I like my smartphones shiny

Display brightness is not usually trumpeted from the hills when Apple, Google, Samsung, or one other firm places out a brand new telephone. However after all, it is a kind of particulars that is extraordinarily necessary in observe — a telephone with weak brightness might be arduous to make use of indoors typically, by no means thoughts stepping out into the cruel noon glare. Once I was dwelling in Austin, a dim telephone was a reliable annoyance on lengthy roadtrips, since there was no approach it may compete with cloudless Texas skies.

How shiny does a telephone have to be, although? Is maintaining your telephone at most brightness actually an issue? And what is the distinction between LCD and OLED? There are a variety of brightness-related particulars it is best to know earlier than shopping for a telephone, all of which I am going that will help you kind out in a rush.

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How brightness is measured, and the way a lot is sufficient

Telephone brightness 101

Whilst you may, in principle, charge telephone shows when it comes to lumens, you may virtually all the time see them gauged in nits. A single nit is equal to 1 candela (candlepower) per sq. meter. For a relative measure, take into account that the solar at midday is normally claimed to supply 1.6 billion nits.

Your telephone would not have to be wherever close to that shiny to be readable, after all. Indoors, lower than 1,000 nits is okay, and even 500 nits tends to look fairly good. Peak brightness will briefly surge, although, every time a telephone is outside or displaying HDR (excessive dynamic vary) content material. For example, the Pixel 9 Pro can hit 2,000 nits when displaying HDR video, and three,000 nits at its absolute brightest.

That ought to offer you a way of how a lot energy a contemporary telephone display screen wants. Most gadget makers are aiming for someplace between 1,000 and a couple of,000 nits for HDR capabilities, and a couple of,000 nits or larger outside. My iPhone 16 Professional peaks at 2,000 outdoors, and it is fairly readable even when the solar is thrashing down overhead.

Brighter is all the time higher, specs-wise, however something over 3,000 tends to be overkill, delivering diminishing returns. Not that that is stopped telephone makers — some Chinese language fashions are able to 4,000 nits or extra. In March 2025, Samsung demonstrated an OLED panel able to 5,000 nits.

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LCD vs OLED vs different requirements

For as soon as, older tech wins

Most telephones now use some type of OLED show, an acronym standing for natural light-emitting diode. As a rule, it is the superior expertise, since particular person pixels might be turned on and off at will. The result’s a tremendous distinction, with pure blacks, and highlights that do not bleed into surrounding objects. The format additionally tends to be extra energy environment friendly in the event you select darker icons, wallpapers, and app settings.

LCDs (liquid crystal shows) typically have the higher hand, nonetheless. That is as a result of all LCDs rely on a number of backlights, which have a tendency to supply an total brighter picture, albeit on the expense of distinction. It is truly inconceivable to realize true blacks with an LCD until it makes use of a number of backlights, and a picture space coated by a backlight occurs to be utterly devoid of element. That is why mini- and micro-LED have been invented — however you will not discover these applied sciences on any delivery smartphone, not less than not but.

The distinction hole does permit OLEDs to punch above their weight in uncooked nits. It is a query of perceived brightness — since each highlights and shadows are starker, OLED enables you to select extra element. A 300-nit OLED panel can really feel roughly equal to a 500-nit LCD, although your mileage will range.

A couple of telephones get rid of brightness from the specs debate solely through the use of e-ink. The pixels they use are fabricated from actual matter, so their visibility relies on exterior gentle sources, a lot in the identical approach that you would be able to’t learn a paper e-book in a pitch-black room. The built-in lamps you discover on e-ink gadgets are literally frontlights, not backlights.

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What it’s good to find out about brightness settings

No must go full throttle

Apple / Pocket-lint

More often than not, it is best to keep away from ramping your telephone as much as full brightness, irrespective of how spectacular it seems. There are just a few causes for this — above all, your imaginative and prescient. Because the American Academy of Opthamology notes, full brightness can doubtlessly create pressure in some eventualities, leading to points like tearing (as in crying), blurring, dry eyes, and complications.

I do know from private expertise that at night time, shiny shows can disrupt sleep. They usually make it tougher to get to sleep within the first place, and within the center hours, lights can shine straight by your eyelids and wake you up. I do watch YouTube on a Nest Hub at bedtime — however its brightness is cranked as little as it’ll go until I am not nervous about my alarm. My iPhone, in the meantime, is all the time put in StandBy mode, which in a single day each dims the show and tints it crimson.

When pressure and sleep patterns aren’t points, there’s nonetheless the matter of battery life. A telephone’s show is certainly one of its most power-hungry parts, rivaled solely by its processor and wi-fi radios. The upper a display screen’s brightness is, the extra energy it consumes, draining your battery. Certainly, that is one of many most important changes a telephone’s battery-saving/low-power mode makes.

Sometimes, the perfect compromise is to set your telephone’s brightness as little as it’ll go whereas nonetheless being nice to take a look at. My iPhone 16 Professional is normally set at round 50%, however it’s possible you’ll must go larger or decrease than that relying in your gadget and preferences. Even dropping to 80% ought to make a significant distinction.

Does full brightness ever make sense? Personally, I have a tendency to order that for the sunniest of outside excursions, like a visit to Disney World, or a yard Texas cookout with my in-laws. However even then, my iPhone normally compensates sufficient routinely, making the concept moot.

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