Launched in September last year, the iPhone 13 series is a significant upgrade over its predecessor. Both reviewers and users have praised improvements in hardware, build quality and battery life.

It also happens to be one of the best-selling smartphone series by Cupertino in recent years, with a report by the CIRP showing that almost 38% of all phones sold by Apple were part of the iPhone 13 series in Q1 2022.

iPhone-13

While the hardware and software are pretty impressive on paper, iPhone 13 users recently reported an issue where the screen brightness is throttling outdoors even under low or moderate usage (1,2,3,4,5).

Even popular YouTubers like Justine commented on the matter and said they had a similar experience. After the screen brightness is reduced, cranking it up back to maximum seems to be doing nothing.

This is making it hard for many to use their phone under direct sunlight since the brightness throttles to a point where text or content is unviewable.

iPhone-13-screen-brightness-throttling-outdoors
Source

Screen brightness is halving after a few minutes at max brightness in a sunny environment despite the slider still showing max brightness iPhone 13 Pro. Just bought an iPhone 13 Pro. From day 1 it has exhibited the behaviour as per the title. When the brightness drops it is not a gradual decrease in brightness like when you move the slider but a sudden switch. It becomes so dark the screen it is barely viewable.
(Source)

iPhone 13 pro brightness acting up. Sometimes the brightness will automatically get limited to 25, 50 or 75 percent and will no longer be affected by raising the brightness higher. Auto brightness is turned off. I think it might be a feature that activates when the phone is hot or working hard? I just can’t ever find any information on it.
(Source)

Unfortunately, Apple is yet to officially comment on the iPhone 13 screen brightness throttling issue. That said, this is not the first time users have complained about the problem.

Some have had similar experience with the iPhone 12 and earlier models, so this might be Apple’s default way of managing thermals.

Whatever the reason might be, throttling screen brightness is not a good way to lower device temperature. We hope Apple addresses the problem in the coming days.

As always, we will keep looking for more information and update this space as and when required so stay tuned to PiunikaWeb. In the meantime, you can also check out our iPhone 13 bugs and issues tracker to see similar problems.

Note: We have more such stories in our dedicated Apple section so be sure to follow them as well.

PiunikaWeb started as purely an investigative tech journalism website with main focus on ‘breaking’ or ‘exclusive’ news. In no time, our stories got picked up by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and many others. Want to know more about us? Head here.

Anurag Chawake
1373 Posts

My fascination with technology and computers goes back to the days of Windows XP. Since then, I have been tinkering with OS, mobile phones, and other things. When I am not working on anything, you will find me enjoying video games on some Discord server.

Next article View Article

[Up: NewTumbl shut down] Is Tumblr shutting down? No. But there’s exodus and Newgrounds is gaining from it

NOTE: For all latest, breaking news related to Tumblr adult content ban as well as its alternatives, head here. So it's been nearly a week since Tumblr started experiencing...
Jun 13, 2023 4 Min Read