Database Users

[FYI] Auto brightness is brighter than your highest stock setting

I noticed today when I was outside that it was hard to see my screen because I always keep it at the lowest brightness level.
I bumped it up to the max so I can see easier.
I tried out auto brightness immediately after and it was much brighter than the brightest stock setting.
TMYK

That's odd, so you're saying if you put it on the highest setting with manually configured brightness, it still won't go as high as auto brightness in a situation where its needed (like direct sunlight)?
I personally use the auto brightness anyway but that's interesting to know...

sj_martin said:
I noticed today when I was outside that it was hard to see my screen because I always keep it at the lowest brightness level.
I bumped it up to the max so I can see easier.
I tried out auto brightness immediately after and it was much brighter than the brightest stock setting.
TMYK
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That's weird as hell lmao. I'll test it tomorrow with sun. Will be SO upset if its true. YOU BETTER HOPE UR WRONG lol.

sj_martin said:
I noticed today when I was outside that it was hard to see my screen because I always keep it at the lowest brightness level.
I bumped it up to the max so I can see easier.
I tried out auto brightness immediately after and it was much brighter than the brightest stock setting.
TMYK
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Click to collapse
yeah i noticed that too. auto bright seems to go higher than the regular brightest setting.

If that's true, is there a way to manually increase the brightness to max?,
you know, similar to increasing the volume values?
Maybe someone can try it

gsvnet said:
That's odd, so you're saying if you put it on the highest setting with manually configured brightness, it still won't go as high as auto brightness in a situation where its needed (like direct sunlight)?
I personally use the auto brightness anyway but that's interesting to know...
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yes, exactly.

the auto brightness probably kicks into outdoor visibility level.

Dose your phone say at the lowest light level. Because mine, even after I set it to the lowest level, moves to a brighter level.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

Ditto, mine always finds a way to creep back up to higher brightness levels.
I think I'll just use auto from now on
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

I'm not real sure but the lowest manual level seems still too bright to me. I've seen lower with Auto on, but maybe its my eyes playing tricks again.

It is probably Power Savings in the Display settings that is STILL automatically dimming the display, so ot merely seems like auto brightness is brighter than manual max adjustment. Turning Power Savings off keeps the screen at 100% all the time --the browser and other apps will not dim the display anymore.
Sent from my GT-I9000M using XDA App

silverwolf0 said:
I'm not real sure but the lowest manual level seems still too bright to me. I've seen lower with Auto on, but maybe its my eyes playing tricks again.
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This is one thing that drives me nuts with this phone. I use the "dimmer" widget to drop the thing down to 10 brightness, but even that's way too bright and I haven't yet found an app that makes the display dimmer than 10 (I know that requires root, but none of the ones in the market seem to work with the Vibrant).

applebook said:
It is probably Power Savings in the Display settings that is STILL automatically dimming the display, so ot merely seems like auto brightness is brighter than manual max adjustment. Turning Power Savings off keeps the screen at 100% all the time --the browser and other apps will not dim the display anymore.
Sent from my GT-I9000M using XDA App
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Maybe I'm missing something here, but I have power savings off and auto brightness off, and the screen still dims when I go into the browser.

Autobrightness

So my autobrightness sucks. It hardly ever changes and I have to turn the screen off and then back on for it to take effect.
Am I the only one with this problem?
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

I just got my G2 yesterday, and I've also noticed that the auto brightness doesn't seem too quick. Or, it doesn't seem like it's changing at all. My Nexus changes really quick to adapt to light, and you can see it happen when it needs to...
But then again, I've only had the G2 for less than 24 hours. And it was nighttime so maybe I'll have better luck in the day with light? I doubt it though.

"why auto brightness is effectively useless."

Root and go to cyanogenmod RC1. It gives you absolute total control over how often your autobrightness adjusts, gives it the ability to adjust brightness downwards, let's you set the brightness levels, and even let's you set a moving average on the light sensor output lulz.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 running Cyanogenmod.

change to cyanogenmod....brightness is a 100% better

Lowest brightness setting (lower than Settings limit)

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.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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
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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.

[Q] Screen Brightness Levels

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).
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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
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Great! Thank you! I'll check out your kernel sir!

Automatic brightness better on or off ?

What's best for battery life, automatic brightness on ? Or set to a certain % ? Like at home if at 40%-50% that's good enough, but outside, or in bright area, hard to tell, much higher, or even auto.
Some phones do better or worse on auto brightness. Some phones can adjust quickly and actually do auto brightness very good, other phones I've had suck at adjusting the light level on auto.
What do you recommend ? And which is easier on battery life ?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

Try lux. It can give you the best of both.

Zorachus said:
What's best for battery life, automatic brightness on ? Or set to a certain % ? Like at home if at 40%-50% that's good enough, but outside, or in bright area, hard to tell, much higher, or even auto.
Some phones do better or worse on auto brightness. Some phones can adjust quickly and actually do auto brightness very good, other phones I've had suck at adjusting the light level on auto.
What do you recommend ? And which is easier on battery life ?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
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Personally, I never put my brightness on auto. I always put it at a certain percentage up to the point where I can see the icons on my phone and such. Putting it on auto will make the phone fluctuate between low and high brightness setting according to the lighting of the environment. When I'm home, I always set my brightness level at the very lowest. Also another thing I notice is that when I'm outside I need to turn up the lighting to about 10-20 percent and I good to go. When I'm indoors, the screen is quite bright and so I just turn it back down. (You get the point.)
I don't think there are phones that perform better or worse on auto-brightness. I don't even think it has any effect on performance. Anyways, to answer your question about battery life. If you can't see the phone while you're outdoors then you need to turn it up and thus it will use more power. Personally, I suggest that you set it at a fixed percentage rather than auto.

Was looking into this question myself. What I was able to turn up amounts to the following.
Setting the brightness manually or through the use of the auto brightness makes no difference if its the same percentage/ brightness setting.
The difference comes down to using auto brightness will cause the cpu execute to make the setting changed according to the polled data from the light sensor. The will cause minimal additional battery drain I suspect, but the exact number I haven't been able to identify. So this is the downside. The upside is that if the brightness settings are compatible for you, its very convenient.
As for the manual, you may gain a little due to the lower cpu use. More importantly, you can tune the brightness to what you want. If the auto setting for a certain outdoor environment is too high, if the manual setting is lower that the user prefers this could also save battery. Of course the opposite is also true. Same for indoors, etc... Being manual it requires you to change it, but using certain ROMs, quick setting tile or apps make this a lot quicker.
I'm personally running Xylon + Nova Prime + Brightness widget
Set the gesture swipe up, to execute the widget
Set 0,20,45,80,auto percent brightness in the widget
Swipe up to cycle through when indoor or out, home...
Zorachus said:
What's best for battery life, automatic brightness on ? Or set to a certain % ? Like at home if at 40%-50% that's good enough, but outside, or in bright area, hard to tell, much higher, or even auto.
Some phones do better or worse on auto brightness. Some phones can adjust quickly and actually do auto brightness very good, other phones I've had suck at adjusting the light level on auto.
What do you recommend ? And which is easier on battery life ?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
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I too am running Xylon + Nova. Where do I get this brightness app ? I'll look on Play.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

Free in the play store
Zorachus said:
I too am running Xylon + Nova. Where do I get this brightness app ? I'll look on Play.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
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If you really need to conserve the battery I don't recommend having your screen brightness
at more than than 10%, most of the time I run at around 5%.
Asking others about their Auto Brightness experience is not very useful because a user
in Brazil will have a different result than a user in Norway.
If you charge your phone often and can read the screen at auto brightness just run it at that.
Otherwise you should always manually adjust your brightness for your own threshold of
readability.
A curious thing about LCD screens is that blacks and whites draw similar amount of power.
(As opposed to other technologies such as OLED). So ROMs with high contrast text that are
easier to read can actually help you save battery if you manually adjust brightness for readability.

I agree with using Lux, once setup and you have linked several light readings to screen brightness settings and set to dynamically adjust its great. The paid version allows you to dim the screen alot more then you can do normally and makes reading in bed very easy on your eyes.
estallings15 said:
Try lux. It can give you the best of both.
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