I wouldn't judge screen quality on brightness. My brother's Intel iMac is brighter than my CRT but my display looks better. There's a bit in Half-Life 2 where the screen goes bright red and I couldn't even look at it very long because it was so bright, which to me is pointless. All the brightness will do on a laptop is drain more battery power.
I'm not saying brightness is irrelevant of course, just that I don't consider it to be as important as the following: resolution, pixel pitch, response times, contrast ratio, viewing angle and refresh rates.
Brightness is one of those specs manufacturers like to quote a higher number for because the general public like to see bigger numbers. Its complete bollocks - like most of the other specs that manufacturers publish.
like placebo, I have a screen with a 450cdm2 and right now its set to 20 out of 100
My other screen has 260cdm2 and is set to 30 out of 100.
Now, if you are working in bright daylight, you will want a screen that goes brighter, but for a room at night with mild backlighting, manufacturers specs are just well over the top.
Brightness on a new screen is always overkill (although it gives more headroom in contrast, and can help with color saturation), but I think the most important thing is that as the screen ages, the brightness will go down, and you'll start needing to "turn it up" after a few years' heavy use...
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I'm not saying brightness is irrelevant of course, just that I don't consider it to be as important as the following: resolution, pixel pitch, response times, contrast ratio, viewing angle and refresh rates.
like placebo, I have a screen with a 450cdm2 and right now its set to 20 out of 100
My other screen has 260cdm2 and is set to 30 out of 100.
Now, if you are working in bright daylight, you will want a screen that goes brighter, but for a room at night with mild backlighting, manufacturers specs are just well over the top.