SOLVED Screen brightness on ICS compared to Gingerbread - AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717

I have been using the same rom since the day I received my Galaxy Note so I am used to it by now since I have been using it for over four months. I even flashed a couple other Gingerbread roms which were nice but I came back to the Solaris Prime rom qickly after flashing. After waiting since the first ICS leak I got bored and flased a custom ICS rom with the intention of playing with it for a while then flashing back to Gingerbread. The screen was bright on every Gingerbread rom I flashed, but on the ICS rom I flashed it was nowhere near as bright. I always use full brightness and never use auto adjust which is what I set it to on the ICS rom. This is the ICS rom I tried out http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1686320 Now my question is, has anyone else noticed this or is it maybe only a problem with this rom? Are ICS roms not as bright as Gingerbread roms cause I need the screen to be very bright? I noticed the brightness was very dim compared to Gingerbread roms I have used within five seconds of setting the brightness to full and turning off auto adjust. If all the ICS roms are like this I think I will stay with Gingerbread cause this is a deal breaker for me.
EDIT: I figured it out. It is the Auto Adjust Screen Power setting, when checked the screen becomes dim when unchecked the screen is vived and bright. I guess this setting is not in all roms.

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Hard to compare since I can only load one ROM at a time. But I never noticed the difference in brightness. I leave mine turned up also as I am frequently outside with my work and play. The 15 toggle mod is not somehow overiding your brightness setting in ICS?

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I believe I have noticed the same issue. I thought maybe it was just me, but apparently I am not the only one. I am rooted and running BlackStar rom right now, and I can compare it side by side with my girlfriends stock unrooted note and hers seems noticeably brighter. But even that I chalked up to her not having a screen protector and me having one. But I wouldn't think the screen protector would inhibit the brightness much if at all.
I also have gotten to the point of using full brightness, becuase auto brightness is unusable at times, even indoors.

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Are we the only 2? LOL. I have noticed another issue with the backlight today. The screen seemed dim, but every once in a while would get bright for like half a second then go back to dim. I have it set to full brightness, but I tried covering the sensor, or at least what I think is the sensor(gonna have to google that) and it didn't change anything.

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mike208 said:
I believe I have noticed the same issue. I thought maybe it was just me, but apparently I am not the only one. I am rooted and running BlackStar rom right now, and I can compare it side by side with my girlfriends stock unrooted note and hers seems noticeably brighter. But even that I chalked up to her not having a screen protector and me having one. But I wouldn't think the screen protector would inhibit the brightness much if at all.
I also have gotten to the point of using full brightness, becuase auto brightness is unusable at times, even indoors.
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Well did you compare when you both stock? Not every screen is created equally. I've seen identical phones next to each other and both have completely different temperatures on the screen (one bluish and one yellowish).
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda app-developers app

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porkenhimer said:
I have been using the same rom since the day I received my Galaxy Note so I am used to it by now since I have been using it for over four months. I even flashed a couple other Gingerbread roms which were nice but I came back to the Solaris Prime rom qickly after flashing. After waiting since the first ICS leak I got bored and flased a custom ICS rom with the intention of playing with it for a while then flashing back to Gingerbread. The screen was bright on every Gingerbread rom I flashed, but on the ICS rom I flashed it was nowhere near as bright. I always use full brightness and never use auto adjust which is what I set it to on the ICS rom. This is the ICS rom I tried out http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1686320 Now my question is, has anyone else noticed this or is it maybe only a problem with this rom? Are ICS roms not as bright as Gingerbread roms cause I need the screen to be very bright? I noticed the brightness was very dim compared to Gingerbread roms I have used within five seconds of setting the brightness to full and turning off auto adjust. If all the ICS roms are like this I think I will stay with Gingerbread cause this is a deal breaker for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The devs on custom roms turn down the brightness due to ocer heating..even if u can move the bar all the way to bright its still not the same
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda premium

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erick161 said:
Well did you compare when you both stock? Not every screen is created equally. I've seen identical phones next to each other and both have completely different temperatures on the screen (one bluish and one yellowish).
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is not anything that I needed to compare. It was noticable and since it happened I have read about other devices having the same issue after upgrading to ICS. It seem like the only devices this happens with are Samsung devices cause every device I found with this issue was a Samsung device. Not sure if they are putting a limit on brightness cause I know a lot of people said the contrast was too high on the Note but there is clearly something making the screen look washed out with ICS. I want my screen to be bright like it is capable of. I want my whites to be white like they are on Gingerbread.

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erick161 said:
Well did you compare when you both stock? Not every screen is created equally. I've seen identical phones next to each other and both have completely different temperatures on the screen (one bluish and one yellowish).
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is not anything that I needed to compare. It was noticable and since it happened I have read about other devices having the same issue after upgrading to ICS. It seem like the only devices this happens with are Samsung devices cause every device I found with this issue was a Samsung device. Not sure if they are putting a limit on brightness cause I know a lot of people said the contrast was too high on the Note but there is clearly something making the screen look washed out with ICS. I want my screen to be bright like it is capable of. I have also read lots of people sayin that for some reason after rooting ICS their screens are not as bright but they cannot figure out why rooting would cause this to happen.

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JB calhoun said:
The devs on custom roms turn down the brightness due to ocer heating..even if u can move the bar all the way to bright its still not the same
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda premium
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Click to collapse
That makes no sense. I need a dev to tell me they limit the brightness we can use before I would beleive that. And not only that the problem seems to be happening on official firmware upgrades not just custom roms. I do not think its a coincidence that all the devices I have found this problem happening on after updating to ICS were Samsung devices.

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I recreated the problem so people can see it happening on their devices. Try this
1: Turn full brightness on and turn off auto adjust.
2: Open the default browser, and Gmail and leave them running.
3: Now go to home and long press the home button and the app icons will popup. Pay attention to Gmail and the browser, and you will notice the task manager icons are much brighter than the apps.
4: Without taking your eyes off the task icons open the browser and you will notice it gets dimmer then the task icons.
5: Now hit the menu button and when it pops up the browser will get brighter. Hit it again it will get dimmer.
6: Now hit the tab button and you will also see the tab icon is much brighter than the app itself.
I have noticed the apps that have the black menu popup get lighter and darker when you push the menu button but the ones with the white menu popup stay the same when you push the menu button. The weird thing is it seems like the system menus, app menus and the launcher are all as bright as they should be its just the actual apps that are washed out. I have only tried two AOKP roms so maybe this is a problem with those roms but it is very noticeable especially on apps that have white backgrounds. I cannot figure out why the whole system is bright til I open an app then the app gets dimmer then the rest of the system.

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Lol
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda premium

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This ICS rom I'm using (FJ ucle2#6...is not "darker" per sey .
I'm leaning more toward darker theme features perhaps ?
But I prefer the dark background popups with white letters etc. And I suppose it's possible that the ICS leaks are reduced to improve battery life ?
I honestly can't say, but I do know that my stock GB was like looking into the sun at night for me.
My eyes don't do bright very well ....g

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I have the same problem!!!
I use my Galaxy Note (ATT) at full brightness and I have had it for 4 months. Got bored and decided to root it yesterday and installed an ICS rom. The screens were noticeably darker even at full brightness. It was depressing me and I wanted to go back to Gingerbread, but the MDSUM of my nand backup was incorrect for some reason, so I have not been able to do that. Looking around now for some Gingerbread roms to flash today!!!

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ariot said:
I have the same problem!!!
I use my Galaxy Note (ATT) at full brightness and I have had it for 4 months. Got bored and decided to root it yesterday and installed an ICS rom. The screens were noticeably darker even at full brightness. It was depressing me and I wanted to go back to Gingerbread, but the MDSUM of my nand backup was incorrect for some reason, so I have not been able to do that. Looking around now for some Gingerbread roms to flash today!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this Gingerbread rom its great http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1563390

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porkenhimer said:
Try this Gingerbread rom its great http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1563390
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you!

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porkenhimer said:
Try this Gingerbread rom its great http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1563390
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just an FYI, - I was downloading another rom from the same team as the one you recommended when I saw your update, so I went ahead and flashed the one I already downloaded. Took me back to 2.3.6, but it did NOT fix my screen brightness issue. I therefore went ahead and took my phone completely back to stock,unrooted and it's all good now.

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ariot said:
Just an FYI, - I was downloading another rom from the same team as the one you recommended when I saw your update, so I went ahead and flashed the one I already downloaded. Took me back to 2.3.6, but it did NOT fix my screen brightness issue. I therefore went ahead and took my phone completely back to stock,unrooted and it's all good now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats the rom I use and its super bright. Try it out I promise you will like it.

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just pointing out - I agree about the brightness thing.
specially so in my favorite new rom, the latest from team perfection (the one released at the end of june 2012). it's an amazing rom, but it is quite dramatically dimmer in autobrightness modes than GB roms and is in fact so fim in autobrightness modes that I can't see it very well with my old eyes. I had no problem with other roms, and the stock gb rom is MUCH bright in auto mode.
then I take it out of autobrightness and go outside in the sun. it's almost unreadable in the sun outdoors (walking around). reverted to stock nandroid in autobrightness mode - I can read it ok in the sun. reverted to nandroid of the new ics rom. crank the brightness, can't read it, autobrightness is no brighter (maybe even dimmer) in the sun.
this isn't acceptible - the display on the note is amazing, why take away one of the best features of the note?
I cant' even use the phone in the sun when walking now.
I hope someone can find a way to change the brightness levels after the fact - that would be a really helpful tweak for those of us who can easily tell the difference (between readable and unreadable) in our roms.
I've looked through build.prop files but can't see anything there obviously related to screen brightness, so it must be something in teh roms or kernels.
cheers
Don

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dkelley said:
just pointing out - I agree about the brightness thing.
specially so in my favorite new rom, the latest from team perfection (the one released at the end of june 2012). it's an amazing rom, but it is quite dramatically dimmer in autobrightness modes than GB roms and is in fact so fim in autobrightness modes that I can't see it very well with my old eyes. I had no problem with other roms, and the stock gb rom is MUCH bright in auto mode.
then I take it out of autobrightness and go outside in the sun. it's almost unreadable in the sun outdoors (walking around). reverted to stock nandroid in autobrightness mode - I can read it ok in the sun. reverted to nandroid of the new ics rom. crank the brightness, can't read it, autobrightness is no brighter (maybe even dimmer) in the sun.
this isn't acceptible - the display on the note is amazing, why take away one of the best features of the note?
I cant' even use the phone in the sun when walking now.
I hope someone can find a way to change the brightness levels after the fact - that would be a really helpful tweak for those of us who can easily tell the difference (between readable and unreadable) in our roms.
I've looked through build.prop files but can't see anything there obviously related to screen brightness, so it must be something in teh roms or kernels.
cheers
Don
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I mentioned this on one if the rom threads and they got mad for some reason. They acted like I was making the issue up. I do not know how I noticed the ICS roms are not as bright as the Gingerbread roms but not many others have noticed. It is insanely evident that the ICS roms do not match up in brightness when compared to Gingerbread. I have also searched the web about the issue and all the devices with this problem are made by Samsung. The big bright screen should not suffer with an upgrade. I want my screen to be just as bright on ICS as it is on Gingerbread. With this issue ICS is a big turn off for me. I am beginning to think that all the reports of over saturation on the screen of newer Samsung devices have forced Samsung to put something in the newer ICS software to control the problem that some had with the saturation being too bright. I really hope someone else notices so it can be taken seriously and someone will give it some attention and fix it.

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cool, yea I read that... LoL, I felt bad for you.
I think I may have found the possible culprit, if devs are doing this on purpose at least.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1541180
I'll look at this tomorrow and see if I can brighten up my new favorite rom, team perfection (the june 28th or whatever latest rc1 version is).
PS: I killed my flash of that rom by accident this afternoon and now am reinstalling the whole damned thing and all of my apps again. all in an effort to brighten up the display. {stupid}
cheers
Don
---------- Post added at 04:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:24 PM ----------
side note:
in my attempt (and final success) to download apkmanager/apktool, I came across ******* (an ad website - edit: "adf .ly" without the space). I've hit it before too.
It is very unsual for me to get so angry with a website developer that I get violently negative feelings of aggression toward them, but in this case I can strongly and confidently say that the developers of ******* need to be forcefully removed from existence. or at least their crap advertising code does.
as you were, gentlemen.
now I'm off to start hacking away at the brightness framework apk.
Cheers
Don