In the smartphone market, the majority of displays are either AMOLED or
LCD, but many people don't know that the wallpaper color you choose
- yes, wallpaper - can actually make a difference to your smartphone
battery life. Pure black wallpaper, or a dark-colored background in
general, can actually save you a significant amount of battery life.
First off, we need a quick bit of display technology information. I
won't go into too much detail, but if you want to know more (and which
one is better for what) then you can check out our explanation of the
major difference between LCD, AMOLED and Retina displays. If you just want the black wallpaper, skip to the bottom of the article.
Display tech explained: LCD
LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display and it's the same kind of
technology you'll find in your televisions, monitors and so on. As the
name suggests, Liquid Crystal Displays are actually crystals, and as
such, they don't emit light of their own but rather transmit light from a
light source behind them.
This means that even if you're looking at black on your smartphone or
tablet screen, it is actually black lit up from behind. Therefore, LCDs
don't really display "true" black. The Nexus 5 has an LCD, as does the LG G3 and the Xperia Z3.
LCDs are also quite power hungry as every pixel needs to be illuminated all the time.
Display tech explained: AMOLED and OLED
AMOLED stands for Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode and it
is also used for televisions screens but more notably, for smartphones.
OLED displays are similar, but do not use an Active Matrix.
Samsung displays, for example, are usually AMOLED: the Galaxy S5 and Galaxy Note 4 all use an AMOLED display. The LG G Flex 2 uses a Plastic OLED display and the Google Nexus 6 also uses an AMOLED screen.
As the name implies, the screen is made up of organic material that
actually produces light when a current is passed through it –
electroluminescence. Because AMOLED displays can be lit up pixel by pixel like on the Moto X, black is "true" black because there is no back-lighting.
This also means AMOLED displays are easier on your battery because every pixel is not always lit up.
Battery life: AMOLED vs LCD
AMOLED
You can probably see where this is going: if you have an AMOLED
display then you can actually save some battery life by using black
wallpapers, or generally darker wallpapers and themes.
Our friends at XDA Developers
did a little experiment and figured out that you can save about 6%
battery life/hour at 20% brightness by using a black wallpaper on an
AMOLED display, and about 8%/hour at full brightness.
These results are based on an always-on screen, but the basic theory
is sound even if the figures are not exactly set in stone. Another tester using a different method came up with a general 18% saving all day.
LCD
What about LCD battery saving wallpaper, I hear you ask? Sorry, LCDs
rely on back-lighting, so there's nothing you can do to save battery
there.
The only thing you can do is set your device settings to Battery
Saver mode and try not to turn your screen on all the time. Keep your
display brightness as low as possible and your screen timeout nice and
short.
The good news is you can have the brightest colored wallpaper and
themes imaginable and it won't make a difference to your battery. Just
think about that when you look at the gloomy screens of AMOLED owners
clinging to extended battery life (just don't stray too far from a
charger while you gloat).
It may not seem exciting, but it looks cool. And it doesn't have to be pure black, just dark.
Other battery life tips for AMOLED screens
There are other things AMOLED owners can do to maximize their battery
life too, like setting as many app themes to be as dark as possible.
If you can change the appearance of a bunch of apps you use
frequently (or download a different app that does the same thing but
that does allow appearance customization), you can save even more
battery life.
After all, we don't spend all day on our home screens but more time
in apps. You can also set your text and email preferences to be black
background and white text, depending on your device and chosen apps.
The easiest way to figure it out for yourself is to fully charge your
device as is and wait until it's almost totally dead and look at how
much of your battery was used by the display. Just go into your Settings
menu and look under Device Settings for Battery.
Make a note of the percentage your display has used up, then, while
recharging your phone, switch to a black wallpaper and repeat the cycle
to see the difference.
You can also set screen brightness, modify app appearance and use battery saving mode
Give me black wallpaper now
To download a straight black wallpaper for your smartphone background, hit the link here, and don't forget to change your app themes to be as dark as possible to enhance the battery saving effects.
You can also set a system-wide darker theme for your device, change
your screen timeout setting to be as short as possible, enable power
saving mode, turn off auto-brightness and see how great the battery
savings are.
Of course, your battery is used by more than just display, so results
will be dependent on your phone usage habits, processor and other
variables, but it is still going to save you something worth saving.
Did these black wallpaper tips save you some battery life? Do you have any other tips for conserving battery life?
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