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 ★★ Aurora SH0030 Cree XPE WC-Q5 5-Mode 114-Lumen LED Flashlight 

DX - http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.26421

Note drastically lowered rating, the bodywork is better quality than the Ultrafire C3 it is based on. Pity about the drivers. See the runtimes on NiMH somewhere at the bottom of the comments. Now, the singlemode refuses to light up and the 5 mode flickers like crazy even with the bodywork removed so it's a driver issue, not an electrical continuity one.

Light Output:

Throw at 1m

14500 cell at 4.18V
High:          2810    
Medium:    1390     
Low:            475     
The spec says it’ll work with AAs but has been revised to say 2.0-4.2V which means 14500 only unless there are some exotic cells in AA size that I’ve never heard of. The 2AA configuration with NiMH cells is too dim to be worthwhile – A Fenix E01 with a year-old alkaline cell in it beats it handsomely in this configuration.

3xEneloops at 4.36V
High:        3700
Medium:  1270
Low:          431

Lightbox:

N.B. My lightbox results are not even remotely comparable to anyoe else's so please do not use them for comparisons to anyone else's. Mine seems to be a lot more reflective internally than Jay's. But then it ought to, it got 4 coats of white gloss paint. As a rough comparison the brightest light I have (ROP High running on two D lithium cells) measures 3880 lux in this box and 25,000 lux at 1 metre. Jay's and my light meters seem to produce comparable resuolts for throw though.

14500@4.18V
High:        1005 lux
Medium:    350 lux
Low:          121 lux

With extension tube and 2 NiMH charged to 1.5V
High:         27lux     A Fenix E01 with a year-old alkaline in it gives 37 lux!
Medium:     9 lux
Low:           3 lux    i.e., woefully dim. !!!!!!!!!1

Current draw is only 5.11mA on medium which should give more than two weeks of 9 lux light if anyone cares. On high it draws a whole 12.2mA which should give a week of pathetic light with two Eneloops. Basically, normal NiMH cells will self-discharge faster than the light will discharge them. So let’s try yet another extension tube and see what it is like on three Eneloops (4.36V which may be pushing it). In this configuration it is 197mm long – just shy of 8 inches. Not entirely practical but some might like it that way. 

Two extensions and 3 NiMH
High:        1190 lux
Medium:    417 lux
Low:           148 lux
Nice and bright but rather unwieldy.  

With an Ultrafire C3 for comparison. It is ratherr better made than the Ultrafire.

Surprisingly to me, it will, just, still tailstand in this configuration.

OK, it is standing on its head there but for the ceiling beamshot it was happily tailstanding on the carpet.

The extension tubes are from Ultrafire C3s – still one of my favourite lights. This appears to be a rebadged Ultrafire C3 with a different circuit and an XPE emitter. For comparison, an Ultrafire C3 on a 14500 reads 1251 lux on the lightbox and 6100 lux at 1 metre. The stainless steel Q5 C3 reads 1305 on the lightbox on high and 5500 lux at 1 metre. None of my C3s are as green as the Aurora.

 
Current:
14500
High:          760mA       It ought to be good for an hour on high
Medium:    230mA       Around three hours
Low:            82mA       Approximately forever, 9-10hr

3xNiMH
High:          980mA    Two hours runtime
Medium:    295mA    6.5 hours
Low:          101mA    20ish hours

Weight
Without Battery - 43g (1.38oz)
With 14500 - 63.7g (2.39oz) (Blue Trustfire which is longer than the current grey ones.)
With extension tube and two Eneloop NiMH 107.8g
With two extension tubes and three Eneloops 146.9g
 
Review
 See Jay’s review of the single mode here as I agree wholeheartedly with his conclusions on the general construction. He also takes better pictures than I do and externally and (mostly) internally the two lights are the same.

It is better made than the Ultrafire C3 and works better than they do with extension tubes intended for the C3. I’ve never got a C3 (I have 5) to work with more than one extension tube.

The head is a pain to get back on as the threaded portion is short and there’s a nice fat O ring in there that it can be tricky to get back in where it ought to be.
The uselessness on two AAs is unfortunate as I find it rather unwieldy on three of them. It will get used with a single 14500 anyway so this isn’t really a big deal for me. The fact that it can be used with NiMH is a bonus but I wouldn’t buy this for use with AAs. Many would mark it down for this, I don’t care.
It works fine with the longer blue Trustfires which quite a few lights won’t. The grey protected Trustfires are shorter than an Eneloop AA whereas the blue ones are 2-3mm longer.

Light Output
The beam is somewhat green but this can and will vary between samples. It is a fairly tight beam with a nice sized hot-spot. It is not a thrower, nor is it intended to be. It is tighter than I expected, probably as the reflector is fairly deep. It has a light orange-peel effect which really does clean up the beam nicely. It is much less green on a 14500 than it is on 3 NiMH cells. The Aurora is on the right, the light on the left is the Ultrafire RL-118 in all its green and ringy glory. The camera has white balanced this to death - both are greener than this pic implies, particularly the Ultrafire.

The sequence is medium, low, high strobe and SOS. It defaults to coming on in medium, but if you’ve turned it off recently it comes on in the next mode from the last-used one. Fenix do it this way, but I’d far rather it were low, medium, high or high, medium, low. This is purely a matter of personal preference.
It drives the LED at 700mA according to spec so heat should not be an issue. This means it is no brightness monster – any of my Ultrafire C3s put out more light, however it is better made than they are.
 
Conclusion  ★★★★

Quite nice

Tailstand even with three cells

Better made than the design it is derived from

Sensible current to the LED

I have no trouble with the switch but then I don't have big hands.

Decent price

Doesn't seem to get hot even on high with a 14500

Could use a longer thread on the head end of the body

I personally dislike the medium, low, high arrangement

Not the brightest thing out there

Prefer my Ultrafire C3s

Runtime when I get around to doing some wiring and soldering and outdoor beamshots when it is not cold, wet and windy like it is again tonight.

 It has, briefly, stopped raining so here are some beamshots. Still messing with settings, the other outdoor shots were taken at ISO 100 but i thought 200 would be better for the smaller lights. As a result these shots seem much brighter than the ones done for the other lights which were done at ISO100. All exposures were 4 seconds.

Control. As you can see we have quite a lot of light pollution accentuated by the very low clouds. It started raining again as I took these. The bright blob on the right is someone's security light that stays on because of the high winds.

Low: As you can see my aim was somewhat off - I was aiming at the tree which is 15.5m away. The pole on the right is about 3m away.

Medium: It is very windy, or at least that's my excuse. The camera was on a tripod but it looks like the wind made it wobble - will need to look into hanging some great weight off it for stability.

High: My aim is better this time. It helps when you can see what you are doing.

The beam is quite wide - the pole on the right is about 3m away and the spill has lit it up quite nicely. This is not a dedicated thrower. If the wind and rain die down a bit I'll try some more shots for comparison purposes.