Pelican Sabrelight or other alternatives?

Want to give a friend a LED light for his 40th BD party. I would like it to be as bright as possible for the money and take batteries other then CR123s. Also cost around $40 (no coincidence, I don't want to spend much more). I see Brightguy offers the Pelican Sabrelight for $41.95. Would you recommend this light or have other possible alternatives in the same relative pricerange? I wonder if the light really puts out 30 lumens.

3AA Luxeon Task-Light is a far better light for same Lumens and can be had for $35.95 at Bright Guy.

I don't have one of these and I hope those who do respond. I did do some analysis for a recent thread (right or wrong? I'm still not sure). From the other post to that thread the amount of power going to the Luxeon was very close to spec. and therefore since the Luxeon spec. is 30 lumens out this is what you should get.
One of my conclusions about this light is it must not be used with rechargables and I'm not sure about lithiums. The trouble is not new or freshly charged cells but more toward the end when the circuity tries to draw more amperage from the cells than it may be capable of handling. Alkaline cells should not be able to deliver this amperage and I think lithiums can't when they get low enough. I have not seen anyone either agree or disagree with this analysis!

i think you can get a Bad Boy drop in for a Minimag for around that price..

then again, for about $15 more you could get him an Elektrolumens Blaster 3.. which is one of the greatest luxeon lights available, in my opinion.. especially with 24 hours of bright runtime on three D batteries..

i'd throw the Streamlight 4AA ProPolymer 7LED into consideration too.. very bright output and alotta runtime.. however it's not a luxeon, i dunno if that has anything to do with your decision..

the Pelican Sabrelite Luxeon looks like it has great output, and it's waterproof..
it looks kinda clumsy to use tho with the gigantic clip on it..
the original Sabrelite is an extremely popular light around here with fishermen tho, so you know it's tough..

so there's a few more ideas.. since all these lights have good to blazing output, i think you can weigh some of the other features of the lights in..

but i think the Sabrelite Luxeon would be a good light for him.. going with that would be great gift!

Just remember that the Sabrelite has NO SPILL. Not very little. None. It also has a VERY tight beam. The beam shots I posted showed an 18 inch squeare (yes, the beam is square) spot at 12 feet. It has no on/off switch. You rotate the head to turn it on/off, definitely a two handed operation. This is not a light you can use to take walks in the park.

It is a light you can use when diving,searching in bushes or when looking for addresses (no spill, so you're not shining it in living rooms by accident).

I'd suggest the Pelican M6 LED except that you already said no Cr123a. I don't have any BRIGHT led based lights that are not 123 based AND under $40.

Daniel