App lets you crank the new MacBook Pro’s brightness to over 1,000 nits

Developers Jordi Bruin and Ben Harraway have released an application called Vivid that allows Apple’s new MacBook Pro models and Pro Display XDR to achieve double the brightness systemwide—something that previously wasn’t possible.

For background: Apple says the new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro’s MiniLED display can reach 1,600 nits of peak brightness on highlights, or 1,000 nits of full-screen brightness. That’s nearly unrivaled in consumer laptop or desktop displays—it’s more in the realm of what you’d expect from a high-end television.

But while certain HDR video content will take advantage of that on highlights, the normal desktop computing experience isn’t much brighter than what you get on another monitor. macOS keeps things around 500 nits tops unless the content you’re specifically watching calls for more—and most content doesn’t.