How to Calibrate the MacBook Pro Mini-LED XDR Display (2025)

In this guide I’ll show you how to properly calibrate and profile the Liquid Retina XDR (Mini-LED) display of your MacBook Pro (M3 Pro / M4 Pro) using Calibrite Display Plus HL, with P3 / D65 / Gamma 2.2 settings and a 120 nits target. By the end you’ll have a validated ICC profile (DeltaE) and a consistent color workflow for photo, video, and print.

Follow these steps to get accurate, consistent color for photography, video editing, and professional post-production.

1. Mac preparation

2. Check the factory profile

Open ColorSync Utility, select the built-in display (Color LCD), and confirm the active profile matches the factory one. If it doesn’t, click Set to Factory. This ensures you start from a known baseline before calibration.

3. Set a professional preset

Go to System Settings → Displays, open the Presets tab, and choose Customize Preset.

Click once to highlight Photography P3 D65 as your starting point, then click the ” + “ button (bottom left). Set:

• Color Gamut: P3.
• White Point: D65.
• Gamma/SDR Transfer Function: Pure Power 2.20.
• SDR Luminance: 120 nits (a solid target for photo/video in controlled lighting).

Tip: save it with a clear name, e.g. Photography P3 D65 120. The display may dim slightly and True Tone will be disabled automatically.

Now go back to the Presets drop-down and select “Calibrate…”.

On the next screen click “Adjust calibration” to open a new window.

Leave this window open for now, we’ll use it in the next steps.

4. Advanced calibration with Calibrite Display Plus HL

Connect the Calibrite Display Plus HL to your MacBook Pro via USB.
If you don’t have it yet, you can buy it on Amazon HERE.
Then open Calibrite Profiler (Calibrite’s official app), also available from HERE.

The software will detect the probe and lets you configure the parameters needed for the Mini-LED XDR panel.

In Calibrite Profiler, choose Advanced Mode and click the green Next button.

Select the Mini-LED panel type and the Photography preset. At the top, click CIE D65 to customize white point measurement.

• Choose Custom, then Measured K, and select “Measure luminance of second display” to read your panel accurately.

• • Follow the on-screen instructions to activate the probe by lifting and rotating the diffuser. Tilt the screen so the probe sits flush; adjust the counterweight on the cable if needed.
  • Click “White patch”, place the probe on the white square, then click “Measure” and wait for completion.

• Write down the measured X / Y and luminance values.

Now go back to the Adjust calibration window we left open earlier.

In the “Measurement” row, enter your measured x, y, and luminance. The numbers in this guide are examples, yours will differ slightly. In the “Target” row, enter these exact values: x = 0.3127, y = 0.3290, Luminance = 120. Click OK, your display may change slightly while the settings apply. At this point the monitor is correctly calibrated and ready to be profiled with an ICC profile for accurate color.

5. ICC profiling for the Mini-LED display

Now we can move on to display profiling.

In Calibrite Profiler, customize the ICC profile settings. Since we already refined the white point during calibration, there’s no reason to change it again.

For White Point, choose Custom and set it to Native.

Do the same for Luminance: choose Custom and set it to Native.

Keep all other settings at their default values (including Gamma and contrast ratio), as they work well with the software defaults.

In advanced profile options, set: Ambient light auto-adjust OFF, Flare Correct OFF, Chromatic adaptation “Bradford”, ICC Version “v2”, Profile type “matrix-based”.

For Advanced patch set options, select the 461-patch set. It takes longer, but the final profile is more accurate.

Click Next and on the following screen uncheck all options, the software will handle the settings.

Start the measurement and position the probe as instructed. Let it finish without changing room lighting or touching the Mac.

When it’s done, the software creates the ICC profile. Name it (or use the calibration date) and save.

6. Profile validation & management

After profiling, you may notice a slight color shift. That’s normal and means the ICC profile is applied. The key step now is to validate the newly created profile—don’t close this screen.

In Calibrite Profiler, open Validation and start an ICC profile check. Use the industry reference Target 24 patches.

Re-position the probe in the center, click Next, and start the procedure. Make sure to click Start Measurement, otherwise it won’t run.

Once finished, click Next and review the results. In my test on a new Apple Mini-LED XDR MacBook Pro, I got:

• All patches – Average: 0.3
• Lowest 90% – Average: 0.2
• Highest 10% – Average: 0.7
• All patches – Max: 0.7
• Lowest 90% – Max: 0.6
• Std. deviation (all patches): 0.2
• Lowest 90%: 0.1
• Highest 10%: 0.0

These numbers indicate very uniform color with no significant deviations. Generally, DeltaE < 1 is excellent, < 2 is fully professional, and up to 3–3.5 is acceptable for many non-print workflows. With results like these, the MacBook Pro Mini-LED XDR display is accurately calibrated and profiled for ongoing professional work.

You can save the validation report for future comparisons. Finally, click Finish to close the procedure.

Conclusion

By following this guide you’ll get accurate, consistent color on your MacBook Pro Mini-LED XDR. Display calibration and profiling are essential to view images correctly and keep a reliable workflow—from web publishing to print.

Mini-LED displays require a slightly different (and longer) process than traditional monitors, but with these steps you can achieve high-accuracy calibration without stress. The time invested gives you full control over color and confidence in professional results.

If you have questions or want clarification on any step, contact me via the form below. I’ll be happy to help you get the best out of your Mini-LED XDR calibration and profiling workflow.