Review: Philips X-treme Ultinon 7440 Amber LED Front Turn Signal Bulbs
 

Hi All

Been lurking/learning from this forum for quite awhile (years) now and figured it's about time I gave back. So here's my first (of hopefully many more to come) post / product review:

Philips X-treme Ultinon 7440 Amber LED Front Turn Signal Bulbs

Design
Unlike many other LED bulbs, the Philips X-treme Ultinon 7440 Amber LED bulbs features a design seen rarely with other turn signal applications currently on the market. The most common designs are currently comprised of:

1. A "Christmas Tree" style bulb with rows of LED's lining the sides, typically with a number of LEDs on the top as well; usually under a magnifying/projector type cap. Most bulbs you find on Amazon will have this design.

2. An LED bulb with a thick plastic or glass cap placed on top of a series of LED's; designed in an attempt to mimic light dispersal found in traditional incandescent bulb. Examples of such units range from the Morimoto XB series of turn signal bulbs, to the largely loved (with just as large price tag!) VLED Triton series.

While both of these bulb types have varying degrees of effectiveness, the Philips X-treme Ultinon 7440 Amber LED bulbs take a much different approach by mounting just two LED's to a unit best described as an upward bent "T" with a dome shaped cap on top. Each LED is placed on the left and right underside of the "T" shape, aimed downward and at a slightly outward angle, focusing light dispersal where it is needed the most: on the reflective bowl of the turn signal housing.


With the exception of a handful (if that) of no-name Chinese "brands," the AF-Spec brand which, according to some, is no longer distributing many/any of their LED turn signal line, and the widely derided as "too dim" Sylvania ZEVO LED line, this "T" shaped design is not a common sight for 744x LED bulbs.

In addition to their focused aim, these bulbs are shorter than many of their competitors; placing the emitters closer to the reflector and optimizing overall output.

For visual appeal, the portion of the bulb visible within the turn signal unit is colored a nice textured gray; eliminating the undesirable "egg yolk" look common in reflectors with traditional amber colored incandescent bulbs.



Fit and Finish
Comprised of a textured metal bulb/heat sink with a metal and plastic base, the Philips X-treme Ultinon 7440 Amber LED bulbs have a solid, hefty, quality feel to them. They can easily withstand a drop from a few feet onto hard concrete, with zero damage done to the bulb or connectors (ask me how I know.) As for the connectors themselves, unlike most bulbs with flimsy connector pins, these Phillips bulbs have flat, sturdy connection strips which are not prone to misalignment or breakage. When inserted into your front turn signal socket, they slide in snugly, making a satisfying "click" sound once in place. Unlike other LED bulbs, once securely in socket, these bulbs will stay in place so you won't have to worry about the bulb falling out into your turn signal unit.

To note: As stated in the product name, these are 7440 size bulbs. While they fit perfectly in the FR-S's 7443 front turn signal sockets, these LED bulbs WILL NOT turn on with the parking lights. However, they will function perfectly when signaling, provided you have either resistors or a LED flasher module installed.



Output
The most important factor in deciding what type of LED bulb to purchase. While rated to output "just" 180 lumens, the Philips X-treme Ultinon 7440 Amber LED bulbs are incredibly efficient when it comes to dispersing their light. Easily outperforming LED bulbs with lumen outputs claimed to be 2 to 3 times higher/brighter, thanks to their emitters being oriented in such a way as to focus their output where it matters most: directly on the turn signal reflector.


As you can see in the output shots, the light they emit/reflect is BRIGHT; with a defined hotspot, distant lack of shadow/dark spots in the main hotspot (a problem most LED bulbs seem to have) and over all great light dispersal/spread/and throw. Not only that, but because the emitters fire back straight into the reflector from a shallow position in the housing, the entire reflector bowl is utilized making your turn signal clearly visible even in direct sunlight.


As we all know, this is hugely important as many LED turn signals look great at night, but might as well be invisible when attempting to signal during the day. In addition, light visibility is also optimal when viewed from the opposing side at differing angles; ensuring your intent to turn is visible to oncoming traffic down the road and many lanes over.



Price / Availability
For some inexplicable reason, these LED bulbs do not seem to have been made available by Philips in many/any markets outside of Asia. As such you will need to source these bulbs from a retailer that deals in products from Japan (Amazon Japan, Rakuten, etc.,) private party sales, or eBay. If purchasing from a larger retailer such as Amazon Japan or Rakuten, you can expect to pay around $50-$65+ (plus shipping) per pair at current Yen to dollar exchange rates. As of a few weeks ago, Amazon Japan had some of the best pricing at $55 USD shipped. Despite shipping from an Amazon center in Japan, and having to pass through customs in Los Angeles, total shipping time only took about 3-4 days via DHL.



So, Should You Upgrade?
Yes. (probably)

Currently, there are not many other LED bulbs which work in the FR-S front turn signal housing as well as the Philips X-treme Ultinon 7440 Amber LED bulbs.
The possible exceptions would be the aforementioned AF-Spec bulbs (similar design, better pricing, but unknown availability,) the VLED Tritons (much higher pricing, different design, but considered the "top of the line" in LED turn signal lighting,) bulbs from Russian company HPL (supposedly exceed output of the VLED Tritons, with pricing to match) and the upcoming Morimoto VF series LED (test shots look great, but how they will perform and at what price point remains to be seen.)


That being said, if you're in the market for an excellent performing, solidly built, well priced set of LED turn signal bulbs for your FR-S from a reputable company, I highly recommend you give the Philips X-treme Ultinon 7440 Amber LED bulbs a try. You won't be disappointed.


(Wall of Text Summary - Awesome LED turn signal bulbs, go get a pair!)

thats super bright... looks good

It is! Best I've found so far at the sub $100 price point. :thumbup:

I'm curious what you're using for high beams/ DRL's.

XML2
 

Those would be Partsam XML2 units. I'm not sure if they make them any longer, but if you look up the Diode Dynamics 9005 XML2 they are very similar in design.

They were great during bright sunlight for DRL, and decent as high beam's, but when using as DRL you would have to shut them off in lower light conditions (dusk/inclement weather) as they do not have anything to lower output while operating in DRL mode.

The bit of blue/yellow you see in the reflector is from a glass lens that screws down on the top of the unit, to change the output color. Without the lens it's a 5000k/6000k "cool" white, with the lens it's a bright yellow with a slight hint of green. Personally, I really enjoyed the "angry" look the bright yellow DRL lent to the stock headlights. I would get shots of it for you if I could, but I have since switched to Winjets.

I was running theOLM HP LED DRL/High Beam Bulbs, but they were too bright for DRL's. I was hoping you'd have a simple plug and forget solution, I'm too lazy to turn off DRL's to be honest. I like having DRL's though...

I recall seeing some discussion on HID Planet on how to build a module to control output intensity for DRL, but no quick plug and play solution that I can think of. Maybe the just previewed at SEMA Diode Dynamics SL1 LED bulbs will have a dimming DRL capability?

I can vouch for the quality & brightness of these. I bought 8 of them from amazon.co.jp and put them in my 2013 BRZ and 2015 Impreza. The Impreza has a tab-to-3-blinks feature, but this is apparently controlled higher up than the flasher module as the two cars have the exact same flasher module. In fact, I modified the one from BRZ and put it into the Impreza.

Few points.
* The bulbs felt a bit loose, so I used a small screwdriver to stretch out the copper connection points inside the 7440 sockets before installing the bulbs so they hold the bulb better.
* I don't recommend the resistor mod (waste of power and breaks into the wires), nor do I recommend cheap flasher modules (had one, caused weird problems and wasn't behaving well to begin with). Just open up the stock flasher and replace the shunt resistor with a higher resistance, or grind away at it to increase the resistance. If you do it just right, it will continue to detect failed LED bulbs. You shouldn't go back to incandescent bulbs after the mod, though. You can always replace the shunt resistor or get a new stock flasher if you want to go back to incandescent, of course. Higher quality flasher is fine, also. My BRZ has a tab-turn flasher module (from Canada) with cool programmable features.
* Unlike FR-S, BRZ doesn't use dual-function 7443 bulbs for front signaling. They just use single-function 7440 bulbs, so you lose nothing with these bulbs on a BRZ.

Here's a pic of my flasher module hack:
https://c5.staticflickr.com/6/5176/3...7c4f4538_b.jpg

Holy crap these are bright!

I'm sticking with my VLEDS switchbacks

I'm surprised the bulb was loose - In my FR-S the Phillips are very snug/secure; and I've had issues with more than a few loose LED bulbs in the past.

Nice flasher mod! I definitely recommend the Canadian TapTurn module for those willing to spend the extra $ for a quality product with extra features. Word on the street is Diode Dynamics is working on a similar multi-function flasher as well; waiting to see what features it has and at what price point . . .

Tritons? Been looking for some good daylight/direct sunlight output pics of the V3 Triton gen 2.5 in the FR-S front turn signal housing - If you happen to have any shots please post em' up!

No those are too expensive in my eyes. I bought their 6K direct replacement 7443 Switchbacks. They have them on closeout sale at the moment: http://www.vleds.com/closeout/led-bu...-30-wa-6k.html


http://www.vleds.com/media/catalog/p...43_30_wa_1.jpg


http://www.vleds.com/media/catalog/p.../f/off_5_1.jpg


http://www.vleds.com/media/catalog/p.../5k_on_3_1.jpg


http://www.vleds.com/media/catalog/p...ber_on_6_1.jpg

just for fun . . .
 

Got this shot of my Ultinons in a parking lot during dusk yesterday, thought it would make a fun addition to this thread :party0030: