Best car headlight bulbs 2024
Which car headlight bulbs will brighten your night?
All the electronic safety wizardry on today’s cars counts for little if the driver can’t see where they are going.
Halogen lamps lose output over time and many OE bulbs are fitted with more of an eye on durability than performance. However, upgraded bulbs now feature up to 220 per cent more performance than the legal minimum. But which to fit?
To find out, we return to the big-selling H7 single-filament bulb found in many new cars with separate dip and main beam lights. And for the first time we also look at H1 – the original halogen lamps commonly found in the main beam.
How we tested
We tested both types of bulbs with the help of Philips and its light tunnel in Aachen, Germany, monitored remotely. All bulbs were burnt in to stabilise output before being tested.
The bird’s eye views shown for the more common H7 are measured at 75cm above the road and are of the lamp with the top figure of merit.
To get a winner, we converted all results to percentages to reflect the differences between the bulbs and added them together to give an overall rating. The results are an average of two bulbs bought online or, in Halfords’ case, selected from a store display. We also checked maximum light output to ensure the bulbs complied with ECE regulations. Prices are what we paid online and are for a pair of lamps.
H1 car headlight bulbs
This is a new type of bulb for our test programme, which also required a new procedure, because H1 is primarily used on high beam rather than the dipped we’ve used previously. A headlight set from a Ford Transit Custom was used and aligned on dip using an OEM bulb, as it would be in all vehicles apart from those with separate low and high-beam lights, then it was switched to the main beam for our measuring.
There is no cut-off to prevent glare for oncoming drivers, so the focus is all on which bulb delivers the most light, so our figure of merit (FOM) is adapted from the one we usually use, combining readings from the centre, plus 2.5 and five degrees either side. The length, width, maximum and areas above 30 lux were also measured.
H7 car headlight bulbs
For the H7 we measured the dip beam length and width above 3 lux, the area above 30 lux, and the brightest point, and calculated our usual FOM. This combines the light in the centre of the road and on the kerb 50m ahead of the car plus twice the 75m figure. We used a Volkswagen Passat headlamp for the tests because this provides a precise beam pattern with good detail.
Best H1 car headlight bulbs
Philips X-tremeVision Pro150
- Price: Around £19
- Score: 100 per cent
- Rating: 5 stars
- Website: powerbulbs.com
A perfect score for Philips, which topped all five tests. Like its rivals here, it claims a 150 per cent increase over the minimum requirements, but in the top-performing Transit headlamp we saw a 195 per cent improvement over those levels.
The only blot on the performance, and this applies to the GT200 too, is that its elaborate plastic packaging looks out of place among the more environmentally friendly cardboard-boxed rivals.
Ring Xenon150
- Price: Around £32
- Score: 93.3 per cent
- Rating: 4 stars
- Website: ringautomotive.com
Ring managed to turn the tables again on its parent company, but as with the H7, it was close – as you’d expect from bulbs produced to the same standards. It was a good step behind the Pro150, some 30 per cent, in the revised figure of merit.
The Xenon150 got closer in the beam length test, reaching 197 metres – just four short of the Philips. It was closer still in the width test, where less than a metre separated the two. It only fell off the runner-up spot in the tests when the Osram just nosed ahead in the area more than 30 lux assessment.
Osram Night Breaker Laser
- Price: Around £17
- Score: 89.2 per cent
- Rating: 3.5 stars
- Website: osram.co.uk
The Night Breaker again just failed to earn four stars but it remains well worth considering alongside its Ring stablemate. Again, one test dealt a higher rating a blow, and this time it was beam length, where its 176 metres came bottom of the table.
The Chinese-made plus 150 lamps bounced back in the area-more-than-30 lux measurement, but it was not enough to push it into the four-star range. Like the Philips, its hard plastic packaging looks old school in this sea of cardboard boxes.
Twenty20 daylight 150
- Price: Around £17
- Score: 80.4 per cent
- Rating: 3 stars
- Website: abd.co.uk
Having two compliant bulbs was an improvement over the H7 result, but there was still no sign of this bulb’s previous test-winning performance. The lamps are branded as Megalight, a name used by Tungsram, which stopped producing at the end of 2022, and claim a 150 per cent increase over the minimum levels. Sadly, we only saw a 130 per cent improvement in the FOM. Beam length was 20 metres behind our winner – the closest it got to the Philips. There was a similar result in the width measurement too.
Halfords Advanced 150% Brighter
- Price: Around £23
- Score: not rated
- Rating: not rated
- Website: halfords.com
It’s likely that geometry problems put paid to Halfords’ chances here, because the beam centre was offset compared with its rivals. Unlike dip beam tests, there is no realignment when testing H1 in its usual main light role. The headlight set – separate dipped and main lights are rare on today’s cars – is aligned on the former using an OE bulb. Photometry tests also revealed one bulb failed to deliver the minimum brightness by a considerable margin, so the pair are not rated. Not a good test for Halfords’ new supplier.
Best H1 headlight bulb LED alternative
Philips Ultinon Pro6000 Boost
- Price: £99
- Score: 93.5 per cent
- Rating: not rated
- Website: lumileds.com
There was no repeat of the massive gains seen with the dip beam H7, due to the maximum light required by a main beam. While a filament gives a 360-degree output, LEDs work in just one plane and there are only two sets in this H1 application. The result is that the brightest spot is down on the best, but it pipped our winner for beam width. Overall, it is behind the best halogen but with a much greater life – ideal if swapping bulbs on your car involves dismantling much of the front end.
Best H7 car headlight bulbs
Philips RacingVision GT200
- Price: Around £23
- Score: 100 per cent
- Rating: 5 stars
- Website: powerbulbs.com
Despite renewed competition from fellow original-equipment supplier Osram, Philips continued its run of success, retaining the H7 crown alongside the H4 from last year. It was helped by having two top-performing bulbs, both of which showed they were the class of the field by wining all our tests. Philips claims plus 200 per cent improvement for the GT200 over the minimum requirements, but in this top headlamp set, it seems a little modest – we saw an average increase near 270 per cent.
Ring Xenon200
- Price: Around £29
- Score: 90.9 per cent
- Rating: 4 stars
- Website: ringautomotive.com
It was close between the two Osram brands, but the Ring version just scraped a narrow win. The two Ring bulbs were more consistent than the Osram pair and edged the German brand in all but one test – the area more than 30 lux – where its run of runner-up spots ended and it had to settle for third. Despite Ring claiming a 200 per cent increase, we saw a 223 per cent rise in our FOM figure. It got closest to our winner in the maximum-brightness test, where it was less than three per cent shy.
Osram Night Breaker 220
- Price: Around £38
- Score: 88.4 per cent
- Rating: 3.5 stars
- Website: osram.co.uk
Shortly before our test Osram raised the performance bar for halogen performance bulbs, claiming a 220 per cent increase for the Night Breaker, and we saw fractionally under that increase in our FOM rating. A superb performer but it was topped by the 200 per cent Ring (which also uses Osram lamps) in all but one test: the area more than 30 lux. The Night Breaker’s overall ranking was hurt by a poor beam-width test – without that it would be on four stars with the Ring. The recent release also accounts for the relatively high price, because there were few stockists.
Halfords Advanced 200% Brighter
- Price: Around £34
- Score: 82.83 per cent
- Rating: 3 stars
- Website: halfords.com
The chain has swapped suppliers since we last tested Halfords’ bulbs, dropping Ring and its Osram-made lamps for ELTA and its Lucas brand. The move has coincided with a drop in competitiveness, with the current stock a step behind Osram and even further behind pacesetter Philips.
The 200 per cent-brighter Halfords Advanced bulb managed an improvement of 185 per cent in the FOM assessment over the minimum requirement. Throughout the tests the Halfords and its alternative offering of Lucas swapped positions behind the top three, apart from in the width test. There are better options to be had.
Lucas LightBooster 200%
- Price: Around £43
- Score: 81.3 per cent
- Rating: 3 stars
- Website: halfords.com
Veteran British brand Lucas plays the same role as Ring Pro did when it supplied its bulbs, offering an alternative brand but with essentially the same lamps in the box. And this is no different, with Halfords and Lucas swapping positions in the tests, and little to choose between them. In the beam-length assessment they recorded exactly the same 99-metre average. Those results make it impossible to justify paying close to £10 more for the Lucas-branded lamps over the identical Halfords units.
Twenty20 daylight 200
- Price: Around £28
- Score: not rated
- Rating: not rated
- Website: abd.co.uk
This brand won our test in 2020, but you can’t help think AutoBulbsDirect has lost its way since. Last year’s H4 bulbs performed well, but turned up in bubble wrap and were from a maker no longer in business. This time the silver caps on both bulbs burnt during the 10-minute test, with one sample unable to provide the minimum requirements in the FOM assessment, plus power draw was more than 80W – considerably above the 55W limit. As a result, they were not rated here and the problems could damage the reflector and wiring. Avoid.
Best H7 car headlight bulb LED alternatives
Philips Ultinon Pro6000 Boost
- Price: Around £108.99
- Score: 127.8 per cent
- Rating: not rated
- Website: lumileds.com
Despite being legal on many cars in multiple European countries, including Ireland, these remain outside the law in the UK. Not a cheap option and some cars may require a CANBUS adaptor to ensure problem-free running, but the performance cannot be ignored. The retrofit LED delivered a plus 327 per cent FOM rating over the minimum requirement and we didn’t need a machine to see the difference in the light tunnel – it was glaringly obvious. The safety case is compelling, but legalising them is unlikely to be high on the government’s agenda.
Philips Ultinon Classic
- Price: Around £50
- Score: 88.7 per cent
- Rating: 3.5 stars
- Website: lumileds.com
While retrofit LEDs are illegal for most cars, they can be used on classics first used before 1 April 1986 because these are not required to use an E-marked headlamp. The Ultinon Classic has a colour temperature of 3,500 Kelvin, giving a warm light close to that of a halogen beam. Performance is a step behind the top halogens, at around plus 80 per cent, but the big gain is in lifetime, which is much longer than the plus-200 bulbs.
Verdict
A double win for Philips in a convincing fashion, dominating all of the tests. The Osram/Ring pairing are a good alternative. The switch of supplier for Halfords has seen a decline in performance, so it’s hard to recommend unless the company’s We Fit service is a must for you. And the Twenty20 line-up is a shadow of the one that won our test a few years ago, with one set having the potential to cause damage.
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