More than a brightness booster.
A brightness system.
Solis gives your 14- or 16-inch MacBook Pro direct control of its Liquid Retina XDR backlight, from true darkness to the 1600-nit peak. It brings the whole system together: adapting to the room, remembering your preferences, tapering with battery state and easing off when the panel's own thermal signal says it should.
Four jobs, not one
A good Mac brightness app should fit the way you use the screen—not just make a number larger.
Readable outdoors
Use the XDR panel's reserve when glare overwhelms the normal range. Current M4/M5 Macs can reach 1000 nits outdoors automatically; Solis adds direct control up to 1600 nits.
Comfortable indoors
Ambient-light automation avoids leaving the panel brighter than the room needs. Solis learns the corrections you make instead of forcing a fixed curve.
Easy at night
Fine dimming below the normal minimum, scheduled warmth and astronomy red cover the other half of a display's day.
Which kind of app do you need?
| Your priority | Best fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic built-in XDR brightness | Solis | Ambient light, learning, battery and thermal management in one focused app |
| Simple manual boost | Vivid | A focused control when you prefer to manage the boost yourself |
| Low-cost power-aware boost | BrightIntosh | Can disable boost on battery and restore it on AC |
| Many external monitors | Lunar / BetterDisplay | Broader DDC, presets and multi-display tooling |
| No third-party app | Apple auto-brightness | On M4/M5 models, outdoor SDR can automatically reach up to 1000 nits |
Apple's current specifications list 1000-nit outdoor SDR, 1000-nit sustained XDR and 1600-nit peak XDR brightness. Availability varies by model and conditions.
Know before you download
Full XDR boost
14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models from 2021 onward, plus Pro Display XDR on Apple silicon. The free trial checks the display before you pay.
Night tools only
Apple Silicon MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro and non-XDR displays have no hidden brightness reserve. Solis still provides warmth, astronomy red and dimming to true black. Requires Apple Silicon and macOS 13 or later; Intel Macs are not supported.
Will brightness boost work on your Mac?
Check your model’s XDR support and published brightness before downloading. Use the free MacBook compatibility checker →