True Tone is a smart display feature on your MacBook Pro M4 Pro designed to make your screen easier on the eyes. It uses sensors to automatically adjust the color and intensity of your display to match the ambient light in your room. This creates a more natural, paper-like viewing experience, but is it something you should leave on all the time? This guide explains everything you need to know about when to use it and when it’s better to turn it off.
What Exactly is True Tone Technology?
Think of how a white piece of paper looks under different lights. Inside, under a warm yellow lamp, the paper looks warm and yellowish. Outside, under the cool blue sky, it looks brighter and cooler. True Tone aims to replicate this natural effect on your MacBook’s screen.
It uses advanced multi-channel ambient light sensors to measure the color temperature of your surroundings. Your MacBook then automatically adjusts the white balance of its display. This means whites and grays will appear more consistent and natural, regardless of whether you’re in a sunlit cafe or a dimly lit office.
The goal is not just to change the color, but to make the screen blend more seamlessly with your environment, reducing the harsh contrast between your screen and the world around it.
The Main Benefits of Keeping True Tone On
For most people, the advantages of using True Tone for daily tasks are significant. The primary benefit is improved viewing comfort.
By constantly matching the screen’s color temperature to your environment, True Tone can significantly reduce eye strain. Staring at a screen that is much cooler (bluer) than the warm lighting in your room can cause eye fatigue over time. True Tone helps to minimize this digital eye strain during long work or study sessions.
It also provides a more natural and pleasant viewing experience. The screen feels less like a glowing digital rectangle and more like a natural part of your workspace. This makes activities like reading articles, writing documents, and browsing the web feel much more comfortable.
Best Times to Use True Tone on Your MacBook
True Tone is designed to be an “always on” feature for the average user. It shines brightest during general, everyday activities where perfect color accuracy isn’t the top priority.
If you spend hours reading text or writing, the subtle shift in color temperature can make the screen feel more like a physical book, preventing the harsh glare of an uncalibrated display. It’s also excellent for casual web browsing and watching videos, as it adapts the picture for comfortable viewing without drastically altering the content.
It is most beneficial in environments with variable lighting. Consider using it for:
- Working on documents and spreadsheets in your office.
- Browsing the web or social media at a coffee shop.
- Watching movies or YouTube videos in your living room at night.
In these situations, the feature works seamlessly in the background to enhance your visual comfort.
When Should You Turn Off True Tone?
While True Tone is great for comfort, it is not ideal for every situation. Its main drawback is that it intentionally alters the colors on your screen. This can be a major problem for any work that requires precise color accuracy.
If you are a photographer, graphic designer, or video editor, you should turn True Tone off. You need to see colors as they truly are, without any adjustments based on the ambient lighting. Leaving it on could lead to you editing an image to look perfect in your warm-lit room, only to find it looks completely different on another screen.
Similarly, some gamers prefer a fixed and vibrant color profile for a consistent visual experience. Since True Tone can subtly shift colors, disabling it ensures the game’s graphics appear exactly as the developers intended. The same applies if you are professionally calibrating your display for accuracy.
| Scenario | True Tone Status |
|---|---|
| General Web Browsing | ON |
| Photo or Video Editing | OFF |
| Reading and Writing | ON |
| Gaming | OFF |
| Watching Movies Casually | ON |
How to Quickly Enable or Disable True Tone
Apple makes it very simple to toggle this feature on or off directly from your System Settings. The change is instant, so you can easily switch it off for a quick photo edit and then turn it back on for general use.
Follow these quick steps to find the setting:
- Click the Apple logo in the top-left corner of your screen and select “System Settings.”
- In the settings window, scroll down the left sidebar and click on “Displays.”
- You will see the “True Tone” option with a toggle switch next to it. Click the switch to turn it on or off.
You can also add a “Display” shortcut to your Control Center for even faster access, allowing you to toggle True Tone with just a couple of clicks without opening System Settings.
True Tone vs Night Shift What is the Difference?
It’s easy to confuse True Tone with another Apple feature called Night Shift, but they serve very different purposes. They can even work together.
True Tone adjusts the white point of your display all day long to match the ambient lighting, making colors appear natural under any condition. It can make your screen warmer or cooler depending on your environment.
Night Shift, on the other hand, is specifically designed to be used at night. It shifts your display colors to the warmest end of the spectrum to reduce the amount of blue light your eyes are exposed to. Research suggests that blue light in the evening can interfere with your sleep cycle. Night Shift operates on a schedule you set, typically from sunset to sunrise.
Frequently Asked Questions about True Tone
Does True Tone drain the MacBook Pro battery?
No, the impact of True Tone on your battery life is extremely small. The ambient light sensors it uses are very low-power, so you can leave it on without worrying about it significantly draining your battery.
Can I customize the intensity of True Tone?
You cannot adjust the intensity of True Tone itself; the only option is to turn it on or off. However, you can use it in combination with manual brightness adjustments and Night Shift settings to get your display just right for you.
Does True Tone work on my external monitor?
True Tone works on the built-in display of your MacBook Pro and a select few external displays made by Apple, like the Studio Display or Pro Display XDR. It does not work on the vast majority of third-party monitors.
Is True Tone bad for photo editing?
Yes, for any professional or serious hobbyist, True Tone should be turned off during photo editing. It changes the way colors look on the screen, which will prevent you from making accurate color corrections and adjustments.
Should I use True Tone for watching movies?
For casual viewing, True Tone can make the experience more comfortable, especially in a dimly lit room. However, if you want to see the movie exactly as the director intended, with the original color grading, it’s best to turn it off.
