Everything You Need to Know About a Nit
Why Do You Need to Care About Nits Brightness?
Differences Between Nits and Lumens
How to Measure Nits Brightness?
What is the Ideal Nits Brightness?
Do you ever wonder why you can still see the contents on your smartphone screen even on a sunny day? That's what the nits in your device are made for. But even though there's a chance you own at least one tablet or a smartphone, you may still be unfamiliar with nits and the technical jargon that comes with it.
With that said, knowing how to measure it and finding the ideal amount of nits ensures that you have a bright display suitable for your device. So, what is a nit brightness, and why is it important? Moreover, how do you measure nits? If you have all those questions spinning in your head right now, here's everything you need to know about nits below.
Before anything else, here's a basic definition of what a nit is. A nit is used in measuring luminance or the brightness in screens of laptops, televisions, tablets, and other devices with displays. Nit is actually an informal way of saying candela per square meter. On the other hand, luminance is all about how intense light can get.
And the greater the number of nits, the greater the luminance. Moreover, the word nit is most likely formed from the Latin word "nitere," which translates to "to shine" in English. Hence, it's probably why many users have accepted using the term nits when measuring the luminescence or brightness of a display.
How bright is a nit, you may ask? The brightness of a nit is the equivalent of the light produced by one lit whale oil candle. Place that lit candle in a container that measures one meter at all sides, and the light that stretches to the surface of the container is the equivalent of one candela per square meter.
Furthermore, the Latin word "candela" translates to the word candle in English. So, you could say that one candela per square meter pertains to the light produced by just one lit whale oil candle placed in a one-meter by one-meter container. And by adding another lit whale oil candle in the same container, you get the equivalent of two candelas per square meter. You should get the idea by now.
Now that you know what a nit is and how bright one is, you must be wondering why you should even care about nits in the first place. So, why do you need to care about nits brightness? Well, that's because knowing how many nits a device has will help you find a device with a more luminescent display. For example, if you want a brighter television, you can specifically look for a TV containing more nits.
Furthermore, as stated at the beginning of this article, nits brightness aids you in clearly seeing the contents on your screen, even on a sunny afternoon. So, since you're definitely using your phone outdoors, it only makes sense to prioritize getting higher amounts of nits in portable devices like tablets, smartphones, laptops, and the like.
At this point, you must be wondering why you should use nits when the unit lumens already exists. Compared to nits, lumens is simply the generic term referring to the light yielded by a display. However, although the two terms have their differences, nits and lumens are related.
After all, lumens and nits are related in a way that one nit equals one ANSI lumen. An ANSI lumen pertains to the total light bouncing off a surface whose sides all measure one meter. Moreover, ANSI lumen is also much more used in the field of video projectors, while the term nit is just a new term that's recently been added in the world of televisions.
Furthermore, a single nit also contains a greater amount of luminescence compared to a single ANSI lumen. An estimate calculation also shows that a single nit also consists of an estimated amount of 3.426 ANSI lumens. And using that amount, you can find the present amount of nits or ANSI lumens in your device.
So, if you want to compute many ANSI lumens there are in your device, you can multiply your device's total nits to 3.426. Meanwhile, if you want to calculate how many nits your device has, you can use your device's total ANSI lumens and divide it by 3.426 to get its total amount of nits.
Most of the time, you can find information regarding your device's nits by looking up their product specifications from its manufacturer's official site, sheet specifications, etc. Detailed product reviews might also state how much nits a particular device as well. Alternatively, you can use available apps or software to help you determine your device's nits brightness.
Now, if you don't feel like downloading software or apps just to do so, you can also utilize tools to help you find out. One handy device for the job would be the digital lux meter. And after finding the lux amount of your device, simply make the necessary computations to get the nits brightness of your device's display.
One nit equals an estimate of 3.14159 lux. Use that amount and divide it by the result on your digital lux meter, and you should get the estimated number of nits your device's display contains.
Now that you're past the technicalities of a nit and know what it is, it's time for this critical question: what is the ideal nits brightness? To answer your question, the recommended number of nits varies depending on the type of display.
For instance, tablets and smartphones usually contain a minimum of 2 nits and a maximum of 1000 nits. Ideally, you should get tablets or smartphones with a minimum of 500 nits. If your mobile device has that amount of nits, they should be enough to use in bright rooms and the sunny outdoors.
The same thing goes for computer monitors or laptops, which usually have nits ranging from 200 to 600. On the other hand, televisions should have 600 or more nits for excellent display, especially for high dynamic range TV types.
Considering the nits brightness of a screen display is crucial nowadays, especially for your smartphones or other handheld or portable devices. After all, you're more likely to use your mobile gadgets outside than your living room TV. With that said, if you find yourself struggling to use your smartphone on a sunny day despite maxing out its brightness, it may be time to "nit"-pick the next phone you buy in terms of its offered nits.
