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iPhone 16 Pro Max Screen brightness on 16 Pro/Max [MERGED]
- Thread starter mfrank29
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I did some heavy testing at the Apple Store yesterday.
I have a 16 Pro and tested the maximum brightness (standard with the slider and HBM) against 8 other iPhone 16 Pros at the Apple Store. My 16 Pro was noticeably dimmer with the standard slider set to max compared all 8 iPhones, and around the same (within a few nits) at HBM against all of them as well.
I think this brightness anomaly discussed here is either a bug with the slider OR a proportional adjustment differential since the brightness range goes down to 1 nit with the 16 Pro series.
Either way, this test is inconclusive because I am fully aware Apple allows display models to run at true max brightness with the slider in demo mode, so take it with a grain of salt.
I strongly doubt this is a hardware issue, though.
I have a 16 Pro and tested the maximum brightness (standard with the slider and HBM) against 8 other iPhone 16 Pros at the Apple Store. My 16 Pro was noticeably dimmer with the standard slider set to max compared all 8 iPhones, and around the same (within a few nits) at HBM against all of them as well.
I think this brightness anomaly discussed here is either a bug with the slider OR a proportional adjustment differential since the brightness range goes down to 1 nit with the 16 Pro series.
Either way, this test is inconclusive because I am fully aware Apple allows display models to run at true max brightness with the slider in demo mode, so take it with a grain of salt.
I strongly doubt this is a hardware issue, though.
I'm pretty sure every display is made to meet certain spec for Apple and everything should be the same. We all know how demanding Apple are when it comes to OLED screens. Don't forget how many times BOE was out of the game, because quality issues.
It is very possible it's a bug, because it's typical for Apple when they introduce new hardware. We had touch issues, we had camera issues. All came, because the very same new hardware and it had to be addressed in the code.
It is very possible it's a bug, because it's typical for Apple when they introduce new hardware. We had touch issues, we had camera issues. All came, because the very same new hardware and it had to be addressed in the code.
Did you test this with on your 16 Pro with auto brightness off (then lock your iPhone and unlock it) in accessibility?
interesting (or perhaps not to others haha), my iPhone 13 mini which is fine and I'm still happy with uses an LG display with GVC serial#
..wouldn't have thought that
but now that I think about it, my 16 pro I returned bc of display and other reasons was similarly warm when off axis. I'm guessing in retrospect that one was an LG also but one with some funky-ness of panel variation :O
thought maybe it was just variation but makes sense now, especially since mine looked brighter than every single one in the store that were probably all Samsungs. All 30 of them across regular/plus and pro/max.
I suspect LG are the bright ones this go round where people aren't gonna complain the pros are too dim, because brightness I never had an issue with. even in store lighting I could see a smidge less brightness compared my 16pro.
And maybe based off others comments that Samsungs are more prone to tint shift when not straight on by slight off angle-ness judging by the dude who had 6 Samsungs and 1 LG iirc, but again, could be talking out of my butt.
Fwiw, my 16 plus with Samsung is plenty bright but different model panel.
I think this more comes down to panel lottery, but there could be something to gather from manufacturer differences if I had to suspect. I would say maybe LG is better at uniformity and such on average, and maybe on average a better display in the lotto, but Samsung has lower lows of stinkers and higher highs of unicorns with the latter being harder to attain.
..wouldn't have thought that
but now that I think about it, my 16 pro I returned bc of display and other reasons was similarly warm when off axis. I'm guessing in retrospect that one was an LG also but one with some funky-ness of panel variation :O
thought maybe it was just variation but makes sense now, especially since mine looked brighter than every single one in the store that were probably all Samsungs. All 30 of them across regular/plus and pro/max.
I suspect LG are the bright ones this go round where people aren't gonna complain the pros are too dim, because brightness I never had an issue with. even in store lighting I could see a smidge less brightness compared my 16pro.
And maybe based off others comments that Samsungs are more prone to tint shift when not straight on by slight off angle-ness judging by the dude who had 6 Samsungs and 1 LG iirc, but again, could be talking out of my butt.
Fwiw, my 16 plus with Samsung is plenty bright but different model panel.
I think this more comes down to panel lottery, but there could be something to gather from manufacturer differences if I had to suspect. I would say maybe LG is better at uniformity and such on average, and maybe on average a better display in the lotto, but Samsung has lower lows of stinkers and higher highs of unicorns with the latter being harder to attain.
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Gave my 2nd 16PM with the slightly uneven display (G9P) to my father-in-law who couldn’t care less. Just got another 16PM which has G9N. Very uniform but quick to shift when tilting the phone. Nothing obnoxious, the shift isn’t aggressive, have seen far worse. This one I’m keeping for myself 😂 .
White uniformity that also was visible on light grays. Top 1/3 of the screen was a different hue of white than the rest of the screen, with a hint of red tint at the very bottom. I'm making it sound worse than it is, had my relative not wanted the phone I would've kept it. But since he did, why the heck not get one more?
Nope, this one is it. I've seen enough trash screens to know when to keep one (as you and others also have). I can deal with off-axis shift if the screen is uniform.
You know I like pulling your chain sometimes. But I luv you man. 🙃☺️
It's all good! Definitely a nerve-wracking process we go through every year. I've seen four 16PM (my wife also has one, G9N screen) and hers is not uniform either but she doesn't care. Uniformity is #1 for me.
I’m in a similar situation. My partner and I both got the iPhone 16 Pro Max about two weeks ago, and I’ve noticed that the top part of the screen has a slight yellow tint compared to the bottom. The effect varies depending on the angle you’re viewing it from. My partner says he doesn’t notice it at all, but it does bother me a bit. I had to go through three iPhone 14s for the same issue before finding one I was satisfied with, but this year, I just don’t have the energy to deal with the screen lottery again. At this point, I’m starting to think there’s no such thing as a perfect screen—some people are just more sensitive to it than others.
I mean originally pro iphones were meant for professional use and mainly photography and videography where color reproduction and overall screen consistency is crucial, at least those phones are marketed as such. It is very weird that Apple decided to use oleds with a very high number of failures and quality discrepancy. Like I would choose a better panel over that stupid button on any day.
Sometimes I think perhaps subconsciously I refrained from upgrading the 14PM to 15PM last year because I had a decent unit and decent display. Haha. But indeed, it’s stressful .
Today I almost was in shock. Was at the chiropractor office and my lower half of the screen appeared pink ( you know how I hate that as well as uneven green tints from the past ) but I had to double take and it wasn’t. I think my eyes are playing tricks on me sometimes for sure. If anything the top half of my panel might be slightly pink so it exchanged position with bottom half 😂😂🤣
On a serious note. , I’m generally very pleased with the panel I got , I’d rate it as a 7/10. Passable.
It is exhausting, that’s for sure. The problem is you can’t unsee it once you see it. In my case I work with white and lighter screens during the day so it is painfully obvious when there’s a uniformity issue.
That’s really funny, I know what you mean. Depending on the lighting the screen can look very different. That happened with the phone I have to my relative, sometimes it looked great and other times jarringly uneven.
Why do we hate pink tint / shift so much? Others hate blue / green shift but that is actually my preference, if I have to choose between two turds 😂.
Glad you’re satisfied with it. Remember there can always be far worse than what you got. The sweet spot is very narrow on mine, it shifts at the slightest tilt. But it’s uniform so it’s a keeper.
I swapped with my father-in-law, the insta-shift is too much for me 😅. So I'm keeping the G9P one with slight uniformity issue. In daily use I don't notice it, and it only occasionally comes to light when looking at solid white or very light screens. Usually there's content on the screen and not a solid color, so no problem. All done until next year's adventure 😅.
Night shift will usually show up areas that are bias towards pink by making those areas of the panel more darker when night shift is enabled.
As weird at it sounds I still prefer the display technology used on my m1 MacBook Pro. Is it mini led ?
PS. The best mobile device oled panel that I’ve ever owned was and don’t laugh. On a Huawei Mate 20X. That was the oled panel with a 7.3” flat screen. I think it was made by BOE but can’t be sure.
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