This is a really nice flashlight and is a must have if you already own Makita Li-ion tools. It is a fairly powerful flashlight and stands up perfectly when the battery is attached. This is very useful when setting the angle at 90deg and standing the battery to point the beam at a project.
The dowside is the strap. It is pretty useless unless you are climbing a ladder/tree or something. It more or less just gets in the way.
Here is the shame on Makita: This flashlight DOES NOT have a Xenon bulb as advertised. This flashlight is shipped with the A90261 bulb. This is the SAME bulb that has been used with the ML180 flashlight for years and is NOT a Xenon bulb. I have contacted Makita several times regarding this issue and have even spoken to the Project/Program Manager in charge of the LXT line of tools and they have yet to receive a call back. Voice mails and emails to Makita USA and Makita Japan have gone un-answered. This may be a minor detail, but really amounts to false adtertising. Not what I would expect from a company with Makita's reputation. 4 stars

The first remark that my little 8-yr. old nephew made upon putting this light in his hand was how light it was compared to his Dad's Ryobi light. The light weight makes it a pleasure to use. But there are several noticeable drawbacks with this light:

One is the small number of detents, four to be exact. The angles are zero(vertical), 45 degrees pointing up, 90(horizontal), and about 30 degrees pointing down. That means the 4 positive detents cover a range of about 120 degrees.

The 2nd thing I noticed is the light is the fixed focus. It casts a very wide beam. On my Bosch, the light is focusable to change the beam size.

Third, this light has a very sensitive momentary switch that turns on with a very light touch. This function would be handy if I were a policeman using a search-light, but considering that this is a work-light instead of a search-light, the momentary function is marginally useful at best. If the light was stored in a tote bag along with other tools, the light could easily turn itself on by bumping into other tools and have the battery totally drained. Overall, I consider this momentary function more a disadvantage than a benefit on a work-light.

Last and most annoying of all is the fact that Makita's lithium-ion batteries have a built-in safety circuitry that shuts off the light when the voltage reaches a low cutoff level. This feature is needed because lithium-ion batteries can on very rare occasions explode if they are overly discharged. The circuitry kicks in abruptly and leaves you completely in the dark without warning. There is usually no warning because the light level and voltage are quite constant as the battery drains due to the flat discharge curve of Li-on batteries. With NiCD-powered lights, the light dims much more noticeably as the battery nears the end of charge and there is always plenty of visual warning before the light dies down completely. Even though this cutoff feature is needed as a safety measure, it does make me think twice about using this light when I go into places or situations where I can not afford to lose light, even just momentarily, without warning.
3 stars

Makita makes 2 different sets of Lithium-Ion tools. The 3.0 amp hour tools (LXT) and the 1.5 amp hour tools (compact). The LXT tools do not work with the "compact" batteries. This can be fixed easily though. The 3.0 amp hour batteries and the 1.5 amp hour batteries both give the same power. There are simply twice as many cells in the 3.0 battery than there is in the 1.5 battery which means that the 3.0 battery will last twice as long. Makita did some market research when they were going to first introduce the 1.5 batteries and found that if a customer put the 1.5 battery on the LXT tools, they tended to say that the tools themselves were no good because of the battery life when in fact it was the fault of the smaller battery. What they did is put a square of plastic on the LXT tools (where the battery slides on) to prevent the smaller battery to fit in the tool. That square does not exist on the 1.5 amp hour tools so the 1.5 amp hour tools will actually take both types of batteries. It is actually very easy to punch out that square of plastic and then be able to use your batteries with the flashlight or any other LXT tool that you may purchase (once the plastic squares have been punched out on the tools). Just be aware that they will last half as long as they would with the 3.0 amp hour batteries. I learned all of this from Makita so I can guarantee that this will not damage your flashlight, the battery, or any other LXT tool. 4 stars

very strong beam, long usage before needing charge. multiple head adjustments make it easy to get it into ideal position. definitely would buy again. 5 stars

Just recieved the light, but the lith battery doe not fit onto the light base. Appears to be a mfg defect, but the geometry of the light base looks exactly like the base of the drill motor. Not sure if it is a fluke, but some dimnsion may be off a slight bit .. not sure. Will need to return this one for now. PS: I love the drill motor, best I ever had. I 1 star