Tom's Guide measured nearly 2,000 nits on Apple's new 16-inch MacBook Pro, a lab record among 80 laptops tested this year, with HDR video the big winner.
Apple's new 16-inch MacBook Pro has the brightest screen Tom's Guide has measured on a laptop. Its lab tested 80 laptops this year, and the new model with Apple's PROLED XDR display came out on top. It hit 1,949 nits on a small bright patch and 1,965 nits on a larger one. A nit is a unit of screen brightness. More nits means a brighter picture.
The lab measures brightness with HDR test patterns. HDR is a video format that allows brighter highlights and deeper blacks. The patterns light up 10% or 40% of the screen on a black background. The MacBook Pro beat all 79 other laptops in both of those tests, including Mini LED and OLED models.
The MacBook Pro is nearly twice as bright as the LG Gram 16. It also beats Apple's own earlier model, the 16-inch MacBook Pro M5 Pro with a Mini LED screen, which reached 1,427 and 1,444 nits.
The gap between the two results is only 16 nits. That suggests the display holds its brightness even when a much larger part of the picture is bright, not just in small highlights. The tester says that should mean a better HDR picture overall.
The tester also checked the laptop against OLED TVs. This is not a like-for-like test. TVs were measured in Filmmaker Mode, a color-accurate setting that can limit brightness, while laptops are tested for maximum output. The LG G6 reached 2,932 nits and the Samsung S95H reached 2,721. A budget Samsung S90H reached 1,496. The brightest TV the lab has tested is the Hisense UR9, a Mini LED set, at 4,370 nits.
Flagship OLED TVs cost nearly as much as a fully specced MacBook Pro, according to the review. Getting close to 2,000 nits in a portable screen is, in the tester's words, nearly TV-level quality.
Apple claims a 10,000,000:1 contrast ratio, which describes the gap between the darkest and brightest parts of the picture. In a side-by-side test with a Mini LED MacBook Pro M3 Max and a Lenovo Yoga OLED laptop, the new screen showed finer feather detail and more vivid greens in a 4K nature video. The lab also measured 99.9% of the sRGB color range, and the tester found skin tones natural in a movie trailer.
The material does not give a price or a release date for this MacBook Pro. Results also depend on each outlet's equipment and methods, so other reviewers may measure different numbers. For anyone who watches video or edits photos on a laptop, screen quality may matter more than speed.
If you watch video or edit photos on a laptop, check screen brightness and contrast, and wait for price details before judging this MacBook Pro.
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