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New MacBook Pros Feature Brighter Displays Outdoors, Also Even Dimmer in Low Light

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The new MacBook Pro models unveiled today feature display brightness enhancements in both bright outdoor lighting and low lighting.

Apple-MacBook-Pro-M4-hero.jpg

Apple's tech specs page says all of the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models have a peak display brightness of 1,000 nits for standard content in bright outdoor lighting, such as on a sunny day. The previous-generation MacBook Pro models have a peak display brightness of 600 nits for standard content, in any lighting conditions.

Keep in mind that apps like Vivid allow you to unlock full-screen HDR brightness levels of up to 1,000 nits at any time on MacBook Pro models with the Liquid Retina XDR display, but this will obviously drain your battery faster.

Just like all iPhone 16 models and select Apple Watch models, Apple's website says the latest MacBook Pro displays can dim to one nit in "low-light situations." The minimum brightness for previous-generation MacBook Pro models was two nits.

Display brightness specifications for HDR content have not changed on the latest MacBook Pro models compared to the previous models.

The new MacBook Pro models can be pre-ordered now and launch on Friday, November 8. To learn more about other new features, read our earlier coverage of Apple's announcements for the base 14-inch MacBook Pro and the higher-end MacBook Pros.

Article Link: New MacBook Pros Feature Brighter Displays Outdoors, Also Even Dimmer in Low Light
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2024/10/30/new-macbook-pros-brighter-display-outdoors/
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Technically, M1,2,3 Max MBP also have 1000 nit for SDR. It was only blocked by software. But the problem is the power consumption is much higher and it easily over heats which is quite difficult to use. There are demands for high brightness for outdoor production but they need to last at least 8 hours so it would be quite challenging unless they adopt dual stack OLED soon.
 
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JPack said:
I like how Apple only includes the Polishing Cloth with the nano option.

"You don't need to clean your display of fingerprints unless you pay $150 extra."
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Apple could at least offer the option to buy the polishing cloth at $150. I was at said store today lamenting to staff I couldn’t buy the same cloth that comes with the M4 iPad nano.
 
Just remember kids, the more cores, the less your battery life will be. Haven't seen a mention of amazing battery life at all yet. Likely because focus is on performance.

That said, max version owners of macbook know that battery is good, but great...forget it. After effects and photoshop, lightroom will still tear that battery apart in 3 hours.
 
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Apple_Robert said:
Apple could at least offer the option to buy the polishing cloth at $150. I was at said store today lamenting to staff I couldn’t buy the same cloth that comes with the M4 iPad nano.
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150 for a cloth

Very silly. No matter how you slice it..and even for apple. Silly AF.
 
The display on the 16" M1 Max MacBook Pro can also do 1000 nits in SDR. But Apple put a software limitation in place. With 3rd party software, you can unlock the 1000 nits on M1.

So I'm pretty sure the displays on the M4 are nothing new, as hardware wise, the M1 were able to do this too. And Apple was simply waiting for the right time to "unlock" this feature and say it's an "improvement", while this was always possible.
 
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So it is not true 1000 nits then? What is the true user controllable brightness on this years MBP, 600 still?

I don’t want to have auto brightness on and decide for me…
 
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I tried Vivid app but despite their advertisement, it only reached up to 700 nit so the real 1000 nit at max would be quite impossible. Even M4 iPad Pro's SDR was 1000 nit but it never did. I would say there are no such things as 1000 nit as it's quite impossible to reach and sustain.
 
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mightysashiman said:
seems so. BetterDisplay can unlock max nits for sdr content.
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This is what i use also. The sub dimming is great also.

I have never used the 1600 nit option, and for battery and the sake of my eyeballs, rarely ever push past mid brightness. Becomes very uncomfortable to me. But im glad its there, i do work outdoors occasionally.
 
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Not true at all unfortunately; it’s just a software lock, apps like vivid allow m1 MacBook Pros to feature 1000nits all the time. It’s not a hardware thing. They have just unlocked some brightness and called it a feature. And like the iPhone it will only get brighter with auto brightness on and outside. Like my self who always has auto off and max brightness it will stay at normal peak brightness, vivid is a simple app that’s better
 
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Kylo83 said:
Not true at all unfortunately; it’s just a software lock, apps like vivid allow m1 MacBook Pros to feature 1000nits all the time. It’s not a hardware thing. They have just unlocked some brightness and called it a feature. And like the iPhone it will only get brighter with auto brightness on and outside. Like my self who always has auto off and max brightness it will stay at normal peak brightness, vivid is a simple app that’s better
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Kylo83 said:
Yes yes an app called vivid and get 1000 all the time indoors and outdoors
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Not really. I measured the brightness with a colorimeter or spectrometer but it only reached around 700~750 nit.
 
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lanomds1 said:
Nice upgrade, it was worth waiting
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It’s a software locked feature use an app called vivid and get higher max brightness on m1 and above MacBook Pros it’s not a new feature, apple could unlock it with a software update, nothing hardware related
 
sunny5 said:
Not really. I measured the brightness with a colorimeter or spectrometer but it only reached around 700~750 nit.
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It’s still max brightness for sdr in any lighting condition, with the new m4 ones it will only work with auto brightness like the iPhone, I have that off and max brightness is never the highest it can go, I don’t want a brighter screen only when I’m outside and auto brightness to be activated
 
Kylo83 said:
It’s still max brightness for sdr in any lighting condition, with the new m4 ones it will only work with auto brightness like the iPhone, I have that off and max brightness is never the highest it can go, I don’t want a brighter screen only when I’m outside and auto brightness to be activated
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So it's not 1000 nit and false advertisement.
 
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sunny5 said:
So it's not 1000 nit and false advertisement.
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Your not understanding my point, vivid makes the screen mega bright; brighter than any m4 MacBook with so called 1000nits, just like the iPhone it very rarely hits max brightness unlike your staring at the sun. A brighter screen should be a standard for any condition; it’s still stuck at 600 indoors
 
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