Coast HP14 High Performance Focusing 629 Lumen LED Flashlight, Black

I love LED flashlights, try a lot of Coast's new products, and every couple of years buy improved models of lights I already own. It's a disease, but cheaper and more benign and useful than most other addictions.I sent the HP14 back to Amazon the day after it arrived. Fortunately it was evident someone had already opened the supposed "new-in-box" packaging, and the batteries were burnt out, so I didn't have to pay return shipping. (Amazon is very good about that.)I believe the HP14 suffers compared to other Coast lights. I don't own the latest, brightest light from the "7" series, but the HP14 is not enough brighter than my roughly 2-year-old "7" model to compel me to keep the HP14. A "7" slips easily into a pocket, while the HP14 is longer and heavier than a "7." I'll get a new "7" pretty soon.When I returned the HP14 I bought an HP550 1,000 lumen light, which is a longer and noticeably heavier (nine AA batteries in the 1,000 as opposed to four AA in the HP14), but you get a monstrous 1,000 lumens for about the same price as the HP14. I give the HP550 five stars in my review of it, and I bought a second one a week after the first one arrived.Understand these are my opinions based on experience with LED flashlights. Before starting this review, I gave the HP14 two stars and a snarky title. Writing this forced me into greater objectivity, and I am changing my rating to three stars in fairness to Coast and any consumer reading this. Stream-of-consciousness reviewing.Trying to compare objectively, the HP14 is very bright. The HP14 has two clusters of AA batteries mounted front-and-back, making it slimmer if longer than a "7," which has 4 AAA batteries mounted in a single cluster. Someone with smaller hands than I might find the HP14 more ergonomic than the stubbier, thicker "7," and if you plan to carry the HP14 in a purse or pouch, or keep it in your home or car, the length won't be as important to you as to me. Also the "7s" and the HP14 come with lanyards and sized belt pouches that Velcro shut. The HP550, with three banks of three AAs mounted front-to-rear, is in its own category in terms of ergonomics and weight and comes with neither lanyard nor pouch. Al three flashlights are bright enough to hurt and dazzle if shined into someone's eyes. The HP550 will partially blind someone temporarily, especially if their night vision is "on," which requires the person using it to be extremely alert and to keep warning nearby people "don't look at me," meaning if you are not experienced with hand-held lights, you could be a major annoyance or a minor danger.I hope there is enough info here to make this review useful to novice and experienced LED users alike. These aren't your father's Eveready flashlights with incandescent bulbs.

When I saw this Coast HP14 with a high of 629 lumens and a low of 52 lumens, I thought this was the current 3-mode HP14 629/252/52 lumens, as shown on Coast's website and in Coast's 2015 USA product catalog.NOPE! It turns out that Coast also had a 2-mode HP14 with a high/low of 629/52, which is what I got instead.Disappointed and confused, I did some research. It appears that Coast had a 2-mode version, an upgraded 2-mode version (sometime around middle of 2014), and the current 3-mode version. All 3 of them are named "HP14", and all 3 of them have the same box number 19280.- 2 mode: 339/56 lumens, 4h.45min/20h - Coast 2014 USA product catalog- 2 mode: 629/52 lumens, 1h.30min/56h - Not in Coast 2014 nor 2015 USA catalog. Found here: https://web.archive.org/web/20150515161327/http://www.coastportland.com/hp14-led-flashlight.htm- 3 mode: 629/252/52 lumens, 1h.30min/15h/56h - Coast 2015 USA product catalogOn a side note, my research showed the same changes were done with the Coast HP7:- 2 mode: 251/58 lumens, 5h.45m/20h - Coast 2014 USA product catalog- 2 mode: 360/50 lumens, 1h.45m/19h - Not in Coast 2014 nor 2015 USA catalog. Found here: https://web.archive.org/web/20150515164715/http://www.coastportland.com/hp7-led-flashlight.htm- 3 mode: 360/211/50 lumens, 1h.45m/7h.15m/19h - Coast 2015 USA product catalogSo if you're looking for the 3-mode version, this might NOT be the version you're looking for, at least as of today. Some places are selling the 3-mode version as "HP14 Plus" (or "HP7 Plus"), to differentiate from the 2-mode version. But as of today, the "HP14 Plus" is sold for around $85, too much for me. It's possible that in the future, once the 2-mode versions sell out, 3-mode version will replace them at the current price of about $45.--------As for the flashlight itself, it's a nice, solid, bright flashlight. The slide focusing works really well between a wide even flood and a hotspot with spill. I really like this focusing implementation. It's more useful than the focusing found on cheapo flashlights where the beam focuses into a single spot in the square shape of the LED.The problem I have is that the mode spacing is terrible. If I need just a little more brightness than 52 lumens, my only alternative is to go into the 652 lumen, battery-eating high mode. There's just no intermediate mode where I can get a little more light while still conserving most of the battery life. I guess that must be why Coast added the medium mode to the current version of the HP14.Not having a medium mode kills some of the versatility of this otherwise great flashlight. That's why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5.

If you are looking for the perfect LED Flashlight with focusing capability, your search ends here. This is the "Rolls Royce" of LED Flashlights available at such a reasonable price in India. I bought it from Cloudtail & it came in a sealed box & had all the accessories as mentioned in the Manufacturers website. It uses 4 AA size batteries which are included in the Box. Following are the accessories included in the box:1) A lanyard2) 4 AA size batteries.3) A Nylon Carry pouch (Very high quality)It has 2 modes of operations, High (629 lumens) & low (52 lumens). The box which it came in shows a lumen rating of 339 for High & 56 for Low which I am sure is a misprint because the Manufacturer has declared it to be 629 lumens in their web site which I feel is true from my own experience. I have not come across any other flashlight that has such a high intensity of throw.I strongly recommend this Flashlight especially to those who are in the aviation sector (Pilots & Aircraft Maintenance Engineers). This is a better alternative to Mag-lights which are commonly used by Pilots & AMEs.

Pros: Good built quality. 3 focusing modes are useful.Cons: It comes with a limited warranty of 5 years. The image posted on site showing lifetime warranty is not correct. Light is not so impressive.

Delivery was quick, light is bright and seems solid, comes with a nice belt hoslter......... It was a bit bigger than I expected but over all quite happy with the product and shipping

Best flashlight I own. It is quite a bit bigger than you'd expect from the photo.