The BEST HID Xenon Bulb is...
The question we get the most has to be, "Which one is the best bulb?" It's a difficult question to answer because it simply comes down to the personal preference. I have always loved the color of the Osram Cool Blue Boost HID bulb, but Joe over there cannot stand the fact that the color has a blue tint. I see white with Philips X-treme Vision HID bulbs, but Joe sees dead people. Anyway, preference aside, the best way is to show the difference in all of our Osram and Philips HID bulbs in these two graphs. Here, I'll give you my reasoning for the best HID bulbs you can find.
The graphs show the Kelvin rating comparison for both Osram and Philips HID bulbs. As most of our customers know that Kelvin rating is for the color temperature, the color of the light. In short, about 1,900K would be likes of candles whereas 10,000K is the color of a blue sky. In between those two Kelvin ratings, 2,800K is equivalent to 100W Incandescent, 3,000W is to 100W Halogen, and 4,800K is to Direct Sunlight. Typically, 3,100K~4,500K fives off a soft white glow with a bit of yellow tint. 4,600K~6,500K gives off a bright amount of blue-white light, quite similar to the daylight. But again, this is, to a degree, subjective to each person. More importantly, there is a slight trade-off.
The Lumen rating (The brightness) for the Osram and Philips HID bulbs can be seen on the graphs. As you can see, higher Kelvin rating does not translate into a significant rise in Lumen. The reason for the +XXX% brighter is because of newer technology being added to the bulb by re-aligning xenon-gas filled center arc of capsules to better position and create greater hotspot which also translates to further distance and wider beam pattern. Although many customers ask what the lumens on those brighter bulbs are the manufacturer’s spec sheet states the same lumens as +/- 450 just like standard OEM although they are actually brighter than standard.
There is another way to boost up the lumen, and that is by putting more power by using a higher wattage ballast or power source. As we mentioned in the past blog post, that is something that we do not recommend. It's like taking the steroid to build muscle up fast and big, but sooner or later, you are just going to have a steroid withdrawal and have a major crash & burn.
In any case, we put the final graph with both the Philips and Osram HID bulbs. Hope it helps in searching for your next HID Xenon bulbs.
UPDATE: July 18th 2022
Since this blog was published, there are some changes to the products. Philips pretty much stayed the same. At HIDCONCEPT.COM, Philips X-treme Vision Plus and White Vision Plus HID bulbs were added to our collection of Philips HID bulbs. The "PLUS" series are packaged differently from the Gen. 2 version, but the bulbs inside are exactly the same. Depends on the region, Philips (And, Osram) design the package differently. On the other hand, Osram introduced new line of HID bulbs and discontinued some of the older lines. Continuing the Night Breaker and Cool Blue Series, Night Breaker Laser was introduced in 2021, and Cool Blue Intense NEXT-GEN was introduced early 2022. Along with these two new line of HID bulbs, Cool Blue Advance was also introduced in certain sectors of the market. HIDCONCEPT.COM carries the full line of Cool Blue Advance bulbs in North America.
Below is updated chart for the Philips and Osram HID bulbs—an HID bulb comparison.
