Develop Bugs

Scaling down screen res

Hey guys!
I just wanted to know if scaling down the screen resolution has any impact on the battery life. All of you who have scaled it down, is there any significant improvement in the battery life?
Sent from my LG-D855 using xda premium

There is an battery improvement but some Apps look horrible with This solution. I am back to 1440p and give a f**k about these 1 or 2 hours.

Der CaRl said:
There is an battery improvement but some Apps look horrible with This solution. I am back to 1440p and give a f**k about these 1 or 2 hours.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is that 1-2 hours of SOT, or just usage?

This would all depend on the way you use your phone.
A. If you're a heavy user, (games & movies n stuff) then lower resolutions would benifit tons.
B. If you're a light user, (texts & emails n stuff) then the higher resolutions are very efficent.
There is a common misconception going around about this screen requiring alot of power.
The screen isn't what is draining the device so bad, it's the gpu powering the immense amount of pixels that is causing the power drain.
Now taking that into consideration, there is 3 things to keep in mind.
1. You're still lighting up 3,686,400 mini lightbulbs (aka pixels) no matter what resolution you run at.
2. Lower resolutions = less power draw from the gpu, mostly when the gpu is under higher loads.
3. The gpu doesn't require much power while under lighter loads
So to sum it up
Higher resolution + Very graphic intensive = Heavy power draw from the gpu
Lower resolution + Very graphic intensive = Medium power draw from the gpu
Higher resolution + Not graphic intensive = Low power draw from the gpu
Lower resolution + Not graphic intensive = Low power draw from the gpu
As you can see, under lighter loads 2560x1440 is extremly efficent and preferable by myself, but under heavier loads (games and stuff) 1920x1080 is far more power efficent on the gpu (if your games will even run), once we get a custom kernel for our phones a slight gpu underclock would be MUCH more effective than lowering your resolution.

All this talk of lowering the resolution to save power is rubbish, it doesn't work. Its just a placebo.
By far the biggest cause of drain on the battery from the screen is the backlight, not the resolution. Changing it to a lower resolution doesnt actually change anything, the GPU isnt even trying even at 1440P, it never scales past the second step (330MHz) in 2D. The only thing stopping the GPU from being able to display 4K or even 8K is the bandwidth, not the GPUs power. 2D is effortless for the GPU.
If you reduce the resolution to 1080P the GPU has to rescale that image to 1440P in order to fill the screen (the actual screen resolution is fixed and cannot be changed). All this does is add an extra layer of processing and costs you processor cycles.
In games this changes somewhat, but the effect isnt as big as some like to think. The GPU is still memory bandwidth limited in 3D even at 1440P, not power limited. To prove the point in Basemark X the G3 scores higher than the N5 and almost as high as the M8 and S5, despite having double the pixels.

I bought it for the resolution.. I'm not turning it down.. Otherwise I would have just bought an S5 Or a freeking iphone lmfao
---------- Post added at 08:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:30 PM ----------
At 47% now 10hr usage 2hr SOT.... ESTIMATED 8HRS LEFT..

Possible to run lower resolution, for longer battery life?

Especially with root now becoming available, I started giving this more thought:
If someone wanted to do that, would running a lower resolution be an option, to perhaps extend your battery life?
The screen is QHD, 1440x2560. To minimize scaling issues with a fixed-pixel-location screen like an LCD, you could go down to HD, 720x1280. Now the graphics hardware is dealing with 1/4 as many pixels. It won't look as good, granted, but lets say the user accepts that trade-off.
Is this even possible? If so, do you think it could help battery life?
I don't have experience with this on phones. But on a computer, you can certainly lower your display resolution, even if using an LCD. It will look fuzzy at a non-native resolution, but perhaps that's less of an issue here, with the pixels being so small by comparison. And if you were gaming on the PC, lowering the resolution would allow higher framerates, assuming you were limited by your graphics card, not your CPU. I've admittedly never thought about it from a power-use perspective, but it seems reasonable that, if keeping the framerate the same, running a lower resolution would require less power for the PC.
My Galaxy S3 was 720x1280, admittedly on a smaller 4.8" screen, but I thought it looked fine. If using a lower screen resolution could, say, add 20% to my G4's SOT, I would be interested in that.

I believe this is what changing the DPI is for. This can be done via apps, or changing the value in the build.prop I think. Pushing less pixels on to the screen will definitely increase battery life. There's a threshold though, and depending on which G4 variant you have (whether it's branded by a carrier, etc.) you may want to research on what a safe number might be. I think some AT&T G4 user reported bootloops after changing the DPI to <530 or something. It looks like the camera doesn't get affected by the DPI change too, which is a definite good sign.
I'm waiting to see how the battery life holds up right now with root mode now being enabled in Greenify. If I can't squeeze more than 5 hours SoT while at a certain brightness and using BT, I'll consider changing the DPI.

This is not going to improve battery life in the slightest. You might be running a lower resolution but all the pixels are stilled turned on. The lower tax on the GPU is negligible.

kyle1867 said:
This is not going to improve battery life in the slightest. You might be running a lower resolution but all the pixels are stilled turned on. The lower tax on the GPU is negligible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. This was done on the G3 and batter life was not changed, only game performance improved as you are pushing graphics at 1080p instead of 1440p.

AhsanU said:
I believe this is what changing the DPI is for. This can be done via apps, or changing the value in the build.prop I think. Pushing less pixels on to the screen will definitely increase battery life. There's a threshold though, and depending on which G4 variant you have (whether it's branded by a carrier, etc.) you may want to research on what a safe number might be. I think some AT&T G4 user reported bootloops after changing the DPI to <530 or something. It looks like the camera doesn't get affected by the DPI change too, which is a definite good sign.
I'm waiting to see how the battery life holds up right now with root mode now being enabled in Greenify. If I can't squeeze more than 5 hours SoT while at a certain brightness and using BT, I'll consider changing the DPI.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe that that's wrong, specially if you set it to numbers lower than stock.

I found a way to change the resolution
https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s5/general/tool-change-phone-resolution-dpi-root-t3582863
Follow this thread, it's so simple and works perfectly!! on LG G4 818p

Changing the resolution of LeTV x800

Good evening ! Changing the resolution of LeTV x800 improve battery and performance?

Unless you mean sending it to the factory and replacing the 2k screen with a 720p, no. The panel will require the same energy, the amount of which is more dependent on the brightness and in lesser extent to the strain on the gpu to drive the screen.

giol said:
Unless you mean sending it to the factory and replacing the 2k screen with a 720p, no. The panel will require the same energy, the amount of which is more dependent on the brightness and in lesser extent to the strain on the gpu to drive the screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was thinking of moving to this app: Screen Shift
http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/apps-games/app-screen-shift-change-screen-t3138718

Seems that can be adjusted with adb (without having to root)
On desktop wont matter much but it will save energy with 3D apps/games
http://android.wonderhowto.com/how-...creen-resolution-without-root-access-0160439/

Are there many drawbacks to running at Max resolution.

I have went back and forth with the 3 different resolution settings. If I look hard I can tell a little difference. At HD it is actually a little less sharp then my LG G5. Do we have any idea of the draw backs of the highest resolution? How much less battery life. Does it affect smoothness. I'll try different setting myself but was just wondering if anybody knew already.

I'm in the process of trying out the higher resolution too. I'll report back my real world use findings.
Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Tapatalk

Does use a bit more power BUT a lot more RAM

I haven't measured battery use (and it would be hard to have exactly the same test conditions anyway), but I haven't noticed any real difference between FHD and WQHD in normal use. I also don't see a whole lot of difference in sharpness or image quality, but maybe someone with younger eyes than me will see a difference.

Testing max resolution for a few days now, no major battery life impact so far. No lag either.

I've been happy with the battery on max as well. At the end of the day, with almost 4 hours screen time, my battery was still 40% yesterday. LTE most of the day, some wifi.

The difference between 1480x720 HD+ and 2220x1080 FHD+ is around 20 minutes battery time over the course of the entire day I believe. Then with 2960x1440 WQHD+ you're probably looking at losing 40 minutes of battery throughout the day. And overall, each step up uses more RAM, which is expected.
In terms of a difference, I can't really tell the real difference between 720p and WQHD+ ... I mean, the screen is small already, it's a phone. It isn't like you're stretch the resolution over a Monitor or TV where you can clearly tell the difference.
I believe WQHD+ is just slightly sharper. The big difference is if you were to use a VR Headset since the screen would be very close to your face and magnified.. this is when I would recommend using WQHD+ ... FHD+ 1080p is fine for daily use and I doubt you would be able to have a noticeable battery drain.
It's truely a topic of Battery Life & Lower Temps / vs. / "Visual Fidelity" & Higher Temps. I believe using WQHD+ over the course of a year would have a considerable but not horrible wear on the battery lifespan however, considering hardware isn't impervious to aging.

I've played with both resolutions but haven't noticed a difference neither.

Will lowering resolution increase battery life?

The settings allow you to lower the resolution. I lowered the resolution to 2340 x 1080 and I don't really notice anything different.... Would this increase battery life? If so, how much?

It will definitely increase battery life.
How much will it increase depends on your usage and your apps installed. It should at max give you 10% increase.

id3alistic said:
Would this increase battery life? If so, how much?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is well and widely known that lowering resolution won't give you increased battery life. At all

Ah thanks. I come from an xperia z3 so been using FHD screens only. I was interested in the XZ1 compact back then and one of the key points from reviewers is that the lower screen resolution(720p) saved a lot more battery vs the XZ1 at 1080p.

id3alistic said:
Ah thanks. I come from an xperia z3 so been using FHD screens only. I was interested in the XZ1 compact back then and one of the key points from reviewers is that the lower screen resolution(720p) saved a lot more battery vs the XZ1 at 1080p.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the misconception is lowering the screen resolution vs a device that maxes out at a lower resolution. Maybe it makes a difference for OLEDs...but for LCD screens, all if the pixels are still illuminated, so there's not much difference there.

AarSyl said:
I think the misconception is lowering the screen resolution vs a device that maxes out at a lower resolution. Maybe it makes a difference for OLEDs...but for LCD screens, all if the pixels are still illuminated, so there's not much difference there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds convincing and makes sense. I wonder why they'd allow it on this device though?

20degrees said:
Sounds convincing and makes sense. I wonder why they'd allow it on this device though?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because Samsung's can do it.
Nothing but hype for the misinformed and ill-advised.
[Dopey voice]"Bruh...look what my phone can do to save battery life. Can yours?" [/Dopey voice]

Using lower resolutions use less power bc they use less gpu computational power. Youre not saving anything really from the screen itself. Think of it this way does your computer/laptop use more power running resource intensive applications or running idle?

id3alistic said:
Ah thanks. I come from an xperia z3 so been using FHD screens only. I was interested in the XZ1 compact back then and one of the key points from reviewers is that the lower screen resolution(720p) saved a lot more battery vs the XZ1 at 1080p.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As one said here it's from misinformed people.
id3alistic said:
XZ1 compact back then and one of the key points from reviewers is that the lower screen resolution(720p) saved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not that the resolution that saved power. If Sony could put their 3840x2160 resolution display into 4.3" size of XZ1 compact it still would run longer on battery than any 6.5" sized phone from similar battery even with 720p display. Because it's sheer size of screen that saves battery, not the resolution. 4.3" vs 6.5" is hefty difference. One needs more light to make 6.5" display emit light than to make 4.3" one hence one need more power.
Think about it this way, if resolution would matter then XZ Premium and XZ2 Premium would drain their batteries in a matter of minutes with 3840x2160 res displays. Right? But they work almost as long as say Galaxy S9 Plus or Note 8.
---------- Post added at 07:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:52 PM ----------
Nirrik said:
Think of it this way does your computer/laptop use more power running resource intensive applications or running idle?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It not works like that. When your phone renders picture in 720p or 1080p it doesn't do it sitting idle. It still consumes power when rendering picture 60 times a sec. And its GPU still runs at 200MHz, maybe it needs like 230 or 250MHz for rendering picture in 1440p but is 250MHz vs 200 MHz a huge difference? I doubt it
It's not like 1440 picture rendering needs full GPU power but 720p or 1080p can be powered by idle GPU. Never was, never will. Ask devs in http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/software-hacking if in doubt

In reality ability to pick your resolution for battery life is a gimmick and doesn't really do anything.
There were no proofs that phones live longer from same charge when it's resolution lowered. Maybe it works for constant gaming, like playing games in 720p on a 1440p screen will bump battery life. But in other cases no

Taking only power consumption from the display alone, there is no different between HD, FHQ, QHD. The different is that if a game or any apps(or even system app itselfs) runs at HD, it will need less graphic computational power than running at QHD (once again, its not about the drainage from the display, its from GPU).

romeokk said:
The different is that if a game or any apps(or even system app itselfs) runs at HD, it will need less graphic computational power than running at QHD (once again, its not about the drainage from the display, its from GPU).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
in reality, it's bull****. learn how GPU works. Try to ask Google devs if you don't know. They do habitate here, at XDA
It's not like it renders something and then goes to sleep turning cores off as CPU does. Instead GPU renders frame 60 times a sec and uses 203MHz either your resolution is 720p or 1080p. It can't lower frequency to 100MHz magically because it's not designed that way. So it consumes as much power working at 203MHz either rendering 720p frames or rendering 1080p frames.
Hence no battery economy achieved

Billy Madison said:
in reality, it's bull****. learn how GPU works. Try to ask Google devs if you don't know. They do habitate here, at XDA
It's not like it renders something and then goes to sleep turning cores off as CPU does. Instead GPU renders frame 60 times a sec and uses 203MHz either your resolution is 720p or 1080p. It can't lower frequency to 100MHz magically because it's not designed that way. So it consumes as much power working at 203MHz either rendering 720p frames or rendering 1080p frames.
Hence no battery economy achieved
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See this:
https://www.google.co.th/url?sa=t&s...FjADegQIBRAB&usg=AOvVaw3qEXVbk4h0XmHcDhhRUR1P