iPhone 14 Pro Max display measurements
While we measured 1033 nits of brightness on the 14 Pro Max, that is in the typical everyday scenario where Apple advertises a 1000 nit threshold in the display specs. This goes up to 1600 peak nits when displaying HDR content, and can allegedly go up to 2000 nits when in automatic brightness mode outdoors under direct sunlight.
The peak brightness number is the absolute maximum that the panel is physically able to achieve when just a tiny fraction of it (about a percentage point) has its light-emitting diodes powered to the maximum while showing all white, and that is exactly the 2000 number that Apple advertises.
Bear in mind that this is the “brightness for a screen that has only a tiny 1% Average Picture Level in high ambient light,” or the maximum a small section of the screen’s diodes can reach when fully powered and displaying white under what the two ambient light sensor of the 14 Pro Max perceive as direct sunlight falling on the screen like when you try to read on the beach.
This is the worst scenario in terms of power draw and battery capacity consumption by that small portion of the panel. Those can go sky high while the phone hits its advertised record brightness in test setups, but it is a fairly useful metric for comparing outdoor visibility, coupled with the screen reflectance and contrast numbers.
