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Brightness lower limit?

I was trying to lower the brightness very low to test how it would affect battery drain and it seems that the phone won't let 3rd party apps lower the brightness lower than what you can set it to, in the phone's settings. I tried an app called timerrific that lets you schedule various settings changes, but the phone seems to be overriding it. When I set the brightness to go down to 15% via the app, it does go very dim, but then immediately bounces back up to lowest level the phone's settings let's you set it at. Also, I had auto brightness off and the power saving mode off.
Has anyone been able to get the phone to go to very low brightness?

Thats a good question and would like the answer too... to me, the lowest brightness which must still HOG the battery as sometimes it seems to drain very fast with usage (and I have it on the lowest setting)... seems overly bright. I would without a doubt use it at a lower brightness to conserve energy depending on what I was doing at the time.

hey maybe its just the screen that makes it look bright

labbu63 said:
hey maybe its just the screen that makes it look bright
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Not sure what you mean? For example, if I set the brightness to go down to 5% through the app Timeriffic, the screen will dim down to where I can barely see anything, but then it immediately raises back up to the lowest setting you can set in the phone's normal settings, which seems to me to be about 25-30%.

Yep
labbu63 said:
hey maybe its just the screen that makes it look bright
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Click to collapse
This is actually correct, the screen is what makes the "Automatic" brightness setting on the SGS phones look brighter than their LCD brethren. As we all know, currently all AMOLED displays use some kind of Pentile Matrix. All HTC devices (The N1 included) currently use RG:BG Pentile Matrix.
Do a google search on: "RGBG Pentile" and Samsung's site details it.
The SAMOLED display Samsung has made uses a new Pentile Matrix called RGBW:
Do a google search on: "nouvoyance" and it's the first site (sorry for the odd instructions, won't let new users post links )
Using the new RGBW, a white subpixel is introduced on top of the standard RGB stripe. From my reading, this allows the screen to achieve the same resolution to the eye with 33% less subpixels and is a brighter display in the process.

Asori said:
This is actually correct, the screen is what makes the "Automatic" brightness setting on the SGS phones look brighter than their LCD brethren. As we all know, currently all AMOLED displays use some kind of Pentile Matrix. All HTC devices (The N1 included) currently use RG:BG Pentile Matrix.
Do a google search on: "RGBG Pentile" and Samsung's site details it.
The SAMOLED display Samsung has made uses a new Pentile Matrix called RGBW:
Do a google search on: "nouvoyance" and it's the first site (sorry for the odd instructions, won't let new users post links )
Using the new RGBW, a white subpixel is introduced on top of the standard RGB stripe. From my reading, this allows the screen to achieve the same resolution to the eye with 33% less subpixels and is a brighter display in the process.
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Click to collapse
Good explanation, but are saying that no you can't dim it to low levels because it makes it look brighter than it is? If so, I don't buy it. I see it being dimmed to a low level. It just doesn't stay there.

Aldiko reader can get the screen even more dim
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

Also since there is less air gap in the new display, it is brighter.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

This is just me speculating, but I'm thinking maybe the brightness setting is universal to android devices, except that it's calibrated to normal lcd. So the same voltage(or however they regulate the display brightness) on an LCD will look brighter on the Super AMOLED. For me, the dim setting on the auto-brightness seems too bright.

One thing I've noticed is I can take the brightness down to its lowest setting and it still seems bright..however on almost every phone I've used its like this.
The weird thing is on the Captivate I can open the browser, men then scroll down to settings and it has a brightness toggle there that takes it lower.

nbohmer said:
One thing I've noticed is I can take the brightness down to its lowest setting and it still seems bright..however on almost every phone I've used its like this.
The weird thing is on the Captivate I can open the browser, men then scroll down to settings and it has a brightness toggle there that takes it lower.
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Yeah that does take it down lower than the home screen by a small amount. I put the browser brightness on the lowest setting and the global brightness on the lowest. Both auto brightness and power save are off. When I switch from the browser to the home screen, it brightens up a touch. So, it does go lower, but not all that much though, and it's only for the browser.

pjs2004 said:
Good explanation, but are saying that no you can't dim it to low levels because it makes it look brighter than it is? If so, I don't buy it. I see it being dimmed to a low level. It just doesn't stay there.
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You can totally dim it more. In doing so, it will use even less power than an LCD screen at the same brightness setting.

Asori said:
You can totally dim it more. In doing so, it will use even less power than an LCD screen at the same brightness setting.
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Yeah, that's what I thought was cool about this type of screen, but I still don't know how to to dim it below the the lowest setting in the phone's control panel (which isn't very low). 3rd party apps I've tried don't really work, or they work, but the phone immediately raises it back up. Are you saying you've dimmed it down to where you can barley see the screen, like 5-10 percent? That's what I'm looking for confirmation on. If so, what app did you use?

pjs2004 said:
Yeah, that's what I thought was cool about this type of screen, but I still don't know how to to dim it below the the lowest setting in the phone's control panel (which isn't very low). 3rd party apps I've tried don't really work, or they work, but the phone immediately raises it back up. Are you saying you've dimmed it down to where you can barley see the screen, like 5-10 percent? That's what I'm looking for confirmation on. If so, what app did you use?
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I have used this app and seems to be pretty good, makes the brightness lower than system brightness.
http://www.androlib.com/android.application.com-curvefish-widgets-brightnesslevel-jDiB.aspx

i use brightness level too but the brightness goes back to the highest level when you plug the phone in and you cant use the presets on the widget anymore

sfernandez said:
I have used this app and seems to be pretty good, makes the brightness lower than system brightness.
http://www.androlib.com/android.application.com-curvefish-widgets-brightnesslevel-jDiB.aspx
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Click to collapse
I tried this app, and while it's a good app, it still doesn't make the screen go super dim. It looks to me like the lowest level (0%) is the same as lowest setting from the control panel. Zero percent should really be totally black.

Screen Filter
Here is your 100% working solution.
It doesn't work with the bright level, it applies a shade/filter to the screen. No matter what app you're using.
Set the bright to the lowest with your default system settings, because if you use a third party that goes below normal, with some apps like explorer, it set it to minimum allowed be system or whatever you set and then you will notice a setp up, shaded but a change.
I'm using it weeks ago and I found it's the best choice to suft the web at night. Also you can turn off softkeys lights
http://www.appbrain.com/app/screen-filter/com.haxor

flash speedmods new kernel.

How can you dim the screen further?

Hey Everyone,
As has been mentioned many times in other threads:
1) The LCD is often the biggest battery drainer
2) The 'minimum' setting of the brightness setting is still needlessly bright.
It certainly can be pushed further down for dim/night/dark settings.
3) Certain apps "dim" the screen but are just changing the color, not the backlight. So while useful they still aren't helping your battery.
Following some tips from a different android phone, I found this file:
/sys/devices/platform_/nov_cabc.0/leds/lcd-backlight/brightness
Which appears to contain the current 'brightness #' of the LCD backlight.
Using the normal Brightness slider, the value changes from 30 - 255, with 255 being the brightest. So this clearly could be reduced further.
Setting 'Screen Filter' to 50% brightness has no effect on the value.
Here's something interesting:
Assume the screen is already set at lowest brightness.
When I use 'Widgetsoid' to set brightness to '1', the screen dims slightly, then brightens back up. The 'brightness' file gets set to 20.
'widgetsoid 20' feels the same as 'min brightness 30'. - I wonder if Android is enforcing minimum backlight?
Anyway, thought that would be interesting to note. I'm going to download some other screen dimmer apps and see what they do.
- Frank

I found this online which is very interesting reading:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/35972886/An-Analysis-of-Power-Consumption-in-a-Smart-Phone
At '30' they said the display consumed 7.8 mW, while at 255 it consumed 414 (!!!)
Various apps coud push the value to 20 - tasker, adjbrightness.
Tasker tries to set it lower but as with widgetsoid, you can see the screen get forced back up to 20.
adjbrightness can "set" it lower than 20, but the entire screen blacks out, even at 19. Remember where the other buttons are so you can restore brightness!
- Frank

Whoa, thanks for the information. That pretty insane but its an apparently in the Market: Screen Filter, saves a helluva lot of battery.
Edit: Nevermind, Frank shut me up LOL.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

I read a thread that said that the stock rom just doesn't allow setting it that low.
Ah well
- Frank

ChodTheWacko said:
I read a thread that said that the stock rom just doesn't allow setting it that low.
Ah well
- Frank
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Click to collapse
Can you set it lower in other roms - like cm7?

netter123 said:
Can you set it lower in other roms - like cm7?
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Click to collapse
I've been playing with CM7 which has some nice features for customizing the auto-brightness settings as well as the "dim" value which seems to be the lowest value the screen will go to and what it gets set to when the screen dims before shutting off after a timeout.
For the Dim setting in CM7, the default is 20. The next highest setting in the picker is 18. I believe it goes down to 0 or 1. When set to 18 or lower the screen blanks out completely when dimmed. Depending on how you test this, you may have a problem getting the screen back, so be careful you know where your widget button is on the screen to bring it back... 20 seems to be the lowest value. However, while dim, in a very dark room it could certainly be even dimmer so I don't know why lower values don't work.
I've also found the light detector doesn't seem to detect a continuum of light levels. It seems to be quantized at particular values, so there's a pretty hard limit on how fine you can set the auto brightness levels since the lowest light reading it seems to take is not very sensitive. It can't seem to distinguish between a fully darkened room and a dimly lit room, so setting the lowest value automatically makes the screen too dark to be comfortable in many environments, but then too bright for a really dark room. I don't know if this is an issue with the ROM software or a hardware limitation of the sensor. I've set my lowest auto setting to 40 which seems to work well, then I manually switch it to the dim value (20) if I'm in the dark.

Any way to lower overall screeen brightness, but keep auto-diming enabled

Is there a way to lower the overall brightness during autodimming?

Try the app screen filter

boostedjti said:
Try the app screen filter
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Click to collapse
Thanks, that works pretty well!

I saw that app and tried it for a while. I think it will lower brightness but not lower battery consumption, simply because you have not changed the light output of the screen itself, you've simply applied a filter overtop.
Has any dev tried lowering minimum brightness to below the current minimum of ~9%?
I would love the ability to set minimum brightness like on my OG D1, as the screen continues to be the highest consumer of battery.

Screen dimming app.

If any of you other users out there feel that the whites on this thing are too awesome for super late at night like I do, I found a app when searching for a f.lux type alternative for android. I have been using this app to help ease the stress on my eye late at night. I dont know about the techical side of what it does, or any of the jargon involved, but it applies a filter of sorts to dim the screen further than what the phone allows. I been using it a lot lately and figure I would share with you guys. If anyone has any recommendations for other similar apps, please share.
Tl:dr
Screen Filter
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.haxor
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

enomele said:
If any of you other users out there feel that the whites on this thing are too awesome for super late at night like I do, I found a app when searching for a f.lux type alternative for android. I have been using this app to help ease the stress on my eye late at night. I dont know about the techical side of what it does, or any of the jargon involved, but it applies a filter of sorts to dim the screen further than what the phone allows. I been using it a lot lately and figure I would share with you guys. If anyone has any recommendations for other similar apps, please share.
Tl:dr
Screen Filter
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.haxor
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or just turn on "Background Color" in Power Saving Settings.

Or if you want the screen brightness itself to be lower than what most ROMs allow, you can use this app called RootDim. It worked amazing on my xoom, not sure if it works on the SGSIII yet..
It requires root though..

yosterwp said:
Or if you want the screen brightness itself to be lower than what most ROMs allow, you can use this app called RootDim. It worked amazing on my xoom, not sure if it works on the SGSIII yet..
It requires root though..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Screen filter does the same and doesn't require root. On our AMOLED screens this can save battery.
Also you can turn off those damn capacitive key lights by going to Settings>display>"touch Key light duration"> Always off.

I can confirm that Root dim does work for the SGS3 I use it on my phone.
Current~Samsung Galaxy S3 SynergyRom 1.3 & Imo's Lean Kernel v12 Oc'd @ 1.9ghz
~Acer Iconia A500 Stock
Past~Droid X Gummy ICS 1.2

Lux is an amazing auto brightness app and setting it up for your tastes is incredibly simple.
Go out in the sun and turn brightness up all the way using the app then "link" that setting, go in complete darkness and set it to your taste and link it, then indoor lighting, set it, link it. It then uses just those 3 settings to create a smooth graph of brightness values that are all perfect. You can have as many links as you want but i find the less settings you put in that app the better.
I tried all the suggested ones in here btw.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

I've tried and really like Lux (in fact I'm considering purchasing it soon) but I've noticed two issues. First is that sometimes it will not refresh itself and I have to open up the lux dash to get the brightness to change. It doesn't happen often, but it happens often enough to be annoying, and I have it set to automatically.
Also, (and this may simply be an issue with the S3 and not lux itself) but sometimes I will be in a decently lit room and be at 1 lux, while lights out is 0. Not a lot of variance unless it's really bright outside. Have you found anyway to increase the light sensors sensitivity?

noingwhat said:
I've tried and really like Lux (in fact I'm considering purchasing it soon) but I've noticed two issues. First is that sometimes it will not refresh itself and I have to open up the lux dash to get the brightness to change. It doesn't happen often, but it happens often enough to be annoying, and I have it set to automatically.
Also, (and this may simply be an issue with the S3 and not lux itself) but sometimes I will be in a decently lit room and be at 1 lux, while lights out is 0. Not a lot of variance unless it's really bright outside. Have you found anyway to increase the light sensors sensitivity?
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Click to collapse
Try setting it to be always active in the task bar, that prevents it from being killed. Also try setting it to not use raw values for light sensor readings, this gives you a simple scale of 0-10 for readings and total darkness always reads as 0.
Edit: oops reread your post. That's weird that it is reading indoor light at 1. I usually get around 2 or 3. I used to have a screen protector on that covered the light sensor and that put it all over the place. Maybe that is what's causing it?

noingwhat said:
I've tried and really like Lux (in fact I'm considering purchasing it soon) but I've noticed two issues. First is that sometimes it will not refresh itself and I have to open up the lux dash to get the brightness to change. It doesn't happen often, but it happens often enough to be annoying, and I have it set to automatically.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I noticed the same behavior with the free version. In my case, the lowest value the HTC Desire S can reach with its default Android auto brightness is in fact about 15%.
In LUX settings you can configure the "0" value to be lower and "bypass" the freeware limitation (you can't configure sub-zero levels in the free version). This will work when you test it in the dashboard, but during regular use the light level never goes below the 15% limit already set by the OS.
What I did was purchase the full version (to get astronomer mode along with all the settings unlocked) so I was able to leave the 0 level at its default 15% but link some light intensity values to sub-zero percentages. Guess what? It works great! Once you go into a very dark room, the display dims as far as you set it to.
Another problem with the free version was that a few times I unlocked the phone outside in full sunlight and LUX did not increase the brightness. It appeared almost completely black because the light level was at about 15-25% (the same level it would be inside a low lit room).
Again, with the full version I did not notice this problem (I've used the free version for 1 day and the paid version for 1 day but running tests in different light levels inside and outside).
It's like the free version is a bit buggy on purpose, and I remember uninstalling LUX free about 2 months because of this; I was thinking that if the free version does not work OK, I shouldn't buy the full version. Apparently this is not the case (touch wood).
Just for the record, it's on "dynamically adjust".
noingwhat said:
Also, (and this may simply be an issue with the S3 and not lux itself) but sometimes I will be in a decently lit room and be at 1 lux, while lights out is 0. Not a lot of variance unless it's really bright outside. Have you found anyway to increase the light sensors sensitivity?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the display is a bit dirty (oily, dusty, etc) around the light sensor, you can try to clean it. If this is not the case, open the dashboard, let it determine the light level or hit "auto" a few times and make sure the reading is correct. Then just slide your finger along the yellow line to find the appropriate brightness level and long press the chain to link. Go to a brighter lit room then go back to the first room and see how LUX behaves. Also lock/unlock the phone a few times and see how it goes.
If you still have problems running LUX, disable it and check the default Android auto brightness to make sure it's not a sensor issue.
LUX also has the possibility to set the response delay under Settings -> Advanced -> Developer Settings (the last to just on the bottom, but for this you would need to buy the full version.

Inginerul said:
If the display is a bit dirty (oily, dusty, etc) around the light sensor, you can try to clean it. If this is not the case, open the dashboard, let it determine the light level or hit "auto" a few times and make sure the reading is correct. Then just slide your finger along the yellow line to find the appropriate brightness level and long press the chain to link. Go to a brighter lit room then go back to the first room and see how LUX behaves. Also lock/unlock the phone a few times and see how it goes.
If you still have problems running LUX, disable it and check the default Android auto brightness to make sure it's not a sensor issue.
LUX also has the possibility to set the response delay under Settings -> Advanced -> Developer Settings (the last to just on the bottom, but for this you would need to buy the full version.
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Click to collapse
Thanks, but I think it is more of an issue of the sensor not being sensitive enough. I'm not sure if this is anything you can change in lux or if it would have to be edited in the kernel (or if it is fault of the hardware) but I just feel like the sensor doesn't go down low enough. As I said, I can get down to 1 or 0 in a decently lit room, and yes I have tried cleaning the screen. It's not like it jumps around or anything so it's not like I would notice anything in default auto brightness, it's just that it doesn't seem to be sensitive enough.

Screen filter is great!! I use as well!!!
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

Well for my Desire S, the lowest light level that the sensor can read is 160 lux (raw value). You can try and set LUX to use raw values because this is more accurate in my oppinion.

Another +1 for Screen filter here

Does anyone know how to use "luma" values for automatic adjustment in Lux instead of "lux" values?

noingwhat said:
Does anyone know how to use "luma" values for automatic adjustment in Lux instead of "lux" values?
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Click to collapse
What I have noticed on my phone is that "luma" readings are taken from the front facing camera, while "lux" readings are taken from the ambient light sensor (you can chose which one to use in the settings).
I suppose the front facing camera uses more battery than the light sensor; it also appears to be more sensitive because it can read more light levels.

Inginerul said:
What I have noticed on my phone is that "luma" readings are taken from the front facing camera, while "lux" readings are taken from the ambient light sensor (you can chose which one to use in the settings).
I suppose the front facing camera uses more battery than the light sensor; it also appears to be more sensitive because it can read more light levels.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess so. Thanks! But doesn't that kinda defeat the whole purpose of Lux? Because you can't use automatic mode with the camera(s).... so then what's it good for?

Well even if you don't have an ambient light sensor, you can still use the camera to check the light level when you unlock the phone and let LUX adjust the brightness level. Of course it's not dynamic but it's still better than having the brightness at 50% the whole time or changing brightness levels through a widget..

How do I enable my phone so that I can manually adjust it to maximum/peak brightness without being in sunlight?

I don't want "daddy Samsung" to decide when my phone can reach maximum brightness or not [even if it is to protect my eyes or save battery etc..].
So, how do I enable my phone [in any way nessecary] so that I can manually adjust it to maximum/peak brightness via the slider, without being in sunlight?

With "unlock" do you mean to root it?

jwoegerbauer said:
With "unlock" do you mean to root it?
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Click to collapse
Let's just use the word "enable" [in any way necessary]. I'm willing to root if need be, but in that case I would like to know which mods/kernels etc that can make this happen

white-k said:
I don't want "daddy Samsung" to decide when my phone can reach maximum brightness or not [even if it is to protect my eyes or save battery etc..].
So, how do I enable my phone [in any way nessecary] so that I can manually adjust it to maximum/peak brightness via the slider, without being in sunlight?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What is wrong with disabling auto brightness in Settings and using the slider manually to maximise the brightness? Or do I understand your issue wrongly?

TNSMANI said:
What is wrong with disabling auto brightness in Settings and using the slider manually to maximise the brightness? Or do I understand your issue wrongly?
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Click to collapse
Most modern phones won't reach peak brightness unless they are in direct sunligt (by the light sensor). The slider at maximum brightness isn't really the phone's peak brightness. The slider is "capped" unless one modifies it somehow (the idea is to protect one's eyes, save battery life etc...).
For example, on gsmarena the specs for the S23's display are: "1200 nits (HBM), 1750 nits (peak)".
So, the slider only brings the phone's display to 1200 nits, while the display's full capacity is actually 1750 nits.

white-k said:
Most modern phones won't reach peak brightness unless they are in direct sunligt (by the light sensor). The slider at maximum brightness isn't really the phone's peak brightness. The slider is "capped" unless one modifies it somehow (the idea is to protect one's eyes, save battery life etc...).
For example, on gsmarena the specs for the S23's display are: "1200 nits (HBM), 1750 nits (peak)".
So, the slider only brings the phone's display to 1200 nits, while the display's full capacity is actually 1750 nits.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Didn't know that and learnt something for today. Sorry for not being able to help since my knowledge of Android does not stretch that much.