Compatibility
Which Macs can unlock XDR brightness?
Every MacBook Pro with a Liquid Retina XDR display — the 14-inch and 16-inch models from 2021 onwards — plus the Apple Pro Display XDR. That is 25 models. But "supported" and "we have measured it" are different claims, and four of those models are currently broken by macOS itself, so this page keeps the three apart.
We have had this machine on a bench, applied the boost and seen the panel change. Anything we publish as a measurement was taken here.
Same panel family, same mechanism, no reason to expect a difference — but nobody in this project has held one. The app says so in its menu, and offers you a visual check.
A documented macOS defect makes the brightness path silently ineffective. The app refuses to run rather than pretend.
The full list
MacBook Pro 2021 — M1 Pro / M1 Max
500 nits SDR
| Model | Identifier | Status |
|---|---|---|
| MacBook Pro 14", M1 Pro | MacBookPro18,3 | Supported, not measured |
| MacBook Pro 14", M1 Max | MacBookPro18,4 | Supported, not measured |
| MacBook Pro 16", M1 Pro | MacBookPro18,1 | Supported, not measured |
| MacBook Pro 16", M1 Max | MacBookPro18,2 | Measured |
MacBook Pro 2023 (January) — M2 Pro / M2 Max
500 nits SDR
| Model | Identifier | Status |
|---|---|---|
| MacBook Pro 14", M2 Pro | Mac14,9 | Supported, not measured |
| MacBook Pro 14", M2 Max | Mac14,5 | Supported, not measured |
| MacBook Pro 16", M2 Pro | Mac14,10 | Supported, not measured |
| MacBook Pro 16", M2 Max | Mac14,6 | Supported, not measured |
MacBook Pro 2023 (November) — M3 / M3 Pro / M3 Max
600 nits SDR
| Model | Identifier | Status |
|---|---|---|
| MacBook Pro 14", M3 | Mac15,3 | Supported, not measured |
| MacBook Pro 14", M3 Pro | Mac15,6 | Supported, not measured |
| MacBook Pro 14", M3 Max | Mac15,8 | Supported, not measured |
| MacBook Pro 14", M3 Max (higher configuration) | Mac15,10 | Supported, not measured |
| MacBook Pro 16", M3 Pro | Mac15,7 | Supported, not measured |
| MacBook Pro 16", M3 Max | Mac15,9 | Supported, not measured |
| MacBook Pro 16", M3 Max (higher configuration) | Mac15,11 | Supported, not measured |
MacBook Pro 2024 — M4 / M4 Pro / M4 Max
1000 nits outdoors only
| Model | Identifier | Status |
|---|---|---|
| MacBook Pro 14", M4 | Mac16,1 | Supported, not measured |
| MacBook Pro 14", M4 Pro | Mac16,6 | Supported, not measured |
| MacBook Pro 14", M4 Max | Mac16,8 | Supported, not measured |
| MacBook Pro 16", M4 Pro | Mac16,5 | Supported, not measured |
| MacBook Pro 16", M4 Max | Mac16,7 | Supported, not measured |
MacBook Pro 2025 / 2026 — M5 / M5 Pro / M5 Max
1000 nits outdoors only
| Model | Identifier | Status |
|---|---|---|
| MacBook Pro 14", M5 | Mac17,2 | Supported, not measured |
| MacBook Pro 14", M5 Pro | Mac17,7 | Blocked — macOS defect |
| MacBook Pro 14", M5 Max | Mac17,9 | Blocked — macOS defect |
| MacBook Pro 16", M5 Pro | Mac17,6 | Blocked — macOS defect |
| MacBook Pro 16", M5 Max | Mac17,8 | Blocked — macOS defect |
External displays
| Display | Status | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Apple Pro Display XDR | Supported, not measured | Recognised as an XDR target. Not measured by us. |
| Studio Display XDR | Supported, not measured | Recognised, but the boost is not confirmed on this panel. |
Ordinary external monitors have no extended range to unlock, so there is nothing for the app to do on them. It leaves them alone.
Why the M5 Pro and M5 Max are blocked
Because since macOS 26.3, gamma tables on those chips are stored correctly and never reach the display. The write succeeds. Reading the table back returns exactly what was written. The screen does not change.
Apple's Developer Technical Support has reproduced it on an M5 Max running macOS 26.3.1 and described the tables as stored correctly at the Core Graphics level, but not being applied to the display pipeline. It is discussed in Apple Developer Forums thread 819331 and filed as FB22273730, FB22273782 and FB23444164. Affected macOS versions reported in that thread: 26.3, 26.3.1, 26.4 RC, 26.4 and 26.5.1. There was no fix and no estimate at the last post in August 2026.
It is not specific to this app or this category — f.lux, MonitorControl and DisplayCAL are hit by the same defect. The plain M5 without Pro or Max is not affected, and neither is the M3 Max.
We cannot detect it at runtime, because our health check reads the gamma table and the gamma table is precisely the thing that lies. So we block by model. If Apple fixes it, we will unblock and say so.
Why the app checks the model and not just the display
Because asking the display is not enough, and we have the measurement to prove it. A MacBook Air M5 reports an extended-range headroom of 1.2 — comfortably above any threshold you would pick — and the value never moves when an HDR window opens, and the boost produces no visible change at all. A pure headroom test would have switched the app on there and delivered nothing.
So the model answers "does this machine have an XDR panel", and the headroom reading answers "is HDR mode running right now". Two different questions, and only the second one can be read from a display.
Found your Mac in the first two columns?
Then find out on your own screen: 3 days free at full strength, the whole app, no account and no card — then 9,99 € a year or 49 € once, whichever suits you. macOS 14 or later. BrighterMac will tell you in its own menu which of the three columns it thinks your machine is in.