New Petzl Myo XP Three Times Brighter

Petzl has a new version of the Myo XP due out very shortly and it's a whopping three times brighter than its predecessor thanks to improved LED technology.

From the outside the main change is the colour from the blue of the old model to grey/black with neat luminous snot green on/off and boost switches, but it's the innards of the new torch that matter.

They've changed a lot, even though the new version still has three brightness levels plus a boost setting and flash mode along with battery charge indicator and flip-up light diffuser. It still uses three AA cells as well.

In simple terms the new Myo XP is brighter than the old one, much brighter. It's notoriously difficult to compare light performance, but using the accepted measure the new version chucks out 150 lumens of light in 'Boost' mode compared to just 50 lumens for its predessor.

Petzl says that means with fresh batteries you'll get a 97-metre range on boost or 72 metres on 'Maximum' with the new torch, compared to 65 metres and 45 metres respectively with the old. In fact as batteries age, the new XP produces as much light on its lowest setting as the old one does at 'Maximum'.

Not only that but battery life is actually improved too by an additional 10 hours at all settings, so you now get 80 hours of light at 'Maximum' compared to 70 hours before.

The standard Myo XP with band-mounted battery will retail at £55 while the Myo XP Belt with remote battery pack for cold weather use is £65. The new models should be in the shops from February 2008.

Looks like one of the best head torches out there just got a whole lot brighter.

More Petzl information at www.petzl.com