Develop Bugs

[How-To] Change your LCD Density Setting (My Experiences on ICS ROM)

I have been messing around with the LCD density settings on a few ICS ROMs for a little while now and after a lot of trial and error, I thought i'd share my experiences. I did some digging and I didn't see a formal write-up on this for our phones so I thought I'd give this a shot. (if anyone feels this has common knowledge and unnecessary, please just let me know and i will delete. also, I never tried this back on GB)
General Info for Beginners:
As you may already know, the standard resolution for our screens is 800 x 480 pixels. This is far below that of HD or even qHD screens. What this means in terms of real world use is that icons and text appear very large. Given our devices have a large 4.5 inch screen, it is arguable that this is not taking full advantage of all the extra screen real estate. While you cannot change the native resolution of a screen, you can do a simple build.prop tweak that can "trick" your phone into thinking that the resolution is much higher via a few simple programs.
How-To Change the Density Setting:
There are multiple programs out there for this purpose but I have found the best results with "ROM Toolbox". Feel free to buy the full version to support the dev but if all you are looking to do is change the density setting, the lite version will do just fine.
1. download and install "ROM Toolbox" from the Google Play Store
2. go to the "Performance" tab
3. click "build.prop tweaks"
4. change the "LCD Density" slider to whatever DPI you like
5. reboot
As mentioned, there are multiple programs out there but from my experience, DO NOT USE "LCD DENSITY MODDER" from the play store. This seems to soft-brick our phones as well as other GSII variants based on other reviews I've read and there does not seem to be a resolution at this time. This caused issues for me on TW-based and AOSP ROMS. It's a shame too, it seems perfect for this task, especially considering it can install a hacked Play Store (more on that later)
To see a more detailed thread on LCD Density Modder, go here (thanks kobridge!): http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1570893
What Setting to Choose:
This is matter of personal opinion, but I personally like 190 dpi (stock setting is 240). Many people swear by using 160 dpi but personally the icons and text are too small for my poor eyesight. I suggest starting from about 200 or so and working your way down. Remember, the lower the number, the smaller your icons/text will appear but will also give you more screen real estate
You may also notice that text and icons appear less sharp when messing with these settings. Keep in mind that because you are not truly changing your screen resolution, the translation will not be perfect. Personally, given the natural sharpness of AMOLED screens, i think most people while not be bothered by this or even notice
Some users like elliwigy have reported FC issues when going below 190 DPI. If you want to go lower than this, I suggest you search for the thread that has a modded phone.apk that can help with this issue
Potential Issues and Workarounds:
You will inevitably run into some compatibility issues so here are few final thoughts
Which ROM to use?
TouchWiz-based Roms: All roms based on stock Samsung TW for the E4GT were written with only the native resolution in mind. This means that certain apps will not scale well with a higher resolution and two particular ones come to mind:
- The Phone Dialer: The dialer looks like small box that fills up only a portion of the screen. To resolve, use an aftermarket dialer app like "exDialer" from the play store (thanks tenazrael!)
- TW E-mail App: The TW e-mail app (not gmail) also doesn't scale well. Instead, delete and install the AOSP e-mail apk.
AOSP ROMs: CM9 and AOKP handle the conversion a bit better. You won't run into the dialer or e-mail issue like with TW ROMs but there are still some bugs.
- Certain pictures of contacts may show up as way too zoomed in, i.e. messaging notification pictures or the favorites tab (thanks locoboi187!)
- Other aspects of the OS may become hard to read when scaled down so much, i.e. lock screen add-on buttons (thanks phpracing!)
The Play Store Doesn't Show All Apps? - This is the biggest pain in the a$$ when you mess with the lcd density settings. There is a bug in the play store that prevents you from seeing certain apps when you change the settings away from default.
I have seen a few "hacked" versions of the vending.apk out there that makes the play store think you are always set to 240 but for some reason, this only works for a little while.
Here are the steps to get the market working again:
1. Change LCD Density back to stock (240)
2. Reboot to take effect
3. Clear the data for the Google Play Store AND Google Services Framework
4. Open the Play Store app and you should see everything again
5. Change LCD density back to whatever you like.
6. Reboot
I know this is a bit cumbersome but it's the best solution for now. I haven't quite nailed down what triggers the market to "break" but hopefully you won't have to do this fix too often. In opinion, this annoyance is worth it.
To see a more detailed thread on this topic, go here (thanks kobridge!): http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1529227
Everything Looks Too "Stretched Out"? - Having an aftermarket launcher will help with this tremendously. I personally use Apex Launcher and there are some settings you can change to make the proportions look better
1. Homescreen Settings: Change the Vertical and Horizontal margins to medium or large
2. Dock Settings: Same as above.
You may also want to mess with different grid configurations now that you have extra room but i prefer to leave mine at the default 4 x 4
And that's it. I hope this will help you out so that you won't have to go through all the trial and error I did. I promise you, after you do this, it will be impossible for you to go back to the stock resolution (everything looks HUGE)

... and for those who care, here are some screen shots and the stock e-mail app

I've found 190-200 to be the sweet spot for me no matter which rom I use. It's nice, but isn't as nice as native 720p.
Tis a pity pentile was chosen for the GN over samoled+ makes it so one must choose between awesome colors or sweet, tight rez.

heroisnotdead said:
Tis a pity pentile was chosen for the GN over samoled+ makes it so one must choose between awesome colors or sweet, tight rez.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Amen

For those people who are interested - I am currently using LCD Resolution app from the Market store to keep my phone at 200. Anything less bothers me in some way or another.
In regards to the Dialer/Contacts being off center, I use an app called exDialer + exDialer ICS theme which scales perfectly. I then use an app called Holo Launcher which I believe beats Zeam, Go, and Launcher Pro hands down! This also scales perfectly. Finally, I am running the latest Blazer ROM on GB EL29.
The Market bug is very annoying, but I'm continually doing research on how to get past it.

tenazrael said:
For those people who are interested - I am currently using LCD Resolution app from the Market store to keep my phone at 200. Anything less bothers me in some way or another.
In regards to the Dialer/Contacts being off center, I use an app called exDialer + exDialer ICS theme which scales perfectly. I then use an app called Holo Launcher which I believe beats Zeam, Go, and Launcher Pro hands down! This also scales perfectly. Finally, I am running the latest Blazer ROM on GB EL29.
The Market bug is very annoying, but I'm continually doing research on how to get past it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the dialer tip! I will update OP with this info. This is very useful knowledge. I started using AOSP roms to avoid annoying dialer bug so this may lead me to rethink what ROM i use and go back to TW based

At any lower dpi the messaging notification picture icon looks zoomed on CM9. I tried 160, 180, 195, 200
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

im running cm9 a4 and this worked for me no problems. everything works the contacts and the dialer. not off center to me. i havent really messed around with the store yet but seemed good to me. the only thing i saw that was a little out of place and i dont think it is the tweak is the favorites icons. i use the favorites alot seeing as i only really call the same 6-7 people. does the contact/dialer app fix this?

phpracing said:
im running cm9 a4 and this worked for me no problems. everything works the contacts and the dialer. not off center to me. i havent really messed around with the store yet but seemed good to me. the only thing i saw that was a little out of place and i dont think it is the tweak is the favorites icons. i use the favorites alot seeing as i only really call the same 6-7 people. does the contact/dialer app fix this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i guarantee you that you'll see my problem listed above. Reproduceable.

Thanks for re-editing.
LCD Modder issue -
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1570893
Market download -
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1529227

elterible said:
... and for those who care, here are some screen shots and the stock e-mail app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is that a galaxy nexus or did you just change the dpi.

Also with the changes. The lock screen add on buttons (top, right, and left options) are very tiny. I didn't even notice them until I took a good look at it. Again don't think this is a problem, just a product of the modification.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

My experience on any rom is phone fc's on any setting below 190 without modded phone.apk.. havent had any issues with market or anything when set to 190 in rom toolbox on any rom.. also if interested in native lcd changing support paranoid android is awesome! Not only does it have tablet mode it also has hybrid mode where you can change global density and even density per app while in hybrid mode
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA

thanks for the feedback everyone. again, i will update OP with the info
kobridge - thanks for the links to your posts. i didn't see these but will link in the OP for those who want more info.

Zero Night said:
Is that a galaxy nexus or did you just change the dpi.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
just changed the DPI (don't own the GN, only E4GT). At the time of the screen shots, i was running CM9a5 with apex launcher set at 190 DPI

I didn't feel like reading the previous post but here's how to fix play store dpi issue. Steps 1 & 2 can be done in either order. Doesn't matter. Just be sure to change dpi before market updates
1) set your dpi
2) uninstall all data and updates to market.
3) reboot phone let play store update.
4) where did my dpi compatability issue go?
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

Shoulon said:
I didn't feel like reading the previous post but here's how to fix play store dpi issue. Steps 1 & 2 can be done in either order. Doesn't matter. Just be sure to change dpi before market updates
1) set your dpi
2) uninstall all data and updates to market.
3) reboot phone let play store update.
4) where did my dpi compatability issue go?
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried both OP's solution and your solution, but neither is working, guess I'm one of the unlucky ones. It'll be a pain, but whenever I need to download something from the Play Store, I'll have to sit with 240 dpi for a bit, haha.

lucentflame said:
I've tried both OP's solution and your solution, but neither is working, guess I'm one of the unlucky ones. It'll be a pain, but whenever I need to download something from the Play Store, I'll have to sit with 240 dpi for a bit, haha.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What ROM you using?
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

lucentflame said:
I've tried both OP's solution and your solution, but neither is working, guess I'm one of the unlucky ones. It'll be a pain, but whenever I need to download something from the Play Store, I'll have to sit with 240 dpi for a bit, haha.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's odd. I forgot to mention u gotta wipe Google frameworks also. But its how I fix my issue. It works on cm9 and blazer 4.1
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

Shoulon said:
That's odd. I forgot to mention u gotta wipe Google frameworks also. But its how I fix my issue. It works on cm9 and blazer 4.1
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, the "trick" doesn't work for me either until i wipe google services framework.
On a side note, wipe the google services framework FIRST, then the play store. If you do the GSF last, you sometimes get a weird "server error" when you open up the play store

Best DPI?

I discovered today that the note 2's dpi is set to 320, this is shocking given how big the screen is.
This dpi is similar to phones like the galaxy nexus, galaxy s3 and one x, so technically we are getting as much usability as phones with screens smaller then .7inch smaller then owers.
I changed the DPI to 240 and I instantly found a huge difference, no loss in overall sharpness, more icons fit in the screen, apps showed more detail, and the phone felt like a phablet rather then a phone for the first time.
Anyways for now I'm using nova launcher(for a costimizable homescreen/drawer) and alternates to all the samsung apps because they are not compatible with a lower DPI. Has anyone played around with their DPI? which DPI was the best for the phone?
For those who didn't try it yet, I highly recommend you to try it out if you know what you're doing.

You may find this handy - Samsung apps resized for 240 DPI:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2001577
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda premium

onslaught86 said:
You may find this handy - Samsung apps resized for 240 DPI:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2001577
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did check that out, but they're all older versions of the apps i have (4.1.2 final)

Keep in mind that it does screw with the Play store. Certain apps may not be available.
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda premium

240 is too small in my opinion. Most of the apps work without any problem on 280, and for me it's the highest visible density for me. Btw on 240 there problems with fluency.

hav0c said:
Keep in mind that it does screw with the Play store. Certain apps may not be available.
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I cleared the play store's data a cache, it turned into tablet mode which was pretty sweet. I could've kept it as is from stock dpi and I would've been able to get the normal phone mode apps.
parrotlarch said:
240 is too small in my opinion. Most of the apps work without any problem on 280, and for me it's the highest visible density for me. Btw on 240 there problems with fluency.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Samsung apps seem a bit laggy at 240 dpi, but I solved that by using alternatives to most of them, nova launcher looked pretty sweet. And as for the visibility, the screen is HUGE, like even at that tiny dpi icons are as big as they are on an S3 which is at 320 dpi, I'm gonna try 280 seems like a better choice for frequent usage.
I find it kind of stupid that they kept the dpi at 320, a lot of wasted screen space

Shame S Note crashes even at 280 dpi... especially as there is not an alternative that links in so well with the S Pen with pop up windows.
edit: Unbelievable, I set it back to 320 dpi, S Note is still crashing. Even after I wiped it's data.
edit 2: Wow, re flashed my ROM, even did the wipe option, S Note STILL crashes.
edit: DW, was EE's CSC causing it lol.

I need to set more than 320DPI but TW based rom always got crash

RambJoe said:
Shame S Note crashes even at 280 dpi... especially as there is not an alternative that links in so well with the S Pen with pop up windows.
edit: Unbelievable, I set it back to 320 dpi, S Note is still crashing. Even after I wiped it's data.
edit 2: Wow, re flashed my ROM, even did the wipe option, S Note STILL crashes.
edit: DW, was EE's CSC causing it lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Must be a rom issue then, been running hypernote for a very long time and I'm using 240 dpi.
No crashes here

VUDU

I am not the provider of this apk, but it is the recently released VUDU apk.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=35668555&postcount=2
I suggest anyone that wants to use this change your lcd density to 240 to see it as it was meant to be seen.
Personally, after I got my account set up, I changed my density to 300 so the icons weren't too tiny.
Streaming:
3g - okay, stuttery at times
wifi - okay, stutters every now and then; but we only have a 3-5 mb/sec cablemodem
LTE - will test this weekend when I go back to an LTE area

Can't wait until they update it for our phone! Changing the lcd density on my phone for one app isn't appealing to me, especially when I read things like lcd modder apps should not be used.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747

[Q] Some system apps not working after resolution change

This is for the D850 AT&T G3. I used Nomone to set resolution to 1080x1920 @ 480 dpi and observe two weird things:
1) Everything but the dock rescales correctly. This persists even after reboot and only happens in the stock launcher, Nova is OK
2) Several of the stock apps no loger work, and their icons change to generic Androids: calculator, calendar, clockemail, file manager, gallery, messaging, quick remote, tasks, voice command. Any attempt to launch these apps results in a FC. This happens both in the stock launcher and Nova, so I am guessing that they do not rescale correctly at the lower res.
Not a great loss, I would not be using most of these anyway, just curious if there is a workaround. I do not plan on running the monitor at more than 1080x1920. The only thing I will probably miss is the stock email app, I was planning on using that to access office mail via Exchange.
EDIT: Unfortunately it appears that I cannot set up an Exchange account with the lower res, on account of the stock app crashing instantly. This is a complete deal breaker for me, I absolutely need exchange and will need to run at full rez. Bummer, with the bootloader locked I probably can't downfreq the phone either to extend battery life.
EDIT2: You can work around every non-functioning LG app by sideloading the corresponding Kitkat stock app. Unfortunately the one exception to this is Email + Exchange, which is badly broken on stock Kitkat and Google has not bothered to fix it for many months now. For those of us that need Exchange for work this tends to be a deal-breaker issue
EDIT3: As others have noted, Swiftkey does not seem to play well with Nomone either
EDIT4: Nova is also exhbiting some minor issues, with our without Nomone. It does not break too many things, and the things it does break are mostly cosmetic - the icons of the above-mentioned apps turn generic, and the first group of Google apps in the drawer disappeears.

I changed the resolution, rebooted and got an android systemui fc loop that I couldn't get out of. had to factory reset
I then tried it again on a fresh device but wihtout rebooting this time. and like you said, a lot of things are not right...
so I'd say this is generally not recommendable
best bet might be paranoid android or something whenever that becomes possible
I agree, the display is draining the batt too quickly and I doubt underclocking the cpu is going to be of much help

Did you try changing the dpi from 480 to 530? Anything less than 500 dpi seems to force close most apps.. Change it to 530 dpi and hopefully most things should run ok

adrian_nene16 said:
Did you try changing the dpi from 480 to 530? Anything less than 500 dpi seems to force close most apps.. Change it to 530 dpi and hopefully most things should run ok
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
will try that, thanks

With the changed resolution I'll assume that you're rooted. You could use XPosed with the "App Settings" Module to change the DPI for the crashing system apps back to 640. I did this, and it works nicely. It is a bit of try and error in the beginning, but once you caught all apps you use it looks great.
This will probably not solve the icons issue, which is caused by LG not including the icons for other resolutions than what they recommend for the G3. They are available for xxxhdpi (640), but not for xxhdpi (480).

FordT said:
With the changed resolution I'll assume that you're rooted. You could use XPosed with the "App Settings" Module to change the DPI for the crashing system apps back to 640. I did this, and it works nicely. It is a bit of try and error in the beginning, but once you caught all apps you use it looks great.
This will probably not solve the icons issue, which is caused by LG not including the icons for other resolutions than what they recommend for the G3. They are available for xxxhdpi (640), but not for xxhdpi (480).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm running 530 without issues sofar. Would love to be able to go a bit lower though.

Does the Lockscreen works to you on lower then 640dpi?

latino147 said:
I'm running 530 without issues sofar. Would love to be able to go a bit lower though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How's your battery life so far, do you notice anything?

Thanks for the tips and replies, many of them quite useful. Running 530dpi with 1080x1920 is, IMO, kinda pointless, as it negates the benefits if the large screen., If we need to stick about 530 dpi (which seems to work nicely) the lowest settings that make sense are 1224x2176 with 544 dpi setting. This scales everything down by 25% from full resolution. With these settings I don't see the screen get notably warm and the icon and text proportions still make sense. With 1080x1920 @ 530 dpi things don't make any sense, it feels like you are using a 3" screen with high magnification.
So far there are only three things I have been unable to get working
1) Nova launcher to correctly display the custom icons for the above apps. Apex works fine so I have switched from Nova to Apex.
2) Swiftkey - it just gets mangled badly. I will try the "per app" setting in xPosed, but I can't see how it will help.
3) Kitkat stock email.apk with Exchange. This is a long-standing KitKat issue that Google has not bothered to fix. The LG mail works fine with Exchange but does not thread. Any good alternatives?

adrian_nene16 said:
How's your battery life so far, do you notice anything?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
don't know, went back to the default resolution as too much stuff was off, like Swiftkey

[Q] Problem with DPI and stock apps

Hi everyone, I bought my G3 yesterday and today I proceeded to change the DPI as things were too monstruous even using small icons and minimum text size.
The stock DPI sets it at 640 and I changed it to 520 as a friend of mine did, but the result was that any of the stock android apps (camera, calendar, calculator, etc) were working, as well as any of the stock widgets.
I really loved how everything looks with that DPI but it's no use if no app works with it, so I got back to 640.
Anyone knows a pleasant DPI that gets everything working smooth? I'm using the stock ROM and I just rooted the terminal, thanks.

to have a decent size for the icons i recomend 580DPI or 590DPI, less than that and the icons are too small! try it.

Fuakuputu said:
Hi everyone, I bought my G3 yesterday and today I proceeded to change the DPI as things were too monstruous even using small icons and minimum text size.
The stock DPI sets it at 640 and I changed it to 520 as a friend of mine did, but the result was that any of the stock android apps (camera, calendar, calculator, etc) were working, as well as any of the stock widgets.
I really loved how everything looks with that DPI but it's no use if no app works with it, so I got back to 640.
Anyone knows a pleasant DPI that gets everything working smooth? I'm using the stock ROM and I just rooted the terminal, thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used 550 when I was on stock and everything worked as normal. That was a while ago, but from what I remember it was when you got below 530 was when things got funky.

Thanks! At 550 looks great and everything is working fine.