How to Determine Screen Brightness in Nits: When you’re reading this on your device, the screen is likely emitting several hundred candles’ worth of light per square meter. Yes, candles are still the base unit of light measurement. If you’re in the market for a new screen, you’ll probably encounter the term “nit”—a unit that tells you how much candlelight your screen emits per square meter. Nits are especially important if you plan to use your device outdoors frequently. However, nits are just one aspect of what makes a high-quality screen. If you’re choosing a device, be sure to consider other factors like color accuracy, contrast ratio, and resolution.
Content
- Candelas, Nits, and Lumens 101
- How Do Nits Compare to Lumens?
- What Are Nits Good For?
- What’s the Ideal Nits Brightness?
- Frequently Asked Questions
Candelas, Nits, and Lumens 101
Imagine you have a candle inside a cube with a total surface area measuring one meter by one meter (about the size of a bath towel or 20 iPads that have somehow been made into a cube). The total amount of light coming out of that candle at its source is about “one candela.”
How to Determine Screen Brightness in Nits: The candle emits light that illuminates the walls of the cube, producing a brightness of “one nit,” technically defined as “one candela per square meter.” Adding each additional candle increases luminosity by one candela and adds another nit. If you managed to fit 400 candles/nits in the cube before it burst into flames, the light per square meter would be 400 nits, which makes for a bright laptop screen.
Because this is a per-square-meter measure, screen size and nits aren’t related. Movie theater screens, designed for dark environments, typically emit around 50 nits, while smartphones, often used outdoors, usually emit at least 300 to 400 nits of brightness.
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A theater projector probably emits more total light (measured in lumens) than any smartphone, but the phone packs more light into a smaller space. That’s why using a phone during a movie is so taboo: with at least ten times the candela per square meter than the screen, it’s basically a magnesium flare in a dark theater.
If you skipped down to the end hoping to find the super-simple summary, here it is:
- Candela = equivalent to the light from 1 candle
- Nit = the light from 1 candle per square meter
- More nits = more candles per square meter = brighter display
How Do Nits Compare to Lumens?
How to Determine Screen Brightness in Nits: You’re probably more used to hearing lumens versus nits, which is probably what you’re asking yourself – “what is a nit” – when you come across the measurement. It’s important to know that nits brightness isn’t an official measurement. It stems from the Latin word “nitere,” meaning to shine. However, nit is often used in place of candela to avoid sounding like you’re measuring brightness based on candles, even though you technically are.
How does a nit differ from a lumen? While nits measure both the intensity of light and the amount of light per square meter, lumens are more general. For instance, you’ll see flashlights and light bulbs measured in lumens.
Lumens measure the overall intensity of a light source. For example, the total illumination caused by your TV screen could be measured in lumens. The total brightness on the screen itself would be measured in nits. It’s a little confusing, but think of nits as the surface area measurement, while lumens account for the total illumination.
What Are Nits Good For?
How to Determine Screen Brightness in Nits: If you’ve ever tried using a dim device on a sunny day, you’ll understand why nits matter. Your display needs to be brighter than the light sources around it to be clearly readable. On the other hand, if your device never leaves the basement, you probably aren’t turning up the brightness all the way anyway, so having more nits wouldn’t help much.
Unless that device happens to be an HDR (High Dynamic Range) TV. The whole thing that makes these TVs better is their ability to show brighter brights and true blacks. A Sony HDR TV was able to hit 10,000 nits, though most HDRs max out around 2,000.
What’s the Ideal Nits Brightness?
We don’t use candles anymore, and stuffing them into sensitive electronics is a terrible idea, so it’s sort of hard to tell how many of them you want in your screen without looking at a few numbers. As a general rule, more nits are always better, so if everything else is equal, you can’t go wrong with higher numbers. As long as you don’t max out your brightness when you don’t need to, it won’t have any negative effect on your battery.
Here’s a breakdown of the max nit capabilities you should look for.
Smartphones/tablets: 200 to 1000+ nits
Since they’re commonly used outdoors, smartphones are definitely in the “more nits are better” category. Technically, a device starts counting as “sunlight-readable” when it hits at least 1,000 nits, but very few mobile displays go that high. As a general rule, anything above 400 to 500 nits will do pretty well on a sunny day, but at 200 nits, you may have to find some shade to answer texts.
Laptops/monitors: 200 to 600+ nits
Laptops and PCs are mostly used indoors, so they don’t need to be as bright. 200 is on the low end but still usable, while above 400 is above average. Not many computer displays go above 500 or 600 nits, and you probably won’t need to use the full brightness on one of those very often. Again, though, you can’t go wrong getting more nits if you have the option to.
If you’re considering saving money by buying a used laptop, older laptops typically fall in the lower nits range.
TVs: 100 to 2000+ nits
Older TVs probably fall in the ~100-nit range, but most modern non-HDR displays fall in the 200 to 500 range. HDR TV works best with high nit counts and generally requires a minimum of 500, with a lot of models aiming for at least 700. Higher-end HDRs can be 2000 nits or more.
With 4K and 8K TVs, you’re looking at anywhere from 4,000 to 10,000 nits. Though, you’re still limited based on the content you’re viewing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it worth paying more for more nits?
Usually, no. A brighter screen matters, but maximum brightness is only needed in bright sun or under strong lights. Choosing a lower nit to save money is fine.
Why does some content seem faded or too bright on my screen?
If you watch high-nit content, like 4K on a non-HDR screen, it may not display as intended. Brightness peaks can look washed out, and while some screens adjust, not all do.
It’s similar to trying to view old content on newer screens and having to deal with pixel scaling.
Will more nits help me see my screen better?
Yes and no. More nits give you the option of seeing your screen better in brighter environments. But, when your screen is too bright overall, it’s difficult to see in normal and dim lights. Having more nits is nice, but remember to adjust your screen’s brightness so that it’s comfortable for your eyes. Overall resolution, font size, and display settings (contrast, hue, saturation) also affect screen visibility.