Retina Display MBPs have 20% lower brightness than non-retinas?

Well for me, compared to my 2008 MBP, side by side at home, just unpacked, I noticed the difference in brightness straight away. The retina is '2 clicks' dimmer than my 2008 MBP, but more than that,the old 2008 MBP screen seems sharp and more contrasty and the whites are a 'blue' white compared to the retina mellow screen balance and 'pink' white. The retina screen is quite similar to my old 2005 MBP screen colours and brightness.

I have to say, I wish I had the option to go 2 clicks brighter on the retina, but if there is a way to calibrate it so its more contrasty, that will do. I dont use it for photos, I use it for Logic Pro, so I want to see sharp waveforms and clear small numbers.

Does anyone know how to fiddle with the display screen exposure, contrast, highlights, saturation etc?

Yes. Since I thought the brightness seemed considerably lower in store, I actually fiddled with the contrast to see if it would help. It did.

To do this, you would open System Preferences --> Displays --> Color --> Calibrate, then go nuts.

I'm using my new MBP (I chose the original over the Retina for my own reasons), and I never have the brightness that high. Even when charging, it's MAYBE at about 50%. A reduced brightness on the MBP-R shouldn't be an issue, in my opinion.

It doesn't matter what are you saying guys! I will not buy the Retina unless it comes anti glare.It's a big difference for me.

It seems the Mountain Lion 10.8.2 solve this problem. I think brightening of screen is higher after updating.

The other thing that can be at work here is that the retina MacBook Pros are manufactured with both Samsung and LG displays. The Samsung display are reported to be brighter then the LG displays.

You can check which display you have by entering the following line in the terminal app:

ioreg -lw0 | grep \"EDID\" | sed "/[^<]*</s///" | xxd -p -r | strings -6

If the result is prefixed with an "LP" then it is an LG display.

Edit: I had one with an LG display which I returned for the image retention issue. When watching a movie I kept inadvertently trying to increase the brightness because it just seemed like the display was too dark even though it was at full brightness.

I had to replace my frist Rmbp on last week, because of the earlier had yellow and grey tints mainly center of display. It was produced by Samsung. The newest one is LG without iR. The display is wonderful, absolutely homogeneous. To be honest the LG has lower brightening than Samsung, but LG is much better in sunshine for example!!!

It is my third Macbook Pro since my switch. I had two LG-s and one Samsung displays (it was 2011 early). In my opinion the LG displays have nicer view than Samsung despite of relative much negative judgments.

Sorry for bringing this back from being somewhat dead. But I feel my post may help someone reading this thread down the road.

The ONLY way someone could "need" a display that is brighter than the rMBP is if they are constantly working in direct sunlight. And even then, I would think the end user would need something Anti-Glare over a "brighter" screen.

I will do my own readings, but for ease of use I will use the numbers off of Anandtech's review http://www.anandtech.com/show/6023/the-nextgen-macbook-pro-with-retina-display-r eview/5

According to Anandtech the "White Level"(which is what Apple calls brightness, in the Display Calibration World brightness is actually black level), is 339 cd/m2. There is an error though, Anandtech states on their White level reading that "higher is better". That is absolutely incorrect. Light output is subjective (which is what they are reading). On the flip side, black level is not. You always want that as low as possible without crushing blacks.

Here are some comparisons. When TV's are calibrated, they are generally done between 30-60 ftL (appx. 100-200 cd/m2). Depending on tech (Plasma's generally lower than LCD/LED) and lighting conditions. I have never calibrated a display higher than 60 ftL. And when I did it was freaking bright.

I am going to take a **** in the dark (more like a educated guess). But the ones "complaining" about the light output, probably have all their other displays maxed out (even in a dim room), and have their TV's set to a "Dynamic/Vivid/or other similar ugly picture setting.

Again this isn't meant to bash anyone.

I agree the brightness seems low to me even when maxed out. The screen looks gorgeous and I may use this current maxed setting even if it could go brighter. But this sure does not look like max brightness to me.

It's possible that the screen just looks so sharp that it seems like it should be able to go even brighter. But now that I'm comparing it with my desktop monitors I use for my PC it is WAYYYY brighter than both of them. Way sharper too and they are both pretty nice 1920x1080's one 23" one 20".

So I guess for me the max brightness seems like it could be higher but apparently I use a much darker screens on my desktop. I really think it's just the screen is so good you can use more brightness without it looking weird.

This is based on looking at Late 2013 15" MBP.

Hey guys, I also noticed that the screen is about 20% dimmer than my MBA 2011 model. This was a huge disappointment for me because I have always used max brighten on my display even for my MBA. I was messing around with the advanced display settings and I found a quick fix to make the screen 1 or 2 clicks brighter on the rMBP.

Go to: System Preferences> Display> Color> Click Calibrate> Check Expert Mode

Once you check 'Expert Mode' and begin to calibrate the display you will be presented with a lot more options than if you just chose to calibrate with the standard calibration settings.

You have the option to adjust 5 gamma color settings. I would suggest keeping the 5 gamma colors set to Apple's default. The next setting is contrast, this is the setting that will make your whole screen appear brighter. Just adjust contrast to what you feel works best for you. Than make sure you name the custom display. You can than click between the default display and the custom display to see the difference in brightness. Its not a perfect fix but it defiantly made me a lot happier with the display. I just hope when Apple releases the next-gen rMBP that they take into account that 50% of people want a brighter screen!

Hope this helps!

-Seth

Go to System preferences > Displays > Color > Click Calibrate > Uncheck the "Use native white point" and select the white point setting as D70 as shown below. Hope this solves the problem.

That only makes the screen blue-er. You just shift the white point to a colder temperature, it doesn't play at all with brightness. If this works for you, great, but that's not brightness