Great review. Im a considerable fan of Maglite products, sad to hear they are difficult to find at a decent price over seas. I assume their lack of presence in retail stores is due to Maglite taking so long to jump on the LED tech. They are competing now but it may be a while before they get recognition for it. Hopefully they can regain their reputation in the flashlight industry. I recently purchased an ML300LX and am very pleased with its performance and features so far.
I suspect the company directors just got old and out of touch, maybe a bit lazy riding the brand reputation back before LED was viable. While I see them going for "tactical" and other gimmicks like cheap printed slogans I don't see much effort to refine their general products. Rather than improve they just seem to be shifting the market target to the low end hardware and impulse-gift market. eg Mag still produce incandescent torches and still design around alkaline cell voltage rather than rechargable Ni-Mh or the various lithiums, and they still haven't made a decent smooth beam focus. I like maglite mainly because they are durable and a reputable company, which in an LED light is down to the electronics; I've never had a Chinese light last more than a year and it is always a fault in the circuits. I also like the traditional form factor and rather dislike the short lumpy form that other brands produce, but Maglite needs to make something using a couple of standard lithium cells like 26650, or even go all in on a big fat model to replace the old 6D and use EV cells like the 38140, 40152, or new Tesla 4680
@@mytech6779 there are many Chinesebrands out there like Olight, Manker, Fenix, Nitecore, Asrolux and many more that don't fall in the 'works for one year' category. Way higher standards like durable trapezoid threads, AR coated front glass, intelligent heat control, advanced modes and UI, and so on. I hope Maglite will survive but no idea how.
Same here in Germany. They are not easy to get and they are quite expencive. Same with Surefire but their prices are almost the same like in the US. Strealight you cant get in Germany at all not even online. But like Juhasz wrote, you can get much more for the same money or even less from other brands. This is maybe the main issue.
@@mytech6779 The 26650 has the same diameter of the C cells. So it would be easy to convert a light for 26650 for them. But in general the Ni-Mh arent that bad. They are better in giving you longer run times. One C cell can have 5500mAh so two give you 11000mAh. You dont get that with a single 26650. Also the run on higer lumen comes to an end. What do you whant with 2000l or more? A higher output that last would be more interesting. Even flashaholics are tired of more lumen. Also I think that the average buyer is more interested in a simple reliable working flashlight than anything else. Thats why maglite still exist.
I at least go back to MagLite since the durability of the NiMH batteries on any high power flashlight is just ridiculous. It just dies on you middle in the work.
I like the simplicity. Also a single C cell recharable have 5500mAh so you could get very good runtimes. I think the main problem here is the reflector. For this kind of edc light it should be more floody. I have seen in another review about the AA Mini that you only get into low mode if you point the light down and twist. Maybe thats why you dont see a difference ; )
This is the video I was looking for going to purchase this exact light today
Great review. Im a considerable fan of Maglite products, sad to hear they are difficult to find at a decent price over seas. I assume their lack of presence in retail stores is due to Maglite taking so long to jump on the LED tech. They are competing now but it may be a while before they get recognition for it. Hopefully they can regain their reputation in the flashlight industry.
I recently purchased an ML300LX and am very pleased with its performance and features so far.
I suspect the company directors just got old and out of touch, maybe a bit lazy riding the brand reputation back before LED was viable. While I see them going for "tactical" and other gimmicks like cheap printed slogans I don't see much effort to refine their general products. Rather than improve they just seem to be shifting the market target to the low end hardware and impulse-gift market. eg Mag still produce incandescent torches and still design around alkaline cell voltage rather than rechargable Ni-Mh or the various lithiums, and they still haven't made a decent smooth beam focus.
I like maglite mainly because they are durable and a reputable company, which in an LED light is down to the electronics; I've never had a Chinese light last more than a year and it is always a fault in the circuits. I also like the traditional form factor and rather dislike the short lumpy form that other brands produce, but Maglite needs to make something using a couple of standard lithium cells like 26650, or even go all in on a big fat model to replace the old 6D and use EV cells like the 38140, 40152, or new Tesla 4680
@@mytech6779 there are many Chinesebrands out there like Olight, Manker, Fenix, Nitecore, Asrolux and many more that don't fall in the 'works for one year' category. Way higher standards like durable trapezoid threads, AR coated front glass, intelligent heat control, advanced modes and UI, and so on. I hope Maglite will survive but no idea how.
Same here in Germany. They are not easy to get and they are quite expencive. Same with Surefire but their prices are almost the same like in the US. Strealight you cant get in Germany at all not even online. But like Juhasz wrote, you can get much more for the same money or even less from other brands. This is maybe the main issue.
@@mytech6779 The 26650 has the same diameter of the C cells. So it would be easy to convert a light for 26650 for them. But in general the Ni-Mh arent that bad. They are better in giving you longer run times. One C cell can have 5500mAh so two give you 11000mAh. You dont get that with a single 26650. Also the run on higer lumen comes to an end. What do you whant with 2000l or more? A higher output that last would be more interesting. Even flashaholics are tired of more lumen. Also I think that the average buyer is more interested in a simple reliable working flashlight than anything else. Thats why maglite still exist.
@@Gieszkanne you can't compare mAh-s of different voltage power sources. Only reasonable comparison would be mWh.
I at least go back to MagLite since the durability of the NiMH batteries on any high power flashlight is just ridiculous. It just dies on you middle in the work.
I like maglite LED a lot.
I like the simplicity. Also a single C cell recharable have 5500mAh so you could get very good runtimes. I think the main problem here is the reflector. For this kind of edc light it should be more floody. I have seen in another review about the AA Mini that you only get into low mode if you point the light down and twist. Maybe thats why you dont see a difference ; )
Do you know how to replace the led buld?
Erm