Brewer

Ok, the light finally landed in my hand today - on my way to a job where I actually got to use it As others have said it is beautifully made, heavy, solid, well engineered, very much like a good SLR lens. It's a serious bit of kit. Love the power, love the focus range - wide flood to tight spot, easy to find a middle ground that gives a good mixture of center and spill. It is definitely the best flashlight I own. The power gauge and M12 pack is the icing on the cake. But I have to say, the shape IS a bit bizarre, and I don't get it. Why was it so important to have a round aluminum body, that they actually 'bulked out' the battery compartment so much to do it? They already have a somewhat ergonomic battery shape, why not use that?! They could have had a nice over-molded handle grip to match the battery, then have the aluminum part emerge from that - something like this (pretend the button isn't on the side): Anyway, JMHO.

Ryobi have a small charger for their 18v system, it's probably even smaller than the Milwaukee 'power source' device. This is the form factor I'm talking about, no 'base' required: Charging *FROM* USB isn't something I had considered, but it is an interesting idea. It would mean incorporating a DC-DC converter (but then you'd probably need to do that anyway if you wanted to run it from 12v). No idea of the cost / size / heat implications of that...

A year or so ago I wouldn't have thought I'd say this, but for me AA's have become almost obsolete, especially out in the field. Too small for any real work, too big for a lot of modern high tech devices. It was different way back when a 2AA Maglite and a Sony Walkman were the height of portable tech, but these days I find that more stuff takes AAA's (eg head light, pen light, emergency UHF radio) and that a pack or two of spare AAA's is easier to carry and more useful. I've got high-end lights from Fenix, 4Sevens, Olight, Nitecore, Surefire etc but none of them really work for me as a system - swapping and managing batteries and never knowing how much charge is left really spoils the party. These new M12 lights are the killer product for me. Happy to pay the asking price.

Hi everyone, just got inspired to join up and comment as Milwaukee finally answered one of my oldest prayers - now to work on the other one ;0) Punchline first: what would be AWESOME would be a USB power source that doubled as a compact 'travel' charger, just by plugging in a wall adaptor or cigarette lighter lead. Now background: I'm on the tools by trade but I'm also a farmer, camper and volunteer emergency responder. I was watching the M12 system for a couple of years before I bought in, and I've now got a small fleet of M12 tools and batteries. One thing I have wanted since the start was a decent M12 LED flashlight with an on-board charge level indicator. Bolting out of the door to deal with something is that much simpler if you can quickly confirm that your flashlight has a couple of hours in it and If not, grab an extra pack and swap it over in seconds, no disassembly required. I never understood how high-end flashlights were so popular with their fiddly battery swaps or limited runtime between placing the whole tool on charge. So finally my wish was answered with the new aluminium light. Now when I'm suddenly called away I'll grab a couple of charged compact M12 batteries, the USB power source as backup for my phone (better than any proprietary 'power bank' system) and the new LED light - but the charger is seriously bulky. Not too much of a problem on a building site, but if you are getting on a plane (or into a fully-crewed truck) luggage needs to be tight and it's too tempting to leave it behind and hope that it won't be needed. A small plug pack and lead would be much more packable, even if it takes all night to charge a single battery it would keep me in business over a multi-day operation. Are you listening Milwaukee product devs?!