What is the appropriate brightness for a computer screen?

How to protect your eyes when using a computer for a long time? That is adjusting the screen brightness appropriately, so what is the appropriate computer screen brightness? Let's refer to the following article with TipsMake!

Why should you adjust the brightness of your computer screen?

For office workers or gamers who have to work with computers every day, the brightness of the screen must be adequate to work effectively. In addition, if your computer is not adjusted to the appropriate brightness, it will greatly affect your eyes, causing eye fatigue and reducing your work efficiency. Therefore, you need to adjust the screen to the appropriate brightness according to your needs and conditions of use.

The meaning of computer screen brightness

- Unit of measurement of screen brightness

To understand the meaning of screen brightness, we need to know what the unit of screen brightness is. The unit of screen brightness used is cd/m2 (candela per square meter), which is equivalent to the light of one candle per square meter.

Screen brightness is measured in Nit, which is the ability of the screen to show light to the human eye. One nit is equal to one candela per square meter. More nits equals more candles per square meter. The brighter the screen, the higher the nit count of the computer screen.

- Meaning of laptop screen brightness

If you've ever tried using a device with a dim screen on a bright sunny day, you'll understand how important screen brightness is.

Note: The screen needs to be brighter than the surrounding light sources so you can clearly read the information on it.

Normally, the image quality will not be affected too much by the nit brightness of the screen. When the nit brightness is higher, it also means that the screen of mobile devices and laptops will be brighter. And this will affect our observation when using outdoors, or in places with high light intensity, and at this time the higher the nit brightness, the screen will be displayed more clearly.

The higher the brightness, the better the display, but it will also consume more electricity, the machine will be hotter, affecting eyesight. Because our eyes are an organ that is very sensitive to the light of the surrounding environment.

Having to constantly expose our eyes to sources that are too dark or too bright, or light sources that are not suitable for the surrounding light environment, will cause us to experience hallucinations, eye strain, and hallucinations. In the long run, it can even cause harmful diseases to our health in general and our eyes in particular.

Common laptop screen brightness

- For office and study laptops often used in offices, homes, and companies, the brightness is moderate, commonly seen at around 200 nits - 300 nits.

- For computer screen products , mid-range laptops, technical graphics, etc., use in places with high light intensity or outdoors with not too harsh light will usually have a brightness of 300 nits - 500 nits.

- In particular, to maximize user needs, it is available on Macbook products, gaming laptops , high-end laptops, etc., providing high image quality regardless of lighting conditions, with a brightness of up to 500 nits.

What is the appropriate laptop screen brightness?

- Screen brightness is an extremely important factor, it affects work efficiency as well as the window to your soul.

- It will depend on the environment you use to know what brightness level is suitable, depending on the user's eyes and preferences:

+ Under normal room conditions, brightness at 120 nits to 180 nits is moderate.

+ In a dark room, when all surrounding lights are turned off, you only need a brightness of about 80 nits to be able to see clearly. Therefore, we should adjust the brightness to match the surrounding light environment.

For example: In a dark environment such as a cinema or a room, we should adjust the brightness to a low level to help our eyes relax and soothe. Because when the surrounding environment is dark and you let your eyes look at a very different strong light source such as a computer screen or laptop, your eyes will be 'strained' and have to adjust more, leading to eye pain and fatigue.

On the contrary, when outdoors, we need to increase the screen brightness until our eyes can easily see the content on the display screen.

And now, most laptop models will be integrated with the feature of automatically adjusting the brightness based on the surrounding environment. And you can also completely turn off this option to freely adjust the screen brightness to make your eyes feel more comfortable.

Through the article on TipsMake has helped you better understand the brightness of the screen, as well as help you better understand how much brightness is appropriate for the computer screen. Hopefully this article will help you more in adjusting the appropriate screen brightness.

David Pac

Update 16 January 2025