Apple Publishes Command to Disable New MacBook Pro's Illuminated Logo

Q: Does the modern software-controlled glowing Apple logo secretly drain your MacBook battery faster than the classic pre-2016 models?

Probably not in any meaningful way. Apple’s guidance shows the new glowing logo is software-controlled and tied to the display brightness system: it lights only when the Mac is awake and adjusts with screen brightness and ambient light. That strongly suggests its power draw is modest and managed, not a separate always-on drain. The older pre-2016 glowing logos were generally illuminated by light from the display backlight passing through the logo cutout, so they were also not a major standalone battery burden. The modern version appears different in implementation, but there is no evidence in Apple’s instructions or the related reporting that it consumes materially more power than the older designs. What matters more for battery life is that the logo is on only while the Mac is awake. In real use, the display, processor, wireless radios, and background tasks dominate power consumption by a wide margin. A small rear logo light is unlikely to create a noticeable difference in runtime unless testing shows otherwise, and no such evidence is provided here. If a user wants every possible efficiency gain, Apple now gives an official way to switch it off in Terminal. That may save a small amount of power, but based on the available information, there is no basis to say the new software-controlled logo “secretly” drains battery faster than the classic pre-2016 models. The likely answer is that any difference is minimal and hard to notice in everyday use.

3 articles · Updated · 9to5Mac · Nov 5

Apple posted an official support document showing users how to switch off the new MacBook Pro’s glowing lid logo with a Terminal command requiring an administrator password.
The command sets com.apple.CoreBrightness LEBacklightMode to 0; deleting that setting turns the illumination back on, and reinstalling macOS also restores the default behavior.
The logo lights whenever the Mac is awake and adjusts with both screen brightness and the ambient light sensor—dimmer in dark rooms, brighter in bright ones.
The feature returned on the new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display after about 10 years, using a new approach because the OLED model lacks the old backlight-based illumination method.