What screen is the least exhaustin on the battery?

[JShultz89]

Hey guys,

Still pretty new to the forum. Doing a lot of research for my next phone.

I realized that I really want a phone with a large absolutely beautiful screen with screaming fast speeds. My nexus one needs a recharge half way through the day or it can't make it, my next phone can not have this problem! The screen is always the largest power drain and it makes me scared that if I get a larger screen my battery will be even worst!

Here's my question:
Are they particular types of screens that consume less energy?

 

[Jammy]

AMOLED screens consume "0 power" to display black and, let's say, "300 power" to display white.

LCD displays consume "100 power" all the time.

More pixels = more power needed.


For your Nexus One, try changing your wallpaper to a dark colour...

 

[Stuntman]

You could try turning down the screen brightness to a level just high enough to read comfortably. I have mine set at around 30% on my Desire Z.

 

[JShultz89]

You could try turning down the screen brightness to a level just high enough to read comfortably. I have mine set at around 30% on my Desire Z.

I've tried that and it seems to help. It's just really annoying, I go to college so I'm constantly in and out of buildings.

 

[dan330]

AMOLED screens consume "0 power" to display black and, let's say, "300 power" to display white.

LCD displays consume "100 power" all the time.

More pixels = more power needed.


For your Nexus One, try changing your wallpaper to a dark colour...

first part is true....

but darker screens on lcd .. dont help with power consumption.. it actually hurts more.
backlight is on same intensity with dark or light screens.
but with dark screens the LCD part must work harder to block the backlight which consumers (a little) more energy.

turning down the brightness is good idea...
if you are in wifi during school.. make sure wifi is on.
try "timeriffic" app to manage your screen brightness and wifi and many other things by time of day.

 

[Xyro]

This isn't really an answer to your question, but it's something I found useful to save power. Since you're at college, chances are you have a fixed timetable for most of the week. I stuck my university timetable into google calender and then set up a tasker profile to respond to those events - whenever I'm in a lecture, it disables 3G/WiFi, sticks the phone in airplane mode and silent mode. Once it's over airplane mode is turned off.

That might be something worth considering if you're having power issues.

 

[Stuntman]

I've tried that and it seems to help. It's just really annoying, I go to college so I'm constantly in and out of buildings.

I recommend this brightness widget: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.sisedi.widgets.brightness&feature=search_result&pli=1

You program 3 brightness levels. A single tap of the widget on your home screen cycles through them. It makes it so easy to adjust the brightness level of your phone. I find I only ever need 3 levels: dark room, indoor and outdoor.

 

[novox77]

I find that heavy radio or CPU use drains battery much, much faster than keeping your screen always on at full brightness. Therefore, these days, I leave my screen on auto-brightness, and set the idle timeout to 2 min. I still consider that I get very good battery life compared to when I was a nazi about preserving every ounce of juice.

You can do a test: put your phone on airplane mode and turn your screen on max brightness. And disable the screen off idle duration. Watch how fast the battery drains. It's actually not as quick as you'd think.

-edit-
also remember that setting the brightness, and showing light vs dark images are completely different things. Lowering the brightness will save battery for BOTH LCD and OLED. Using dark wallpapers, etc to save battery only works on OLED.

 

[Jammy]

I find that heavy radio or CPU use drains battery much, much faster than keeping your screen always on at full brightness. Therefore, these days, I leave my screen on auto-brightness, and set the idle timeout to 2 min. I still consider that I get very good battery life compared to when I was a nazi about preserving every ounce of juice.

You can do a test: put your phone on airplane mode and turn your screen on max brightness. And disable the screen off idle duration. Watch how fast the battery drains. It's actually not as quick as you'd think.

-edit-
also remember that setting the brightness, and showing light vs dark images are completely different things. Lowering the brightness will save battery for BOTH LCD and OLED. Using dark wallpapers, etc to save battery only works on OLED.

Auto brightness generally uses more battery than it saves...

 

[novox77]

Auto brightness generally uses more battery than it saves...

My point is that screen brightness is not one of my bigger battery drains, so I just leave it on the default auto-brightness.