressions, should others decide to chime in. I thought the AL might be soft as well, as the factory lube turned grey and black pretty quickly at the head end.

fnj said:

If I may be permitted a slight deviation, I wouldn't say it falls short of my expectations, but my ideals. The Predator Pro V3 Limited Edition is clearly an excellent offering; the lumen output is stunning, but it would only be fair to mention the ways it seems to have strangely declined from the V2.5. Now some of these may be mistaken impressions, so corrections are welcome. I can't for the life of me find a link for a current manual, so I'm only going by the specs listed.

The first problem is that the V3 is sold out, so it is not even a candidate. There is no promise that it will ever have another production run.

The V2.5 allowed you to customize two "lines" of settings, choosing anywhere from 1 to 10 states for line 1, and 1 to 5 states for line 2. Any state could be one of 3 firefly modes, or any linear setting up to 100%. The V3 only mentions "7 modes", without any mention of customization.

On the V2.5, you could enable or disable last-mode memory. The V3 does not mention the ability to turn memory on or off. It is not clear whether it has memory.

The V2.5 could run 130 days at 0.1 lumens. The V3 only mentions 100 days at 0.2 lumens.

I can't identify anything else that jumps out at me, but I suspect that there may well be surprises in terms of lowered capability.

Click to expand...

It's sold out on AT's website, but several US dealers are stocking them and in some cases restocking them. With the head tightened, the light comes on only at max. With the head loosened, you can half press to change the modes. Yes there's last mode memory when the head is loosened. Memory cannot be turned off.

scs said:

I thought the AL might be soft as well, as the factory lube turned grey and black pretty quickly at the head end.

Click to expand...

Huh, I haven't noticed this but I'll keep an eye out for it. I'd say the general construction of the light is quite high, like I'd expect from Armytek, and I still absolutely love their matte anodizing. I just wish it actually performed as advertised. I have a dirty suspicion that we may have all just been unwitting guinea pigs in an Armytek beta test and that a new version of the XP-L HI lights (not limited edition) will be coming sometime, with either refinements or more realistic performance claims.

And I do think they could've done a better job tuning their reflector. I'm not used to seeing quite this many rings and gradients in an Armytek.