[paulockenden]

i notice people are comparing the visibility pack to the pano roof for value. I wonder how many of those making that comparison have both? I do, and if I had to drop one of the options it would be the roof. The visibility pack wins hands down.

[PeteN]

I drive quite a lot on unlit country roads and the laser lights are brilliant. If I lived in a town I wouldn't bother though as they only really come alive in the country roads.
My wife has a mini JCW with Matrix led headlights. When I had my F31 BMW I found these matrix headlights on the mini to be noticeably better,
Not completely groundbreaking but noticeable. The lighting ahead was just clearer somehow, almost like HD to non HD tv is how I describe it.
I then got the laser lights and they are a little better than the Matrix, less of a difference than the F31 to the mini but again, noticeable. They seem to punch a bit further ahead. Both react to oncoming cars very quickly.
I get flashed occasionally, usually when going uphill and someone towards coming down. I do notice that my beam isn't lighting up their cabin though. I just think they are brighter than what people are used to.

[gashead76]

100% visibility pack, last week I had no panoramic roof or visibility pack, thought when ordering my new car pano was more important than the visibility pack, decided to choose both on the DRL look alone, next time the visibility will be my first choice, adaptive leds I thought were very good, good enough but lasers take it for me to another level, in town not anything in it at all but on a unlit country road, night and day ��

[marksandygill]

My wife's X5 had Laser lights, I only realised after 5 months when I saw they had 'Laser' written on them and not 'LED'...

[gashead76]

Originally Posted by marksandygill

My wife's X5 had Laser lights, I only realised after 5 months when I saw they had 'Laser' written on them and not 'LED'...

If you drive on a unlit road in my car you couldn't miss them dance around, very noticeable, not sure how you could miss it, if driven only in town or cities then you could.

[marksandygill]

Originally Posted by gashead76

If you drive on a unlit road in my car you couldn't miss them dance around, very noticeable, not sure how you could miss it, if driven only in town or cities then you could.

Probably how I missed it then, tend not to drive around town or where we live with high beams on...

[gashead76]

Originally Posted by marksandygill

Probably how I missed it then, tend not to drive around town or where we live with high beams on...

Between leds and lasers in well lit area, I have only noticed it suddenly light a sign up for everyone, driving on A ot B road that's unlit, doing its thing is smile inducing for me and would warrant a trip to the opticians if you couldn’t see it.

[marksandygill]

Originally Posted by gashead76

Between leds and lasers in well lit area, I have only noticed it suddenly light a sign up for everyone, driving on A ot B road that's unlit, doing its thing is smile inducing for me and would warrant a trip to the opticians if you couldn’t see it.

As per my previous, I probably never drove it somewhere it needed the high beams on, maybe I'm not the only one who needs a trip to the opticians...

[gashead76]

Originally Posted by marksandygill

As per my previous, I probably never drove it somewhere it needed the high beams on, maybe I'm not the only one who needs a trip to the opticians...

Yeah between adaptive and lasers in a city or town setting, nothing in it however on a nice unlit road could be it shouldn't be so obvious as it is, find out soon enough if I start getting flashed all the time...

[Talisman77]

Originally Posted by paulockenden

i notice people are comparing the visibility pack to the pano roof for value. I wonder how many of those making that comparison have both? I do, and if I had to drop one of the options it would be the roof. The visibility pack wins hands down.

Yeah I've got all options and would drop the Pano if I had to, probably above anything else but especially over Vis. On a G20 it doesn't even open out that far back.

[JNW1]

Originally Posted by Talisman77

From an objective standpoint it seems the IIHS saw a fairly substantial difference https://www.iihs.org/ratings/vehicle...022#headlights

If I read that report correctly it's suggesting the standard LED's are inadequate on both dip and main beam? I've not driven a 3-series with those lights - so can't really comment on them - but I certainly wouldn't describe the LED's in our Mini as inadequate. Perhaps the LED's on the Mini are better than those fitted as standard to the 3-series although if true that would surprise me slightly....

[xenon]

I haven’t read the article but the standard adaptive LEDs are not inadequate in my opinion, but they’re nothing spectacular. Way better than halogen obviously but my A6 was better for a more like on like comparison.

[SilverGrey]

I think the standard LEDs are very good. Overtaking a car with halogens on an unlit dual carriageway reveals just how good they are, both in terms of colour and just how far they illuminate the road.

[Stooo]

Originally Posted by Talisman77

Yeah I've got all options and would drop the Pano if I had to, probably above anything else but especially over Vis. On a G20 it doesn't even open out that far back.

Strictly speaking, you don’t have a panoramic sunroof, you have a sunroof, which are a bit tiny compared to the pano sunroofs in the g21.

[JNW1]

Originally Posted by paulockenden

i notice people are comparing the visibility pack to the pano roof for value. I wonder how many of those making that comparison have both? I do, and if I had to drop one of the options it would be the roof. The visibility pack wins hands down.

I have both and, as most of my driving is in daylight, for me the improved ambience afforded by the panoramic roof is a benefit much more of the time than than the improved lighting offered by the visibility pack. So while I'm happy to have both I'd miss the panoramic roof more and hence if I had to sacrifice one or the other the visibility pack would go.

[Keith_C]

Originally Posted by marksandygill

As per my previous, I probably never drove it somewhere it needed the high beams on, maybe I'm not the only one who needs a trip to the opticians...

If you didn't realise you had them (or your mrs) then there's every chance you didn't have them activated, so never saw the effect. They don't work when manually putting the lights into full beam, you have to put the lights into Auto mode for them to work and only above 37mph (3 series anyway).

[JNW1]

Originally Posted by ukbeemerboy

You can manually over ride this. The HBA will only bring them on over 37 mph

Can you over-ride the 37mph manually and still keep the selective beam function operational?

[bmnut]

Originally Posted by JNW1

Can you over-ride the 37mph manually and still keep the selective beam function operational?

As Keith said above the adaptive function only works in "Auto" setting of the master light switch and then above 37 mph (60kph).

Don't think there's anyway of manually overriding this adaptive function though. You can of course as has been said manually operate the main beams 'the old fashioned way' via the left hand column stalk but that would simply switch from dipped beams to main beams in one set configuration.

[JNW1]

Originally Posted by bmnut

As Keith said above the adaptive function only works in "Auto" setting of the master light switch and then above 37 mph (60kph).

Don't think there's anyway of manually overriding this adaptive function though. You can of course as has been said manually operate the main beams 'the old fashioned way' via the left hand column stalk but that would simply switch from dipped beams to main beams in one set configuration.

So if you put main beam on 'the old fashioned way' the laser lights are operational regardless of road speed? If so I could see the benefit if you're on (say) a relatively twisty road and some slow speed corners necessitate dropping your speed below 37mph; with HBA activated you lose the laser lights but from the sounds of it doing it the 'old fashioned way' avoids that happening?

If I'm honest I've never really understood why the laser lights don't work below 37mph with HBA activated but I'm sure there's a reason!

[Charlie (Wessex)]

Originally Posted by SilverGrey

I think the standard LEDs are very good. Overtaking a car with halogens on an unlit dual carriageway reveals just how good they are, both in terms of colour and just how far they illuminate the road.

I agree about the standard LEDs. When I got mine, I found the throw was a little bit disappointing. However, an Allen key sorted that out. Interestingly I can have them set far too high and no one flashes me, which I guess means everyone has got used to overly bright headlights at night.

Ihaven't got HBA nor Laser. I don't particularly like the former, and while I'm sure the latter is brilliant, what I have (standard adaptive LED) is just fine.

Some might find this useful: https://www.bmwblog.com/2020/03/15/g...ies-explained/

[bmnut]

Originally Posted by JNW1

So if you put main beam on 'the old fashioned way' the laser lights are operational regardless of road speed? If so I could see the benefit if you're on (say) a relatively twisty road and some slow speed corners necessitate dropping your speed below 37mph; with HBA activated you lose the laser lights but from the sounds of it doing it the 'old fashioned way' avoids that happening?

If I'm honest I've never really understood why the laser lights don't work below 37mph with HBA activated but I'm sure there's a reason!

Pretty much so I think. Obviously we can use main beam below 37mph by doing it manually but the 'adaptive' function of spreading the beam pattern and dipping the main beams individually for oncoming traffic and overtaking slower moving traffic will not be active. Now whether or not manually activating main beam automatically lights the laser elements or not I'm not entirely sure. I'm going to give it a try in the near future on an unlit road void of any other traffic and see if I can judge that.
The BMW information about laser lights states..."High beam headlight with LED technology and laser module".

[bmnut]

Originally Posted by JNW1

So if you put main beam on 'the old fashioned way' the laser lights are operational regardless of road speed? If so I could see the benefit if you're on (say) a relatively twisty road and some slow speed corners necessitate dropping your speed below 37mph; with HBA activated you lose the laser lights but from the sounds of it doing it the 'old fashioned way' avoids that happening?

If I'm honest I've never really understood why the laser lights don't work below 37mph with HBA activated but I'm sure there's a reason!

As for the below 37mph bit, I can't fathom that out either. It equates to exactly 60kph so unsure if that has any relevance possibly in relation to BMW's home market but even so don't understand why it would apply to UK spec vehicles. Perhaps it's simply a case that in areas with speed limits in that range i.e. 37mph they will be mostly built-up areas and more than likely have street lighting systems in place rendering main beam headlights redundant?