I picked one up in May as an impulse buy, and forgot about it when I went away. But I've taken it out and had a go with it now.
It comes in blister packaging, and came with a nylon sheath and two AA Alkaline batteries.
Official specs are:
- 3 Watt Cree LED globe with 120 Lumen light output and light range up to 120 metres
- IPX4 Waterproof rating
- Impact and shock resistant
- 2 brightness levels: 100% or 50%
- Product Length: 160mm - I measured 155mm; body diameter 22mm, head diameter 27mm
- Net weight: approx. 106g (without batteries) I measured 100g
- Material: Torch housing: Aluminium, Lens: PC, Clip: Flexible, Steel, Pouch: Nylon
- Luminous flux: 120 lumens,
- Light colour: white,
- Beam length: 120 metres,
- LED life span: 50,000 hours,
- Run time: 100% - about 2,5 hours; 50% - about 4 hours,
- Waterproof: IPX4 (impact and shock resistant)
- LED 3W: CREE Q3-LED (High Power LED), CREE XP-E, Photo biological safety tested (according to DIN EN 62471)
- Accessories included: Batteries: 2 x AA (LR6) Brand Activ Energy, 1.5 V volt (included), Reverse polarity protection, Protective pouch included
The body is aluminium, and reasonably well made. The knurling around the body is nicely done and not too agressive, and the threads seem ok. No battery rattle in mine using Eneloops. I have already dropped it onto concrete from about 1.2m, and it survived with some slight scratches, but the zooming mechanism is still smooth, and it works ok.
There is a reverse clip on the end of the body, so when you clip it to something, the torch head points up. The clip is quite strong, and also has the advantage of stopping the torch rolling on an uneven surface.
The torch can tail stand so is good for being used as a candle/lantern. There is no lanyard hole or attachment point anywhere.
Head and tail can be removed with o-rings installed. The power on/off switch is in the tail cap, and is a reverse clicky - this means that you press in then it clicks on when it comes out.
The beam has a nice flood. Standing approximately 1m from the wall, it has a clean diameter of approximately 1m that you can see below. The light as a focus zoom head, so you can focus the lens for distance, but I highly doubt the official specs of the 120m range (More on this below). When zoomed, and still standing at about 1m from the wall, the focus point comes down to around 20cm in diameter.
The brightness compares well with my other AA torches that output between 100-130lm.
The beam modes are High -> Low -> Off. It will always start in High mode. The Low mode is a bit disappointing. It actually isn't 50% as specified. I reckon it is about 75-85%, if not higher, so there is probably a resistor at the switch instead of more intricate circuitry. This will have a bearing on the usage life in half mode. On a pair of new alkalines on high mode, it lasted around 2 hours until I noticed significant drop in output.
The Cree emitter does appear to be an XP-E, but I haven't unscrewed the head to have a look at the circuitry or the heat sink.
As mentioned above, I have doubts on the output range of 120m mentioned on the packaging. I haven't tested this out as yet, but I am dubious, as even better quality, higher output 2AA torches like the Fenix LD22 (215 lumens and 113 metre range) or the Fenix E25 (187 lumens 156 metre range) or the Nitecore Sens 2AA (170lumens 100metre range). These Fenix and Nitecore torches also have more modes, and higher waterproof ratings, but are around 3-4 times more expensive.
Note that this torch does not accept rechargeable 14500 lithium batteries, but will accept non-rechargeable 1.5V lithium batteries.
Overall, this is an ok torch, especially considering Aldi's 3 year warranty - so save your receipt! I would say it should be worth around the $10 mark when compared with other Chinese made Cree LEDs.
Still, it's better than the overpriced Maglite Mini or Ledlenser torches you can buy at hardware stores, but not as good as 2xAA offerings from Fenix, Nitecore, Xtar, Sunwayman, etc.