BrightIntosh is a nice free way to flip your MacBook Pro's XDR brightness past the everyday cap. If you want a paid app that also thinks — eases the boost on battery and heat, adapts to your room and learns your taste, reaches the full 1600-nit peak, and folds in warmth, night dim and a deep-red astronomy mode — that's Solis, $9.99 one-time.
| Solis | BrightIntosh | |
|---|---|---|
| Max brightness (nits) | 1600 | 1000 |
| True-color boost | ✓ | ✓ |
| Battery-aware auto | ✓ | ✕ |
| Thermal-aware auto | ✓ | ✕ |
| Adapts to light & learns your taste | ✓ | ✕ |
| Warmth / blue-light & astronomy red | ✓ | ✕ |
| Night dim to total darkness | ✓ | ✕ |
| Sleep / wake / Spaces solid | ✓ | ~ |
| Price | $9.99 one-time | Free / donation |
You just want a free, no-frills toggle to push the brightness up and back down yourself, and you're happy to manage battery and heat on your own. It's open source and does the core trick well.
You'd rather not think about it. Solis eases the boost on battery and heat automatically, adapts to your room and learns the brightness you like, holds rock-solid through sleep/wake/Spaces, reaches the full 1600-nit peak, and gives you warmth, night dim to true black, and astronomy red — one app, managed for you.
We think BrightIntosh is a genuinely good free app — Solis is for people who want the automatic, all-in-one version and don't mind paying once for it. Try Solis free for 3 days and see which you prefer. Something out of date? hello@heysolis.com.
See also: Solis vs Vivid · Solis vs Lunar