The Best Headlamps in 2025

Staking up a tent in the dark, scouring your basement for camping supplies, or losing light on an ambitious hike are all very compelling reasons to invest in a solid headlamp.

While form and function amongst headlamps are largely universal, small details and variations between models can make a big difference in how they perform outside.

Our team of testers has put in the time testing out the most competitive headlamps–as well as the cheapest–on the market.

We’ve reviewed our favorite models at every style and price point.

Headlamp Buyer’s Guide

Headlamps, though less specialized than other pieces of outdoor gear, nevertheless come in a staggering number of different varieties. While it’s hard to go wrong if you choose a model from a trusted manufacturer, there are some confusing and sometimes outright misleading marketing practices surrounding headlamps. Stick with us while we break down how to find the best headlamp for you and how to avoid falling getting tricked by outdated metrics.

Headlamp Beam Type

Modern headlamps come equipped with a variety of beam types, chances are your next headlamp will have at least a few of these different modes. Below we’ll break down the different types of light your headlamp might emit and the situations where they’ll come in handy.

Headlamp Spotlight

When you turn your headlamp on, it will typically be in spotlight mode by default. Spotlights are focused beams most similar to high-powered flashlights. Light emitted from the headlamp is intensified and focused by a reflector that helps you see the details of what’s in front of you.

Spotlight mode on your headlamps is best used for walking down trails at night, picking out specific details of what’s in front of you, and situations where you need a higher fidelity and more specific view as opposed to general illumination.

Headlamp Floodlight

When you need a more generalized view at night, a wider but less focused flood light can be helpful. Flood light mode in your headlamp casts a broader but more diffuse beam over a wide area.

Switching your headlamp to floodlight mode is helpful in situations like scanning the ground for your missing tent stake, looking for your car at a busy campsite, and illuminating the inside of your tent before bed.

Headlamp Strobe Light

Strobe lights are a standard feature in most headlamps and are mostly applicable in emergency situations where you want to get someone’s attention. In strobe mode, your headlamp will flash a bright, consistent light that can easily grab attention while keeping battery use relatively limited. Strobe modes are also useful if your bike light happens to go out on the way home, running along the side of the road at night, or other scenarios where you want to stay visible to motorized traffic.

Headlamp Colored Lights

High-end headlamps tend to have at least one color mode in addition to the standard white light – most often red. These settings are most useful for the sake of politeness to your fellow campers, no one likes getting their eyeballs blasted by a full-power headlamp in the middle of the night.

Essentially it allows you to get up for the restroom in the middle of the night without disturbing your tent mates or sit comfortably around a fire without squinting competitively into each other’s headlamp beams or attracting large light-loving bugs.

Some models come with a blue or green light as well. Some prefer green for night vision, saying it preserves night vision better than red and shows more detail. Blue is common for hunters to spot blood or for fishermen in night fishing.

Headlamp Lumens, Light Emissions, and Relative Brightness

Lumens indicate the total amount of visible light emitted by a light source (in this case, your headlamp), and the amount of lumens emitted by a particular model provides a useful reference for comparing the brightness of different headlamps.

Lumen output generally helps determine how bright the light will be and how far it can reach – higher lumen ratings usually mean a brighter headlamp with a more powerful light output. Though this comes with the caveat that brighter headlamps will usually chew through your battery reserves quickly if used at full power, and your headlamp’s brightness will start to diminish with anything less than a 100% battery charge.

Lumens alone don’t tell the whole story about the quality and relative effectiveness of a headlamp. The beam pattern, beam distance, runtime, and beam intensity distribution factor heavily into a given headlamp’s effectiveness. While looking at lumens is a great place to start in your search for your next headlamp, only experience can tell you how ultimately effective your headlamp will be.

Headlamp Beam Distance

Beam distance, also referred to as throw or range, is a measurement used to describe how far the light from a headlamp can reach effectively. Your beam distance can mean the difference between catching a glimpse of a majestic elk in the distance and running headlong into a tree. Beam distance is usually listed somewhere near the lumens, and a brighter headlamp usually correlates with the ability to throw light further.

Hyperbole aside, a headlamp with a longer beam distance can project its light further, allowing you to see objects at a greater distance. This can be particularly useful in outdoor activities where you’re moving at a clip, like running or mountain biking seeing as your ability to avoid obstacles is intimately tied in with your ability to see them. Keep in mind that, as with lumens, your beam distance will diminish as you drain your batteries.

So How Bright Should Your Headlamp Be?

All this talk of lumens, beams, and visible light begs the question- how bright should your headlamp even be? Based on the assumption you’re choosing a model from a reliable manufacturer; for hiking, trail running, and most other outdoor activities, we recommend between 100-300 lumens. This range offers a good balance of brightness and battery life, and you should easily be able to find a model in this range that fits your needs.

For caving, mountaineering, or search and rescue applications, a headlamp with 300 lumens or higher may be preferable. If you want a brighter headlamp for your personal use outside of technical applications, there’s no reason to avoid it- we know plenty of people who use highly powered headlamps for digging clams or lighting up their campsite.

Headlamp Burn Time (Battery Life)

Next to brightness, burn time is one of the most important factors to consider when picking out a headlamp. The predicted burn time of a headlamp is typically specified by the manufacturer and is measured in hours. Historically, brands have a tendency to be a little misleading when it comes to factoring how lumens and beam distance impact run time- though this trend is changing for the better.

The crux of the issue is that you need to be a savvy buyer when it comes to these factors, and make sure that you don’t leave yourself in a vulnerable position without extra batteries just because your headlamp has an impressive reported battery life. It’s best practice to leave your headlamp on a lower setting unless you’re only out for a short jaunt or if you really need the extra illumination.

If you do some digging, burn times for headlamps vary anywhere between a couple to a couple hundred hours depending on the model and the setting. It’s usually better to err on the side of a long burn time- but be wary of any outrageous claims that pop up along the way.

How Headlamp Battery Life is Measured

Until fairly recently, measurements of headlamp burn times relied on abstract parameters that seem more rooted in folk wisdom than anything quantifiable. Even now, battery life isn’t informed by how long your headlamp will emit light, but rather by how long it will run before the total light emitted by your headlamp drops by 10%.

Is this confusing? Absolutely. But it’s better than the old standard, which was more akin to “how many full moons does it take to trick a rooster into thinking it’s dawn.”

We have two very prominent headlamp manufacturers to thank for the new standardized measurement system, Black Diamond and Petzl. Working in conjunction with two acronym-heavy organizations, they’ve developed the ANSI/PLATO FL1 standard for portable systems of lighting ranging from flashlights to headlamps. So if you see a non-accredited headlamp with a ridiculous burn time for a deal, tread with care.

Headlamp Reserve Time

If you’re like us and love to dig into technical specifications, you may have noticed brands like Petzl and Black Diamond have further muddied the burn time waters, now including a “reserve” time in addition to their normal burn time measurements. Reserve time is emergency juice left over once you run through the standard battery of your headlamp, with your reserve burn time you should be able to see 4 meters in front of you.

Headlamp Batteries

AAA

Good old AAA batteries are widely available and easy to find in stores, making them convenient to replace or purchase while on the go. The biggest benefit of headlamps that use disposable batteries is that you can’t forget to charge them. Our testers have been left high and dry in the dark with a headlamp with a distressingly flickering headlamp.

You can also bring along spare batteries at a fraction of the cost of buying an extra rechargeable, although it’s hard to get around the fact that these batteries ultimately lead to preventable waste.

Rechargeable

Rechargeable batteries have a noticeable impact on how much waste you produce, and with enough charges investing in a rechargeable model will eventually offset the cost of buying regular AAA batteries.

Headlamps with this style of power supply are easy to recharge with any power bank with a USB port, something to consider before taking them out on longer treks to the backcountry.

Hybrid

Finally, many models that have rechargeable battery packs are also compatible with regular batteries. These represent the gold standard for us, and give you the most options and safety nets in the unpredictable outdoors.

Headlamp Electronic Locks

Many premium models of headlamps come with an electronic power lock to prevent you from accidentally turning your only source of light on during the course of the day. While minor, it’s nice to have a little insurance if you’re going to be in the backcountry for a few consecutive days

How to Pick the Best Headlamp

While having a ton of features and stellar-levels of brightness is nice in a headlamp, the vast majority of recreators don’t need it.

When we test our headlamps, we use them under all kinds of conditions ranging from expedition-style adventures to more quick weekends of car camping. Our team gets out a lot, and so long as we’re using a model made by a trusted manufacturer, we’re in good shape. So before you spend money that could go towards marshmallows or beer on an industrial head-mounted floodlight, ask yourself how you’re going to use your headlamp.

Don’t miss out on well-priced, well-performing products just because there’s something online that says it’s bright enough to blind astronauts in orbit. By these same metrics, don’t try to sneak by on a bare-bones model if you’re frequently out and about pre-dawn or post-dusk.