The Brightest Car Light Bulbs On The Market
Naturally one of the most common questions we get asked is “What are the brightest headlight bulbs for my car?”
While this is a simple question, the answer is not always so straight forward. This is because it largely depends on which lamps your car lights use.
While we have car bulb guides that we’ve written before, this guide focusses purely on the brightest bulbs available for each car light technology.
Many car owners want the brightest lights possible.
The first step is to identify which technology your current headlights use; halogen, HID Xenon or LED. This is your starting point. From there, you can consider the upgrade options for each technology. This table shows the upgrade options depending on what you currently have fitted.
| Upgrade Option | OE Halogen | OE Xenon |
|---|---|---|
| Aftermarket Halogens | ✅ | ❌ |
| Upgraded Xenon | ❌ | ✅ |
| LED Bulbs | ✅ | ✅ |
| HID Kit | ✅ | ✅ (D2R/D2S Only) |
As you can see, if you have halogen bulbs as standard, you have the option to upgrade to brighter halogens, convert to LED or convert to HID Xenon.
If you have OE Xenon HID bulbs as standard, you can now get LED versions of D1S/D1R, D2S/D2R, D3S/D3R bulbs.
If you have LED headlights as standard, unfortunately there are no upgrade options currently available.
The rest of this article breaks down the brightest options in each upgrade category:
The Brightest Halogen Bulbs
While newer technologies are slowly filtering through, the majority of vehicles on the road still use halogen bulbs for their headlights. If you have halogen car lights, you will first need to know what bulb part number you need. This is likely to be one of the following (there are a few rare alternatives):
H1 | H3 | H4 | H7 | H9 | H11 | H15 | HB3 | HB4 | HIR2
Most manufacturers produce their flagship bulbs to cover the popular fittings.
Currently, there are some top contenders for levels of brightness. OSRAM, Philips, RING and Twenty20 all claim to produce up to 200% more brightness than a standard bulb.
Here are our comparisons in quality, longevity and value for money.
Please keep in mind that prices will vary depending on the bulb application so they have not been included.
Ring Xenon200 H7
Brightness: 200%
Warranty: 6 Months
Colour: 3700K
Price Range: ££
Shop Ring Xenon200 Bulbs
Philips RacingVision GT200
Brightness: 200%
Warranty: 6 Months
Colour: 3500K
Price Range: ££
Shop RacingVision GT200 Bulbs
Twenty20 Daylight 200
Brightness: 200%
Warranty: 1 Year
Colour: 3500K
Price Range: ££
Shop Twenty20 Daylight Bulbs
OSRAM Night Breaker 200% Bulbs
Brightness: 200%
Warranty: 6 Months
Colour: 3200k
Price Range: £££
Shop OSRAM Night Breaker 200% Bulbs
Road Legal Upgrades
With up to 200% more light, these are by far the brightest filament bulbs that you can get right now.
They are completely road legal, E marked and come with a warranty.
As you are replacing halogen with halogen, these are the easiest to fit.
The downside to having upgraded halogen bulbs is their lifespan. Unfortunately the brighter you go, the shorter the bulbs actually last. This is due to the filament inside the bulb burning out at a faster rate.
If you’re looking for something that lasts longer then keep scrolling to read more about LED bulbs!
The Brightest LED Bulbs
LED bulbs are usually brighter than halogen upgrades.
They last much longer, use less power and can be easily installed (most of the time).
Many drivers now choose LED upgrade bulbs as their preferred bulb of choice over halogens and HID conversion kits.
Aftermarket LED bulbs are often a perfect upgrade choice for those looking for a clean, bright, white light.
LED bulbs last much longer than filament bulbs and are now a plug-and-play option.
The technology is advancing so much now that there are even options for fanless LED headlight bulbs.
Unfortunately, whilst the technology adapts and improves the UK regulations do not. Some regulations date back to the late 1970’s meaning newer technological advances will not conform to their standards.
Manufacturers understand this fact and now offer fully road legal OE LED headlights. However this option can cost you a small fortune when just one bulb needs to be replaced. We’ve come across reports of people paying up to £1,000 to repair their headlights.
If paying an arm and a leg isn’t something you’re looking to do then aftermarket LED bulbs might be the best solution.
Twenty20 Impact
Brightness: 250%
Warranty: 3 Years
Colour: 6000k
Price Range: £££
Shop Twenty20 Impact Bulbs
Twenty20 Compact
Brightness: 150%
Warranty: 3 Years
Colour: 6000k
Price Range: ££
Shop Twenty20 Compact Bulbs
Twenty20 Projector LED
Brightness: 300%
Warranty: 3 Years
Colour: 6000k
Price Range: £££
Shop H7 LED Projector Bulbs
Philips Ultinon Pro9000
Brightness: 250%
Warranty: 1 Year
Colour: 6000k
Price Range: £££££
Shop Ultinon Pro9000 Bulbs
These are by far the brightest LED bulbs available on the market.
Not all of these bulbs are available for every type of fitting.
For example, the Philips X-treme Ultinon are only available for H4, H7, H8, H11 and H16.
Keep in mind that all aftermarket LED upgrade bulbs are not road legal and these bulbs are designed for to be sold for off-road purposes only.
LED upgrade bulbs are significantly brighter than filament bulbs.
There are also LED upgrade options available for sidelights, indicators, foglights and many other applications that surpass even the best filament bulbs available.
The Brightest HID Kits
HID conversion kits are by far the brightest options available on the market.
Others may claim to be brighter however these are often unsafe for you and other road users.
Stealth HID Kits have been around for years and they have built a credible brand name throughout the industry.
HID Conversions kits work in the same way as OE HID headlights, but are simply designed to fit into a halogen headlight unit.
These kits contain ballast units and bulbs that plug together for a simple installation process.
The ballast units coupled with the right bulbs can bring some immense light to your vehicle.
Stealth 55W
Brightness: Up to 400%
Warranty: 2 Years
Colour: 5000K | 6000K | 8000K
Price Range: £££
Shop HID Kits
Stealth-X 55W
Brightness: Up to 450%
Warranty: 2 Years
Colour: 5500K | 6500K
Price Range: £££
Shop HID Kits
Luckily, these Stealth kits are available for almost every halogen headlight type from H1 to H7 to HIR2. The only one we don’t recommend is H15. These are a dual filament bulb with the smaller filament being used for a DRL application. You cannot get an H15 HID conversion that will replicated these dual functions in a good way.
These kits are also available for reflector headlights which means you won’t be blinding other road users after installation.
HID conversion kits are a well established upgrade technology and come with some advanced compatibility technology. This makes them CANBus compatible so the chances of getting any errors is minimal.
Keep in mind that these bulbs are in-fact not road legal and will not pass an MOT.
Do HID kits blind everyone?
This is a common misconception.
Usually the causes for blinding other road users is:
- Poor Quality Bulbs
There are HID kits available right now that are very bright but still poor quality. The bulbs have been manufactured poorly meaning the light bubble is in the wrong place for the headlight. This creates light scatter and glare for other road users.
Unfortunately it’s these cheap and poorly manufactured products that caused the technology to be an MOT failure when used as an aftermarket upgrade from halogen bulbs.
With 23,000V and up to 450% more light being emitted, it’s always best to go for good quality HID kits if you’re going down this route.
- Poorly fitted / misaligned
Most car owners will be able to fit these kits without any issue. They are designed to be plug and play and are easy to understand how they fit in.
However with tight access to the headlights, rushed jobs and poor workmanship, sometimes they are not fitted correctly and they will end up misaligned. This again causes light scatter and glare for other road users.
A common sign of this is when you see a car with one headlight brighter than the other. This isn’t one brighter bulb and one dim bulb, it’s one misaligned bulb. Think about the apparent brightness of a torch when it’s pointing to the floor versus pointing in your eyes!
- Reflector / Projector headlights
Some people will buy a kit not realising they need anti-glare bulbs.
A reflector type headlight will need anti-glare bulbs and a projector headlight will need normal bulbs.
Putting a normal bulb in a reflector headlight can result in glare for other road users to be blinded. If you’ve done this on your car, you may notice people flashing their lights at you quite often.
The Brightest OE Xenon Bulbs
OE Xenon HID headlights are fitted as standard to some cars, but are often offered as an option when purchasing the car…at quite a cost!
They are usually referred to as “OE HID Xenon”, “Factory Fitted Xenons” or similar and are seen as a better option to halogen headlights.
If you have this technology on your car, your bulb type will be one of the following:
D1S | D1R | D2S | D2R | D3S | D3R | D4S | D4R | D5S | D8S
Luckily, we’ve got the brightest OE Xenon bulbs on the market.
Xenon lights work a bit differently to standard halogen bulbs and actually require two core components to work.
The first component is what’s referred to as a ballast. This is essentially a power converter which takes the normal 12V DC power from your car, and fires out 23,000V to ignite the second component…the bulb.
The bulb has a bubble with two electrodes inside. The high voltage creates an arc of light between these electrodes. The bubble is also filled with Xenon gas which amplifies the light making it brighter and whiter.
Standard Xenon bulbs are brighter than their halogen counterparts and the upgrade bulbs we are listing are even brighter than those!
OSRAM Night Breaker Laser Xenarc
Brightness: 200%
Warranty: 12 Months
Colour: 4300k
Price Range: £££££
Shop Xenon Night Breaker Lasers
Philips X-treme Ultinon
Brightness: 120%
Warranty: 12 Months
Colour: 4300k
Price Range: £££££
Shop WhiteVision Gen2 Bulbs
Any bulb type that begins with a capital “D” will be Xenon.
Unfortunately, the two biggest drawbacks with Xenon bulbs tends to be the price and the availability.
Why are OE Xenon bulbs so expensive?
Simply put – the technology and time it takes to build these bulbs is a lot more exhaustive than standard halogen bulbs.
Some of the bulbs, such as the D1S and D3S, also have an integrated igniter built in making the production even more expensive.
Why are the upgrade options limited?
It’s all to do with cost vs demand.
Factory fitted Xenon headlights are often optional which means many people choose not to have them. This means the demand for these bulb types is lower.
With a lower demand, bulb manufacturers have not dedicated as much resource into developing upgrade options in a big way. Philips and Osram are the ones leading the innovation in this technology by quite a distance.
Conclusion
HID Kits
Aside from the fact that HID kits will cause you to fail an MOT, they are the brightest bulbs on the market.
If fitted correctly, they shouldn’t cause any issues.
LED Bulbs
LED bulbs are kind of in the same boat as HID kits except there’s no reason for them to fail an MOT.
There’s nothing in the MOT guidelines that would cause a failure but they are still not road legal because they can’t be E marked.
With between 150% to 300% more light than standard halogen bulbs, and the longest life of all the technologies, these are a serious upgrade to consider.
Upgrade Halogen Bulbs
These lights are perfect for anyone worried about price or road legalities.
They are a simple, no-hassle upgrade choice and provide you with a high increase in brightness.
Like every other option, they still have their drawbacks.
Unfortunately these bulbs just don’t last as long as LED or HID.
OE Xenon Bulbs
Cars with factory fitted Xenons, you only have the option to stick with Xenons when upgrading.
Aftermarket Xenon bulbs are completely road legal unless stated otherwise meaning there’s no worry there and they will of course pass the MOT.
Despite there being fewer upgrade options, you can still get up to 200% more light than your original fitted Xenon bulbs. This is a significant upgrade and well worth the money if you can afford it.
You Decide
Ultimately it’s down to you but we hope this guide helps you make the right decision for your requirements.
Let us know your views in the comments.
Author: Dean Michael
“As you can see, if you have halogen bulbs as standard, you have the option to upgrade to brighter halogens, convert to LED or convert to HID Xenon.”
Unless you want a road legal car. And since January 2020 the MOT rules have been updated to fail all cars with incorrect bulbs fitted.
My motorcycle came with factory fitted HS1 35/35w halogen bulb which was literally the worst bulb I had ever seen. Its like riding the motorcycle on pitch dark road with your smartphone’s torch. Quite had misjudgment due to this. Later upgraded my headlight to H4 60/55w halogen segment. Difference was quite obvious and massive. Now night rides often feel more relaxed and safe than what was when I purchased my motorcycle.
Recently, upgraded my headlight halogen to Philips RacingVision which is even more intense and powerful as compared to my old Osram OEM H4 60/55w. Only concern is about the lifetime of RacingVision. But in front of safety and life, I don’t mind replacing halogen every year.
Can you recommend headlight lamp for infiniti Q30
Hi John,
Enter your vehicle details into our car bulb finder or email us for more information.
You could show the standard used for comparison to be 150-200 percentage higher for realistic accurate data comparison. Need the standard to compare all products. Really enjoyed the article comparison’s. I personally chose OSRAM CBI for double the longevity of OSRAM CBB, used your other article for guidance with substantial video inputs from multiple sources.
I’ve had your hids for ages but when I got my new car I decided to upgrade to the 55w bulbs from the 35w bulbs, what a difference, I live in rural Northumberland where there are no street lights so need to see well up the road at night these do the job perfectly.
Brighter halogens mean higher power (wattage). Anything higher than the OEM regulated 55W makes your bulb non regulation and more importantly, overloading the electrical capacity of the wires and fuses. Anything higher than 65 to 70W can potentially melt the bulb socket or blow fuses or even melt the reflector, depending on the car.
Any upgrade from OEM halogen should go straight to LED bulbs. Quite cheap on Amazon and since I retrofitted many cars with them starting 8 years ago, none of the bulbs have ever burnt out! Recommend you specify 120W per pair in your search, since the suppliers quote the power per pair. So when they write 120W, it means each bulb is a 60W, and basically compliant with the regulated 55W power limit (The power is not written on the bulb for good reason!). The colour 6000K gives the optimal white and maximum light. Osram and the other brand name halogens are expensive, obsolete technology, and don’t provide any meaningful improvement.
I noticed you said that HID Xenons must match the type of housing, reflector or projector. I have reflector lamps that use H4 bulbs. I can see on the H7 bulbs listing there is a drop down to select this. But I need H4 bulbs and there isn’t a drop down, does that mean that there is only the option for reflector (non glare) bulbs and these will work OK with my lights?
Will any of these fit the rectangular headlights on my 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham? If so, I would like to buy 4 of them.
Good information but would like to know what 200% up wood means is colour
I have swooped my oe halogens for oe xenons by purchasing genuine items as fitted std to the top of the range version of my own car. My car already has headlight washers and manual levelling. Do I need to tell my insurance company and what do you think their response will be.
This upgrade is superb and greatly enhances safety at night.
Been running an aftermarket HID on my motorcycle since 2009 with no problems, MOT test centres and multiple encounters with the police have never raised it as an issue. But I did buy a decent kit with a properly aligned/blanked bulb.
Aftermarket HIDs aren’t a MOT failure for motorcycles. They are for cars.
A very exhaustive and clear appraisal. Thank you. The one element that I am not clear about is how do you know which type of headlamps are in your car, reflector or projector. Is there a clear difference in appearance and if so, what?
Hi Mac,
We have covered this question in our Reflector vs Projector article.
Projector headlights have a lens that looks like a bubble and you cannot see the bulb when looking into the headlight. Projectors are also smaller in size than reflector headlights. Reflector lights are like the traditional headlights with a reflector and a textured glass with the bulb visible when looking into the headlight.