Who this is for

Ultrarunner Joe Grant, about to hit the trail. Photo: Fredrik Marmsater

If you're a backpacker or a camper who loves to go hiking and mountaineering, this is the guide for you—we even have a rechargeable alternative if you plan on taking a lot of day hikes. If you're looking for a headlamp for reading, performing home and auto repairs, or crafting and modeling at home—or if you work in HVAC or construction—we have recommendations to suit your particular needs as well.

Keep in mind that the headlamps in this guide are not recommended for mountain biking (you need something brighter) or hunting, nor are they appropriate for military purposes, tactical use, or rescue (you need something with colored LED lights, and color temperature might matter, too). And they are not the right choice for caving, diving, or underwater photography (you need something seriously waterproof).

How we picked and tested

Documenting the relationship between battery life and light output. GIF: Eve O'Neill

We began by researching headlamp reviews and recommendations from reputable sources online, and then combing through and vetting other products found on Amazon that had great word of mouth. Currently, a lot of fake reviews are floating around and inflating the popularity of less-expensive options, a development we find discouraging. This is becoming a more pervasive problem, and we wish it would stop.

After conducting a small survey of our readers to find out how people use their headlamps, we made a spreadsheet to compare specs of the products we liked, picked which ones we wanted to test firsthand, and put 23 headlamps through four rounds of testing.

For our battery test—done because light and battery specs on headlamp boxes are highly misleading—we loaded our headlamps with fresh batteries, turned them on to their highest setting, and recorded their performance for five hours. To test the beam spread, we photographed the beams of our lights inside a dark shed to see what they looked like, and we compared them with one another. As for usability, we used every light for DIY tasks around the house and for outside activities, and tried to see which ones we could operate without having to read the instructions. Finally, we put all 23 headlamps through the spin cycle of a dryer for 30 seconds, to test their durability.

Our pick

If you purchase a Spot, be sure to get the newly redesigned version, which looks like this. Photo: Eve O'Neill

If you're headed into the wilderness, the Black Diamond Spot gives you the most of what you need (a bright beam and long-lasting battery) and the least of what you don't (especially high-quality optics) for a reasonable price. Its design is lightweight and packable, as well as splashproof and dustproof, and it also has a red LED to preserve your night vision. A few extras are crammed in, too, including a fully dimmable beam, a battery indicator light, and a way to lock the button so the lamp doesn't turn on in your bag.

Is the Spot perfect? No, but after testing 23 options, we're convinced that no headlamp is. The single on-off switch is sometimes frustrating, and this headlamp gets no points for optical quality—a hot spot sits right in the middle of the beam. But we don't think you'll notice or care (if you do, we have a pick with a better beam below). In our tests, we had no problem using the Spot while hiking in a whiteout blizzard, rummaging around a dark shed, and peering down some long, clogged gutter downspouts.

For casual use

The Vitchelo's simple, intuitive buttons were our favorite thing about this very nice lamp. Photo: Eve O'Neill

If the button on the Black Diamond Spot were as easy to use as those on the Vitchelo V800, it would be near perfect. If you're not bothered by the fact that Vitchelo isn't a huge brand name, the separate buttons the V800 has for red and white LEDs are so rare (and so gloriously easy to operate) that we think they alone make this headlamp worth the purchase.

In fact, this light is bright, easy to use, lightweight, and pretty cheap—and although we found that most of its Amazon reviews were phony, according to Fakespot, we tested the V800 ourselves, and for now we're convinced that it's a good option for casual use.

A rechargeable choice

The ReVolt is a rechargeable headlamp that can also take AAA batteries when power gets low. Photo: Eve O'Neill

If you're a frequent day hiker or a dedicated weekend warrior, having a rechargeable headlamp that you can juice up in the car on the way to the trailhead can be liberating. We looked at nine rechargeable models, and we think the Black Diamond ReVolt is better suited for the beating you'll give it than any other option. Most important, it can operate on AAAs if the rechargeable battery happens to die when you're nowhere near a USB outlet, a feature that most rechargeable headlamps don't have.

Higher-quality beam

The Coast FL75 has separate buttons (the red wings on each side) for the red and white LEDs. Photo: Eve O'Neill

The Coast FL75, our upgrade pick, has both a red LED and a white one, and just like our runner-up, it has a separate button for each of those colors, which makes turning the lamp on and toggling through modes unusually, gloriously straightforward.

This is a 405-lumen light, and such bright lights—the kind that spit out beautiful, even beams—can suck a battery dry in no time. Thankfully, the FL75 runs on AAAs and can go for two hours on high and up to 12 hours on low, longer than other lights in the category. The only bummer is that it's slightly heavier than the Black Diamond Spot.

Great for kids

The Shining Buddy is inexpensive and has the flashing red lights that kids love.

Though we made sure all of our headlamps "for adults" had a red LED for practical purposes, we weren't shocked to find that kids were drawn to headlamps with red flashing lights, too. The kids we know seem to like it mostly so that they can pretend to be red-eyed monsters or aliens. And why not let them? The Shining Buddy LED Headlamp is easy to adjust and operate, equipped with both red and red-flashing modes (in addition to a white light for utility), and inexpensive enough that everyone can have their own.

This guide may have been updated by The Wirecutter. To see the current recommendation, please go here.