We all know about turning your brightness down saves battery life... but I had to wonder, why when I had my brightness down so low, on swagged out stock, was my display using over 70% of my battery life and draining my phone out so fast. It was an issue on every other rom too, so I thought it was just a hardware issue.
I discovered the culprit.
Its the backlight on the capacitive buttons on the bottom!
I discovered this by trying out cyanogen, and I was tweaking the autobrightness calibrations. I discovered that regardless of screen brightness, the buttons were at 255 for 4 of the 10 tiers of brightness, while the other 7 they were at zero.
Well, when I'm in a room bright enough for tier 2-4, I don't need the light, and I checked a dark room for the bottom tier, and dropping it all the way down to 1 (from 255 mind you!!!) was sufficient. This stopped LCD backlight bleeding on the bottom edge of the device that was annoying the heck out of me!!!
I also recalibrated autobrightness to what I'd use as manual brightness at various light conditions.
I tried it with very active use for a few hours...drastically slower battery life drain.
Since I'm on cyanogen 7.2 nightly (night after RC3 came out), I'm using the tiamat 4.1.1 kernel.
My CPU drain is semi irrelevant because I use smartassv2, using nstools, to recalibrate the governor to be much more battery friendly. My ideal, sleep, and wakeup speeds are 100mhz, while my max is 100, and min is 85. Doesn't feel laggy at all. Clock is still 245 to 998mhz.
I think you are onto something big here.
I've also noticed that on some roms the display is always the biggest drainer. By back light you mean the 4 button at the bottom right. Now I'm on Deck's Reloaded and loving it but would like to improve on battery. The best rom ever that I have had is MikMik v3.11 with AnthraX 2.6.38.6-REV_004 kernel. Display was never the biggest drainer, in fact the battery would last way too long, I thought something was wrong with my phone setup. I guess either Mik rom or Anthrax kernel had a tweak for back light built in. Now that I remember it was after I installed Anthrax kernel. It was a great setup but ran out of mem all the time.
Thanks so much for sharing I think i've seen a setting for this in the rom I'm sporting now.
Not that Deck's Reloaded is bad on battery its good+ but there is always an new improvement to try out.
Angelus359 said:
I checked a dark room for the bottom tier, and dropping it all the way down to 1 (from 255 mind you!!!) was sufficient. This stopped LCD backlight bleeding on the bottom edge of the device that was annoying the heck out of me!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no difference in light output between 1 and 255. If it is anything other than zero, the capacitive lights are fully "on" (and light bleeds just as much as it ever does).
But if what you say is true (ie the backlight behind the capacitive buttons causes a lot of battery drain), then yes, it's a great idea to set it to zero for the three levels above total darkness that aren't already zero.
Lux brightness can fix this its an extremely customizable brightness app that you can choose thresh hold for captive lights and how bright your screen is in a particular light
sent from Josh's Reloaded Evo
jrollercoasters said:
Lux brightness can fix this its an extremely customizable brightness app that you can choose thresh hold for captive lights and how bright your screen is in a particular light
sent from Josh's Reloaded Evo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 for Lux...quick and easy
any lux or doenst matter?
I just disabled the bottom button light for all frequencies. I know where and what the buttons are/do from memory.
I've noticed SERIOUS improvements. I've noticed on manual brightness, its always on.
Angelus359 said:
We all know about turning your brightness down saves battery life... but I had to wonder, why when I had my brightness down so low, on swagged out stock, was my display using over 70% of my battery life and draining my phone out so fast. It was an issue on every other rom too, so I thought it was just a hardware issue.
I discovered the culprit.
Its the backlight on the capacitive buttons on the bottom!
I discovered this by trying out cyanogen, and I was tweaking the autobrightness calibrations. I discovered that regardless of screen brightness, the buttons were at 255 for 4 of the 10 tiers of brightness, while the other 7 they were at zero.
Well, when I'm in a room bright enough for tier 2-4, I don't need the light, and I checked a dark room for the bottom tier, and dropping it all the way down to 1 (from 255 mind you!!!) was sufficient. This stopped LCD backlight bleeding on the bottom edge of the device that was annoying the heck out of me!!!
I also recalibrated autobrightness to what I'd use as manual brightness at various light conditions.
I tried it with very active use for a few hours...drastically slower battery life drain.
Since I'm on cyanogen 7.2 nightly (night after RC3 came out), I'm using the tiamat 4.1.1 kernel.
My CPU drain is semi irrelevant because I use smartassv2, using nstools, to recalibrate the governor to be much more battery friendly. My ideal, sleep, and wakeup speeds are 100mhz, while my max is 100, and min is 85. Doesn't feel laggy at all. Clock is still 245 to 998mhz.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good info, I will play around with my settings and see what kind of progress I can make improving battery life and report back here.
downloading screen filter app from the market disables soft key buttons and dims brightness to whatever you want with a touch of a button.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA
After more experimentation, I have found that this has to be the single largest change on extending the evo's battery in history, besides not running the screen at max.
I finally don't murder my battery every day!
After I did my testing, I actually put in a new battery, anker 1700mah from amazon, and it got even better Now I really only need to charge every 2 days.
Great info-will have to do some messing around and check it out!
Sent from my ICS EVO using XDA
Angelus359 said:
After more experimentation, I have found that this has to be the single largest change on extending the evo's battery in history, besides not running the screen at max.
I finally don't murder my battery every day!
After I did my testing, I actually put in a new battery, anker 1700mah from amazon, and it got even better Now I really only need to charge every 2 days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just got the same battery yesterday is yours draining fast i dont know if maybe it soposto do that.
Sent from my PC36100 using xda premium
Ok... what exactly are you talking about with 255 and tiers? The only way I know to adjust the screen brightness is on the slider under settings, display, then just slide it over.
Please inform so I can save my battery from early death too
Angelus359 said:
We all know about turning your brightness down saves battery life... but I had to wonder, why when I had my brightness down so low, on swagged out stock, was my display using over 70% of my battery life and draining my phone out so fast. It was an issue on every other rom too, so I thought it was just a hardware issue.
I discovered the culprit.
Its the backlight on the capacitive buttons on the bottom!
I discovered this by trying out cyanogen, and I was tweaking the autobrightness calibrations. I discovered that regardless of screen brightness, the buttons were at 255 for 4 of the 10 tiers of brightness, while the other 7 they were at zero.
Well, when I'm in a room bright enough for tier 2-4, I don't need the light, and I checked a dark room for the bottom tier, and dropping it all the way down to 1 (from 255 mind you!!!) was sufficient. This stopped LCD backlight bleeding on the bottom edge of the device that was annoying the heck out of me!!!
I also recalibrated autobrightness to what I'd use as manual brightness at various light conditions.
I tried it with very active use for a few hours...drastically slower battery life drain.
Since I'm on cyanogen 7.2 nightly (night after RC3 came out), I'm using the tiamat 4.1.1 kernel.
My CPU drain is semi irrelevant because I use smartassv2, using nstools, to recalibrate the governor to be much more battery friendly. My ideal, sleep, and wakeup speeds are 100mhz, while my max is 100, and min is 85. Doesn't feel laggy at all. Clock is still 245 to 998mhz.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For whoever this helps:
I've been using Karma's Heaven ROM since last saturday and the battery life has just been AWESOME!. I've tried about 30 different ROMs in the past year and this seems to have finally done it for me.
Just my 2cents.
Hey all not trying to threadjack, but is there a way to disable the buttons so when it is dark they come on, but off when it is bright out?
patmanz28 said:
Hey all not trying to threadjack, but is there a way to disable the buttons so when it is dark they come on, but off when it is bright out?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The short answer is yes. The slightly longer answer is that it can be done but the ease of doing it depends on your ROM.
If you are on a CM9 based ROM you can use this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1702125
Although it says it's for CM9, it should work with other aosp roms as well...I've used it on Decks reloaded and Paranoid Android. I couldn't tell you about Sense
jrollercoasters said:
Lux brightness can fix this its an extremely customizable brightness app that you can choose thresh hold for captive lights and how bright your screen is in a particular light
sent from Josh's Reloaded Evo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cant get it to work can u explain how to make it work
Sent from my PC36100 using xda premium
Related
I tried setting my Vibrant to the lowest possible brightness level (with auto brightness disabled, of course). It still seems very bright to me compared to the lowest level on every other phone I've used. I realize this phone has a nice screen, etc. but is there no way to make it dimmer in situations where you just don't need that bright of a display and want to save battery?
Edit: I want to clarify, I love the screen's brightness, I'm just mainly asking for battery saving purposes.
I was running a black bg for a while. It would seem to be your best option for both issues. It was said in another thread that black uses the least amount of battery.
Vibe the XDApp
You can get tinted screen protector....The bright vibrant screen is the best thing on this phone.
Sent from my Samsung Vibrant using XDA App
All~G1 said:
I was running a black bg for a while. It would seem to be your best option for both issues. It was said in another thread that black uses the least amount of battery.
Vibe the XDApp
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting idea, i'll try it.
STi489 said:
You can get tinted screen protector....The bright vibrant screen is the best thing on this phone.
Sent from my Samsung Vibrant using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that's not my complaint. No doubt this screen is awesome
What I mean is that I'd actually like to increase battery life further by going even dimmer, if possible.
Then a black background is a good idea, black pixels literally use no battery on an AMOLED screen because the pixels aren't on when they're black, so it's a true black. That's the wonderful thing about these screens, and why the contrast ratio is so ridiculously high. Also why the Kindle app has the color reversal option, making the background black and the text white, and a lot of the UI uses black in places I've seen stock android white or gray. I read a couple chapters of Sherlock Holmes the other day and my battery went down 2%. Awesome screen.
Also the web browser has a separate brightness setting.
Homestar1217 said:
..I read a couple chapters of Sherlock Holmes the other day and my battery went down 2%. Awesome screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
**slow reader..jk
maybe one of the genius phone gods could post a mod for a supper dim night mode. hint/nudge :burning eyes:
I would have to agree even on low the brightness of the screen is very high. I didn't realize this until today my friend wouldn't believe me I had brightness on low (his Droid's screen looked like crap compared to mine ).
Thanks for the tip on the black background... I really do need to find out ways to improve battery life on this thing.
I made a similar thread a while ago. For me it's too bright in low light situations. I'd love to see a way to lower the lowest setting.
+1, i'd like to see to an option to go even dimmer.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Same here. The browser is downright blinding in low-light.
Hey I'm not the only one who thinks the phone should have much lower brightness settings. I think I've seen it dim lower than the lowest brightness, but only on auto mode and only for a short time. Or maybe not. But I'm sure it can go lower because it would be weird if it couldn't. I also much rather have dimmer colors than a black vacuous screen for battery savings.
It does go lower. Put the brightness on manual and set it to lowest possible then wait for it to timeout and go to sleep. 5 secs before it goes to sleep the screen goes dimmer. On the G1 the lowest setting was this pre-sleep brightness. On the Vibrant we can't get that level as an option. Fingers crossed a non-samsung rom like CM6 will fix this.
SykesAT said:
It does go lower. Put the brightness on manual and set it to lowest possible then wait for it to timeout and go to sleep. 5 secs before it goes to sleep the screen goes dimmer. On the G1 the lowest setting was this pre-sleep brightness. On the Vibrant we can't get that level as an option. Fingers crossed a non-samsung rom like CM6 will fix this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good observation. Indeed hopefully its fixed in a custom ROM or even by samsung themselves (though i'm not holding my breath on that one).
Alarm Clock Plus
The "dim mode" in Alarm Clock Plus is really dim. It would be nice to have a setting that would allow me to drop the brightness down that much.
yeah, because even on low MY EYES, They BURRRN!
lol
seriously
+1 for supporting this thread!
+1 for lower brightness option.
+1 from me too. This thing lights that whole dang room when my wife is trying to sleep.
Sorry it took so long to reply to this thread. I had to go find my sunglasses.... Seriously though, I read in bed at night and yeah its way too bright.
Has anyone seen a hack to change the default autobrightness for the fascinate? I am coming from the Droid X and this was an option offered by a user on this forum. I am asking this because I noticed that at the lower settings the screen is plenty bright enough to be usable and that the display alone consumes about 34% of my battery life. I am getting 8 hours on a full charge but more battery is always good. Any help or point inthe right direction would be awesome.
You dont need a hack to turn off auto brightness. Just go to sound and display settings and turn it off, then change brightness to whatever you want.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
I turned off auto brightness on my fascinate and have the brightness set to max. I am a power user and my battery lasts about 10-12 hours easy... Then again I use a dark theme...
i don't think he's asking about turning off autobrightness, i think he's refering to the fact that if you have autobrightness set, the lowest it will go is about 33%. it could save battery life, and still have the advantage of automatically lightening when you need it if the autobrightness would go as low as 5-10%. if i'm understanding correctly. but no, i haven't seen a way to do that yet. sorry.
sonofskywalker3 said:
i don't think he's asking about turning off autobrightness, i think he's refering to the fact that if you have autobrightness set, the lowest it will go is about 33%. it could save battery life, and still have the advantage of automatically lightening when you need it if the autobrightness would go as low as 5-10%. if i'm understanding correctly. but no, i haven't seen a way to do that yet. sorry.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oooh.. I dig ya. My bad.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
If you are like me, who have no problem with lowest brightness setting on this awesome SUPER AMOLED, you might want to know what I found.
Note that after about 2 weeks of usage, I found lowest brightness setting is more than enough. Even outside! Granted, right now is winter time here, so it has not tested on super bright sunny day.
Ok, I found that the lowest brightness setting set by the default "Settings" app (Display option) is not true lowest.
I compared the "battery power" usage using "Power Tutor" app (http://powertutor.org/):
Display System Power Usage -> LCD
1. Lowest brightness setting set via default Settings Display option
versus
2. Set brightness to 1% using Widgetsoid (developer said 0% is not possible, error)
The 1% setting uses lower battery power!
The no. 1 give LCD power usage reading at 350 mW.
The no. 2 give LCD power usage reading below 350 mW.
So, there you go, you can save some more battery by setting it to 1%
Of course, you can use any other app to set to 1%.
Cyanogen also can attain brightness lower than the stock "lowest" setting. However, on AMOLED screens the colors become a bit distorted when the brightness is very low. I've had 3 nexus S's and all of them have a slightly red/purple tint at extremely low brightness levels.
If you really want to save power, use the renderFX filter on Cyanogen and set it to red, and reduce brightness as much as you see fit. If I'm not mistaken, red draws the least power for AMOLED screens.
dinan said:
If I'm not mistaken, red draws the least power for AMOLED screens.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Black draws ZERO power. I'm not sure what's next lowest draw, though. Could red being the lowest be why the Nexus Ones tended to have a reddish tint to them? Mine was so oversatured in red I couldn't stand to watch videos with people in them. They all looked like lobsters.
distortedloop said:
Black draws ZERO power. I'm not sure what's next lowest draw, though. Could red being the lowest be why the Nexus Ones tended to have a reddish tint to them? Mine was so oversatured in red I couldn't stand to watch videos with people in them. They all looked like lobsters.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the red tint was a feature of AMOLED screens whereas SAMOLED screens have a distinct blue tint. Before anyone flames me for this, go talk to someone who know anything about how modern TV displays are tuned; they are always set to be slightly blue-ish as the human eye registers this very light blue as a pure white and is often used to make displays look brighter than they actually are.
I can't the 1% setting with widgetsoid to work. It does reduce momentarily but then jumps back to the default minimum. Auto brightness is off btw.
Any tips?
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
I use the N1 Calibration app to make the color look better and lower the brightness.
Wow this app is awesome. Running it on CM7 nightly 15 and I was able to fix the slight green/blue tint that I had =)
unknown.soul said:
I use the N1 Calibration app to make the color look better and lower the brightness.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can use Screen Filter too. It works amazing.
http://www.appbrain.com/app/screen-filter/com.haxor
The screen calibration hack doesn't work with stock, right?
NexusDro said:
The screen calibration hack doesn't work with stock, right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Needs root, and you also have to download the appropriate one for your ROM.
zephiK said:
You can use Screen Filter too. It works amazing.
http://www.appbrain.com/app/screen-filter/com.haxor
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 works really great
I keep my brightness on 0 so.....yeah
I got blue eyes and in the sun I cannot see a thing unless brightness is all the way up. Especially when blinded by the snow.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
I did some tests and when you use screen filter, it doesn´t go below 350 (power tutor). Using widgetsoid worked just fine.
In cm7 rom screen filtering is in cyanogen settings/ display.
Hello everyone,
I don't know if my question has been answered already but I've used the search and haven't come across an answer.
My Nexus 7 is set to the lowest brightness at all times and it works great for me. But I want to be able to set it lower especially when reading at night with the lights turned off. At this point the lowest brightness is still too bright.
Is there away of adjusting the screen brightness slider to accommodate lower levels? Maybe an update I can flash?
I'm using PA 2.50 and Franco.Kernel #25.
Doesn't anyone have a similar question?
Is there anyway to tweak the screen brightness of the N7.?
any rom or kernel that allows this?
I think ScreenFilter is what you want.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...ch_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5oYXhvciJd
Let you set the screen much dimmer and it saves battery life. Works great on phones (as long as it isn't bright outside).
magick86 said:
I think ScreenFilter is what you want.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...ch_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5oYXhvciJd
Let you set the screen much dimmer and it saves battery life. Works great on phones (as long as it isn't bright outside).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I will check out that app.
But you think there's a way of setting it in the system? So that the lowest brightness setting on system is lowered?
magick86 said:
I think ScreenFilter is what you want.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...ch_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5oYXhvciJd
Let you set the screen much dimmer and it saves battery life. Works great on phones (as long as it isn't bright outside).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This will do nothing. It will not lower the backlight. It just draws a semitransparent black filter over everything. Battery consumption will be the same. Some custom kernels, like the one in my signature, will let you lower the backlight well below the normal lower limit. This will actually save battery.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
Metallice said:
This will do nothing. It will not lower the backlight. It just draws a semitransparent black filter over everything. Battery consumption will be the same. Some custom kernels, like the one in my signature, will let you lower the backlight well below the normal lower limit. This will actually save battery.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great! Thank you! I'll check out your kernel sir!
Is everyone here satisfied with the screen brightness? It looks somewhat nice when the brightness is at 100% but then that drains the battery faster.
I have never used the 100% brightness - outside I'm not using the G Pad, inside I'm somewhere near 50-65% brightness, and for night reading 10-20% brightness. About battery draining, I haven't keeping an eye on it. When the battery goes near 30%, I automatically put in on the charger (I got one sexy thin 4m. USB cable here so I can keep using the tablet anywhere in my room)
Zarrick19 said:
I have never used the 100% brightness - outside I'm not using the G Pad, inside I'm somewhere near 50-65% brightness, and for night reading 10-20% brightness. About battery draining, I haven't keeping an eye on it. When the battery goes near 30%, I automatically put in on the charger (I got one sexy thin 4m. USB cable here so I can keep using the tablet anywhere in my room)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
50-65% for me seems somewhat dim, almost too dim to enjoy the HD screen. Are there any additional settings other than the main brightness setting? I do not have auto brightness turned on at all
Indoors i hardly ever raise brightness over 40% i have no complaints. In fact 100% brightness is damn near blinding.
Faded_329 said:
Indoors i hardly ever raise brightness over 40% i have no complaints. In fact 100% brightness is damn near blinding.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. Brightness isn't an issue. The problem is that the gamma is too high resulting in darks being too dark.
Sent from my LG-V500 using Tapatalk 4
dalingrin said:
Agreed. Brightness isn't an issue. The problem is that the gamma is too high resulting in darks being too dark.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's an interesting observation. I think there are apps to adjust the gamma. Does anybody have any tips on that?
dalingrin said:
Agreed. Brightness isn't an issue. The problem is that the gamma is too high resulting in darks being too dark.
Sent from my LG-V500 using Tapatalk 4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So can we change the gamma in the kernel ?
yes, I find the ugly screen (very dark) with the brightness below 60%.
by 100% against beautiful. But ouch battery !!
No, you can change the gamma (and saturation, and brightness and stuff) in an app, someone mentioned it here on xda, but I can't remember it's name. Take a look around
Zarrick19 said:
No, you can change the gamma (and saturation, and brightness and stuff) in an app, someone mentioned it here on xda, but I can't remember it's name. Take a look around
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Screen adjuster
Faded_329 said:
Screen adjuster
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I downloaded screen adjuster but it does not have any gamma or saturation settings. Only red, green, blue, brightness, and contrast. By the way, does anyone know how to take screenshots on this tablet?
hold Unlock + Volume down
I recommend using the app LUX. It does a terrific job of managing auto brightness. Way better than the built in logic. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vito.lux
Sent from my LG-V500 using Tapatalk 4
I'm slightly ahead with this advice because I haven't even looked into rooting yet. But I can tell you if Franco kernel comes out for this baby that's what you want. It fixed the gamma settings and the color settings on my Nexus 4 completely. Made it like a brand new device with beautiful accurate colors and amazing battery life to boot. I will be keeping my eyes out for Franco kernel.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app