I used LCD density to drop the dpi of my screen, which is great because it allows much better homescreen customization. However, some apps look funky with the resolution lowered.
I am currently running at 182. Ideally I would like to be a touch lower. ~170. Hower, if you go lower than 182, contacts will FC. Is there an updated contacts app that will allow it t run in a lower dpi?
The dialer app and onscreen keyboards become very small, are there any designed slightly larger for low dpi?
I will edit this post as I come across more things.
So it has been mentioned throughout a lot of threads but I figured I would give a step by step and overview for the people who do not know about this or are unsure what it means and does. You must be rooted to use this.
When you compare our phones to a phone that has a qHD display you will see that the qHD display will have smaller text and will allow you to view more on the screen at one time then our WVGA screen allows. Well this is how you can even the playing field and view your phone like it was a qHD or even a 720p screen.
No more super large text like your phone was built for the blind. Also, a great feature if you use an alternate launcher you can set the screen to 5x5 or even 6x6 depending on the resolution you pick.
You will need the 2 apps from below.
First you need to install busybox. Download the app and then open it. From there it will ask you to install. Just choose okay for all the defaults and don't change anything.
https://market.android.com/details?...t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsInN0ZXJpY3Nvbi5idXN5Ym94Il0.
Next app is lcd resolution. This is where you change the resolution.
https://market.android.com/details?...NvbS53ZW1vYnMuYW5kcm9pZC5sY2RyZXNvbHV0aW9uIl0.
There are 2 settings I use, 200 which is almost identical to qhd. qHD is 960x540 and the app allows you to set it at 960x576. You can also set it at 160 which is 720p. You can use all the settings in-between as well but I stick to these 2. You can do your own testing and see what works best for you. Make sure when testing that you do not click save on boot in case your Rom does not play nice with that resolution. I have found that 200 works almost everything but 160 can be a little more tricky, especially with certain themes. You top bar will be all blurry. A reset will put you back to stock if your Rom does not like the resolution as long as you did not click set on boot.
By doing this hack, TW launcher will not play nice so you must use an alternative. All other launchers will work. The stock dialer will also not work. You can use Go contacts, dialer one or Ex Dialer. They all look and function great. You will also need an alternate calendar and calculator app. Their are a ton to choose from.
When setting your system to 200, you might encounter an error message saying certain apps are not compatible with your phone in the market. This is because this setting while close to qhd is not exactly the same resolution so the market app does not think is is compatible as it is not a standard resolution. There are 2 ways around this. You can install the app through Amazon market as it does not know the resolution you are running on your phone or you can switch back to stock (240) then clear market data and you can download the app. Then switch back to 200. This won't happen with every app as a lot will still download when st to 200.
When running at 160 (720p) you will not have this issue in the market as this is a native resolution of Android and is recognized by every app.
I think that covers it all for now and I cannot imagine going back to a WVGA resolution as it looks sooooooo much better running at a near qhd res.
Below are 2 picks showing the difference. One is stock, one is set to 200 (qhd) and the other to 160 (720p).
Stock (240)
qHD (200)
720p (160)
I like 720p. Also, you can edit your build.prop manually and modify:
ro.sf.lcd_density=240
Does anyone know how to modify a theme to make it work with this?
bertm13 said:
I like 720p. Also, you can edit your build.prop manually and modify:
ro.sf.lcd_density=240
Does anyone know how to modify a theme to make it work with this?
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Yeah TW theme built for 720p setting would be a keeper.
bertm13 said:
I like 720p. Also, you can edit your build.prop manually and modify:
ro.sf.lcd_density=240
Does anyone know how to modify a theme to make it work with this?
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That works as well but the app makes it much quicker to jump between resolutions then having to edit the file.
When i changed it with LCD density the resolution changed but there was lots of space under the home screen # indicator, can you do a shot of your home screen and wallpaper to see what it looks like?
xlGmanlx said:
When i changed it with LCD density the resolution changed but there was lots of space under the home screen # indicator, can you do a shot of your home screen and wallpaper to see what it looks like?
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you can't use Touchwiz. Need another launcher, and dialer. On some roms the camera and music apps break too if you go too low (like 720p), likely others.
I am confused, if the resolution can be improved via software, then how come the manufacturers are not doing it, what is the catch?
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk
kingsway8605 said:
I am confused, if the resolution can be improved via software, then how come the manufacturers are not doing it, what is the catch?
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk
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I was going to take issue with OP's terminology but decided to not be 'that guy'...
...but here we are.
This doesn't actually change the resolution of the panel at all. You always have the same amount of pixels. Period. All this does is scale the UI. at a screen density of 160 our screen will display things at the size that a 720p screen of identical size would display them. However we lose detail on fonts whereas a 720p screen would have the same amount of detail at 160 as we would at 240....roughly. If you can live with smaller and slightly blocky fonts, go for it.
I can. It's awesome.
another confusing but interesting tidbit: LCD Pixels are made up of red green and blue subpixels. Our panel and the 720p Galaxy Nexus panel have an identical amount of subpixels. But the 720p panel achieves a higher resolution by using less subpixels for each pixel. That is why it is said to have a "pentile" display, as each pixel is composed an arrangement of 5 sub-pixels whereas we have 12 sub-pixels for each pixel. This also explains why 800x480 (WVGA) "pentile" panels look like crap...err...ahem...receive so much criticism. (See: motorola displays)
EDIT: Also, more sub-pixels per pixel means better 'sub-pixel hinting'...which is an effect used to enhance text on LCD panels. The fact that we have so many sub-pixels is probably the only reason why we can pull this off. Of course I'm assuming that android takes advantage of subpixels.
Just a reminder to everyone to nandroid before doing anything like this;
My phone won't boot after doing this. I can get into CWM, but anytime I try to reboot it gets stuck in a loop at the Sprint / 4g animation. I suspect it has something to do with busybox installation but who knows.
I did NOT have the "Set on Boot" selected in the LCD density app. I think I already had busybox support... maybe trying to install the market busybox app borked something.
Anyhoo... always do a nandroid, kids!
As Dan mentioned, it does not actually change the resolution in the true sense but for the purpose of this thread I didn't get into that detail.
I think our screens look 10x better then the Evo 3d and the photon screens when our screens are set to WVGA compared to their qhd display. This only makes it better. With a screen this large it only makes sense to shrink things down to get more on the screen.
Now the Galaxy Nexus screen, I am expecting that to be a killer screen.
Ok thanks, it was leaving like choke real estate under the page number on the screens, I actually like Touchwiz but thanks for the heads up
daneurysm said:
you can't use Touchwiz. Need another launcher, and dialer. On some roms the camera and music apps break too if you go too low (like 720p), likely others.
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xlGmanlx said:
Ok thanks, it was leaving like choke real estate under the page number on the screens, I actually like Touchwiz but thanks for the heads up
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I think if we could yank touchwiz off of a Galaxy Note it would do 720p (160) and if not whatever the density setting is on the Galaxy Note would make it fit perfectly.
As far as I've seen, touchwiz isn't ingrained in Android at all. I could be wrong, but, it seems like just a launcher. It's nothing like Sense which has it's big fat tentacles way up Android's ass.
...though I'm not a fan of Touchwiz, so, it really doesn't bother me at all. It's not that I hate touchwiz--I was actually astonished to find how nice it was after all of the Sense-o-philes bashed the crap out of it--I just love me some Launcher Pro and/or ADWex, depending on the time of day....though every now and then I throw on Launcher7 for giggles.
I think you are right on all accounts. I actually like its styling (well with ICS + ICS Twist) but the fact that the launcher is hardware accelerated is too much to give up
daneurysm said:
I think if we could yank touchwiz off of a Galaxy Note it would do 720p (160) and if not whatever the density setting is on the Galaxy Note would make it fit perfectly.
As far as I've seen, touchwiz isn't ingrained in Android at all. I could be wrong, but, it seems like just a launcher. It's nothing like Sense which has it's big fat tentacles way up Android's ass.
...though I'm not a fan of Touchwiz, so, it really doesn't bother me at all. It's not that I hate touchwiz--I was actually astonished to find how nice it was after all of the Sense-o-philes bashed the crap out of it--I just love me some Launcher Pro and/or ADWex, depending on the time of day....though every now and then I throw on Launcher7 for giggles.
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xlGmanlx said:
I think you are right on all accounts. I actually like its styling (well with ICS + ICS Twist) but the fact that the launcher is hardware accelerated is too much to give up
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Has this been verified? I stopped caring about it once I got LP/ADW up and running and it seems supernaturally smooth. Though I have to admit that the transition to the app drawer in TW is phenomenally smooth...aside from that, though, I don't really see it.
...and if only TW is hardware accelerated that must be via an API. Samsung proprietary? Considering the popularity of the SGS2 worldwide I'd imagine there would have to be another launcher that would take advantage of these hooks.
Honestly if we do, in fact, have hardware acceleration (and I believe we do) why wouldn't that be system wide? Once you go into settings you are out of the launcher and if anyone remembers Cupcake or Donut holy crap was that a painful experience for what was at the time super fast 528-800mhz phones (g1/hero and moment).
this is a great find I think, I really like the tight resolution, not too keen on having to change the type of launcher either
Has anyone noticed the jacked up notification on the notification bar?
And too bad there's not a way to make the dialer and home screens fit the screen now!
Thanks for the hint
Tried this at 160 using go launcher on starburst 1.9.8r with the beta ICS theme and it looked great except the status bar was screwed up. Do you think it might be the theme or rom?
psych2l said:
Tried this at 160 using go launcher on starburst 1.9.8r with the beta ICS theme and it looked great except the status bar was screwed up. Do you think it might be the theme or rom?
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Was it a theme you added on to the Rom? If so, you can try it without the theme.
I am running Calk's 1.5a Rom and it works at 160 by itself, with the honey theme and the ICS mixup theme as well...
Tried it at 200 but didn't like how it screwed the dialer up and went back to 240.
tenaciousj said:
Tried it at 200 but didn't like how it screwed the dialer up and went back to 240.
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Download GoContacts, it comes with GoDialer. Both better than stock apps and free and work at any density.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App
Anyone figure out a way to replicate a true qHD resolution? Being that it is a little off you get the apps not compatible message in the market. If you were able to replicate the exact res like 720p does you would not get that message.
I borked something... For some reason when my keyboard (any keyboard that uses full screen) goes full screen the font color is changing to white. If it wasn't for the white background this would not be an issue. This happens in landscape, but portrait doesn't go full screen so it works fine.
Does anyone have any idea on how to change the font color in full screen only?
As a work-a-round I have installed a keyboard manager that changes the keyboard based on orientation. I am using SlideIt in landscape and FlexT9 in portrait. Occasionally I use hackers keyboard, but having same issue there. I have a habit of switching keyboards depending on my needs at that time.
dharr18 said:
I borked something... For some reason when my keyboard (any keyboard that uses full screen) goes full screen the font color is changing to white. If it wasn't for the white background this would not be an issue. This happens in landscape, but portrait doesn't go full screen so it works fine.
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What do you mean, ''keyboard that uses full screen''? Can you give an example of which keyboard app, which editor app (does it happen when you post on this forum, for example?), and what do you do to make it ''go full screen''?
(By the way, I am using Hackers' Keyboard. All the keys are there, and you can move the cursor with onscreen keys.)
In landscape using hackers keyboard or flext9, when the keyboard expands the entry field goes from web page/ app/ entry field to the fill screen mode where the keyboard takes up half the screen and the other half is a separate input screen, not the web page view.
Sent from my A500 using Tapatalk
Is there anyway to reduce the landscape keyboard textbox size. It dont like the fact it takes up the full screen. It would be nice to still be able to read the message above it etc.
You can use a custom keyboard, popular ones from the market have a DPI setting in the keyboard setting, however for me the result was terrible removed it in minutes after that.
Hi!
Just changing from my good old Note to a G3. With the immensly increased pixels I thought I'd get an even better usability - but so far it is much worse!
Many apps are so ugly as I have seen it only on smaller phones. For example in Hangouts or other such apps I have way less entries on the screen than on my old Note with 1280x800 and 240dpi setting. I can decrease the text size, but the overall extreme height of an entry, a menu line and even in the android system settings remains unchanged. Decreasing the dpi to below 530 has my phone almost stuck since "com.android.phone" keeps crashing and the dialog keeps popping ifinitely. But even with a dpi of 450 things aren't sweet as text goes really small but whitespace is still huge.
So, how come my old phone works so well and shows much more info with 240dpi? Are there other settings I can play with? Those "line heights" are just outrageous. Most apps are in direct comparison to my old Note way better on that one and show more info.
Any links to how android treats these graphic settings and which there are? Does it depend on the version? I use 6 on G3 vs 4.4 on the Note.
Thanks a lot!