The Alpha is big for an 18650 powered light because it's massively overbuilt, has industry leading thermal capacity, and can be submerged to 300 feet. We tested it.
Alphas have survived 9 story drops down an elevator shaft, falling into the running gearbox of a giant industrial machine, and submerged for over a month when lost in a lake.
The Beta is powered by a AAA NiMh rechargeable battery and is designed to deliver full power for an hour. Yes, we could make it brighter to impress you more, but that wouldn't make sense because the Beta is meant to be used, not admired.
Beta QRv3 lights are currently made in-house and are only available in drops via our Blue Label or Prometheans mailing lists.
Many "high output" lights will drop 30% or more...not because it's designed to, but because the light is badly engineered and overheating. We make up for the lack of thermal mass with a solid copper pill and a graphite thermal interface material (TIM) under the LED. This material is extremely expensive and equally hard to work with. We are the only manufacturer in the world that uses graphite TIM in our lights.
