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iKnowMyDisplay

Use your MacBook Pro's HDR brightness for everything

Updated

Short answer

macOS keeps the brightest part of a Liquid Retina XDR display for HDR content. On the 14″ and 16″ MacBook Pro with M1 Pro to M3 Max, everyday content tops out at 500 nits, while HDR can reach 1,000 nits across the full screen and 1,600 nits peak (Apple's figures). iKnowMyDisplay's Peak brightness switch lets everything on screen use that headroom.

Why it only happens with HDR video

When you play HDR video, macOS opens up extra brightness (it calls it extended dynamic range, or EDR headroom) so highlights can go past white. Everything else stays at the everyday maximum. The extra brightness is there all the time; macOS just doesn't let ordinary windows use it.

Turn on Peak brightness

  1. Set your screen to full brightness with the brightness keys, or turn off Automatically adjust brightness in System Settings → Displays if it keeps lowering it.
  2. Click the iKnowMyDisplay icon in the menu bar, open the built-in display's controls and click Peak. Or press ⌥⌘B, or choose Displays → Peak Brightness.
  3. Use the level slider that appears under brightness to pick how much of the extra brightness you want. Switching on always starts at full level.
  4. In the app's Brightness screen, the built-in display's card shows the same switch, the level, and the peak macOS reports for your screen.
  5. Optional: in the Peak brightness settings, turn on Brightness keys go past the maximum. At full brightness, brightness up keeps going into peak brightness and brightness down comes back out. This needs Accessibility permission.

Battery and heat

A brighter backlight uses more power and makes more heat. The app looks after both, and each rule can be changed in the Peak brightness settings:

  • It turns off below 20% battery (on by default).
  • It pauses when your Mac is hot (on by default).
  • It can run only when your Mac is plugged in (off by default).

When a rule pauses it, it comes back by itself once you plug in or the Mac cools down.

Good to know

  • macOS still holds large bright areas lower to protect the panel, so a full white page won't reach the 1,600-nit peak.
  • Screenshots and screen recordings don't include the extra brightness.
  • It comes back when the app opens (you can turn that off). ⌃⌥⌘R turns it off from anywhere.
  • It works on displays that macOS gives HDR headroom: the built-in Liquid Retina XDR, and external HDR displays with HDR on. Displays without it don't show the switch.