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New MacBook Pros only reach 500 Nits on non-HDR content, measured by Notebookcheck

N

Not-A-Fan

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Original poster
Nov 2, 2015
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According to Notebookcheck:

"Apple advertises the new Mini-LED MacBook Pro 14 with a peak brightness of up to 1600 nits and a sustained brightness of 1000 nits, but these values seem to be limited to HDR contents. Standard SDR contents are limited to 500 nits, which is comparable to the current MacBook Pro 13. Update: HDR measurements confirm 500 nits limitation"

www.notebookcheck.net

The new MacBook Pro 14 only manages 500 nits with SDR contents

Apple advertises the new Mini-LED MacBook Pro 14 with a peak brightness of up to 1600 nits and a sustained brightness of 1000 nits, but these values seem to be limited to HDR contents. Standard SDR contents are limited to 500 nits, which is comparable to the current MacBook Pro 13.
www.notebookcheck.net www.notebookcheck.net

So we can kiss good bye those dreams of using those machines to write code in the garden. Great to know I can watch HDR videos at a thousand nits in my dark room, though...

Man that's such a letdown, I really misunderstood Apple's marketing to mean that you can use those 1000 nits in normal workflow and use cases, not only while consuming a tiny fraction of the content that's out there.
 
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Kylo83 said:
Yeah compared to my intel 16” the brightness is exactly the same, apple lied about many features
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Really? I have the MacBook Pro 16" 2019 and at max brightness it is only half as bright as my MacBook Pro 14". I had them side by side yesterday. With my 16" the brightness was set three from max. With the 14" the brightness is set eight from max.

100% the 14" is 2x brighter than the old MacBook Pros.
 
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Hankster said:
Really? I have the MacBook Pro 16" 2019 and at max brightness it is only half as bright as my MacBook Pro 14". I had them side by side yesterday. With my 16" the brightness was set three from max. With the 14" the brightness is set eight from max.

100% the 14" is 2x brighter than the old MacBook Pros.
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Not true have you got it set to auto brightness off, they are both stuck on 500nits for normal usage i compared 2 models with my intel 16 and they are identical
 
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Hankster said:
First, what random site is that? Second, go back to the article and at the bottom the "updated" the article stating they were wrong and the MacBook does have over 1600.
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Only in HDR content. It's not a correction, they're confirming both measurements. Peak brightness in HDR of 1600 nits, brightness in SDR content of 500 nits.

You can watch HDR videos and look at photos in 1600, but the brightness available during non-HDR content (like 95% of what most users do on a laptop) is only 500 nits.

And Notebookcheck.com / .net is the most thorough, reliable and independent notebook review site out there.
 
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Not-A-Fan said:
Only in HDR content. It's not a correction, they're confirming both measurements. Peak brightness in HDR of 1600 nits, brightness in SDR content of 500 nits.

You can watch HDR videos and look at photos in 1600, but the brightness available during non-HDR content (like 95% of what most users do on a laptop) is only 500 nits.

And Notebookcheck.com / .net is the most thorough, reliable and independent notebook review site out there.
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When I arrive at my office where my MacBook Pro 16" 2019 is I'll take a side by side photo of both laptops with the front page of this site on. You'll see how bright the new 14/16 are compared to the old MacBook Pros.

I used the 16" 2019 for two years. I know screen brightness. It was always set to three from max. On this MacBook Pro 14" the same brightness is set to eight from max. Max brightness on this machine hurts my eyes.
 
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Hankster said:
Really? I have the MacBook Pro 16" 2019 and at max brightness it is only half as bright as my MacBook Pro 14". I had them side by side yesterday. With my 16" the brightness was set three from max. With the 14" the brightness is set eight from max.

100% the 14" is 2x brighter than the old MacBook Pros.
Click to expand...
Okay, I'll trust your eyes over the X-Rite's i1Pro 2 spectrophotometer that notebookcheck use to measure brightness with actual sensors.
 
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ignaciobarrena said:
As expected. The Apple Pro Display XDR also limits to 500nits for SDR and only goes to peak 1600nits in HDR content. The iPad Pro miniLED display XDR behaves the same way.

I don't understand the complaints.
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It's how they worded it, 'up to 1000 nits' is legally correct but as consumer you'd expect it to be 1000 nits everywhere and 1600 nits when watching HDR content, like iPhone 13 Pros 1000 nits everywhere and 1200 HDR.
 
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Maybe that's expected when you're a photo or video editor and have worked with those tools, but it's not expected for a programmer who just wants a bright display to use outside, and it's certainly not expected for someone who watched the keynote, where they're simply saying the display runs at 1000 nits.
ignaciobarrena said:
I don't understand the complaints.
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You don't think it's deceptive to advertise a feature that is only available for a tiny fraction of the content out there, without specifying that?
 
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What level do dumb is this?

Non-HDR content isn’t supposed to be seen at very high nits otherwise color becomes oversaturated and bright areas of images and videos become blown out.

A typical professional Photoshop user or SDR video content producer uses under 500 nits/candelas. For print and poster work anywhere between 120-200.

A display like the MBP and others who use micro LED and OLED adjusts to the content and that’s the correct way to do it.
 
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Not-A-Fan said:
Do you not understand that not everyone uses these laptops in a dimly lit office to edit videos and photos?

Content doesn't have to be videos or images, it's as simple as a being able to read text or use your IDE outside, where colour accuracy doesn't matter a bit.
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LOL

1000+ nits isn’t good for sustained text reading either. It’s completely pointless for that.

Most of us use Eizos for print, text, photo and video work. It’s the most common used professional monitor. Typically calibrated at 120-200 candelas/nits otherwise color accuracy is difficult and reading text becomes tiresome to the eyes. Overly bright pages cause eye fatigue.

If you want sustained 1000-1200 nits all day long you are also asking your display to have a short end lifespan. That’s why nobody recommends it.

If the hardware makers and standard developers say something you should take their advice. They are the experts. Jimmy Twoshoes in his college bedroom or on his tech blog who wants 1200 nits for all content is not the expert.
 
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Maybe someone can explain this better but "DR" is dynamic range i.e. the difference between black level and white level. Hence for HDR you would required a source with more bits to encode a larger difference assuming the black level is fixed.

As @ponzicoinbro points out normally you would calibrate your screen for much lower nits if you are working with photo editing or something similar. I use 120 nits.
 
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Unboxed my 16” yesterday. Advertised 1000 nits was a lie. Would have helped with working in the field. Look at the official website - there is no stipulation about SDR/HDR limits - just “1000 nits sustained brightness”.

GPU performance is also meh. Only at the level of a 3050/3060 at best.

Never seen such overpromising and underdevilery from Apple. But you can always rely on sheep defending this crap.
 
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ponzicoinbro said:
If the hardware makers and standard developers say something you should take their advice.
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Maybe true, but then they shouldn't advertise that feature without clarification.

I was looking forward to finally have a screen that I can use comfortably outside, 600 nits would have been fine for that. Had I not seen this article, I would not have cancelled my order and Apple would have to deal with a return.
 
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www.macrumors.com

New MacBook Pros Have Up to 3x Brighter Displays for HDR Content

Apple's new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models are equipped with improved "XDR" displays with mini-LED backlighting. Impressively,...
www.macrumors.com www.macrumors.com

1635339910257.png


From 8 days ago. You just need to read about what you are purchasing.
 
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It's a wasted opportunity to have a hard cap at 500 nits. At least in automatic mode they should make it go higher in bright conditions.
 
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Exactly this is what I’ve been saying apple are lying to us, promotion is broke hdr isn’t any better than the intel ones, speakers are even worse no treble highs and the brightness is the same as intels, I tried playing hdr and the iPad Pro is nice but this MacBook is same as older ones
 
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