[alopolo]

I recently purchased and installed the Osram Cool Blue Boost XHB 7000k D1S bulbs in my F30 328xi with the oem "Xenon Light Package". I have the xenon lights that adjusts vertical and horizontal angle based on speed and steering angle. The primary reason I purchased these bulbs was purely for performance reasons but also at an attractive white colour that matches my LED DRLs.

Osram advertises no improvement in output vs OEM bulbs (3200 lumens). However the back of the packaging has labeled this bulbs brightness to be the highest possible but also one with the lowest longevity. These bulbs have been rated for off-road use only. Also several YouTube videos suggest this bulb to be the the brightest ever tested for 35w application.

I will not fill this post with too much text and will let the pictures shot with my X100S do the talking. I have had a couple long nights of driving already with these bulbs and I would say it's about ~30% brighter than OEM and very similar to my LEDs in colour (6000k). Personally I find these bulbs inefficient in adverse weather as they glare off water particles in the air and on wet pavement. If i could go back, I would probably purchase either the Philips Gen2 or Osram Laser 4200k instead just because of the poor 'wet' performance.

[Billfitz]

The higher the light temperature the lower the useful light output, as our eyes are less sensitive as temperature goes up. 4200k isn't bad color wise, a lot better than 3200k halogens. You can even go to 6000k with sufficient lumens. That's what my LED are, and they're a good compromise between color and visibility. Bottom line, with a 35w bulb you'll only get so much. If you want higher than 4200k with increased visibility as well you've got to go up to 50w, which might not get along with the car circuitry.

[alopolo]

Originally Posted by Billfitz

The higher the light temperature the lower the useful light output, as our eyes are less sensitive as temperature goes up. 4200k isn't bad color wise, a lot better than 3200k halogens. You can even go to 6000k with sufficient lumens. That's what my LED are, and they're a good compromise between color and visibility. Bottom line, with a 35w bulb you'll only get so much. If you want higher than 4200k with increased visibility as well you've got to go up to 50w, which might not get along with the car circuitry.

Hi, I updated my post after replacing alternator and battery.

[Billfitz]

I'm glad it worked out for you, but it's still a fact that as temperature goes up the effective brightness goes down. I don't see why the alternator/battery would have had that much effect, what it did with the one bulb it would do with the other as well. There's also the matter of bulb age. HID bulbs do dim with age, so that could explain the difference as well.

[Daftasabrush]

I would never go above 5000K for bulbs, 4300K is what most OEM ones are and there's a reason for that.

The factory LEDs in my 340 are IMO a bit too blue for my liking but there's not a lot I can do about it.

[Solidjake]

Thanks for the pic and review. As soon as I picked up my F30 I swapped the stock bulbs to CBI's.