I love Christmas lights! 
A nice thing is I can use small battery powered ones all year, so I made sure to get myself a few of these to help me remember the great Christmas lights of this year and the past.
The weather didn't permit good outdoor testing last night, but here are some of my initial thoughts on some of these lights.
The LED emitter technology is still evolving quite rapidly and now to the point of efficiency and cost that it is replacing standard lighting in automobiles, industrial applications, traffic lights, and home lighting. The cost will come down even further, the latest technology dropped the manufacturing costs for the Emitter dies by 2.5 times... my friends in manufacturing that's HUGE and even though it is only one component it will have a significant impact on the retail price of finished products.
I already posted on the
Olight S10 Baton Satin-Ti in this other thread.
You can get very detailed information and user experiences on all these lights at candlepowerforums.com.
Small Christmas Lights: 
L-R:
- Sunwayman CR123A M11R Sirius XM-L U3 (Max: 300 Lumens)
- CountyComm Maratac AA rev.? Copper 2 mode XP-G (Max: 125 Lumens)
- CountyComm Maratac AAA rev.? Copper 2 mode XP-G (Max: 115 Lumens)
- ThruNite AAA Blue Ti2 XP-G2 (Min: 3 Lumens, Max: 80 Lumens)
- ThruNite AAA Green Ti XR-E (Min: 3 Lumens, Max: 60 Lumens)
- ThruNite AAA Orange Ti XR-E (Min: 3 Lumens, Max: 60 Lumens)
- ZebraLight AA HA SC52 (Max: 280 Lumens)
First; the
Sunwayman M11R is a 3/4 level light, and the "Sirius" version features a Titanium housing rather than the standard HA Aluminum. I like the look of this light and its very practical and simple control ring interface. There is no on/off clicky, just the control ring that goes from OFF-L1-L2-L3. On the Sirius version the ring is a little slippery it could use a little better grip. I need to do more outdoor testing, but I really wish it had a 4th level as the difference between L1 and L2 seems too large. Actually the light has 4 hidden modes that are activated by quick twisting and reversing of the ring, I really dislike this part of the UI, it's really quite crazy having to activate L3 on my way to a super-low. This part of the UI I feel is a complete failure. The hidden modes are firefly, beacon, strobe, and SOS. I'll probably forget these extra modes exist. You can read the manufacture's specs
here. The detents for the different positions of the control ring could be stronger. The beam is quite nice, I like it, and the tint on my sample is very nice. Some people don't like the faint rings in the beam, very bad for white wall hunters.
Summary: Initial impressions; I like it. 3.5/5
The
Maratac lights are the current shipping versions; I don't list the revision because the CountyComm website is inconsistent and they have been known to not to be up-to-date or even accurate as the models change. These were ordered a couple days before Christmas. I bought them mostly because they have a Copper housing, they use a pretty current XP-G LED, and they have moved to a 2 level/mode interface from their previous 3 level/mode design. I had some early Copper AAA ones, but not AA or 2 mode interface. I needed to clean AAA light contacts and relube, but the AA was fine out of the box. The AAA light may have had its threads cut just a bit short, all better after some hard twists/forced-cut. These lights work well and have nice beams. The AAA had a nicer slightly rosie tint on high, the AA was whiter with the 'slightest' hint of green. I still need to try them outdoors, but I like both of them (never liked my previous AA Maratac) and I like the new 2 mode interface more than I thought. A little pricey for sure and then you have to add shipping. Still not many lights are available in copper, and these have atleast the XP-G LED. Pocket clips and keyring attachment remain that same as previous versions and are a bit of a week point.
Summary: Nice lights. 3.5/5
The
ThruNite Ti is the current budget light in the AAA category as it can be purchased for $13 or less. That price is pretty hard to beat, not to mention you can get it in 5 different colors; great for matching with your Alox SAK. This light uses the older XR-E and has a nice beam with a little more throw than the XP-G lights. They really should be slapped though for naming this light the "Ti" which most people in the flashlight world know as an abbreviation for Titanium. This light features a progressive-twist interface, twist for low, twist more for high. Very simple and intuitive interface which I think first debuted on the Aeon, and later brought to the mainstream in the Nitecore EZ series. However the materials used and implementation of this interface is important in determining robustness and longevity. There can be problems with the interface on this light, some can be easily fixed, other not. Still for the cost I think they did a reasonable job. Most often when it fails you just get high-mode, which is better than no light. This light originally had a .x 'firefly' low output, but recent versions have a 3 lumen low-level output. The
ThruNite Ti2 is the same light, but using the latest XP series LED the XP-G2. This basically gives a more floody beam with a larger central hot spot. I like it, and prefer it quite a bit over the original model. It only cost $2-$5 more than the original and I think it's worth it. Both lights had very nice tints, exceptional for a light in this price range. These lights don't come with a pocket-clip, but have a good attachement point for keyring or lanyard.
Summary: Bargain price, nice beams, easy to acquire (I recommend Ti2 over Ti). 4/5
The
Zebralight SC52 is just a fantastic light
(I'm biased), it's not made of Titanium, but sometimes that's better. All I can say is fantastic beam, fantastic battery support, fantastic UI. I'm not sure I'm a fan of the new scallop machining on the body, it might provide better retention, but I seem to prefer the smooth body of my earlier Zebralights, or the knurling of the SC600. This version tries to cure the hot-pocket issue with side switches (accidental activation) once and for all... with deeper recessed switch and harder switch like the SC600 series; I think they may have done it. It surprises me that side-switch interface copy-cats that have come out are basically no better at handling the issue than the original Zebralights... do they read the forums or pay attention to the design at all? It's great to see the incremental improvements Zebralight continually makes. There are some other subtle changes that you can get from their website or from the flashlight forums. The only thing extra in the packaging now is a couple spare o-rings. I'm personally really waiting for the SC52w which is their Neutral-Tint version. I won't EDC it only because I like their discontinued 18650 cell light for that.
Summary: What's not to like? 4.5/5
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