There were some posts related to not-so-great brightness on new 17-inch MBPs. The rumor was that the firmware update would correct that. I updated firmware last night. It went on seamlessly but there was no change in the screen brightness. The Apple Knowledge Base article actually does not mention brightness, only some display problems that I did not have. The screen (I have a matte one) seems bright enough by itself and I did not compare it with 15-inch MBPs side by side.