Headlamp brands, ranked on what they tell you

Every headlamp brand publishes a lumen figure. That is where the similarity ends. One of the ten brands below publishes the energy in its battery pack in watt-hours; three publish nothing beyond output at all. This page ranks them on that difference, because on a site that judges lights by what can be checked, disclosure is the specification underneath every other specification.

This is not a ranking of how good the lamps are. It is a ranking of how much you can know before you buy one, which is a different question and the only one we are equipped to answer honestly.

The five things a headlamp maker could tell you

1. Output in lumens, measured under ANSI/PLATO FL 1. Every brand here publishes this.
2. Beam distance, which is what actually determines how far you see. Five of ten publish it on at least one lamp.
3. Runtime, and ideally per mode rather than a single maximum.
4. Battery energy, either as watt-hours directly or as capacity in milliamp-hours you can convert. This is what makes a runtime claim checkable.
5. Weight and an ingress rating — the two figures that decide whether you will actually wear it and whether it survives the weather.

We have handled none of these lamps. Every figure is the maker's own, linked with the date we read it, and where a brand's own site would not serve us a spec page we cite the brand's own retail listing and label it as such — see our methodology.

The ranking

Petzl is the only brand on this site, in any category, that publishes the watt-hours in its battery. That single fact is why it sits first, and it is worth understanding what it buys you.

Why watt-hours is the specification that matters

A runtime claim with no battery figure behind it cannot be checked. A runtime claim with a stated watt-hour figure can be tested against arithmetic in about ten seconds, and that changes what the number is worth.

The brands, in order

1. Petzl — the only complete spec sheets in the category

Petzl publishes output, beam distance, runtime, battery energy in watt-hours, weight and an IPX rating on every lamp we cover, and the figures are consistent across a range from a 30-lumen emergency lamp to a 1,500-lumen reactive one. The Swift RL states 1,200 lumens, 168 m, 8.47 Wh and 92 g. The Actik Core states 625 lumens, 115 m, 4.5 Wh and 88 g. The Swift LT weighs 43 g, the lightest figure on this site.

Petzl also publishes runtime in an unusual and more honest form on several lamps: visible at 700 m for 400 hours, rather than a bare hour count. That states the threshold the measurement was taken to, which is exactly the information a single maximum figure hides. Skip Petzl if you want maximum output per dollar — Nitecore and Coast publish far bigger numbers for the money.

2. Fenix — nearly as complete, with the biggest batteries

Fenix publishes capacity in milliamp-hours rather than watt-hours, which takes one multiplication to convert but is otherwise the same information. The HM65R-T states 1,600 lumens, 170 m, 300 hours maximum, a 3,400 mAh 18650, 140 g and IP68 — the strongest ingress rating of any headlamp we cover. The HM75R pairs an 18650 with a 21700 for the largest stored energy in the category.

The gap against Petzl is the runtime format: Fenix publishes a single maximum rather than a per-mode table, so the 300-hour figure on the HM65R-T describes its lowest setting and not the 1,600 lumens on the box. Skip Fenix if weight is the deciding factor — the HM75R is 321 g complete, against 43 g for the lightest Petzl.

3. Streamlight — a per-mode runtime table, on one lamp

Streamlight publishes the best-formatted runtime figures of anyone here — 4.5 hours on high and 21 on low for the Bandit Pro, rather than a single maximum — along with 45.4 g and IPX4. It is a per-mode table, which is what we ask for everywhere and rarely get.

The limitation is range rather than disclosure: the Bandit Pro is the only headlamp Streamlight fields in our set, and at 180 lumens it is a light task lamp rather than a general-purpose one. No beam distance is published. Skip it if you need output; take it if you want a very light lamp whose runtime you can actually plan around.

4. BioLite — publishes distance and runtime, not much else

The Dash 450 states 450 lumens, 90 m, 60 hours maximum and IPX4. Four figures including a beam distance puts BioLite ahead of every brand below it, and the 90 m works back to 2,025 candela — 4.5 candela per lumen, a wide running-oriented beam. No weight or battery capacity is published, which on a running lamp is a real omission since weight on the head is the property you notice most.

5. Princeton Tec — runtime and IPX7, no distance

The Vizz states 550 lumens, up to 90 hours, three AAA cells and IPX7 — the second-strongest ingress rating in the category and the best on any AAA lamp here. Running on replaceable cells with published waterproofing is a genuinely useful combination for anyone who cannot rely on charging. No beam distance or weight is published.

6. Nitecore — the biggest numbers, the thinnest sheets

Nitecore publishes the highest output in the category — 3,000 lumens on the HC75 UHE — and one beam distance across four lamps. No runtime, no weight, no ingress rating on any of them. The 192 m on the HC75 works back to 9,216 candela, or 3.1 candela per lumen, which tells you the 3,000 lumens buys width rather than reach.

On a 3,000-lumen lamp the missing runtime is the figure you most need, because no headlamp sustains that output. Take Nitecore for output per dollar and the unusual zoomable head; skip it if you need to know what happens after the first few minutes.

7. Olight — output and one distance figure

The Perun 3 states 3,000 lumens and 160 m; the Perun 2 Mini states 1,100 lumens and nothing else. Magnetic charging is convenient and proprietary, which is a trade rather than a fault. No runtime, weight or ingress rating published on either.

8, 9 and 10. Coast, Black Diamond and Klein Tools — a lumen figure and nothing else

All three publish output and stop. Coast's XPH34R states 2,700 lumens and dual power — a rechargeable pack or alkaline cells — which is a genuinely valuable feature and the reason it is still a pick. Black Diamond's Storm 500-R states 500 lumens with red, green and blue night-vision modes, which no other brand here matches. Klein's 56048 states 400 lumens.

These are not bad lamps and Black Diamond in particular has a very strong reputation among climbers. But reputation is not a specification, and for these three brands there is nothing beyond the output figure to check. If a published runtime or IP rating is part of your decision, they cannot participate in it. Our Nitecore against Black Diamond comparison works through what that means in practice.

How to buy on this page

• You want to know exactly what you are getting — Petzl. Complete sheets across the whole range, including watt-hours.
• You want maximum stored energy and IP68 — Fenix, on the HM65R-T or HM75R.
• You want a runtime figure per mode — Streamlight Bandit Pro, the only per-mode table in the category.
• You want the most lumens per dollar — Nitecore or Coast, accepting that little else is published.
• You want red, green and blue night vision — Black Diamond Storm 500-R, the only lamp here with all three. See red light mode.
• You want it to run on cells from a shop — Coast XPH34R, Princeton Tec Vizz, or a Petzl hybrid. See rechargeable headlamps.

What we would not tell you

We would not tell you Petzl makes better headlamps than Black Diamond. We have used neither, and a disclosure ranking is not a performance ranking. What we can say is that if a Petzl lamp underperforms its published figures you have a documented claim to hold it against, and with three of these brands you have only a lumen number.

We would also not fill in the empty cells in the table above. It would be easy to publish an estimated runtime for a Nitecore lamp or an assumed IP rating for a Black Diamond, and it would make the page look more useful. It would also be exactly the thing this site exists not to do. For how we choose picks across the whole category, see how to choose a headlamp.