Why Is My iPhone 13 Screen So Dark?

While the iPhone has made some impressive strides when it comes to battery life, there are still some options that you can change, which will help to extend the life between charges.

One of the biggest contributors to battery usage is screen brightness. The dimmer your screen is, the less battery it uses.

But changing the screen’s brightness while making it bright enough to read can be a delicate balance, and you might find that the screen is too dark.

You can change the iPhone 13 screen brightness by going to Settings > Display & Brightness > then changing the setting on the Brightness scale.

Our tutorial below provides additional information on locating and adjusting this setting, as well as an alternate way to change the brightness and some other brightness-related settings that you may want to change, too.

You can also check out this video about how to turn off auto brightness on iPhone 13 for additional information.

How to Change Brightness Level on an iPhone 13

  1. Tap Settings.
  2. Choose Display & Brightness.
  3. Adjust the Brightness.

Our guide continues below with additional information on changing the iPhone brightness, including pictures of these steps.

Related Guide: If it seems like the text on your screen is a little difficult to read, then you may want to follow our how to bold text on iPhone 13 steps.

How to Adjust iPhone 13 Screen Brightness (Guide with Pictures)

The steps in this article were performed on an iPhone 13 in the iOS 15.4.1 operating system.

Step 1: Open the Settings app on your iPhone.

open Settings

Step 2: Scroll down and select the Display & Brightness option.

choose display and brightness

Step 3: Tap at different points on the Brightness scale until you find the desired brightness.

why is the iPhone 13 screen so dark

Our tutorial continues below with additional discussion about changing the brightness on the iPhone.

More Information on iPhone Screen Brightness

The steps above show you how to adjust the brightness of your iPhone screen by going through the Settings menu. However, you can also change the brightness from the Control Center.

To change iPhone screen brightness from the Control Center, swipe down from the top-right corner of the screen to open the Control Center. You can then drag the brightness scale up or down to adjust the brightness.

changing iPhone brightness from Control Center

Note that if you tap and hold on the brightness icon in the Control Center, it will expand the scale while also displaying these options at the bottom of the screen:

  • Dark Mode – this changes your iPhone’s color palette to a darker one so that the screen isn’t so bright in dark environments.
  • Night Shift – this automatically shifts the colors on the screen to warmer colors which may help you sleep better at night.
  • True Tone – this automatically adjusts the color tone of the device screen so that the appearance of the colors on the screen remains consistent with variable ambient light.

There is also an Auto-Brightness option on the Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size menu. If you have manually adjusted the brightness and find that it’s still too dark sometimes, turning off auto-brightness could help resolve that. Note that disabling auto-brightness can affect your battery life and the long-term performance of the screen.

Frequently Asked Questions About iPhone 13 Screen Brightness

How do I enable Low Power Mode on my iPhone 13?

If you would like your iPhone to manage battery-related settings on the device manually, then Low Power Mode is a good choice.

You can find this setting by going to Settings > Battery > then tapping the button to the right of Low Power Mode.

This is going to make the battery icon yellow. It will also dim the screen, stop certain background actions from taking place, and adjust the auto-lock time.

You can always go back to the same menu later if you decide that you don’t want to use Low Power Mode, and you can follow the same steps to turn it back off.

Where is the auto brightness setting on the iPhone 13?

The iPhone has long had the option to manage the screen brightness itself, but it has moved a couple of times.

In current versions of iOS, such as iOS 16, you can find the iPhone’s auto brightness setting by opening Settings, choosing Accessibility, selecting Display & Text Size, then scrolling to the bottom of the menu and turning on Auto-Brightness.

How do I turn off True Tone on my iPhone 13?

If it seems like the colors on your screen are a little strange, then it might be due to the True Tone setting.

You can toggle this option on or off by going to Settings > Display & Brightness > then tapping the button next to True Tone.

Video About iPhone 13 Auto Brightness

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