Use Vivid to Unlock More Brightness for Your MacBook Pro and Pro Display XDR

October 20, 2022

Normally, anyone with a 14-inch or 16-inch MacBook Pro M1 Pro/Max or a Pro Display XDR display can use the screen at up to 500 nits of brightness. But those displays can go much brighter when showcasing HDR content.

Step Into the Brightness

The great Mac app Vivid will help brings your display into the light and unlock 1,000 nits of brightness at all times. That’s especially helpful when working outside in bright light or a coffee shop.

With the app installed, there’s nothing to do. It will automatically change your display to the maximum brightness level.

Obviously, the big downside of using the app is that it will effect battery life. But you can toggle the app on and off from the Menu Bar.

And the app has just been updated to version 2.0 with a number of new features.

The update offers better performance and compatibility and cuts CPU use for Vivid by 99 percent.

There is also a new Eclipse Mode that does the opposite for your display. Instead of brighter, the mode makes your display darker than the normal minimum. That makes it useful, for example, when you work late at night in a dark room.

You can download the app now on the Mac App Store for free. You can try the app out in a split-screen mode for free. One side will show Vivid in use and the other will show your screen without it. To unlock the full app, it’s a $22.99 purchase.

There is also a new way from iPhone to step into the light. While it’s not possible to make the entire phone display brighter across all apps, you can go brighter with the new Vivid Browser app.

As you might have guessed, the app is a simple browser that allows users to browse the web at the maximum possible brightness of the iPhone.