Is your Mac screen too dim? Here's how to increase brightness, including solutions for reaching beyond the maximum slider on MacBook Pro.
Press the brightness up key (F2 or ☀️ icon) on your Mac keyboard. On MacBook Pro, these are the function keys or Touch Bar controls.
Click the Control Center icon in your menu bar and drag the Display brightness slider to maximum.
Go to System Settings → Displays and turn off "Automatically adjust brightness." This prevents your Mac from dimming the screen based on ambient light.
In System Settings → Displays, disable True Tone. While True Tone adjusts color temperature for comfort, it can make the screen appear dimmer.
Low Power Mode limits display brightness. Go to System Settings → Battery and turn off Low Power Mode if enabled.
If your brightness slider is already at maximum but your screen still feels dim, there's good news: MacBook Pro models with XDR displays can actually go much brighter than the slider allows.
The standard brightness slider caps at around 500 nits for SDR (Standard Dynamic Range) content. But MacBook Pro's XDR panel can reach up to 1600 nits - more than three times brighter. This extra brightness is normally reserved for HDR video and photos.
Vivid unlocks the full 1600-nit XDR brightness for everyday use on your MacBook Pro. Your existing brightness keys work the same way - they just go twice as bright as before.
MacBook Air, Studio Display (non-XDR), and Intel MacBooks are not supported. These models don't have XDR displays and cannot exceed their standard maximum brightness. The solutions above (disabling auto-brightness, turning off True Tone) are your best options.
If you're on a MacBook Pro with an XDR display, the 100% slider position is actually limiting your screen to SDR brightness (~500 nits). The display can go much brighter (up to 1600 nits), but macOS reserves this for HDR content by default.
Yes. Apple states that MacBook Pro XDR displays can sustain 1000 nits indefinitely. Vivid doesn't hack or override safety limits - it simply enables the brightness range your display was designed for.
Higher brightness does use more power, just like turning up the standard brightness slider does. However, many users find the improved visibility worth the trade-off, especially when working outdoors or near windows.