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iPhone Does dark mode reduce battery drain?
- Thread starter Applegeeky
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It might help things on devices that have OLED screens (although the savings might not really be all that significant).
After running the betas all summer, it didn't feel noticable. Obviously, Betas are not always battery optimized so that's not a super great test. I suspect it won't be substantial unless you're the type to check screen-on time in settings.
It does if done right. If it’s true black, where the pixels are turned off, it does.
But if it does what some apps are doing (and this forum lol) where it’s dark grey, it won’t reduce battery drain.
But if it does what some apps are doing (and this forum lol) where it’s dark grey, it won’t reduce battery drain.
Dark mode WILL save energy on OLED screens (X, XS, 11 Pros).
Dark mode WILL NOT save energy on LCD screens (most everywhere else).
Dark mode WILL NOT save energy on LCD screens (most everywhere else).
That doesn't make sense. Surely an OLED pixel displaying dark grey will use less energy than one displaying white?
I don’t think that’s the case. When they say “true black”, they mean individual pixels are switched off. If pixels are lit grey, they’re still on and will use energy. Not sure if it’s less energy than white pixels, but if you want to save battery it should be “true black”.
So yeah, it does require energy to make an LCD/LED pixel dark, so a dark pixel requires (more) energy.
However, you have to also consider the energy that goes into any backlighting. Dark mode on screens where backlighting is dynamic is better where the backlighting is more energy intensive than the sum of all dark pixels.
However, you have to also consider the energy that goes into any backlighting. Dark mode on screens where backlighting is dynamic is better where the backlighting is more energy intensive than the sum of all dark pixels.
There had been some tests on this, and OLED screens definitely do save power using black text. For an LCD screen, the backlight has to be always on regardless if there are black pixels on the display (black is essentially just achieved by putting a filter over the backlight). For OLED, each pixel is independently controlled so a majority black screen will have the pixels either off or at very low power.
appleinsider.com
Extreme test shows OLED iPhone X with 'dark mode' saves nearly 60% battery over 3 hours | AppleInsider
After publicizing ways to reduce power consumption on the iPhone X OLED display, AppleInsider has begun to put the methods to the test to get a feel for exactly how much power can be saved. The answer: a lot.
appleinsider.com
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That's not how enabling or disabling something works, simply based on it being an option.
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Completely wrong. Even if there was a shred of truth to that, the fact that the amount of OLED pixels not being lit up in dark mode would save a multitude more battery power in comparison.
