Comparison of Cree Q5 and XM-L T6 cheap LED flashlights

[Urgon]

AVE...

This is my review of two cheap Chinese flashlights one can get for less than 12 dollars. Both use 18650 Li-Ion cells(which can be found in any laptop battery, where I got my stash of them).
First one is based on Cree Q5 LED emmiter:
http://dx.com/p/103456
Forget about strap, that is added to this flashlight - piece of crap. The flashlight is almost water-proof, you need to disassemble it and add some oil to rubber o-rings, but on the other hand when it's water-proof, zoom mode doesn't work, unless you unscrew one part of it and let the air in or out. But this problem is common to all those flashlights.
I was surprised to amount of light this little thing can give. Both High and Low power modes are better than in classic bulb flashlights of this size. The third, strobe mode is utterly useless. During use I damaged the LED emitter, and had to replace it with new one(http://dx.com/p/11022). Because of visual differences I think the original one installed in flashlight is cheaper version...

Second one claims to be UltraFire SK68 Cree XM-L T6.
http://dx.com/p/188992
More power and more useless modes. Quality is average, aluminium soft(few scrapes and dents first day of use). More declared power, but without proper instruments I can't confirm them to be accurate. It's more light, that's sure. Also more heat. This flashlight also has zoom mode, but I didn't oiled o-rings yet, so it works without problems, but at the same time it's not water-proof. Again, too many modes: not only strobe one, but also SOS. This one also has high, middle and low power modes...
All comparison pictures were taken in the same location(from the same POW) with the same manual settings(T:1/15s, F 2.8, Konica Minolta Dimage Z5)...

Bottom line:
If you can get your hands on 18650 cells, and a recharger(http://dx.com/p/125125), then grab the second one...

[Teutoni]

Thanks for the info Urgon.