I'm starting to see a correlation between absolute crap-for-crap batter life and having the ambient light detector enabled. I'll do a test tomorrow, but I'm pretty sure if I just left my screen on full brightness all day, that I wouldn't get as bad of battery life as I do with the ambient light detector turned on.
Is there a problem with the fascinate's polling period? or possibly how much power is being sent TO the sensor? This might explain the problems on hacked roms where people are noticing a buzzing/hissing noise coming from the phone right around the area of the ambient light sensor when in the middle of a call (and the screen is on).
Has anybody seen where in the code the ambient light sensor is handled? (is it in the kernel, or somewhere in the drivers?).
*EDIT*
Thanks for moving my post. I was pretty annoyed with myself for posting in the wrong section.
*edit* Now that the thread has been moved, This post could probably be deleted.
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Well, since nobody has moved this to the other forum yet and it's received a few views, Has anybody else noticed this before?
My personal experience had been full brightness ate battery fast and low brightness was a combination of hard to read and similar drain to auto. Then again my phone has never hissed at me except for godawful noises using skype wifi sometimes, and I have never messed with brightness under froyo.
My only observation with froyo roms is that "stock" eb01 was awful but superclean and AOSP were pretty good, particularly under EB+ kernels.
Also, I lose more battery than I would like to from signal loss overnight, but turning off 3G seems to help with that.
Swyped grumpily from my advertised as "can be upgraded to Android 2.2" device.
i noticed that the automatic brightness setting is absolutely terrible at choosing the correct brightness.
the froyo roms added the ability to hold down on the status bar and move left and right to adjust the brightness, so i just use this to adjust it on the fly when necessary.
this doesn't really answer your question, but i figured i'd add my 2 cents
lane32x said:
This might explain the problems on hacked roms where people are noticing a buzzing/hissing noise coming from the phone right around the area of the ambient light sensor when in the middle of a call (and the screen is on).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The noise comes from having the key backlights on during a call.
If you are referring to the softkeys, there were some assumptions that this was the case, but I have tested this out and have heard the noise even when those lights were turned off.
Also, I ran my phone at about half brightness today all day. I've had it off the charger for 15 hours, made 3 hours worth of phone calls, and it's still at 41% battery life.
2 days ago when I just had my phone in the pocket, not doing anything and leaving the screen off (with auto brightness enabled) my battery was dropping significantly after only 6 hours and no phone calls or Internet usage.
I have ongoing problems with eyestrain. Back-lit screens seem to be the issue. Have you found the SGS2 better or worse in regard to eyestrain, if this is an issue for you. I would really like the SGS2, but I may go with the Sensation if its screen may be better for me. Is max brightness on the SGS2 bearable? Reducing brightness seems to increase flicker on LED screens.
Does the job very nicely,
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.haxor&hl=en
Regards.
Is it possible to keep SGS2 brightness at max and then use this app on top to make it appear darker? Or is Screen Filter just a replacement for the SGS2 brightness control that allows further dimming than minimum, or does it work differently?
Thanks
I havent noticed flicker on the S2's screen on normal usage unless I open up specific test patterns for flickering like this site
http://www.techmind.org/lcd/
It of course is to dimming it over min brightness for easier night reading without any sort of strain, haven't used with Max brightness as even 25% is too bright for me for normal usage and then that app with Auto brightness for night readings/browsing
Regards.
ithehappy said:
It of course is to dimming it over min brightness for easier night reading without any sort of strain, haven't used with Max brightness as even 25% is too bright for me for normal usage and then that app with Auto brightness for night readings/browsing
Regards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh. I thought maybe it worked differently since on the app description it talks about applying a "shade" over the screen.
It might work for me if it did not actually dim the LED, but "filtered" the information to be displayed so that it came out less bright. I don't know how exactly that would work, and I guess if this "software" dimming was available then manufacturers would already be using it.
I've decided to go with the HTC Sensation. I figure that the SGS2 will either be the worst or the best phone in regards to eye strain, and it's not worth the risk. Kind of bummed out since I had my heart set on the SGS2 but hey everyone keeps saying that they're both great phones.
Both phone are great but i dont seem to experience eye strain on sgs2 seems good to me...imho
Problem: For most of us, the big, bright screen eats up most of our battery power. One advantage of LED screens is the darker you make them (including using dark backgrounds), the fewer milliamps they use. So you could turn off auto-brightness and manually adjust the brightness to darker settings. Far from perfect since you must adjust it every time you go from a dark building to a bright sunny day - and vice-versa. A pain.
I recently installed Screen Filter by haxor industries. They only tout its ability to make the screen really dark for night-time viewing, with the side benefit that it will also save some battery. It works great for that. It will make the screen much, much darker than the lowest stock brightness level (even using apps which take it to its absolute lowest setting, which the stock brightness slider won't allow you to do). I've found going to 25% is perfect. It makes the screen a little gray when you go really dark but its a minor downside.
Solution: I realized it can also be set to only dim the screen a little, like 75%, or 80%. Not helpful at all in a dark room since it is still very bright. But I also noticed that it works along with the stock auto-brightness setting. So you can apply a fairly bright setting to Screen Filter and leave it on all the time, effectively lowering the stock auto-brightness level a few notches no matter what brightness it picks. You still get the benefit of auto, and you get to reduce the battery draw all the time, on the single-biggest battery user on the Note.
You can save multiple widgets on the home screen, each set to different levels, so you can turn off the 75% setting and apply a 25% setting at night with two button presses. Or turn it off with one button press in bright sun. And/or you can add it as an app shortcut which allows you to adjust the brightness from an "ongoing notification" in the notification bar.
I'm starting a test today, leaving mine on 75% all the time with auto-brightness on, and using 25% in dark situations which doesn't happen often. I expect this will produce a noticeable improvement in battery life.
are you representing the app ?...or for the company?......
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using XDA
Look at my post count and how long I've been on this board. No.
The app has no ads and is free, BTW.
Looks promising. Ran mine down to 5%. 15 hours on battery, 4 hours of screen time. Most people here only report 3 to 3 1/2 hours of screen time.
I just maintain my brightness, im anal like that. Especially with that notification shortcut for increasing or reducing brightness someone recently posted. i am good to go.
Kony 2012 is Propaganda.
www.Facebook.com/freeyourmindcampaign
I use screen filter and did not think to use it all the time with auto brightness, I will give it a go thanks for the idea.
Simply setting my brightness down to about 25% and leaving it I get 4.5~5 hours screen on time.
This is still working well for me, with a noticeable increase in battery time.
I've adjusted my lowest setting from 25% to 30%, too much of a gray cast to the screen at 25%. 30% is still pretty dark in a dark room. The 75% setting is good most of the time but I've found in full sun I usually have to turn it off.
Lol at wish777, ya he is promoting a free app. Do some research before you assume and accuse someone of something.
Thanks to op for app suggestion, it works great. I downloaded it, you must of brainwashed me with your deceiving free app propaganda
<--- that's me I don't know what happened I read your review then I blacked out, when I came to I had this strange FREE app on my phone
Sent from the only smartphone designed by Chuck Norris
Yes, the screen is almost always the biggest battery hog in these devices. Thanks for sharing that app.
Here is another, https://play.google.com/store/apps/...XJ2ZWZpc2gud2lkZ2V0cy5icmlnaHRuZXNzbGV2ZWwiXQ.. It is FREE, so no acusations. I am not the dev and I didn't even play one on TV. This one is nice because you have a single widget that pops up a window with several options of screen brightness.
ANd if you are using Juice Defender Ultimate, There is Brightness feature built in that do the same thing.
kimtyson said:
Yes, the screen is almost always the biggest battery hog in these devices. Thanks for sharing that app.
Here is another, https://play.google.com/store/apps/...XJ2ZWZpc2gud2lkZ2V0cy5icmlnaHRuZXNzbGV2ZWwiXQ.. It is FREE, so no acusations. I am not the dev and I didn't even play one on TV. This one is nice because you have a single widget that pops up a window with several options of screen brightness.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looking at the reviews for that app, someone said that Dimmer takes the screen down farther. I tried Dimmer before Screen Filter (only for night time viewing) and can confirm it will take the Note down to the lowest allowed 10/255 where the stock brightness only allows you to go to 30/255. However, Screen Filter will make the screen even darker than Dimmer. Something to consider - not bashing any of the above. Just sounds like Screen Filter is better both for daytime and nightime use.
I use screen filter to read at night. I'm not sure about the battery savings but with screen filter set at 12.5% the screen is unreadable unless you are in a dark room. In a dark room at that level white text is more gray than white as well.
wish777 said:
are you representing the app ?...or for the company?......
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
asking a question is now the same as accusation?
good thread. i installed S.F. in Feb, def works great for me. but i prefer manually adjusting screen brightness via the shortcut "Slider" at top of the Gnote's screen
I use this app for night time reading. It works great and I didn't know about having multiple widgets with different darkness settings. Thanks for the pro tip!!!
Which app did he promote? I don't see any mention :-\
techntrek said:
Looks promising. Ran mine down to 5%. 15 hours on battery, 4 hours of screen time. Most people here only report 3 to 3 1/2 hours of screen time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm getting just shy of and over 4 hours screen time, depending how long I'm actually talking on the phone for that day. Not using this app btw, wifi at home, LTE everywhere else
Actually, for me, the screen is the number 3 item for killing battery, trumped by phone calls at number one. And I dont even spend that much time on phone calls, usually less than an hour per night (I wish I could find a solution for this besides not making / taking calls).
Under Settings->Display->Auto Adjust Screen Power, I have this DISABLED.
This helps significantly with the 'greys' on a dark screen (to the best of my limited comprehension, this is being called black crush?) AND virtually eliminates the 'banding' I was seeing initially. Strangely however, I had to disable this option and it took a day or two before the banding almost completely disappeared (I was seeing it ALOT on the Google Market initial grey screen before it loads in the ads).
I use Auto Brightness.
I also have Settings->Power Saving->All Options are DISABLED.
Anyway, you might try disabling the power saving and auto adjust screen power and see if that helps with black appearing grey using the app you are mentioning.
Use the 15 toggle mod to turn of all cellular data when you don't use your phone. You can still receive messages/calls but there is no reason to leave mobile data on while at work or you're not using the phone.
I usually leave school with around 90% battery left and I'm on school from 8-1. All because I leave data off while not in use.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda premium
If you have an Amaze then you know that the secret to long battery life is minimizing screen brightness. Problem is the default auto-brightness levels are brighter than needed and there is no way to adjust.
I recently installed Lux which allows you to customize the auto brightness curve. This should theoretically extend battery life. I'll report what I find here on this thread.
Meanwhile one thing I noticed.... In Lux you can monitor the level reported by the phones built in light sensor. On my Amaze I get really strange readings. There are four levels: 90, 320, 640, 11000. Really? With careful shading of the sensor I was able to get a reading of 2400 once. 11000 was reported even in shade on a cloudy day.
But it seems like the sensor doesn't read light levels well at all. There isn't enough granularity and the calibration is way off.
Anyway if we can fix it or address it, that should make a real difference in the battery life of the device.
Sent from my HTC Ruby using Tapatalk 2
I use elixir 2 and the personal add on.. I set my icon/widget to whatever percentages I want.. Then tap it till its right for my environment
e-Sex.. All of the carpral none of the tunnel
Use screen filter from play.. works great..
Sent from my Amaze using xda app-developers app
This one is pretty awesome.. "Display Brightness".. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=rubberbigpepper.DisplayBrightness&hl=en
You can put a 'slider' anywhere you want and simply slide it up and down to change the brightness to the exact levels you want.
Works great an you can customize it quite a bit. :good:
It's shown in on the top in the screenshots at the link, but I always put it on the right hand side, a little higher than mid-way, and I make it translucent grey so you cant even really see it unless you're looking for it.
That's the free version, I have the Pro version and it's worth it. lol
Somehow Nokia Lumias are managing to have an always on screen using plain ol LCD and not OLED tech... apparently the battery drain is minimal something like 1% a day.... the author reckons that it's something to do with the screen brightness being really reduced or something...
Is this possible to implement with the Truesmart because this would really be a killer feature!!!
http://allaboutwindowsphone.com/features/item/18191_Nokia_works_a_LCD_miracle-Glan.php
That is pretty damn cool
The nearest i could find was clock view, this allows you just to show the time with a mainly black screen and with the brightness turned right down...
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kimscom.clockview
Im going to see how much of a drain it is, but the backlight is still on so prolly plenty; Thing is on a lumia the battery is gonna be pretty bad compared to a smartwatch so a days worth of battery is good for a phone but terrible for a watch..