There has been a lot said about the screen being dim on this phone, and it's the one and only thing that's holding me back from committing to getting it. Summer's coming and I want to be able to play it outside without having to sit in a dark corner.
I've also read that the auto-brightness feature is mandatory, and that it doesn't work particularly well, so I was wondering if this was the main reason for the reportedly dim screen. My current phone - an AMOLED HTC Desire - is VERY dim with the auto brightness enabled, but thankfully I can turn it off.
For anyone with the phone who is able to test, do you think the screen is bright enough if you cover the light sensor altogether? I'm sure that once the phone is rooted, we'll be able to disable the light sensor altogether, and I'm hoping the screen brightness is purely a software limitation (i.e. fixable) and not a hardware problem (i.e. NOT fixable)
Thanks.
If someone that has theirs already were to check the brightness on boot before the sensors even initialize that might give you a good idea of what it is capable of.
Most android phones i've played with in the past boot at full brightness. Your mileage may varry
Mine arrive tomorrow... dont know until tuesday
I got a slider for the birhgtness, haven't noticed any dimming/brightening automatically, seems just fine to me.
I think that if this problem keeps appearing SE will do something about it, and else the community will
I had mine for a day and sent it back...the auto brightness very temperamental. I would play Gboid emulator (great with new controls btw) and the screen would literally get dim and lighten up constantly every few seconds - under same lighting condition, it became very annoying throughout the day as you end up anticipating it..seems the sensor tries too hard under certain lighting conditions and not having the option to disable auto lighting is just dumb.
The screen is also a terrible fingerprint magnet, and definitely not the best on a cloudy day (Could not test in direct sunlight, this is a rare occurring phenomena here in UK) ...Also dust tends to get into the very fine spacings around the screen.
After an hour of use the phone looked like my kids and dog had played with it for few weeks....Not for me.
But maybe thats just me being spoilt with Nexus S and Ipone4 smudge free, brighter screens.
I dont use the auto-brightness. Ive just manually set it a little lower.
Aightu said:
I dont use the auto-brightness. Ive just manually set it a little lower.
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I see what people are complaining about and... really it's not that bad.
I can see where it might get annoying if you're looking for it, but the screen is not going off and on like some people make it out to be. At least mine is not.
I keep mine at 50% brightness and I don't notice a brightness change even slightly. It's bright enough to see indoors easily and not noticeably worse outdoors than any other non-amoled phone I've owned.
from my experience people are making a mountain out of a mole hill, and the auto-brightness can be disabled with custom roms in the future, just live with it in the mean time. That or ask SE for an update that allows you to disable it.
johnsongrantr said:
I see what people are complaining about and... really it's not that bad.
I can see where it might get annoying if you're looking for it, but the screen is not going off and on like some people make it out to be. At least mine is not.
I keep mine at 50% brightness and I don't notice a brightness change even slightly. It's bright enough to see indoors easily and not noticeably worse outdoors than any other non-amoled phone I've owned.
from my experience people are making a mountain out of a mole hill, and the auto-brightness can be disabled with custom roms in the future, just live with it in the mean time. That or ask SE for an update that allows you to disable it.
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Yep, I keep mine at 60% and don't notice any screen change or anything.
Regarding the fingerprint magnet, you can easily install third party screen-protector to avoid that
Sent from my LT15i using XDA Premium App
So I exchanged my first Nexus 7 because 1 dead pixel (build date 2013.10), got my second one with horrible multitouch problems and several dead pixels (build date 2013.08), my third one with multitouch problems and 8 dead pixels! and dust under the screen (build date 2013.09) and now on my 4th one (build date 2013.10).
- no multitouch problems;
- hardware is perfect, no dust under screen, no scratches, nothing (the first nexus also had some dust under the front facing camera);
- no dead pixels;
- but...it has in my opinion al lot of screen bleeding
Now, the question is, should I return this unit, I have made some pics in the dark with 100% brightness, what do you guys think of it?
edit: the bleeding is always seen on a black background during the evening (when its dark with normal house lights on), not so much in daylight. However the bleeding is seen even on 20% or 30% brightness, only if I turn on the automatic brightness things get a little better and the bleeding is minimised to the point that I am less bothered by it. Ooh and when I look at it from a different (a rather extreme) angle it also changes, so I guess it is some sort of glow
Manco123 said:
So I exchanged my first Nexus 7 because 1 dead pixel (build date 2013.10), got my second one with horrible multitouch problems and several dead pixels (build date 2013.08), my third one with multitouch problems and 8 dead pixels! and dust under the screen (build date 2013.09) and now on my 4th one (build date 2013.10).
- no multitouch problems;
- hardware is perfect, no dust under screen, no scratches, nothing (the first nexus also had some dust under the front facing camera);
- no dead pixels;
- but...it has in my opinion al lot of screen bleeding
Now, the question is, should I return this unit, I have made some pics in the dark with 100% brightness, what do you guys think of it?
edit: the bleeding is always seen on a black background during the evening (when its dark with normal house lights on), not so much in daylight. However the bleeding is seen even on 20% or 30% brightness, only if I turn on the automatic brightness things get a little better and the bleeding is minimised to the point that I am less bothered by it. Ooh and when I look at it from a different (a rather extreme) angle it also changes, so I guess it is some sort of glow
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Oh....c`mon dude...if you want perfect blacks buy something with AMOLED display.I had that backlight bleeding on my Nexus 4,LG G2,Acer CloudMobile and even on Nexus 7(2013).I think this is normal for IPS displays.It`s just my opinion.But i`ve never seen a IPS screen wich renders perfect blacks like AMOLED.On my Nexus 7(2013) the white spot on the black is not that evident.I will make some pictures when I get home and post them here just for comparison with your pictures.
Manco123 said:
So I exchanged my first Nexus 7 because 1 dead pixel (build date 2013.10), got my second one with horrible multitouch problems and several dead pixels (build date 2013.08), my third one with multitouch problems and 8 dead pixels! and dust under the screen (build date 2013.09) and now on my 4th one (build date 2013.10).
- no multitouch problems;
- hardware is perfect, no dust under screen, no scratches, nothing (the first nexus also had some dust under the front facing camera);
- no dead pixels;
- but...it has in my opinion al lot of screen bleeding
Now, the question is, should I return this unit, I have made some pics in the dark with 100% brightness, what do you guys think of it?
edit: the bleeding is always seen on a black background during the evening (when its dark with normal house lights on), not so much in daylight. However the bleeding is seen even on 20% or 30% brightness, only if I turn on the automatic brightness things get a little better and the bleeding is minimised to the point that I am less bothered by it. Ooh and when I look at it from a different (a rather extreme) angle it also changes, so I guess it is some sort of glow
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I have blb in the exact same spots as you, but its less bright and i can not even see it when in a dark room.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
Somehow I don't believe what you're saying.
That much light bleed on 30% brightness? I call bull**** sorry to say.
It's on 100% brightness and it's on a black screen, what the hell did you expected? It's native to IPS screens so either live with it or guy buy a Samsung Tab 7.3 for 250€ with it's amazing hardware and screen. NOT.
username4this said:
Somehow I don't believe what you're saying.
That much light bleed on 30% brightness? I call bull**** sorry to say.
It's on 100% brightness and it's on a black screen, what the hell did you expected? It's native to IPS screens so either live with it or guy buy a Samsung Tab 7.3 for 250€ with it's amazing hardware and screen. NOT.
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Like I said in the first post "I have made some pics in the dark with 100% brightness, what do you guys think of it?"
The light bleed is indeed visible on 20% or 30% brightness, but of course less than with a 100% brightness. The problem is, everything besides auto-brightness makes it visible. Normally on my other android devices, I turn off auto brightness and leave the brightness on about 25% with the standard widget (with the half moon sign). But on my nexus, I can't do that. The statusbar is always washed out.
The first 3 units didn't have this much bleed, they had very little, not worth mentioning. Also, I am very aware of the fact what I can expect with IPS displays, AMOLED displays (like my galaxy nexus), TN displays (like in my Macbook) and PVA displays (like on my dell 2408fwp). The thing is, this light bleed on my nexus is very obvious and beyond normal. If the light bleed was not so visible under say 60%, I wouldn't care one bit.
The thing is I am very disappointed with the quality of the hardware. I have never in my life returned a gadget more than twice. Normally, if the first one wasn't good, the second one is almost certain perfect. Don't get me wrong, the nexus 7 is a awesome device! But these faulty units ruin it for me.
Maybe bad batch? Mine made in August 2013, nothing wrong
Nam Huy Linux Blog namhuy.net
Manco123 said:
Like I said in the first post "I have made some pics in the dark with 100% brightness, what do you guys think of it?"
The light bleed is indeed visible on 20% or 30% brightness, but of course less than with a 100% brightness. The problem is, everything besides auto-brightness makes it visible. Normally on my other android devices, I turn off auto brightness and leave the brightness on about 25% with the standard widget (with the half moon sign). But on my nexus, I can't do that. The statusbar is always washed out.
The first 3 units didn't have this much bleed, they had very little, not worth mentioning. Also, I am very aware of the fact what I can expect with IPS displays, AMOLED displays (like my galaxy nexus), TN displays (like in my Macbook) and PVA displays (like on my dell 2408fwp). The thing is, this light bleed on my nexus is very obvious and beyond normal. If the light bleed was not so visible under say 60%, I wouldn't care one bit.
The thing is I am very disappointed with the quality of the hardware. I have never in my life returned a gadget more than twice. Normally, if the first one wasn't good, the second one is almost certain perfect. Don't get me wrong, the nexus 7 is a awesome device! But these faulty units ruin it for me.
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I don't want to sound arrogant or an ass, but I'll tell you what the problem with these threads is(which are alot believe me), light bleed annoyance/any of the other known issues is a personal thing.
And, coming here asking for advice is worthless because it's subjective and won't resolve anything. Everything about your device is up to you or whoever else opens a thread. If you find it bothering, go trade it until you get a unit working fine. Afterall, you payed and you have the right to have a fully working device. If it doesn't bother you that much, don't trade but and don't open a thread about it.
It won't change a thing, whatever people tell you it won't mater.
Good luck.
Hey, I had had 3 Nexus 7 2013s and all of them had light bleed. Even my iPhone 5 (bring on the hate bc i honestly hate my iPhone) has mild light bleed at 100% brightness on boot animation. My father had a Galaxy Note and he was used to flawless blacks and when he got an Xperia SP, he watches badminton matches at night and on loading screens, light leaked out from the sides. He went to Sony but they dismissed the problem
You have to decide how much it bothers you. It's much more than mine (100% bright), but my touch screen isn't what I'd like (like my N5 or even my old Toshiba Thrive).
EDIT: This pic taken of the N7 with my N5 should show better. It is a black background with 100% brightness. Only slight bit of bleed across the top.
ritchea said:
You have to decide how much it bothers you. It's much more than mine (100% bright), but my touch screen isn't what I'd like (like my N5 or even my old Toshiba Thrive).
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You aren't supposed to take a screenshot. You're supposed to put your phone in a dark room and display a fully black pic at 100% brightness
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
That was a screenshot of Backlight Bleed test at 100% brightness in a darkroom. I understand that maybe the "screenshot" concept prevented light bleed from showing although both look the same. I'll fix it and re-up or remove it.
I got G5 dual SIM model H860, first impression of screen brightness was shocking in outdoor. Moreover, I realized that I have a blue/purple line or shadow on the right side of the screen from top to bottom with higher density near the top.
Stayed like a week and then replaced the device with the same model again, and here is the surprise.
The new device (same exact model but for different region) screen was amazing, no blue lines, screen Brightness is far far better than the first defective device in outdoor sun.
I am not an expert and don't know what is happening but I think difference in max Brightness nits between devices may be the reason of mixed reviews regarding outdoor visibility and max Brightness.
On a side note, the first screen whites was on the warmer side (yellowish white) while the new is on the cooler side.
Sent from my LG-H860 using XDA-Developers mobile app
Quality control issues. That's the problem of LG. I have the H860N too and my only problem is the the very little screen bleeding at the bottom right corner of my screen. Not really noticeable and I don't care about it. Issues aside, I'm very happy with the phone Probably after a year I'll have it rooted.
Sent from my LG-H860 using XDA-Developers mobile app
The auto brightness need an update. for now, I set it manually at 60%.
I never use autobrightness.
I set the screen at 60% all the time
So I bought this phone when it first came out and for the most part love it so far. Unfortunately the grill on my ear piece fell out and I requested an exchange. Right before I was going to send back my return I had both phones side by side and noticed that my original Essential phone screen it ridiculously bright compared to the replacement they sent. I also compared it to my old phone (S7 Edge) and it's brighter than even that phone. I'm curious if I got lucky and got an Essential Phone that is unusually bright. Take a look at the pics and let me know. I don't wanna send it back if did. I know the brightness is one of the issues people have with this phone so I'm thinking this might be a rarity. The first 2 pics are of the Essential Phones side by side next 2 are of each Essential Phones next to my old S7 Edge.
Have you checked if the adaptive brightness setting is on?
JCBomb said:
Have you checked if the adaptive brightness setting is on?
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I haven't. I'll do that and report back.
Adaptive brightness does not work very well for me, it is always a little too dim, even if I move the slider all the way to 100%.
When I disable adaptive brighness the screen can get really bright so I like that when I show off the phone. So for me, I have to keep adaptive brightness off. Looking for a better app to help with automated screen brightness .
Maybe You have the night light on....that's why the color shift
Long-time G2 owner, who loved things like the rear buttons, knock-on etc. I'd been running CloudyG2 for sometime and begrudgingly admitted I needed something newer due to lag and other things.
Out of everything this year the G6 seemed best suited, although TBH nothing majorly stood out. So I got one last week.
Clearly the screen is an upgrade over the G2 for contrast, colours, light-bleed. Mine is a let down for uneven brightness and more.
I typically had the G2 at 40%, which worked well for me. The screen was not perfect, but nothing you'd notice in everyday usage. Although more recently there is some minor marking you'll see on grey backgrounds.
Around 37% seems to be my brightness sweetspot with the G6. However, I initially noticed some dynamic contrast effects, which I guess is normal micro-dimming, while browsing. When I looked closer I spotted the centre of the screen is noticeably brighter (large coin size). Or, alternatively, the surrounding area is noticeably darker. I did a full check using bleed testing app and it was obvious to an untrained eye at brightnesses under 65% when using a white background.
What's more, there also looks like there's a slight pressure problem too. As pressing on a black background, over 65% you can see a brief mark in the top quarter of the screen, even when pressing lower down. Minor, but there.
So I'm trying to get an idea, if I were to a replacement, whether a degree of unevenness is normal with the handset. I don't want my quality control expectations to be beyond reasonable. I'm not a great AMOLED fan, so I appreciate typical LCD issues can't be completely avoided.
Admittedly, as you've probably guessed, I haven't instantly connected with the G6 like with the G2. So it won't be a total bind to send it back.