Okay, I know we've all been deluged by the MiniLED reviews lately, so I'll try to keep this interesting.
Like most of us, I bought my 3AA from Walmart yesterday. I chose the 3AA because 1) I was interested in a 3cell AA light and 2) assumed the 3 cell would be brighter/longer running than the 2AA LED light. And 3) since I'll end up with both anyway might as well get the most expensive one out of the way first 
First impressions:
Holy cow this thing is long. And skinny. Reminds me of a joke I heard once.... Here it is next to a Dorcy Super 1 Watt CR123.
Another shot:
It really is kind of awkward to hold at first, although you get used to it. I find myself holding it like a 2D mag, even though the switch is still the head twisty. Must be the length.
The switch is the same as the regular Minimag, but looser is the only way I can describe it. It takes almost a third of a turn of the head to make the light come on, which is more than a regular mini needs. Again, small differences...
The output is good. The 3W LED is fed with 3 AA 1.5 volt alkalines, which if you do the math should mean around .667 amps of current. I got .630 amps on fresh batteries (around 4.4V).
When you first turn it on, the beam is a little ringy, although nowhere near as bad as an incandescent MiniMag. Here is the beam on flood:
You can see the slight ringing (more present than my camera shows) in the beam, with still a good hotspot and corona. Much better than incan.
The spot beam is less noticeable, simply because an ample hotspot is present in both flood and spot, but here is the white wall spot:
The spot is bigger, but the overall amount of light is less, as the following pictures will show.
First, a room shot on flood:
I apologize for the slight blurriness, but you can see the even distribution of the light on the flood setting. No significant hotspot is seen when the scene is dirty (non white wall)
The room shot on spot setting:
The hotspot is more visible here, but a significant amount of spill is still present to illuminate around the hotspot. Of the two, I'd (surprisingly to me) say the flood setting is more useful for most tasks. This is the complete opposite of my Maglite experiences to date, when the beam was pretty much focused to a spot with no artifacts or holes in the beam and then left there.
I also took two hallway shots, to determine how the light throws and the effectiveness of the beam pattern.
First, the flood pattern:
Again slight blurriness as the camera tries to focus, but you can see the lack of hotspot and the smooth flood of light. Very nice beam pattern, actually one of the nicest floods I've seen. I'd say its brighter than an Inova X5 floodlight, but would have to compare them.
The hallway spot shot:
Here the focusing is much clearer, with a defined hotspot and corona. Have not used this light outside, but should throw fairly well in a dark field.
Overall Impression: 4 out of 5
I'd say Mag hit, if not a home run, a pretty respectable triple with this light. The lack of a regulation circuit (it has been confirmed that the light is resistor regulated direct drive, so constant decrease in output as batteries die) is a big oversight, and confusing because the 2AA light seems to have a boost circuit. Why the 3AA did not get one is a mystery to me.
The light does get warm while using it, so heatsinking seems to be adequate. There doesn't seem to be any thermal issues as with the C/D size LED modules.
The output is very good, and the beam is the most useful I've seen out of a mag lite. It probalby will serve well as a walking at night light, and the included belt holster offers a convenient way to carry it.
The anodizing is extremely well done, with a small ring around the threads bare to conduct the current. The reflector is very deep, offering good throw but suffers a small amount of the output when focused to a spot.
All in all, very much worth the 25 bucks IMHO.
Hope you enjoyed this review, and as always welcome any comments/suggestions, especially positive as they stroke my ego
Laterz, and thanks for looking.
dragoman
