UltraFire WF-501B MC-E (BIN M) 5-Mode 800-Lumen LED Flashlight (1*18650)

Pros: Welcome to my comparison review of this Flashlight against the DX UltraFire WF-501B SSC-P7-CSXO (SKU: 36356) Pros: - Real MC-E - Cheap - Does not overheat quickly - Modes are great (SOS is redundant)

Cons: Cons: - Real MC-E but driver could provide more Ampere to the Hi-Mode - WF-501 flashlight body is cheap - Tailcap is hard to press - modes are difficult to use for new users

Other: Well I would prefer the MC-E over the P7. The driver could surely give more Ampere to the MC-E emitter in the HI-mode to have the option to generate a super brightness even if this flashlight body could not tolerating that for more than 3 minutes. Greetings - Happyguy

Pros: This thing is bright. WOW. strong aluminum housing. Sound, solid, clicky switch. Very well put together.

Cons: not yet. Maybe the heat transfer, but that's a good thing for the light. keep the light and batteries cool.

Other: A great light. the price is awesome. the brightness is amazing. the construction is solid. a fantastic light.

Pros: It is brighter than my XP-G R5. The mode memory works well after the light is off for 2 seconds. The 501B host seems well made with only a minor blemish in the black anodizing. Threads were lubed and there were o-rings at all of the joints.

Cons: Mine only draws 1.4A instead of 2.0 as advertised or the 2.2 to 2.9 others are reporting (the most I ever measured was 1.65A). This means that it isn't as bright as it could be and instead of 600 lumens it is putting out less than 400. I'm not sure why the circuit boards aren't more consistent, but there is no way to know what you will get. Also the light doesn't seem to be well-regulated and the current drops with the battery voltage: 1.45A at 4.16V and down to 0.85A at 3.63V.
There is also a prominent dark doughnut hole in the beam. On mine it isn't a light plus sign, it is a dark hole. I will try to post a picture of it. Even outdoors, you can clearly see the dark spot moving with the beam.
The host is pretty lightweight and needs additional heatsinking if you don't want the LED to overheat. The threads are a little rough and there aren't many, only three rows of threads on the tail, four at the head and throat.

Other: If you aren't prepared to buy a new driver, you may be disappointed with this light. However, some people are getting very bright lights with good current draws and not much of a dark spot.

Pros: Bright but not bright enough, has some damage in the led.

Cons: With the flashlight I have ordered a Glass Optics for Flashlights (28mm)from ACCESSOIES, as I tried to transform it into throw.
After I installed the lens instead of the stock glass, the led was split into 4 subunits.
The led has 4 subunits (4 leds in fact) it is visible only when you put the lens (Glass Optics for Flashlights (28mm)from ACCESSOIES)and I could see that 1 subunit was damaged (output at 20%) another subunit was only 25% and only the other two subunits where working normally. The subunits I am talking about are shaped just as described in the X2000 Flood-to-Throw Zooming Glass Optics Cree P4-WC LED Flashlight (1*18650).
In fact this flashlight has a 4 x XR-E P4 LED emitter like led.

Other: If you are lucky you can get the all 4 subunits right but you cannot see that unless you purchase and install a flashlight lens from accessories of 28 mm. It fits the flashlight very well and you can see all the 4 subunits.
IF they all work right than it is very bright. Otherwise (my case) you do not

Pros: It is bright but not really driven hard. Well, in a P60 host, I think it is appropriate. Otherwise, you have to deal with heat issue. For USD20, you get a MC-E led. It is the best deal in the world !

Cons: Very poor thread. I buy this flashlight is specially for the 501B diffuser, but no way can screw into it. I wonder if it is a cloned body since the thread is not matching. I have another 502D bough from elsewhere (much better quality and finishing), which can get into the diffuser smoothly.

Other: I wonder if the led is a Bin M since it looks a bit warmer than Bin M should be.

Pros: -It really is my brightest light
-fits in my hand nicely
-Clicky is soft and operates well
-Lanyard is good size (larger for my hands)
-good battery life

Cons: -light spread is pretty wide. Wish I could switch from flood to spot sometimes. But it makes up for this lack with overall brightness.
-Gets warm after about 30 seconds
-Threads feel cheap (sandy)
-I don't think this is really 800 lumens, I have another light thats rated at around 220 and this light is brighter, but not by 4x as much.

Other: Even though I had to buy a charger and special batteries, I am still happy I spent the cash.

Pros: It is very bright and is useful in any times. It is very strong, and it is safe even if it treats some to violence. Change (brightness, flash, SOS) operation is very as easy as pushing a back button lightly.

Cons: There needs to be no case.

Other: Although a battery is an expensive lithium ion battery, since it is cheap when it is purchased by DX, it is saved.

Pros: This light is extremely cost effective. It uses one of the later bin MC-E chips, which means it is brighter and more efficient than older MC-E chips used in older flashlights. This is not a huge difference but it means that this light can be driven at 1.8 amps and give similar output to a 2.5 amp older MC-E or SST-50 emitter. The build quality is pretty decent. The light is very compact. It is ideal for a bike light or small pocket-rocket. It has no crenelations or other junk to catch on your pocket. It uses an Orange Peel reflector which pretty much eliminates the typical Donut Hole effect of the MC-E which comes from the fact that this emitter is actually 4 smaller emitters on a single chip. Past a few feet the beam looks perfectly fine. Comes with O-Rings that were in fine shape.

Cons: The light is lightweight which means it doesnt have a lot of thermal mass. Hence, it would theoretically get hot quickly. Fortunately, it is driven at lower amperage relative to most lights of its type. Hence I have not found this to be an issue. Being lightweight, it is not nearly as solid as comparable lights. In fairness I am comparing this light to my 100 dollar XTAR outrider which is a lot heavier and bigger. There are some build flaws. For example, the reflector is kind of messed up. When on low, you can look inside the reflector and see some machining flaws. Hence the beam is not perfect. For all practical purposes though, it is fine. I would expect this light to use lower quality switches which might lead to failure more quickly. Once again though, my expensive outrider's tailcap broke after 6 months and this one works fine, so there you go. The light is extremely hard to find on DX. If you are reading this, you are insanely lucky and need to bookmark it immediately. I couldnt find it with most of my searches. The light is very bright but not 800 lumens. An MC-E recent bin driven at 1.8 amps probably produces a good 550 to 600 lumens, minus reflector loss, lens loss, etc to produce about 400 out the front lumens. In comparison, the typical 9 LED cheapo light produces like 10. So this light is crazy bright in comparison.

Other: This is one of the cheapest ways to own an MC-E recent bin emitter and comes with a perfectly decent flashlight body. The light has worked very well as a bike light and I am quite pleased with it.

Pros: 1. Its 5 modes: lo/mid/hi/strobe/sos. 2. Flood is quite impressive, it produces a great amount of light, it lights up a wide area. 3. Tint color is almost neutral, not tending to blue. 4. Aluminum reflector. 5. Glass lens. 6. Orings in the right places. 7. Well built. 8. Came lubed and with enough thermal paste.

Cons: 1. No memory mode 2. Strobe isnt much fast. 3. Heat sinking: it will become very hot after 10 minutes of use.

Other: Best buy; MCE has a better colour than P7 version of this light.

Pros: Well the number if modes being a pro or con varies from person to person. The SOS is pretty dumb but could come in handy when I'm out on a hunting trip or something. Its got a fast strobe. Seems about as bright as my WF-501B SSC-P7-CSXO 3-Mode 900-Lumen (sku.36356), although that one had a slower strobe.

Cons: No Memory. Maybe too many modes. All I want is high, low, and a reasonably fast strobe.

Other: Take away the SOS and Low mode, give it memory and you have a great flashlight. As it stands this is still a great light for the money. Very bright and the strobe is debilitating in a low-zero light environment.