BEST OF THE TEST

BEST OVERALL

BIOLITE HEADLAMP 750

Price: $100 / Weight: 5.4 oz / Beam distance: 375 ft / Run time: 36 hr 57 min

BioLite baked some helpful tech into its newest, very comfortable, and somewhat pricey headlamp. The most noteworthy is Constant Mode, which prevented the 750 from subtly dimming on us. For recreational users, this offers peace of mind, but in an emergency, it keeps lumens exactly where you need them to be to navigate or work safely. We also appreciated the setting memory that let us turn the lamp off in one of five white and red light modes, then turn it back on in that same mode without needing to cycle through the options. Bonus: A rear red light increases visibility.

BEST VALUE

ENERGIZER VISION ULTRA HD RECHARGEABLE

Price: $35 / Weight: 2.8 oz / Beam distance: 250 ft / Run time: 4 hr 41 min

The cost of rechargeable tech has come down considerably over the years. But the initial investment can still be a barrier, be it for an electric vehicle or a headlamp. Energizer bucks that trend with the affordable, lightweight, and surprisingly powerful Vision Ultra. The addition of the red and green LEDs made the lamp feel all the more valuable, even if we mostly stuck to using the white and red lights. And we liked the adjustable frame that let us tilt the housing down as much as 90 degrees. A drawback is the lamp’s relatively short run time.

BEST FOR JOB SITES COAST XPH30R

Price: $70 / Weight: 5.3 oz / Beam distance: 375 ft / Run time: 9 hr 39 min

By virtue of its removable head strap, this dual-fuel model transitions from headlamp to flashlight in seconds—useful for all those spots your head can’t fit into but your light source needs to. We also appreciated that one end of the lamp body is magnetic, so we could hang it from a nearby metal surface while we worked. As for light modes, the XPH30R has four settings (white light only) and easily transitioned from floodlight to spotlight when we twisted the bezel around the bulb. Its run time was notably shorter than the other high-output lamps in the test, but 9.5 hours is at least long enough to get you through most workdays.

Read more about all the lamps we tested at popularmechanics.com.