The batteries leaked in both my old mini maglites, so I decided to get a replacement, and the upgrade to the LED version seemed worthwhile. Amazon was by far the cheapest place for this (mine was £14.81 with free delivery) and arrived very promptly, well before the delivery estimate.
Comparing the LED torch to my old version a few things are obvious. Firstly the LED version is significantly longer, 168mm vs 145mm (~7/8" longer for those who don't like metric units). The extra length is split between a longer body, and the torch head itself being significantly longer. The tail cap on the old version had an inset for clipping to a lanyard or key ring - this is gone on the LED version, not that I had personally used it. Checking out my old extras for the torch, despite being longer it still balances nicely in a nite-ize headband. The rubber end for adding coloured lenses also still fits, though seems ever so slightly looser.
Torch operation seems a little fiddly to get the different flashing modes by rotating the head back and forth multiple times. At first I couldn't seem to get it to switch off from the flashing modes, but you get used to it quickly, and in reality I'll not normally use those. The automatic SOS flash mode (...---...) seems a nice addition though hopefully rarely needed - I guess the point is the way you switch modes means you couldn't actually flash a morse code of your own. If you want to be able to do that stick with the old halogen torch. It feels as rugged as my old maglite, but I'll reserve judgment on that until I've abused it for a few years and found if the mechanism for the various modes still works.
Finally the free belt attachment - I reckon it was designed for the old torch, seems ever so slightly short to me. It is just a simple loop, no Velcro or studs involved, so must be threaded on to a belt rather than clipped over.
