Hi All,

I've been considering an upgrade to my standard Osram H7 Halogens and today I fitted some Philips X-treme Pro 150 and decided to do some before and after pictures to help others considering a similar upgrade.

 

The cost was about £21 from Amazon, and the pictures below were done with the same camera exposure settings (shutter speed, F ratio,and ISO) for before and after to give the best comparison.

 

Long view

 

 

Close up

 

From a real world driving experience,  I would say the new bulbs are subtlety brighter with a longer throw of the beam and with better illumination to either side, in addition to that the light is slightly whiter where the originals were more yellow.

 

I wouldn't call it an earth shattering difference, but on a dark back road I was definitely able to drive without full beam where I wouldn't have been confident in doing that in the past.

 

The alternatives were the Osram Nightbreaker laser (similar price but with a shorter claimed lifespan) and the Nightbreaker Silver (about half the price but slighrly longer lifespan).  Next time I might opt for the Silver for less money but I'd be interested in what others think of the difference in the photos above.

 

Maybe the original Osram I had in were decent bulbs anyway and the comparison would have been completely different against a no-name budget bulb.

 

Over the next few weeks I'll get a better chance to try them so I'm reserving my fianl judgement on if it was worth the additional cost.

 

Cheers

 

 

Great comparison shots, not of direct use for me but good to see a controlled comparison with equivalent camera exposures. 

Interesting read. I thought that upgrading the bulbs would have made a more obvious difference in the photographs.  A claimed 50% lift in lumens is quite significant.

 

My mk3 is adequate in dry conditions but I simply have to slow down in the wet when less light is reflected back ( country driving, no road lighting even on junctions).

I feel that the problem is that with headlights now being so integrated into the overall vehicle design/fashion/look, there is likely to be a compromise of their optical performance.

I am a cheapskate driver and all the vehicles I have owned have had halogens, but the optical performance between vehicles on the same power bulbs has varied enormously.

Worst ever was the mk1 Hyundai Santa Fe, 2nd worst was the mk2 Octavia. Best was a locally produced Ford Falcon, followed closely by a mk1 Kia Carnival people mover (of all things).

 

I look forward to your additional comments but realise that you will have the post facelift headlight arrangement which was generally considered better performing than my cars pre facelift appearance.

 

Has anyone found a way to reduce the few 'spikes' of raised light that can be see on the facing wall shots? I noticed my car has a couple of these. Id like to raise my beams very slightly but a bit concerned that these would then end up shinning directly into peoples eye line.

 

Very good comparison shots btw

1 hour ago, Stokesy said:

Has anyone found a way to reduce the few 'spikes' of raised light that can be see on the facing wall shots?

 

They're part of the beam patten and cannot be adjusted separately I'm afraid.

I can't see any difference in the photos, nothing at all which could justify the claim 50% brighter.

It's a difficult one to work out exactly what they claim to do as the marketing says

 

"upto 150% brighter light" (which is in effect 2.5times the original brightness)

 

But that's

 

"Compared to the minimum legal standard"

 

I'm not sure what the minimum legal standard is, but if that's based on an old type of bulb then maybe they are 150%  brighter , or maybe my original bulbs were already better than the minimum standard (even though they were just the normal bulbs the car came with) meaning the difference seen isn't as great.

 

I've yet to do much driving on dark unlit roads with them so I'm undecided, but would probably save a few quid and opt for the Osram nightbreaker silver next time.

 

 

There is a legal limit for halogens of 1500 lumens ±10% and both standard and upgrade bulbs comply tightly with this legal requirement. At best an upgrade bulb will be at the upper limit, they run hotter so are whiter and have shorter life. Having a slightly shorter filament, tighter geometry control and often a light blue part that is an infra red reflector that increases the filaments temperature. Most promotional material has nowadays been altered from +xxx% brighter to xxx metre greater visibility, which is entirely due to minor tweaks to filament position and claims derived as a result of being tested in a standard reflector lamp, not the projector lamps that many Skoda's have. They are also designed to give a hotspot of light further forward.

 

 

Similar comments can be made regarding Xenon lights These have a legal limit of 2000 lumens if they don't have self levelling and washers or 3000 lumens if they do.

 

 

Similar rules apply to led lights I think.

 

 

Of course the abomination that are VAG shutter controlled projector lights mean that 50% or more of the possible light output is blanked off by the shutter on dip.

 

In this application upgrade bulbs are little more than a whiter placebo.