The Best Headlamps of 2024: Tested

After 10 long nights, five alpine starts and several summits, few headlamps would still be humming along like the Black Diamond Spot 400. For one Washington-based tester, it was a sunset-to-sunrise standby, reliably giving him the light he needed throughout a summer testing blitz: bivying along the West Ridge of the Cascades' Forbidden Peak [Yamakiasham Yaina], slurping down a bag of dehydrated pad thai or reading a book at camp. It's not a unique story for the Spot 400, which became a quick favorite among our crew of testers for its best-in-test versatility, earning it an Editors' Choice Award.

The lumens—an update over last year's Spot 350—are plenty for technical predawn climbs where seeing detail at a distance is crucial. While other lamps have set brightness levels, the Spot 400 is instantly dimmable: Hold the large button to dim the light to the exact brightness you want. When turned off, the lamp remembers its most recent brightness, so you don't need to reset it every time.

Our mountaineering tester liked being able to tap the side of the light with a finger to get a burst of the maximum brightness for quick looks down the trail without losing his settings; a tap on the same pad switches the Spot 400 back to its previous brightness. Such touches are user-friendly and intuitive, while also saving battery life—the 200-hour burn time is tops among the models tested. (Confused about burn time? You're not alone. The standard is nuanced and changing; read more about it and other headlamp specs here.)

The Spot 400 has two beams that put out light either in proximity (a wide dim beam) or in spot form (a narrow bright beam). A separate button on top of the housing switches between these modes. The headlamp also has a red light for preserving night vision; an easy-to-read battery-life indicator; and Black Diamond's beloved locking function, so it won't turn on in your pack or in storage. Supertough IPX8 waterproofing means the lamp will work at more than 1 meter underwater for 30 minutes. In other words, precip and spills are no match for the Spot.

USB lovers will appreciate that the Spot 400 is compatible with Black Diamond's 1500 mAh rechargeable battery pack, boosting versatility. New for 2022, the light also comes in the comparable Spot 400-R model, which is rechargeable out of the box. While most of the 400-R headlamp is identical to the 400, it does have a USB input on the side and slightly better battery run times, lasting an average of 225 hours in its dimmest mode. It's a little more expensive, though, at $64.95. Buy here.

No AAAs, no problem. The Actik Core from Petzl comes preloaded with a superlight lithium-ion Petzl Core battery that pumps out usable light for days. Between trips and uses, plug the Core battery into a wall, computer or power bank via its integrated USB port to keep the lamp fully juiced so you're always leaving the trailhead at 100 percent. When one tester had back-to-back trips in Colorado's Indian Peaks and Wyoming's Wind River Range, he was able to refresh the battery in his car in the time it took to drive to the next trailhead. "As the sun set in the parking lot outside the Bridger Wilderness, I unplugged and went right back to work for a night hike through the trees," he said.

A single, easy-to-press button makes it simple to cycle through the three brightness levels and red light—the perfect increments for everything from packing bear canisters in predawn darkness at camp with the 7-lumen low setting to hauling water from a lake for dinner dishes with the powerful, 600-lumen setting. The brightest beam of the test from a lamp without a separate batter pack, this Editors' Choice Award Winner was even powerful enough to let one tester count the branches on trees across the alpine lake where he camped. A long press of the button switches the Actik Core to red light and an even longer press locks it before you stick it in your pack.

The Actik Core's features are rounded out with an IPX4 rating to keep it safe from splashes. It's also compatible with AAAs, so you can pop spares into the housing or carry-on airplane travel or in a pinch on longer trips (you do carry spare batteries with you, right?). Buy here.

"Budget" doesn't automatically mean bad, as proven by the Astro R from Black Diamond. Testers found it impressively bright at its medium and high settings—"Well worth avoiding accidental eye contact," said one—and its low setting is enough for close work and will give you almost a week of use (up to 140 hours) before needing a charge. "This brightness with this battery life feels like a steal at the price," another tester said. The battery level is easy to monitor too: Three blue LEDs quickly show the available power.

One tester loved the headlamp's easy-to-use single-button control with dimming and strobe capabilities and was especially impressed with the memory feature: "The lamp keeps the same dimness level you had it set to when turning off and back on," which customizes the experience and saves time. A handy digital lockout setting preserves batteries when the headlamp is packed or stashed, and the recycled elastic headband offers wearable, adjustable comfort. Overall, the Astro 300-R is a powerful package for the price. Buy here.

For versatility and power out of the box, it's tough to beat the Swift RL from Petzl. A whopping 1100 lumens make it one of the brightest headlamps around (the equivalent of the low beam on most cars or a 75-watt lightbulb), while a maximum distance of 154 meters ensures you'll have ample visibility on the trail and around camp all night. One tester noted that the Swift RL "is super easy to use" with its one-button control, making it perfect for situations where you want maximum light and versatility without distractions: Quickly toggle between bright white, continuous red for night vision or strobe red lighting for emergencies. At 3.5 ounces, it's not the lightest on the list, but the sleek design gives it a barely-there feel. The snug, adjustable headband (with reflective strips) keeps it securely in place—and can be detached and washed, to boot.

The RL stands for the lamp's "Reactive Lighting" technology, a sensor that analyzes ambient light and automatically adjusts the headlamp's brightness. Testers noted that the setting drained the headlamp's rechargeable battery faster, but one Minnesota-based tester added that it could be difficult to get used to. "Some of my testing was in an urban setting and the lamp flickered a lot when it caught an oncoming car or streetlight. A campfire might have the same effect," they said, admitting that they preferred the continuous light settings. (Note that the Swift RL can only reach 1100 lumens in RL mode.) The swivel head's range got big kudos from testers—"It can point completely perpendicular to the ground!"—and come in handy when you're setting up camp after a long day on the trail (or breaking down before dawn). The Swift RL is the most expensive light on the list, but when you need dependable, supercharged headlamp that will easily light up the backcountry, it's the one we'd reach for. Buy here.

Simplicity is key when you're knocking out miles, and that's where the Deploy 325 from Black Diamond excels: It's a no-frills headlamp without complicated settings to slow you down. Nobody wants to add weight when they're lacing up; at just 1.4 ounces, this super-lightweight powerhouse is so secure and easy to wear that some of our testers simply forgot they were wearing it when they finished a run. "This headlamp is so light and comfortable it's easy to forget you have it on—which I did when I came inside one night and accidentally blinded my partner momentarily," said one. Another remarked that the headband required little to no adjustment when switching between their bare head and a stocking cap, and "there was no bouncing up and down while running" in either instance.

With a simple, solid-body design, the Deploy 325 keeps a steady light on the path ahead, as far as 7 meters on low to a whopping 53 meters on high. One reviewer who went for nighttime park runs found that the lamp was just bright enough at its lowest setting in better-lit environments and "the highest setting cut through darkness fairly well, like in pedestrian tunnels and less-developed areas." There's no red-light setting, but the Deploy does have a strobe option for emergency situations. (Testers did universally agree that the instruction manual is very difficult to understand, and figuring out how to navigate the push- or push-and-hold-button features was easier by trial and error.)

A shorter battery life is this headlamp's only major downside: One tester noted that it had enough juice for their shorter outings during the week, but not enough to get you through an overnight ultra or a camping trip. That said, the combination of price, convenience, comfort and brightness outweighed battery longevity (and the obtuse user manual). It even proved itself useful for multitasking: "The light weight and comfort, and the fact that while wearing it around the house it accidentally came in handy a couple times looking in dark cabinets and corners, has made me ponder wearing one for miscellaneous repairs and errands around the house or garage," said one Minneapolis-based tester. Buy here.

The best headlamp is the one you have on you. Case in point: After one tester botched the approach to a camp in Washington's Picket Range and the day turned out longer than expected, she declared the Petzl Tikkina "a wrong turn's best friend." With the best lumen-to-dollar ratio in our test, the Tikkina spits out 300 lumens (more than enough for our tester to set up camp in the dark) for just a Jackson. But it's not a one-trick pony—the Tikkina has an IPX4 rating and three brightness levels that you toggle between by clicking through the single button. It's not powerful enough for scoping big lines from the base (and no red light), but you won't find a better bang for your buck. Buy here.

Yes, for most folks, 800 lumens is overkill. But for some, supernova brightness in a neat-and-tidy 5.3-ounce package is the difference between getting after it and staying home. Take our tester, who toted the BioLite HeadLamp 800 PRO on a multisport odyssey across the West. "With 800 lumens, I had enough light to confidently carve at 30 mph," he says of a night-skiing mission at Telluride Ski Resort. For spring nights in the Utah desert when he needed to see dimension across the landscape after the sun disappeared, he declared the HeadLamp 800's blinding brightness a blessing. As with its sister HeadLamp 425, the 800's power pack sits on the back of your head, so it balances better than other similarly powerful headlamps. And you don't need to worry about draining handfuls of AAAs to use it on its max settings either—seven hours on high and up to 150 on low added up to some of the best specs in test. Nice touch: This lamp boasts a tail light (flood, dimming or strobe) on the battery pack, so you can stay visible on the move. Buy here.

Young campers need to see in the dark, too, and the Black Diamond Wiz's kid-specific features make it not only safe and easy to use, but virtually indestructible, one tester's mom declared. The water-resistant, tough plastic housing protected the Wiz from drops, haphazard packing and even one industrial child's unsupervised experiment involving a puddle. A maximum of 30 lumens might seem small compared to the other lamps in the test, but it proved plenty for one 3-year-old tester for two days of exploring Iowa's pitch-black Maquoketa Caves. Modes include a full, dimmed and strobe light, plus kids can flip through a rainbow of colored-light options with the single button. Nice touches: The light itself tilts in both directions so there's no wrong way to put it on, the elastic strap has a breakaway feature for the wearer's safety and the lamp shuts off automatically after two hours to avoid unnecessary battery drain, should Junior leave it on accidentally. Buy here.