Having such a big screen, but having it on 240dip is just a waste for me. And I love the new Sense especially the notifications bar. And just the whole feel of a Sense rom including the messages app and the smart dialer. I don't need the sense homescreen as I use ADW.
But When I lower my DPI to 170 roughly, then I can't link contacts and pretty much all the HTC apps screw up at some point. Was wondering if there was any workaround.
BTW, I need 170DPI because I have a 6x6 homescreen
bump........
I have never had as many scaling problems when changing the DPI as I've had in this phone!
I use the CM7 Nightly's as Sense looks rubbish on anything other than 240, and theres no way I'm using 240.
I used to have a Dell Streak and it scaled everything perfectly from 100-260 DPI. I don't understand why the DHD won't do it, and no one ever seems to give a straight answer.
Even on a non Sense build you still get scaling problems when using a DPI other than 240. There even seems to be problems when using 240DPI! Unfortunately I dont have any screenshots but if I ever come accross it again I'll take some.
Currently I'm using CM7 with a 190DPI. It all depends on the apps you use that won't scale porperly.
You just have to use trial and error. For example you may try 200DPI and there might be 3 apps that dont scale correctly, so you change to 205DPI and you find 2 of the apps scale correctly but then another one pops up that doesn't! The big one for me was the Facebook app, which scales perfectly at 190DPI but not at others.
Take the Facebook app for example (these DPIs are just an example), It won't scale properly at 120-139 but it will scale properly from 140-149, then it wont scale from 150-179 but will from 180-189, then it wont scale from 190-219 but will scale properly from 220-249. There does seem to be some kind of pattern. I guess if you were really anal you could make up a chart of DPIs and apps and tick which apps scale on which DPIs so you could make a good comprimise.
But if you DEFINATELY must have Sense, then I can only presume you'll have to keep at 240DPI.
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?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
What are the pros of doing this vs what are the cons? One con would be that some apps are incompatible with this.
If your blind you can benefit by making it bigger. If you can see really well you can set a lower value for the density which gives you more real estate on the screen.
GNeX
AOKP
FRANCOS LATEST KERNEL
& WHATEVER [MOD AT THE TIME]
If you run at 240 their aren't really any cons as it is still a native Android density. Other densities will give you market compatibility issues. Apps will work at other densities but won't download from the market.
There are modded markets that will make the market think you are running another density then you are so apps will download.
The Pro's are everything looks crisper and better at lower densities and you can get much more information on the screen.
I run my phone in Tablet mode at a 160 density and it looks great!
Just remember when making the density lower you can enlarge the text by going into the settings menu then display.
Stick with 240 and you'll be fine. I run 240 with small text and everything looks tack sharp.
One of the first things I have noticed with the Tab Pro 8.4 is a severe imbalance between the font sizes of Samsung UI elements and non-Samsung. For example in Play Store when I enter text in the search box it's crisp but quite small. Yet the text in the Settings menus is a very comfortable size compared to the Google font size. If I increase the font size system-wide then the Google font size becomes comfortable and the Samsung font size becomes cartoonishly big.
Has anyone else noticed this and/or come up with a reasonable solution?
Perhaps one culprit is the fact that the true DPI of this device is 359 and Samsung has programmed 320 into the build.prop. That means it's lying to the OS that the screen is 9.4" not 8.4". So apps are drawing text and graphics a bit too small, but Samsung decided to jack up their own font sizes to a comfortable range. If I were to edit the DPI to 320 that still wouldn't be likely to help as then Samsung would just remain cartoonishly big.
I agree 100% with this problem and have tried changing the DPI in the build.prop. Big mistake as it causes crashes everywhere in Sammy apps.
The only work-around I have found was to use the Xposed framework with the App Settings app. This way you can adjust each app individually.
Its not a perfect solution, but its the best I have found in the 5 days I've owned this tab.
cmstlist said:
One of the first things I have noticed with the Tab Pro 8.4 is a severe imbalance between the font sizes of Samsung UI elements and non-Samsung. For example in Play Store when I enter text in the search box it's crisp but quite small. Yet the text in the Settings menus is a very comfortable size compared to the Google font size. If I increase the font size system-wide then the Google font size becomes comfortable and the Samsung font size becomes cartoonishly big.
Has anyone else noticed this and/or come up with a reasonable solution?
Perhaps one culprit is the fact that the true DPI of this device is 359 and Samsung has programmed 320 into the build.prop. That means it's lying to the OS that the screen is 9.4" not 8.4". So apps are drawing text and graphics a bit too small, but Samsung decided to jack up their own font sizes to a comfortable range. If I were to edit the DPI to 320 that still wouldn't be likely to help as then Samsung would just remain cartoonishly big.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
tpowell.ca said:
I agree 100% with this problem and have tried changing the DPI in the build.prop. Big mistake as it causes crashes everywhere in Sammy apps.
The only work-around I have found was to use the Xposed framework with the App Settings app. This way you can adjust each app individually.
Its not a perfect solution, but its the best I have found in the 5 days I've owned this tab.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, I've used it before on other devices. I used the newly released FlashFire to take a backup of my system to external SD before installing Xposed. I currently have a dpi of 360 assigned to all of: Chrome, Dropbox, Gmail, gReader, Google Maps, Netflix, News & Weather, Nova Launcher, Plume, Root Explorer, Tapatalk, Titanium Backup, PressReader, and the App Settings app itself (as everything was a bit too small). That puts these apps in the same range of screen element size as on Nexus devices. Feel free to pick a bit higher for a bit bigger as we do tend to hold tablets further from our faces than phones.
In fact the Nexus 5 itself (which is my daily phone) has a build.prop that is too large for the real screen size, 480 instead of 445 (factor of 7.8%). But it does make the UI a bit more comfortable without sacrificing too much screen space. So theory if you want any apps on the Tab Pro to display their UI elements at least as large as they physically appear on a Nexus 5, you'd assign a DPI in the 380-385 range to those apps.
tpowell.ca said:
I agree 100% with this problem and have tried changing the DPI in the build.prop. Big mistake as it causes crashes everywhere in Sammy apps.
The only work-around I have found was to use the Xposed framework with the App Settings app. This way you can adjust each app individually.
Its not a perfect solution, but its the best I have found in the 5 days I've owned this tab.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Old thread but thanks! My GF has the 8.4" model and in the latest Facebook app the font is like 1/32" and she cannot read it
I read here and there the forum, rooted the tablet, installed xposed, installed AppSettings and changed the DPI, it worked! :good::good::good:
Hello guys,
I bought a new Wileyfox Swift and I'm really curious what dpi setting setting is the natural/standard one for a 5 " Display , especially for the wileyfox swift. It is said that the display has a natural of 296 ppi. which DPI Setting should I use in Cyanogen OS ? The standard of 320 DPI or a value near the natural ppi of the display? 300 DPI or less? I just want a setting the fit's the standard.
Does this value or setting has impact on other things or only the scale of things on screen?
Again, should the cyanogen os standard value of DPI be set near the standard PPI value of the smartphone display`?
thanks in advance for all helpful answers.
That is a neat little option.
Usually it affects the size of items which can be displayed. Depending on the apps you use, you'll find that their appearance and subtle part of functionality on the UX side will change a bit. Some layouts are available only for certain DPI settings. Play around with it and choose your favourite. With lower DPI you can get a bit more screen estate for content- text, icons, etc.
The difference between 300 vs 320 DPI is mostly unnoticeable. As you are looking for the natural look, you can leave it as either of the two. You can try with lower values as well. It is possible to have some problems here and there if you use DPI that is largely different than on the device (something like 240).
Pak0St said:
That is a neat little option.
Usually it affects the size of items which can be displayed. Depending on the apps you use, you'll find that their appearance and subtle part of functionality on the UX side will change a bit. Some layouts are available only for certain DPI settings. Play around with it and choose your favourite. With lower DPI you can get a bit more screen estate for content- text, icons, etc.
The difference between 300 vs 320 DPI is mostly unnoticeable. As you are looking for the natural look, you can leave it as either of the two. You can try with lower values as well. It is possible to have some problems here and there if you use DPI that is largely different than on the device (something like 240).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much I guess I should consider a mental doctor because I'm switching from 300 to 320 and back several times a day lol. Some applications looking better with 300 but 320 looks more clear?!?
Anyway, appreciate you took your time to answer and I guess I'll keep the 300..... Or?.... Wow... Hard decision lol.
Take a look in this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/xpo...2014-05-14-t2437377/post63835421#post63835421
I haven't tried this Xposed module to change the DPI on per-app basis. If you are on CyanogenMod instead of CyanogenOS, it is definitely worth a look.
Best case scenario- you won't change the DPI for the entire system and restart each time