If you’ve been keeping up with FOURSEVENS (the company formerly known as 4Sevens…) then you know the company has been going through several changes over the past few months.  First came the renaming and rebranding of the company, followed shortly thereafter by the revamping of the FOURSEVENS website.  Since then, FOURSEVENS hasn’t released many new products, but they’ve recently done a “refresh” of their XP-G LED emitter flashlights and replaced them with the latest “Gen 2” LED emitters.  According to FOURSEVENS, these new XP-G Gen 2 versions of their lights increase output by an impressive 20% at every level.  FOURSEVENS sent me two examples from their XP-G Gen 2 refreshed collection for testing and I have to admit I’m impressed.  FOURSEVENS has a fantastic relationship with Durham, North Carolina LED manufacturer Cree, Inc. and continues to be an early adopter of Cree’s innovations.  That commitment has helped FOURSEVENS stay at the top of the quickly changing flashlight industry.

I first examined  the new FOURSEVENS Preon P2.  I happen to own an example of the previous generation (purchased last year) Preon 2 which made for an interesting side-by-side comparison:

New XP-G Gen 2 P2 model on right.

 Cosmetically, there’s almost no difference between in the form factor of these two lights.  As longtime fans of FOURSEVENS can attest, every time they do a new run of Preons, there seems to be a new shade of blue, red, etc.  The newer model does indeed have a different shade of blue than the version I bought last year.  Beyond the color, the new model (right) also reflects the new FOURSEVENS branding:

New XP-G Gen 2 version right

The beam profile created by the XP-G Gen 2 is impressive.  The increase in brightness is apparent – particularly at the high end.  But the beam is also tighter and more defined, with a more attractive “cool blue” color hue:

XP-G Gen 2 version left

FOURSEVENS also sent me an example of the Quark Pro QPL outfitted with the new XP-G Gen 2 LED:

Like the Preon P2, this Quark Pro QPL exhibits the new FOURSEVENS branding – clean and attractive:

Like the P2, this Quark Pro QPL is aesthetically virtually unchanged from the previous Quark Pro version.  Here’s a photo of the Quark Pro QPL along side my Quark X 123 squared model:

Here’s a beam shot comparison of my XML equipped Quark X with the latest XP-G Gen 2 Quark Pro:

XP-G Gen 2 version left

Again, the nice cool color of the XP-G Gen 2 LED is apparent.  The hot spot is also impressively well defined (though not captured well in this photo) and has impressive “throw.”  With a 20% increase in output across the board, the Quark Pro QPL should have a high output of nearly 250 lumens (FOURSEVENS has not released official specs on their XP-G Gen 2 LED equipped models as of this writing).

The retail prices on the XP-G Gen 2 refreshed models remains the same (no increase).  However, FOURSEVENS is discounting the now discontinued first generation XP-G lights they have in inventory – so now is an excellent time to pick up the still very impressive performing Gen 1 XP-G models!  For more information, please visit the FOURSEVENS home page.