Budget lights: Difference between revisions

The exact definition varies, but typically these are offbrand lights made in China and sold by direct shippers like DealExtreme, Manafont, and KaiDomain. Quality varies greatly, sometimes being surprisingly good, but often mediocre or poor. There seems to be little accountability to the companies that manufacture the lights with many similar lights showing up under different, but similar brandnames like UltraFire, TrustFire, and UniqueFire that even share logos.

Cool tint colors for LED's is commonplace and neutral or warm colors are rare. HA III hard anodizing is hard to find. Most are HA II, if that and therefore these lights show wear much faster than name brand lights.

The retailers websites often post incorrect information about lights and change features around without notice. In particular, ratings of lumens and runtimes are often greatly exaggerated. User reviews can help establish some features, but because the models change, even those reviews may not be accurate.

The retailers themselves have generally poor customer service, frequently not answering inquiries and getting orders wrong or delivering lights that are "dead on arrival." Because most of the transactions are paid through PayPal, the buyer has recourse and as long as you are patient (not too patient! PayPal will do nothing after 45 days from the date of sale). Store credits or replacements are often issued to resolve problems.