For those interested, I have just checked the screens of iPhone 7 and 8 side by side with the same settings (True Tone off, both set to auto-brightness in Accessibility). The screen of iPhone 8 appears noticeably dimmer (less bright) compared to the screen of iPhone 7.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPhone 8 dim screen
- Thread starter one more
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
mine was just the opposite from 7 to the 8+.
8+ has a bigger battery, so you would need to compare the “equals” - 7 & 8 or 7+ & 8+.
The lower brightness on the iPhone 8 Plus vs. 7 Plus was confirmed in the PhoneArena review a couple days ago.
No surprise, in my opinion. I mentioned in another thread this is likely due to aggressive power management on the iPhone 8. It's a slower phone and the display is dimmer. I doubt it's a bug given Apple's level of quality control.
In all likelihood, aggressive power management on the iPhone 8 is to blame. It has a smaller battery and more power hungry features like True Tone and first-gen gigabit LTE baseband. The increased power consumption has to be made up by cutting somewhere else.
No surprise, in my opinion. I mentioned in another thread this is likely due to aggressive power management on the iPhone 8. It's a slower phone and the display is dimmer. I doubt it's a bug given Apple's level of quality control.
In all likelihood, aggressive power management on the iPhone 8 is to blame. It has a smaller battery and more power hungry features like True Tone and first-gen gigabit LTE baseband. The increased power consumption has to be made up by cutting somewhere else.
When I lay my 7+ and 8+ down next to each other with all settings equal, the brightness is very near the same.
My 8+ is tad brighter than my 7+.
Slightly sharper, with deeper black levels and a touch more saturation as well. Though some of this could be True Tone calibrating optimal viewing settings in real time, which makes for a better overall viewing experience I’m finding.
And as always, there can be manufacturing variances from device to device.
Slightly sharper, with deeper black levels and a touch more saturation as well. Though some of this could be True Tone calibrating optimal viewing settings in real time, which makes for a better overall viewing experience I’m finding.
And as always, there can be manufacturing variances from device to device.
This is what I found ironic. Apple put the most powerful chip in iPhone 8 (going by benchmarks) and claimed a better screen experience during their iPhone 8/X event, yet the casual day-to-day use appears inferior to their previous offerings. The 8 demo units I saw at Apple Store for comparison all had the True Tone ON, but Auto Brightness OFF, with the brightness levels set all the way up. When I toggled the True Tone OFF and Auto Brightness to ON, the difference with 7 was very obvious. It is a big deal for me, for example, as I use iPhone for navigation while driving and often with sunglasses on, so the screen needs to be bright enough. Just a warning for people considering iPhone 8 to check it with their regular screen settings first.
That's interesting, because the iPhone 7 I feel has a fairly dim display even with the brightness turned all the way down. So the iPhone 8 is likely tune for efficiency is my assumption.
according to every half competent review I red, iPhone 8+ maximum brightness is basically the same of the previous generation (above 620 nits), thus a very bright screen.
Maybe you just got a lemon.
Maybe you just got a lemon.
Nah. Reviews show the iPhone 7 Plus has a 40-50 nit advantage over the 8 Plus.
A standard cinema projector is about 48 nits.
Maybe DisplayMate or Anandtech will have more accurate numbers, but as it stands, no one credible has indicated the 8 matches the brightness of the 7.
https://www.gsmarena.com/apple_iphone_8_plus-review-1662p3.php
https://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Apple-iPhone-8-Plus-Review_id4416
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-iPhone-8-Plus-First-Impressions.250932.0.html
Gsmarena is there only one tested it on max auto brightness (with manual control you can't go over 550/560 nits).
620 nits for the iPhone 8 plus versus 680 nits for the iPhone 7 plus. You can say the letter is brighter, but only by a negligible margin (once you go over 600 nits the display is indeed very bright).
The 6S also has a much bluer, starker tone to it. Where is the iPhone 7 and 8 have a much warmer display.
I managed to brighten mine by going to [Settings], [General], [Accessibility], [Display Accommodations] turn off or move the “Reduce White Point” setting down, I can now see the screen outside
Last edited:
Generally the reduce white point isn't a setting that's enabled for most (unless they enabled it themselves at some point).
Hey C DM, Thanks, for me that’s how it was out of the box I’m not really one for playing with the settings, maybe some are setup like that and some aren’t, maybe an update not sure, I don’t claim to be an expert.. but I until just now had no idea why the screen was so crap outside but okay inside, I was starting to think about replacing with something non-Apple. Just offering what I found In the hope it helps others.. For the record this is so bright now, brighter than my 7 (not 7+ though).
Sure, we can also simply push the brightness all the way up. I was just comparing 7 & 8 with the same settings and saw that the screen of 8 was considerably less bright.
I tried pushing the brightness up to max but made no difference. I came to this post thinking it might have the solution because of the title, left an update in case others are doing the same.
I think the 6/6S had the brightest, coolest screens with the best color of any iPhones.
LOVED the screen on my 6.
The warm tint is caused by screen glue that dries over time, so the screen will become whiter and brighter. I compared my 5 and the 7 as well both at full brightness and I noticed my screens get "cooler" over time.
I checked everything else but reduce white point (my original reply) was the only thing that fixed the issue. Out of curiosity what is your setting for “reduce white point”, on/off, if on what %? Thanks