Review: Philips X-Treme Power Halogen Bulbs

**NightKids** · 13-07-2007 03:33 AM

Hey guys! This is my 1st Review so I hope you enjoy it. Well lately with Melbourne's shi**y weather it's been getting dark real early & it's just been pouring nearly every day. My stock headlights just didn't cut it no more as I couldn't see crap at night, so I decided to get some brighter bulbs.

The 1st thing that crossed my mind was HID's and I was gonna order a kit straight away but then after some thought I decided against it. Main reasons for my decision was:-
* Legal issues
* Price
* I was told by a friend with a 6000K kit that vision through rain wasn't very good

So I went to look for the next best thing. After doing some research, a lot of people swore by the quality of Philips bulbs, so I went through their range to see what would be suitable for me. The Philips X-Treme caught my eye because it's apparently the brightest halogens you can get. Here are some of it's features:-

* 80% brighter than a standard halogen lamp
* 100% Interchangeable with a standard halogen lamp.
* H7,H4 Quartz Glass construction for ultimate performance.
* German made OE quality
* UV Blocked to protect plastic headlamp components.
* Standard wattage (60W/55W) so it doesn't melt your wires

So I'd thought I'll give this bulb a go since it looks real good on paper. A fellow ozhonda member gave some positive feedback as well so I couldn't go wrong. This bulb is not sold in Australia and a auto lamp site didn't have any in stock so I jumped on eBay to look for it. A guy in the UK was selling them so I picked it up for about $65 inc postage. It was easily the most expensive out of the whole Philips range by far! It arrived in a few days (real quick delivery) so I went over to my friend's place & he chucked them in for me.

First Impressions
We put them in & turned it on. My friend just looked at me & goes "What?!? Is that it?" I felt like I've just wasted money on these stupid bulbs. When it hit the garage it just looked like my normal bulbs. It still had the tinge of yellow in it and didn't seem much brighter at all. So then I thanked him for putting it in & drove out..

On the road
I tell ya these babies are bright as! I could see everything much clearer & brighter. In the dark streets they really excel. Pretty much smiles all round for the trip home. Here are some pictures to show the difference. Sorry about the bad image quality, it was taken with my phone. They don't really do it much justice as it's much brighter in real life, but you can see in the after pic that it really shoots a few metres further & much brighter indeed.

Conclusion
I reckon these bulbs are great! I mean they aren't the brightest you can get but for the price & the performance I reckon it's quite good. The Philips X-Treme bulbs are a great alternative to HIDs, but don't expect HID performance or you'll be greatly dissapointed. I'll definately buy them again if needed and I give them a rating of 4/5. Hope you all enjoyed this review, look forward to doing another one in the future!

**SiReal** · 13-07-2007 10:28 AM

Nice review. What rating temp did you use? It seems more yellow than white.

White bulbs suck compared to OEM yellow ones. Even with HID, unless u have the correct surroundings, I think certain Halogens are better than HID. I am using Polarg B1s which I picked up from Japan recently, 4300K. On wet night, not so good. On every other night fantastic. Compared against my mates blue HIDS, and my ones were almost as good as his (distance wise).

**aaronng** · 13-07-2007 10:33 AM

These ones are probably 3200 or 3700K. They are regular halogen bulbs without blue filters for maximum light. It gets 80% brighter through the reflector and filament design as well as a different inert gas so that it can burn brighter without burning out the filament.

Because these bulbs get most of the gain through reflector design, it won't come out in H1 size.

**dsp26** · 13-07-2007 09:34 PM

daaaamn huge difference!!!

**dsp26** · 13-08-2007 12:13 AM

considering these as i will be doing a long trip soon...

got any better pics of beam ahead from outside?

**NightKids** · 13-08-2007 03:28 AM

I've actually chucked on some MTEC ice bulbs to try it out, but I like the Philips X-Tremes better. Thinking of going HIDs too so if your interested in buying them then I'll go HIDs, but yeah sorry no pics of what they are outside, forgot to take them.

**Mugen Civic** · 21-08-2007 12:49 AM

I have experimented with MTEC bulbs with the standard 60/55W (Cosmos blue white & Colorful white) and they are not that much brighter but do give a nice colour.
I'm using MTEC with 100/90W (Colorful white) and it is impressively bright and a very nice white. So if your wanting to go brighter without modification to HID, going to a higher wattage to 100/90W is fine, it didn't melt my wires and i'm using it daily for about a year now. Of course it is not as bright as HID thou.
I have not experimented with wattages any higher than that.

Hope its been much help, the picture has been taken by my mobile phone was trying to justify the brightness.