Vivid and Solis both drive your MacBook Pro's real XDR backlight past macOS's 500-nit everyday cap, with true color. The difference is everything that happens after you turn it on — Solis eases the boost by battery, heat and the light in your room, and handles warmth and dimming too. Vivid gives you the brightness; Solis gives you the brightness, managed.
| Solis | Vivid | |
|---|---|---|
| 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) mode | ✓ | ✕ |
| Night dim to total darkness | ✓ | ✕ |
| Night tools on non-XDR Macs | ✓ | ✕ |
| Price | $9.99 one-time | ~€15 one-time |
You want a simple, well-known brightness toggle and nothing else, or you specifically want it on the Mac App Store. Vivid is a polished, established app that does one thing.
You want the brightness to look after itself — full on AC, easing on battery and heat, adapting to your room and learning the level you like — and you want warmth, deep-red astronomy mode, and dimming below the macOS minimum in the same app. It also reaches the panel's full 1600-nit peak, and works as a Night-tools app even on Macs without an XDR display.
We keep this comparison honest — if anything here is out of date, email hello@heysolis.com and we'll fix it. The free trial checks your Mac for you before you pay a cent.
See also: Solis vs Lunar · BrightIntosh alternative