The best daylight LED bulbs

A daylight bulb is one with a cool, slightly blue-white color, usually 5000K and sometimes 6500K. It is not brighter than a soft white bulb with the same lumen figure - brightness is lumens, and daylight describes the color of the light. The two ideas get mixed up constantly on bulb boxes.

What daylight does well is clarity. Under 5000K light, detail and color are easy to see, which is why it belongs in rooms where you work rather than rooms where you relax. Feit Electric's color guidance puts daylight in offices, studios and workspaces, and soft white in bedrooms, living rooms and dining spaces.

Cree Lighting A19, 5000K - the pick. 815 lumens at 5000K with CRI 90+, dimmable, a 25,000 hour rated life, and marked good for enclosed fixtures. That last point matters in utility rooms, where the fitting is usually a sealed dome or jelly jar. It publishes a real lumen figure rather than only an equivalence.
Cons: 815 lumens, so a large fitting may want two; the rated life assumes normal temperatures, not a hot sealed dome.

Waveform Lighting A19, 6500K - for color-critical close work. CRI 95 with a published R9 above 80 at a true 6500K - a daylight reference bulb for painting, fabric matching and anything where the red end of the spectrum has to be right.
Cons: lumen output and dimming are not published; specialist pricing; far too cool for any room you relax in.

Feit Electric R20, 5000K - for small cans in utility rooms. 450 lumens at CRI 90+ in the daylight version, damp rated and approved for enclosed use, in the small R20 shape that fits shallow cans a BR30 will not.
Cons: 450 lumens is modest, so you need several; R20 cans are less common than BR30.

Philips Ultra Definition, 1,500 lm - the most light from one socket. Philips sells this 1,500 lumen A19 in a 5000K daylight version as well as 2700K. The listing we source publishes CRI 95 on the 2700K version, so confirm the figure on the daylight box before buying.
Cons: check the fixture's maximum rating before fitting a bright bulb; enclosed fixtures can shorten the life of any high-output LED.

Pair daylight with high CRI. A cool bulb with poor color rendering is the worst of both worlds - harsh and still inaccurate. Every pick here publishes CRI 90 or above; the case for high CRI is in best high-CRI LED bulbs.

Do not mix colors in one room. A 5000K bulb beside a 2700K bulb in the same space makes both look wrong. Choose one temperature per room.

Check the fitting's rating. Utility rooms are full of sealed domes and damp spaces. The Cree and the Feit R20 carry the ratings for them - why that matters is in best LED bulbs for enclosed fixtures.

Consider 4000K first for kitchens. Feit suggests 3000K to 4000K for kitchens and bathrooms. If 3000K feels too yellow but 5000K feels clinical, 4000K is the step between - compared in 3000K vs 4000K.