iPhone 16 Pro will have a 20% brighter screen, rumor says

According to a new rumor from China, posted on Weibo by user Instant Digital, the iPhone 16 Pro coming later this year will have a display that will be 20% brighter than its predecessor's.

But we're not talking peak HDR brightness - instead, this is the typical brightness this rumor is referring to. The iPhone 15 Pro tops out at 1,000 nits typical brightness, and the iPhone 16 Pro is said to go up to 1,200 nits.

The peak High Brightness Mode will apparently remain the same, although there might be some confusion regarding the numbers - manufacturers usually quote the number they like most, but there are now multiple modes to consider. There's manual brightness, typical brightness, High Brightness Mode brightness (which comes on when Auto Brightness is set to on and, for example, you're outside on a bright sunny day), and there's HDR peak brightness which can go much higher than any of the others on very specific (and usually tiny) areas of the screen.

The source of this rumor claims the iPhone 16 Pro will have the same High Brightness Mode peak of 1,600 nits as its predecessor, but its predecessor can actually go up to 2,000 nits, so clearly some confusion is afoot here.

Do note that this source does have a rather mixed track record on Apple-related rumors, although the account in question did predict multiple Apple launches accurately, so there's that.

Anyway, it wouldn't be surprising at all for Apple to make the iPhone 16 Pro's screen brighter, after all increased brightness has been a trend recently in the Android world too. The 1,000-nit typical brightness has been the same since the introduction of the iPhone 13 Pro in 2021, so it's probably about time for an increase.

Via