Hello all!
I have been a HighPerformanceBulbs.com customer for almost as long as I have owned my BMW. I have kept up PM and email conversations with Jeff@TopGearSolutions (who sells HPB products here) and Fred (the owner of HighPerformanceBulbs), and I recently met Fred for the first time to test out some new products. I cannot praise Fred enough--he really is a great guy who has the community's satisfaction in mind. He pushes his suppliers to create not only brighter LED-products, but also more durable ones. The LED map (which I purchased two sets of) and new no-tape dome lights, for example, use high heat circuit boards to help dissipate the heat more efficiently and safely.
Like my previous "Ultimate" reviews, I am trying to make this as fair and unbiased as I possibly can. Unfortunately, I left the factory H8 and 194 interior bulbs at home when I went to do this test.
Many people, myself included, have written multiple rants on the subjectivity of angel eye photos. Keep the shutter open for a long time, boost the ISO, and BAM,
you can make a product look like it has great evenness and brightness in sunlight! I am going to try something different this time--I have taken a series of shots at different exposures, and I am going to try and create a slide-show, so you can see how the products perform under many different exposures! For each set of shots, I set a consistant white balance, all of the shots were taken within 30 seconds (eliminating the ambient light variability
as much as possible), and the camera was on a tripod.
So without further ado, let's take a look at the all-new 20-Watt angel eyes from HPB!
PACKAGING: Simple, my pre-production version came in a very basic black box, with no instructions. This may or may not change before they are put up for sale. Some people don't like the lack of instructions, but I have found LUX's installation instructions, available at his website, to always be top-notch. No sense trying to rewrite what has already been done extremely well!
DESIGN/BUILD QUALITY: Simply, fantastic. The units are solidly built, as is the external driver pack and resistor pack. The LEDs are solidly attached, and I simply have no worries about the durability of this product. These are a pure, pure white, while the outgoing 10-watt AE's I had were around 7000K or so. I like the pure-pure white look!
NOTICE: My car (2010 E90 LCI) does not seem to require the resistor pack (the smaller black box), likely due to the decreased tolerances for bulb-out errors on the FRM3. Those of you with early-build E92/93's will likely not be able to run them without the resistor pack. It really is not a huge deal at ALL, just something I thought I should note. I installed a set in my dad's 2010 M6, and it requires the resistor packs.
INSTALLATION: Not bad at all for a guy with medium/medium large hands (I think?), but I've done this a few times already, so your mileage may vary.
COMPARISON SHOTS: Here are a few shots, as well as a short video-slideshow of the product at various exposure levels. I'm going to retake some traditional pictures too, let me know how you feel this video-slideshow comparo works. Was it worth the effort?
20 Watt Left, 10 Watt Right: DARK RING EVENNESS COMPARISON--UNDEREXPOSED, NOT ABOUT BRIGHTNESS! by
RobStone, on Flickr
20W Outer Ring Illumination--UNDEREXPOSED, NOT ABOUT BRIGHTNESS! by
RobStone, on Flickr
20W's Installed--AUTOMATIC EXPOSURE, AVG. METERING by
RobStone, on Flickr
20W's Both Sides by
RobStone, on Flickr
20W--SLIGHTLY UNDEREXPOSED by
RobStone, on Flickr
CONCLUSION: Honestly, these are a HUGE improvement over the HPB 10W's I previously reviewed. I promise you, HPB has a winner here, in both quality and price, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants great AE's on a budget. Look, my mother (who is DEFINITELY not a car person!) commented on how much brighter, more even, and whiter the new 20W AE's are when compared to the old 10W's.
Here is a link to where they can be purchased:
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=721070
Now, on to the redesigned map and dome lights!