Will the new MacBook Pro's 1000 nits be usable?

[tastylemon]

I ordered the 16" in the hopes that I could use it outdoors, but I'm reading it won't be possible?

I can't be the only one maxxing out the display brightness (even indoors).

The iPad Pro limits HDR to to certain kinds of content. I'm not sure if anyone has experimented with Apple's XDR displays.

I mostly look at text so I don't care if the screen is not accurate at all times. Sometimes I've seen my MacBook pro raise the black point when it's super reflective / bright outside and it has helped me see content when I'm outdoors.

Maybe there will be a way to adjust this setting globally? I'm guessing there might be a way to do this in Display Settings, messing with the color profiles, or maybe a 3rd party app?

 

[tastylemon]

Promising news!

I did some more research and it looks like the stand-alone XDR display can be set to use the full brightness according to this page, which is a really promising sign for the new MacBook Pro since the displays seem to be essentially the same:
* 1600 nits peak
* 1000 nits sustained
* mini LED
* P3 color

This blog post also talks about how this whole thing of HDR vs SDR content work in the context of screen brightness. It seems the XDR display doesn't limit SDR content to 500 nits. Instead, it brightens everything to the brightness level you've set for your display.

Low display brightness = HDR video's whites stand out

Full display brightness = HDR video's whites and UI white's would be the same if it wasn't for that 1600 nit peak

Peak brightness is special because the display won't drive all the pixels to be this bright, so it's limited to a portion of the screen. I don't know if it's a power limitation or what, but the limit is there.

 

[tastylemon]

What's also kinda cool is that it could be possible for dark mode apps and websites to display all light parts of the image at the full peak brightness. This could be useful if you use an app in dark mode in a bright environment. It seem this would require a change in the CSS spec.

I like to code in bright environments, but often dark editor themes make it harder to see text on the screen. Light mode is better for this, but then colors in syntax-highlighted code don't stand out as much.

I'd be curious to see how well dark mode with text rendered at peak brightness might work outdoors. Will the brightness be enough to offset annoying reflections? Or maybe there would be too much blooming.

 

[white7561]

I heard it's only gonna be for HDR. which is kinda a bummer tbh. Since it's prob nice to have those higher nits options . Even if it's for the auto brightness you know... And yeah I'm excited to see how my IDE looks in dark mode especially with mini LED display ?


For your question about the black point. You could prob edit the gamma. Which is possible to do if you add a new profile for your display in System Preferences. I think set everything at default and just change the gamma I think. And save it . So when you need it. You could just switch to it

 

[ljubo_opaki]

Has anyone managed to get the 1000 nits for regular SDR content, i.e. for regular text?

I too was hoping the mini LED screen would allow "squintless" coding outside in the sun while using a dark editor theme.

Please let me know if anyone has found a way. (And if you have a video of that with a dark-themed editor outside in the sun, that would be amazing)

Also, thanks for the great info @tastylemon !

 

[tastylemon]

The mini-LED backlight zones are basically at a 100x100 resolution, which is not very good. This means you're not going to get the 1,000,000:1 contrast between text and the background even if all 1000 nits could be unlocked.

For outdoor viewing, one of the big problems is reflections. If you code in dark mode, you'll see more light bouncing off the display. If the text could get bright enough, this could in theory make the reflections less intrusive. However, with mini-LED you might see a lot of blooming because the zones are much bigger than the text.

A light theme works better at washing out reflections. I know that takes some getting used to since I've been dark mode for a long time and now switch back and forth.

 

[metapunk2077fail]

Has anyone managed to get the 1000 nits for regular SDR content, i.e. for regular text?

I too was hoping the mini LED screen would allow "squintless" coding outside in the sun while using a dark editor theme.

Please let me know if anyone has found a way. (And if you have a video of that with a dark-themed editor outside in the sun, that would be amazing)

Also, thanks for the great info @tastylemon !

HDR specs have nothing to do with regular content like reading text or displaying websites and images. Sounds funky and cool in your head to imagine reading websites and books ay 1000 nits but that's not how reality works. Your eyes would burn out with fatigue.

There's a good reason many colourists and editors use 120-200 nits displays for work. Then they preview their work on a target device such as a reference monitor or television. If the 'look' isn't right on the target device they make an adjustment, etc

The XDR display does this wonderful trick of having the viewport window showing HDR while the rest of the interface is SDR.

 

[tastylemon]

HDR specs have nothing to do with regular content like reading text or displaying websites and images. Sounds funky and cool in your head to imagine reading websites and books ay 1000 nits but that's not how reality works. Your eyes would burn out with fatigue.

There's a good reason many colourists and editors use 120-200 nits displays for work. Then they preview their work on a target device such as a reference monitor or television. If the 'look' isn't right on the target device they make an adjustment, etc

The XDR display does this wonderful trick of having the viewport window showing HDR while the rest of the interface is SDR.

Not really. The display doesn't know if it's displaying video or text.

For you to be right, the best scenario I could imagine is that blooming wouldn't be noticeable on video but would be when viewing text. 1000 nits for a white background is too much in dim environments but outdoors or near windows (where you're likely to use a laptop) you're competing with the sun and it can really help.

 

[metapunk2077fail]

Not really. The display doesn't know if it's displaying video or text.

That's not the way it works. The OS knows what content is being displayed in apps and adjusts the display settings.

 

[g1g1]

Not really. The display doesn't know if it's displaying video or text.

For you to be right, the best scenario I could imagine is that blooming wouldn't be noticeable on video but would be when viewing text. 1000 nits for a white background is too much in dim environments but outdoors or near windows (where you're likely to use a laptop) you're competing with the sun and it can really help.

Good morning everyone, I resume this conversation to ask you about how you are with the product and if it is ultimately a product that satisfies office use, text, email in an outdoor environment with direct sunlight.

 

[Sanpete]

Good morning everyone, I resume this conversation to ask you about how you are with the product and if it is ultimately a product that satisfies office use, text, email in an outdoor environment with direct sunlight.

It's about the same as it has been since 2016 for office work, indoor or outdoor. The extra brightness only shows when you're viewing HDR material. Then it's quite a lot brighter than before.