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MBA Screen Usability at 50% Brightness

johnhackworth

johnhackworth

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 5, 2011
137
142
UK
Hello everyone, long-time lurker, first-time poster.

I'm currently deciding whether or not to replace my Alu MacBook Pro with a MacBook Air. To that end I went to my local Apple store to take a look and get an idea of whether I could live with the screen size of the 11".

Anyway, I noticed that the screens on the demo machines all had the brightness set way up at maximum. When I knocked the brightness down to 50% the screens became (to me) far too dim to use without straining my eyes. This is important since in order to get reasonable battery life (esp from the 11") it seems that the brightness needs to be turned down. The perceived dimness of the display could be a consequence of the brightness of the environment - i.e. a brightly-lit Apple store or it could be that the screen is genuinely too dim at 50%. Therefore the question I'd ask is which is the most likely explanation?

Also, if you own an Air do you find its screen usable at 50% in your home, on trains, on airplanes etc?
 
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Testing brightness at the store isn't a good test because of how bright it is in the store. For normal indoor use, 50% works very well for me. I rarely feel the need to make it brighter, unless I'm outside during the day or if I'm watching a video clip or something. Otherwise, it stays at 50% or even lower. If I'm using it before bed, it's normally at 1 bar of brightness.
 
johnhackworth said:
Hello everyone, long-time lurker, first-time poster.

I'm currently deciding whether or not to replace my Alu MacBook Pro with a MacBook Air. To that end I went to my local Apple store to take a look and get an idea of whether I could live with the screen size of the 11".

Anyway, I noticed that the screens on the demo machines all had the brightness set way up at maximum. When I knocked the brightness down to 50% the screens became (to me) far too dim to use without straining my eyes. This is important since in order to get reasonable battery life (esp from the 11") it seems that the brightness needs to be turned down. The perceived dimness of the display could be a consequence of the brightness of the environment - i.e. a brightly-lit Apple store or it could be that the screen is genuinely too dim at 50%. Therefore the question I'd ask is which is the most likely explanation?

Also, if you own an Air do you find its screen usable at 50% in your home, on trains, on airplanes etc?
Click to expand...

I've been pondering the same dilemma. I'm going to use my prospective MBA almost entirely for university word processing, researching and browsing. I therefore don't want to buy the 11" only to find I can't put up with the size of the screen. I went into the Apple shop for a look that was so long and hard that I started annoying the Apple Shop assistants and the other customers. To no avail. I've not arrived at a conclusion.
 
I usually run at 50% (give or take a notch) while I'm at home watching TV. Seems more than bright enough when your in a standard lit room, one or two lamps on. Only time I crank it up is if I'm somewhere bright and or out of the house.
 
I am currently running at about 1/3 brightness on the 11" and it looks fine to me. I am in a room with no lights on but lit by windows and sunlight.

I have only had it for one day, but I have found full brightness to be too bright.

The Apple store isn't really a good testing environment as it is very bright in there.
 
I can tell you this on my 2010 13" MBP I hardly ever go past 50% brightness other wise it gets to bright for me.
 
50% is perfect for a daylight lit room

If the sun is beaming in 100% does the job and at night when its dark, even with a lamp on the very lowest brightness setting is perfect.

The auto brightness ambient sensor does a brilliant job.


Never found a situation where the screen hasn't been bright enough. Anything over 50% in an average room is too bright for my eyes.
 
Thanks everyone. On reflection I think that anywhere which has lighting which requires me to crank up the brightness will also have power for the computer. Therefore I think that I'm likely to pick up an MBA - probably the 13". I think that the 11" may be a little small for my poor tired old eyes ;)
 
I'm on a plane right now (early morning flight). At 50% it's great even when there is some indirect sunlight. Most of the time it's been around 25%. BTW, I have the 11" i7, but I used to have a 13" Core 2 Duo model. I like the 11" better on planes, but you can't go wrong with either model.
 
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I'm typically between 10% and 50% brightness, but I'm not using my MBA in overly bright environments.
 
My brightness is currently 1 above being dark and I find it is very easy to see the screen.
 
I use my MBA normally at 30% brightness....in rare cases I use it above 50% but this is not common at all for me anyway....
 
Wow, I must be the only one that keeps the brightness pretty high. About 3 or so notches from max. I can't use it any lower.
 
Depends on your room lighting. For regular florescence light tube in bed room, 5~6 bars of brightness is plenty, and that' about 40%~45%.
 
onthecouchagain said:
Wow, I must be the only one that keeps the brightness pretty high. About 3 or so notches from max. I can't use it any lower.
Click to expand...

I use it at full brightness, way too dim to be acceptable anywhere less than 5 notches from the max.. Ideally it should be 2 from the max or full brightness for me.
 
Considering Apple stores are lit about as brightly as a the sun, testing it there hardly resembles real world usage unless you're going to use it outside in the sun most of the time.
 
I used mine in the passenger seat of a car today. I could see everything fine on full brightness then and it was fairly sunny. That was the highest I have had to turn it up.

Also, remember the 11" air has the highest pixel density of all Apple computers, so text at the same font size will be physically smaller on the screen compared to other machines.
 
using the new 11" with LG screen i keep it set at 5 of the 16 brightness settings which is well under 50% and it works great for most light conditions for me.
 
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