Display brightness M2 Air vs M1 16.2" MBP

[kave]

This is a compare between a M2 MacBook Air and 16.2" M1 MacBook Pro, its 10C degrees outside.
I was really surprised since the 16" should be the same for sdr content, ie 500 nits and much brighter for HDR. I also tried with HDR content which looked darker on the 16" as well. Next to them is my 11" iPad Pro M1.
All devices set to maximum brightness and their default profile.

 

[etaleb]

To me the air and Ipad are brighter than the Macbook Pro - are you seeing the same?

 

[Fravin]

To me the air and Ipad are brighter than the Macbook Pro - are you seeing the same?

Yes, they look brighter, but the MBP should be the most brighter there. It has 1000 nits sustained brightness against 500 on MBA.

 

[Gregintosh]

It only goes up to 1,000 nits when playing videos I think. There is a 3rd party app to raise the brightness beyond the 500 nits that MacOS does by default for everyday workload, and it eats batteries quickly. I have done this myself, and it was great but not practical for day to day use.

For everyday use, there is no substantial difference in brightness between MacBook Air M2 and MacBook Pro line.

Quality also, the extra FPS doesn't really stand out for most workflows like normal reading and surfing the web.

Unless you are a video editor and need the extra M2 Pro power for exporting videos and working with processor intensive workloads, you can and should save the $600+ and stick to the Air.

 

[kave]

To me the air and Ipad are brighter than the Macbook Pro - are you seeing the same?

Yes, that was what amazed me.

 

[kave]

It only goes up to 1,000 nits when playing videos I think. There is a 3rd party app to raise the brightness beyond the 500 nits that MacOS does by default for everyday workload, and it eats batteries quickly. I have done this myself, and it was great but not practical for day to day use.

For everyday use, there is no substantial difference in brightness between MacBook Air M2 and MacBook Pro line.

Quality also, the extra FPS doesn't really stand out for most workflows like normal reading and surfing the web.

Unless you are a video editor and need the extra M2 Pro power for exporting videos and working with processor intensive workloads, you can and should save the $600+ and stick to the Air.

What you can see on my image and in the real world the Air M2 has a brighter display than the 16" MBP.

 

[Kazgarth]

I have 2019 16" MacBook Pro and M1 13" MacBook Pro.

Same thing, the 13" is significantly brighter than the 16" in all settings.

 

[Gregintosh]

Isn’t the nits a total number? If so, a larger screen with the same nits would look dimmer as the brightness is spread across a larger area. Totally not sure if that’s how it works but maybe it’s a plausible explanation.

 

[bill-p]

Isn’t the nits a total number? If so, a larger screen with the same nits would look dimmer as the brightness is spread across a larger area. Totally not sure if that’s how it works but maybe it’s a plausible explanation.

No. One nit is about one candela per square meter. So it's independent of the size of the light source.