Do I need BRIGHTNESS or NANO?

[GooseInTheCaboose]

I currently use a MBA M3. I like to sit outside ony my patio in direct sun April-May and outside under an umbrella or sometimes unsheltered in the summer (NY).

My MBA screen is simply too dim, and I struggle to read text/webpages when using it outside in the sun. Reflections start to dominate the screen more than the content.

I am not sure whether the culprit here is brightness or screen reflectivity. I do a lot of reading and photo editing (for fun) on my current mac and I have read that colors, particularly blacks, are worse on the nano display. So I don't want to buy it and compromise in other areas unecessarily.

Should I get a Macbook Pro with nano display or regular display???

Will the increased brightness of the regular display of the MBP be enough to make my machine usable (and a pleasure to use) outside in the sun? Or do I need the nano display??

I guess my question comes down to: to solve this problem, do I need a NANO display or do I merely need more BRIGHTNESS?

If anyone can also weigh in on heat management, I would appreciate it. I imagine that nano/brightness are helpful for sunny conditions up to a certain point: but after that point, the machine is still unusable outside due to heat issues caused by direct sun. So...do these tradeoffs eventually become pointless due to heat?

 

[BigBlur]

Both would help, but it still may not be bright enough. The MBA has 500 nits of brightness, and the MPBs have 1000 nits of brightness (and 1600 for HDR content).

Just for comparison with the iPhones, my old iPhone 13 had 1200 nits of peak brightness, and even that was hard to see outside sometimes. My new iPhone 16 has 2000 nits of brightness when outdoors and is MUCH easier to see.

This video talks about using the MBP outside. There's an app you can use to trick the MBP into thinking it's showing HDR content and therefore uses 1600 nits. He says light apps are easier to see, but dark apps aren't.

 

[darngooddesign]

This app lets you use the full 1600nits whenever you want.

Lunar - The defacto app for controlling monitor brightness

Control monitor brightness, adapt using the ambient light sensor, adjust volume, switch inputs and turn off displays without fiddling with clunky buttons.

lunar.fyi

 

[russell_314]

This app lets you use the full 1600nits whenever you want.

Lunar - The defacto app for controlling monitor brightness

Control monitor brightness, adapt using the ambient light sensor, adjust volume, switch inputs and turn off displays without fiddling with clunky buttons.

lunar.fyi

I wonder if that can cause damage to the screen? If it was capable of 1600 nits continuous why wouldn’t Apple lock out the ability?

 

[darngooddesign]

I wonder if that can cause damage to the screen? If it was capable of 1600 nits continuous why wouldn’t Apple lock out the ability?

I’m sure it’s fine for occasional use in bright environments but you wouldn’t want to use it all the time.

 

[dizmonk]

Nano

 

[dmccloud]

I wonder if that can cause damage to the screen? If it was capable of 1600 nits continuous why wouldn’t Apple lock out the ability?

The bigger concern would be battery life. As a general rule, running any display at max brightness will have a noticeable impact on battery life, whether on a smartphone, tablet, or laptop. Running brightness that high continuously might also have long-term impact on things like backlight longevity and screen burn-in, but that is something that can only be measured over a period of years rather than weeks or months.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]