Adjustable beam is important to me. I need both a smooth flood with no hotspot, and a beam that will put all it's light into throw, for when you want to reach out and touch someone. Personally I find beams with hotspots a PITA when hiking in the dark.
These small lights drive me nuts the way they eat 123's like there was no tomorrow. Give me a low cost rechargeable NiMH instead. The 30 minutes to 1 hour runtime is fine (prefer the 1 hour). Plus give me a trickle charger, so when I grab the light, it is always freshly charged.
Gimme an adjustable light output brightness, but don't make it so complicated that I couldn't put it in the glove box for a year, not touch it, and pick it up a year later, and I can still remember how to adjust it without picking up the manual. The Photon III is a beautiful example of a simple KISS (keep it simple stupid) to set output level.
Some kick in the switch that you can feel when you switch it, especially through gloves.
Something with a on off, on the light that can be operated while naturally holding it in your hand, in a down by the waist position.
Toss the lexan/polycarbonate/acrylic protective lens, I always goober them up, even if they are scratch resistant. Give me an impact resistant glass with 2-sided AR.
Either make the finish on and expensive light such that I can drop it on concrete alot and it doesn't mess it up (even rubber baby bumpers is a swell compromise), or make it cheap enough that I don't care.
