I’ve been waiting for my local wally-worlds to get the AA MagLED’s in for a while, every time i stopped into the benighted, accursed 'Mart, they didn’t have them, just empty pegs with the SKU’s of the supposed incoming inventory…
this weekend they finally came in, and instead of fighting the crowds and driving on one of the busiest driving times of the year, i “let my fingers do the walking” and called a couple stores first
Somersworth, NH (the one closest to work and the wally i usually visit if forced to) only had the 2AA, i have plenty* of 2AA minimags, and i wanted the 3AA, as i’ve read it has better tint and is slightly brighter than the 2AA, at the expense of being a little longer…
Newington, NH had both models, so a road trip was in order…
when i arrived at the Newington Borg Collective Shopping Center (We are Wal-Mart, smaller shopping areas will be assimilated, Resistance is Futile) …errr, wally world, i made a beeline for the flashlight section (question, if i made an actual “Beeline”, wouldn’t that be more in the general direction of the Garden/florist section? 
) to find the AA MagLED’s…
Boy, when they said the 3AA version was a bit longer than the 2AA they weren’t kidding, i was actually taken aback at the length of the 3AA, it looked ungainly and not very pocket-freindly for jeans, it’s only just slightly shorter than a 2C-cell Mag! i actually started considering the 2AA version instead, for pocketability, but even that one was longer than a stock 2AA Minimag and would be less pocket freindly than a standard incan 2AA MM…
ahh, screw it, if i’m going to choose one, might as well go for the big one, i don’t ever remember saying to myself “y’know, MacTech (yes, i often refer to myself by my screenname and in the third person, dear Og i need a life…), you really should have gotten the smaller and less powerful version instead…”
Even though i wasn’t impressed with the 3-D preassembled MagLED initially, it seemed no brighter than my mongrel 3-D Mag with the Sears 1W Endurable PR bulb, I have been impressed with my 2-C MagLED builds (and my 3 123A/5-cell Mag-Num-Star 2-C “Sleeper”), so i figured i’d give the 3AA MiniMagLED a chance, worst comes to worst i can always return it, thanks to wally-world’s liberal return policy…
so far, i’ve been impressed, the 3AA has a pure white beam, no tint (a Luxeon Lottery winner here for sure), seems stable, none of the documented flickering in other threads, and the much maligned “focusing” system, the focus of much derision here on CPF, is actually useful in the MiniMagLED
when turned on to flood, there isn’t a true “donut hole” (mmm…donuts!), just a dimmer area of yellow tint, 1/8 of a turn to spot and it dissapears, yes there are rings in the beam at flood, but these will only be obvious when WWH’ing, the Fenix E1 actually has more pronounced “rings and holes” than the MMLED at flood
when focused to spot, there actually seem to be two useful spot settings on mine, wide spot, where the hotspot is less defined and merges almost seamlessly with the corona and spill, and a more narrow spot where there’s a more definite border between hotspot and spill, for a $25 flashlight, this thing has an incredibly good beam, it’s not flawless, and it’s not SureFire quality, heck the Fenix L1P has a smoother beam than the MMLED, but the beam produced by the MMLED is light years better than the stock incan MM, this may in fact be the first Mag Instrument light that has a usable flood beam pattern in stock form, no more huge “Donut Hole” (Homer Simpson must surely be devistated, Duff Beer stocks on the rise, Film at 11)
the MMLED will be the first Mag instrument product that i will actually use the flood setting on, all my other Mags are focused to the spot beam pattern and stay there, the 2-C and 3-D MagLED, the MagCharger, they all stay at the spot setting as the flood is USELESS because of the insipid Donut Hole problem
compared to my other high-output lights;
MagLED 3-D; even though they’re both 3 watt LED’s, the MagLED 3-D is significantly brighter than the MMLED, the spot is much tighter and throws further, there are more rings in the beam than the MM, the MM has a slightly dimmer, but smoother beam
MagLED 2-C; slightly dimmer than the 3-D, but still brighter than the MMLED, the 2C has the same spot beam issues (and the useless flood beam) as the 3-D
i have no stock incan Minimags left, as i’ve Nite-Ize’d them all, so i can’t compare a stock incan MM to the MMLED, needless to say, it’s a foregone conclusion that the MMLED would stomp on the incan in every way
Fenix P1; another 3W Lux, as it’s being driven by a 3V lithium cell, the MMLED IS brighter, but not by much, the Fenix has a far smoother beam, a much more SureFire-esque beam, a smooth transition from hotspot to spill, the MMLED has 3 distinct beam portions at spot, hotspot, corona, spill, the MMLED seems to have a slightly warm, yellowish tint (or the Fenix has a cooler bluish/purplish tint), tints are only noticeable when compared against another LED
SureFire G2 W/3W G&P LED module; the SureFire with G&P puts out a far superior beam, a faint warmness to the tint (very slightly yellow) and a SureFire-quality hotspot to spill gradation, the G&P also is brighter, slightly, the MMLED has a slightly greenish tint when compared to the G2, and the beam has faint but noticeable ringiness
Overall, the MMLED is an excellent effort from Mag Instrument, holds it’s own quite readily against more expensive/more powerful lights, the beam isn’t perfect, but it’s leaps and bounds better than the stock incan Mag products, and has a much more usable flood than any Mag flashlight, from the 2AA incan MM all the way up to the MagCharger, yes the MC blows it away in brightness, throw, and fit-and-finish, but even the MC has that horrible “Donut Hole” on flood
that said, there are things that could stand improvement;
As i stated in my initial review, the 3AA MagLED is long, really long, you just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly long it is, i mean you may think…
sorry, went all Hitchhikery for a moment there…
the fact remains, the 3AA MagLED is an extremely long flashlight, it’s about 1/4" shorter than a 2 C-cell, it’s not pocket freindly unless you’re wearing carpenters/painters jeans, this one’s more at home in it’s supplied belt sheath
personally, if i was redesigning the 3AA Minimag, i would have gone the “shorter/wider” route, take the neccecary 3 AA cells and stack them in a “tripod” arrangement, side-by-side, making a stubby, widebody light, 3 AA’s in a tripod arrangement are about the same diameter as a standard D-cell, going with this arrangement, Mag could have used the tooling from the D-cell Mags and simply cut the body length down, construct a Minimag style twisty focus head to retain the heatsinking neccecary in the AA MagLED’s, this would make a more compact, pocket freindly design
it would also allow Mag Instrument to do the two things it loves to do most (not counting lawsuits, that’s their third favorite thing…)
1; change the form factor of the light, confounding and annoying modders
2; sell more proprietary accesories, after all, with no delicate bulb to burn out, Mag won’t be making any money off replacement bulbs for this one, they’d have to make up the shortfall elsewhere, in the overpriced, overmarketed accesory market
say what you will about Anthony Maglica, and his love of “Innovation via Lawyers”, Mag Instrument may not have the most-loved reputation on CandlePowerForums or FlashlightForums (i think that honor’s reserved for Fenix, SureFire, Inova and Streamlight, actually), but the AA MiniMag LED is a surprisingly well constructed product at it’s price point, since it’s based on “stretched” technology from the AA Minimag, reliability should be right up there with the stock AA Minimag, a good, basic, solid, simple light, time will tell if the electronics/heatsinking in the AA MMLED will be up to the task, the body is a proven design, the guts are the big question here
i’m happy with my 3AA MiniMagLED so far, but it’s still the “honeymoon stage” right now, give me a few weeks with it and then ask me what i think…
I have modified the MMLED already, i moved one of my glass windows off one of my Nite-Ized AA Minimags and into the MMLED, there was a noticeable improvement in light output with the glass window
My final rating (scale of 1-10);
Stock Incan Minimag; 4
Nite-Ized Minimag; 6
MiniMagLED 3AA; 8.9
MiniMagLED Pros;
powerful 3 watt LED (with all the known advantages of LED lights)
flood beam is actually useful
nice bright output
this particular light is a Luxeon Lottery winner, YMMV
“Candle mode” is actually less irritating than the incan version
should have decent runtime
MiniMagLED cons;
3AA version is ungainly long
if you squint and really obssess over it, even at the spot setting, there appears to be a tiny “darkish” spot in the middle of the spot, it’s only visible if you really stare at it when WWH** or in ceiling bounce, it will not affect normal operations, and it can be eliminated by tweaking focus/thread slop
*3 MM’s upgraded with red Nite Ize modules and Lithium AA’s for long runtime in extended power outages, one with the blue NI upgrade and the anti-roll cap that lives in the car, in case i need it for evening breakdowns, put the MM on the trunk facing traffic and the solid blue LED’s will increase my visibility to motorists, since they’re not flashing i won’t be mistaken for a cop (what self respecting LEO would use a Dodge Neon for his police vehicle anyway? )
**WWH; White Wall Hunting, the act of shining a flashlight beam at a white wall (or a white ceiling) and scrutinizing the beam for any flaws, typically reflector artifacts or the infamous Maglite “Rings and Holes” when set to flood beam, an act performed by the more perfectionist/obsessed Flashaholics, most artifacts found in WWH are not even visible in normal use, only when obsessively staring at the beam on a white/light surface