[carrot]

I am proud to announce the official launch of my new website, Gearcarrot.com, which will include product reviews, features on various kinds of gear, and will be the new home of my Guide to High End Flashlights when the new version is released.

Please view the full review with photographs here on Gearcarrot.com.

An abridged version is posted here for your convenience and for the CPF community.



The MagLite XL100 is MagLite’s newest entry into LED flashlights, and is certainly an impressive one. Wider but shorter than a regular Mini MagLite, the MagLite XL100 boasts an impressive 83 lumens as measured per the new ANSI FL1 standard. Runtime is listed at 5 hours, 15 minutes on high, but it is reasonable to assume that the light output will be significantly dimmer as the batteries are run down.

MagLite is one of the largest manufacturers of flashlights so the retail release of the XL100 is big news. For a long time, MagLite has sat on the side lines watching other smaller, newer manufacturers eat their lunch, and with the XL100 they hope to regain some of that lost market.


The XL100 is typical of MagLite build quality, with rubber gaskets for water resistance and made out of aluminum. The coating is type 2 anodize, which looks nice when new but will not last long in daily usage. The lens and reflector assembly are plastic, just like every other MagLite. My only concern with a plastic lens is that plastic is easily scratched and on the XL100 is not user-replaceable. The red tailcap button is some kind of silicone rubber and seems like it will last a long time. It offers good tactile feedback.

It feels pretty much exactly like a giant MagLite Solitaire and seems like it could handle the daily rigors of abuse that tools generally see. However, it seems flimsy compared to many of its competitors, which you could argue are overbuilt, as the competition have thicker walls and seem far tougher.

The XL100 can be focused by twisting the bezel, but any focus setting aside from the default with the bezel screwed all the way down is ugly with artifacts and rings. Additionally, there is a good bit of thread play on the bezel when it is not screwed down all the way but probably nothing to be concerned about as far as functionality or robustness. The smooth deep reflector used by MagLite, is, as usual, king of the throw, out throwing nearly all the flashlights I own that are similarly sized. In its price and size range there is nothing that can throw better.

The XL100 uses a special battery carrier designed by MagLite to take 3 AAA batteries, and is far more robust than you see in cheaply designed overseas counterparts.

The big feature of the MagLite XL100 is that it offers five different modes and uses an accelerometer, much like those used in the Nintendo Wii remotes, to select them. This is an interesting user interface (UI) innovation that is exclusive to MagLite and has a bit of a learning curve.

To simply use the flashlight, just press the red button tailcap and the XL100 will light up. To turn it off, press the red button again. However, if you wish to access the five special modes available, a reasonably simple process is required

The five special modes available to the user are laser etched into the tailcap around the large red power button. To select one of the five modes, the user must hold the XL100 parallel to the ground, with the mode that they wish to select facing up. The red button needs to be pressed and held for 2 seconds, and then the desired mode will be selected. Note that the XL100 needs to be turned off first before selecting any of the five special modes.

Additionally, if the user presses and holds the button while simultaneously rotating the flashlight, variants of those modes are selected.

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So, the UI of the XL100 seems pretty clever. But how does the XL100 stand up to daily usage? Unfortunately, not so well. The XL100 works perfectly as a flashlight, in fact it offers better throw and comparable output in a nice compact package than other flashlights in its price range (Inova X2, Icon Rogue 2, 4sevens Quark MiNi 123) but the accelerometer-based user interface is rather annoying.

Many times when attempting to dim the light, I accidentally activated strobe and SOS, which are to the right and left of the dim function, respectively. The rubber button has a small protrusion on it to help the user know which way “up” is for the dim function, but I found myself often slightly off to the right or left of it, triggering an alternate function instead. The user must also wait for a moment after holding down the button before rotating the flashlight, or else the light will select a different mode as well. Also, there is no way to dim the light when it is already turned on, creating an additional step for users.

All of my concerns with the UI could be addressed with a simple firmware update, which would allow the user to press and hold the button with the XL100 already activated in any orientation and simply rotate to dim. This would be both intuitive and remove the problem of inadvertently activating other modes.

Overall, MagLite deserves much praise praise for taking a gamble on making a very cleverly conceived flashlight with many features, and one that is fairly competitive in the market to others in its price range ($40). However, they deserve loads of criticism for a poorly implemented user interface that could have been just as easily fixed with a few hours of focus group testing.

Cautiously recommended. A good flashlight that may be frustrating at times to use.