A head torch is a running accessory you’ll always be thankful for. They never tend to be top of the list like fitness trackers, running shoes, or earbuds. But a torch is important, especially if you’re an early morning or late night runner. Not only will it allow you to see where you’re going and swerve any unexpected obstacles, but it can also help keep you safe on the road by making you more visible to passing drivers. But it’s a saturated market, so how do you know which one to buy? I’ve tested some of the best head torches available and whittled them down into a list of my favourites below, rating them on various factors so you can find the right one for you.
Those that made the final cut had to tick several boxes. Firstly: brightness. You need to be able to see clearly in the dark over a decent distance, but you don’t want to be blinding others you’re running with. Lights with less than 300 lumens are more than enough for urban areas, whereas 300-plus is more suited to countryside adventures and trails. Each head torch offers a different beam distance too – some will light your path up to 100m in front of you, which can be handy in the middle of nowhere but is likely to annoy other pavement users if you’re running in busy environments.
If you’re a sweaty runner (that’s most of us, surely?), the material of the band that holds the torch in place is important – a chafed red line around the top of your forehead is never a good look. A decent running torch should have a lightweight, breathable band that’s comfortable to wear.
And finally, some head torches (including a couple of the options below) come with a chest strap. Some people find this more comfortable, and it has the added advantage of automatically lighting up the direction you’re running rather than following your eyeline.
Read on to find out more about my top picks, and decide which one might work for you.
How I tested
I laced up before sunset and after dark, trying out the running head torches in urban environments and parks. I tested the torches on lit-up pavements in the early morning before any other street users were about, and also tried them while running home from the office when it was dark but the streets were filled with commuters and people enjoying post-work drinks outside pubs. My main testing points were:
- Different lighting conditions: Testing in both morning and evening lights was important to get a real-life experience of the products. This allowed me to assess beam strength, spread, and visibility.
- Comfort: Comfort might be overlooked for something like a head torch, but if you’re clocking miles in the double digits, a strap chafing against your forehead is a big no-go. I wore each head torch on short runs and longer distances to see whether it stayed in place, caused any pressure, or became annoying.
- Wet weather resistance: Several tests were carried out in light rain and heavier showers to see how well each head torch held up in wet conditions. I looked at whether the beam remained strong when water hit the lens, whether the strap stayed secure without slipping, and if any models fogged up, or became uncomfortable when damp. This helped me gauge how reliable each head torch would be for year-round running, especially during autumn and winter.
- Battery life and charging: You don’t want your head torch dying mid-run on a cold, dark evening, so how long each head torch lasted between charges/battery changes was an important testing factor. For safety reasons, battery reliability is key.
Why you can trust IndyBest reviews
All of the products we feature within our guides have been tried and tested in the same real-life environments in which you’ll be using them. Zoe Griffin has been reviewing sports products for IndyBest for years, covering everything from swimming googles and waterproof running jackets to the best Garmin watches and fitness trackers in general. She’s a triathlon runner, so she packs in many miles in sports gear, giving you a well-experienced review.
- Best overall – Petzl iko core headtorch: £76, Millets.co.uk
- Best budget buy – Knog outdoor quokka run headlamp: £28.95, Amazon.co.uk
- Best for trail runs – Decathlon evadict ontrail 900 lumens trail running frontal lamp: £49,99, Decathlon.co.uk
- Best for commuters – Proviz LED360 antares headlamp: £29.99, Provizsports.com
Petzl Iko core headtorch
Best: Overall head torch
Weight: 79g
Light intensity: 6 to 500 lumens
Why we love it
- Extremely comfortable to wear
- Folds up flat
- Really bright
The headband on this Petzl running torch is a joy. It’s super thin, so not much is in contact with your face, making it extremely comfortable to wear. It also features the brand’s unique airfit technology, allowing air to circulate above and under the band – ideal for sweaty runs.
The entire unit, including the battery pack, weighs just 79g, furthering its running credentials. It’s versatile too, with a maximum power of 500 lumens and three easy-to-adjust brightness settings. The top beam offers 500 lumens at a 100m distance, the mid-setting was a personal favourite with 100 lumens at a 45m distance, and finally, the dimmest setting offers just six lumens at 10m, so you can use it on trails, pavements and even as a hand torch while camping.
I also liked that it folds flat and slips into a tiny pouch, finding this handy for storage between running to and from work.
Buy now £76.00, Millets.co.uk
Knog outdoor quokka run headlamp
Best: Budget head torch
Weight: 48g
Light intensity: 12 to 100 lumens
Why we love it
- Light as a pair of swimming goggles
- Great for beginners
- Loads of settings
- Easy to charge
The cute and compact quokka features a silicone strap that’s remarkably lightweight – a good fit for runners. Weighing just 48g, I could feel a significant difference between this and head torches that weigh around 100g. To put it into context, the quokka feels similar to the weight of a pair of swimming goggles and the strap is made from a similar material.
This head torch is delightfully simple to charge, too. Simply pop out the pod, plug it into a USB-A port, and you’ll have a full tank in just three and a half hours.
For such a small torch, there are a lot of settings to play with: four brightness settings (high, mid, low and flash), plus four modes for each setting (spot, wide, combo and red). Mid to low are more than adequate for most runs in towns, cities and even parks.
Buy now £34.99, Biketart.co.uk
Decathlon evadict ontrail 900 lumens trail running frontal lamp
Best: Head torch for trail runs
Weight: 139g
Light intensity: 100 to 900 lumens
Why we love it
- One of the brightest torches we’ve tested
- Battery lasts a long time
- Comfortable to wear
Decathlon has a reputation for offering great value sporting goods. But in recent years the retailer has focused on upping its quality offerings, as well as its affordable ones, with the two camps often overlapping.
Here, it’s made a head torch capable of blasting a whopping 900 lumens of light up to 150m in front of you. When testing in the park, it felt like we were in broad daylight, even though it was several hours after sunset. As trail running can be quite treacherous underfoot, this powerful torch will keep you safe by illuminating all potential pitfalls, not just immediately in front of you but far around.
The battery is super easy to take out and charge, with zero fiddling or pulling (unlike some other torches). It’s also simple to adjust the brightness with a thumb wheel dial. When fully charged, it can last all night (nine hours) at 100 lumens and manages three and a half hours at the most powerful setting of 900 lumens.
As a further bonus, we rated the band highly for comfort – it’s breathable, adjustable and machine-washable too.
Buy now £49.99, Decathlon.co.uk
Proviz LED360 antares headlamp
Best: Head torch for commuters
Weight: 98g
Light intensity: 42 to 500 lumens
Why we love it
- Red light is good for night runs
- Loads of good beam settings
Take note
- Not as eco-friendly as other options
Antares is the brightest star in the constellation of Scorpius, which has a distinctly reddish tinge. That’s the key to this Proviz torch’s best feature – a red light setting in addition to its standard bright white light. Running home from work on busy pavements? The red light will aid your night vision and get you noticed in a discreet way so that people clear your path without being dazzled by your glare.
And that’s not all. This multi-tasking torch has a total of five settings with a max spot beam, a high flood beam, a low flood beam, a red beam and a flashing mode. As the max setting is a bright 500 lumens with visibility for a distance of 100m, it also holds up for running off-road in parks or hills.
Powered by AAA batteries, you can keep some spares in your pocket and never fear running out of light, but this perhaps isn’t as eco-friendly as the rechargeable lithium battery offered by other torches in the same price bracket. That said, I still think it’s a great option for anyone who likes to switch up their route and do a mix of running in urban environments and in rural settings.
Buy now £29.99, Provizsports.com
Petzl swift E095BA01 headlamp RL
Best: Head torch for road and trail running
Weight: 100g
Light intensity: 100 to 900 lumens
Why we love it
- Light automatically adjusts to your surroundings
- Good comfort with the double strap
The ergonomic Petzl swift RL (reactive light) is a pretty nifty gadget. It lets you choose from standard mode, where you adjust the brightness yourself, or reactive mode, where the light automatically adjusts to your surroundings.
Reactive mode is brilliant if your route covers both town and country (or pavement and park) and you don’t want your run interrupted by having to adjust the brightness setting. For example, if you were running across dark fields, it would automatically use a higher-powered light. This would immediately drop if you ran into a well-lit area. This helps conserve battery and means thinking about what setting you should use can be taken off your mental checklist, leaving you to focus on your running technique.
Comfort-wise, I approved of the double strap at the back, which did a great job of keeping the lamp secure and in place – it doesn’t bob up and down on your head or slide around. Delegating the brightness setting to the torch itself takes some getting used to, but it didn’t let us down once.
Buy now £107.99, Sportsshoes.com
Proviz LED360 chest light
Best: Head torch for movement
Weight: 161g
Light intensity: Up to 500 lumens
Why we love it
- Good reflective strips
- Comfortable and lightweight
- Allowed us to use our hood on rainy runs
The advantages to running with a chest strap include less irritation around the head and less neck stiffness from constantly looking down. You can also enjoy more visibility from all angles if you choose this particular chest light from Proviz, the night-time running expert.
The company was set up by two brothers tired of searching for gear to keep them safe on their London commute, and they’ve certainly delivered on that with the LED360 chest light. It features reflective strips along the length of the band so you can easily be seen in car headlights, as well as a slow flashing red light at the rear to keep you safe from behind.
Before I left the house, I had to check in the mirror to make sure I hadn’t forgotten to put the head torch on – it’s that comfortable and lightweight. Once outside, adjusting the torch so it shone downwards did take some getting used to, and it does bounce slightly if you don’t have a perfect running gait, but I felt like I’d mastered it by my third run while using it.
After that, I enjoyed the feeling of complete freedom, as if I was wearing nothing around my head. This made a difference on wet days, as I could use the hood of my running jacket without fear it would obscure the torch.
Buy now £29.99, Provizsports.com
Ledlenser NEO5R running head torch with chest strap
Best: Value head torch
Weight: 104g
Light intensity: 20 to 600 lumens
Why we love it
- Can be worn on the head or the chest
- Red light flashes on the rear
- Good weight distribution
From the German company that developed the world’s first commercial LED flashlight comes this seriously smart light that can be worn on the chest or the head. The strap is reflective, which is a cool extra safety feature, and there’s a flashing red light at the rear so motorists can see you from all directions.
Ever had a USB charging cable get stuck in a device? This won’t happen with the NEO5R, as it features a magnetic charging cable. The light itself has two separate spot and flood LEDs, which combine to provide both close and long-distance lighting, which is the perfect beam pattern for fast-moving activities.
I really liked the weight distribution of this torch. It weighs a little over 100g but, as this is distributed evenly between the torch and the battery pack, it never felt front heavy. For extra comfort, it comes with a silicone pad that can be fitted to the rear of the strap, but I never used this as I found it was comfortable and secure enough without it.
Buy now £41.40, Amazon.co.uk
Silva trail runner free H
Best: Head torch for visibility
Weight: 108g
Light intensity: 50 to 400 lumens
Why we love it
- Can be used with a backup battery
- Really comfortable to wear
- Light provides good visibility
Outdoor activities are a way of life in Sweden, which is where Silva originates from. Every effort has been made to design a torch that’s incredibly easy for runners to use, so they feel free to carry on doing what they love in all weathers without being inconvenienced in any way.
“H” stands for hybrid, meaning you can use the Silva rechargeable battery pack or three AAA batteries. So, if you carry AAAs, you’ve always got a backup. “Free” means the free technology power cord is integrated into the headband, so there are no distracting cords or tangled wires. And there’s definitely no tangling in your hair either, as the band has a soft silicone gripper on the inside to keep it in place. I liked how secure it felt on the head during testing, which meant there wasn’t any bounce or discomfort.
I also liked the range of visibility, thanks to what’s called Silva intelligent light – the combination of a long-reach spotlight and a close-in flood light. Being able to see the immediate path in detail, as well as have an idea of what’s ahead, made me feel confident when running faster in the dark.
Buy now £58.48, Amazon.co.uk
Ledlenser MH3 head torch
Best: Head torch for multiple activities
Weight: 92g
Light intensity: 20 to 200 lumens
Why we love it
- Can be used as a hand torch or head torch
Take note
- Not very bright
- No light settings
At first glance, it didn’t seem like there was anything particularly special about this one-beam head torch. You don’t get a mix of spotlight and floodlight at the same time, and it only goes up to 200 lumens. If you’re running in urban environments and you just want to go out and see what’s ahead of you, this is more than capable of doing the job, but I couldn’t see anything that made it stand out, and it’s fairly heavy at 92g.
But then I noticed the torch can be easily detached from the headband, and this discovery was a game changer. It means it can be operated as a hand torch if you want to slow down and investigate something, or it can be clipped onto the torso like a chest torch, but without a band to weigh you down.
Being able to wear it on the chest also increases the range of activities you can do with it. For example, there’s no need to stretch the torch over a cycling helmet, as you can simply wear it on the torso instead. And the more use you get out of it, the better value the £39.95 price tag becomes.
Buy now £28.46, Ledlenser.co.uk
Your head torch questions answered
What is the best headtorch?
The Petzl Iko core ticks all the boxes as it’s reasonably lightweight, highly breathable and offers multiple brightness settings – I also loved the storage pouch. If you’re new to head-torch running, the Knog quokka is even lighter and excellent value for money, while the Ledlenser NEO5R gives you the option of wearing it on the chest or head, so you can experiment to find out what works best for you.
What head torch brightness is best?
A torch’s brightness is measured in lumens, and the power you need will differ depending on your activity. For general outdoor activities when the light starts to fade, 200 to 300 lumens will suffice, providing a good balance between battery life and weight. For more intrepid expeditions (Scafell Pike at night, anyone?), opt for 400-plus lumens.
The higher the lumens rating, the greater the torch’s beam distance and width. But weight and price will increase too, so think carefully about whether you really need the extra power. The max lumens quoted by manufacturers can sometimes be misleading too, so if there’s a boost or burst mode, consider the fact that the brightness will only last for a few seconds. Instead, it’s better to judge a head torch on its highest output that will last for at least an hour or two.
What else should I consider before buying a head torch?
A versatile torch will have several modes, enabling you to toggle between different power settings and adjust the width and focus of the beam. Some torches also feature reactive lighting (automatic beam adjustment to your surroundings) and a red light mode (for preserving your night vision). Switching between these modes should be intuitive and hassle-free. Most modern head torches are very easy to use, with just one or two buttons.
You’re likely to be able to fiddle with the headlamp, which should have a tilt function for flexible beam focus; and the headband, which can be tightened or loosened for a comfy fit.
Battery life (also known as burn time) is another key consideration. Brands usually state how long a head torch will last in each mode. Most will keep going for up to 100 hours on their lowest setting, but only two to three hours on the highest output. Take manufacturers’ stats with a pinch of salt too – they can be a tad optimistic.
Are head torches rechargeable?
Traditional-style head torches take AA or AAA batteries, but newer options feature USB-rechargeable lithium-ion batteries.
Are head torches waterproof?
For most adventures, an IPX4 (splash-proof) rating should suffice, but for very wet expeditions, opt for IPX6 (water-resistant) or IPX8 (waterproof).
You’ve got the head torch, now you need the footwear – check out our round-ups of the best hiking shoes for women and the best walking boots for men
