Develop Bugs

How to Change The Resolution of Your Phone / A Must if You Have Root!

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.

[Q] GN Browser Doesn't use Full Screen in Landscape?

I'm a noob, here, and have just been exploring my new GN for several days.
Does anyone know how to stretch the browser to full screen in landscape mode?
It currently does not over-write the soft menu space as does the video playback.
I also note that the landscape keyboard appears limited to the same restriction.
Verizon support says it's a limitatio and they've had some complaints, but I've found that source is not always as accurate as the best forums esp for new releases.
Does this bother any of you as much as it does me?
Are there any other browsers that do use the full width?
(I've tried Dophin but can't finds a 'cure' there, either.

There is a browser setting for full screen under labs in the settings menu. And you're supposed to see the soft keys with the keyboard active.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

is there a way to make it fixed landscape mode?

joshnichols189 said:
There is a browser setting for full screen under labs in the settings menu. And you're supposed to see the soft keys with the keyboard active.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks - I had found and set that flag. It expands the browser real estate to cover the the phone status line at the top of the landscape browser space.
But the 3 soft keys for top level phone operation aren't removed.
That extra 1/4 inch of horizontal space would give minor but noticeable improved view space for web page reading, just as that expansion during video playback provides an impactful improvement.
I'd also welcome that for the landscape keyboard, since it would give my fat fingers some more room to type accurately.
Is it worth registering requests for possible changes here with Android development support, or am I missing something about why these limitations are positive in either case?

[Q] The 4.65" AMOLED screen on Galaxy Nexus

I have switched from my Galaxy s2 to GN. I have few things not satisfy with the GN. First, the screen. I brought this phone, because it is 4.65", but the 3 buttons as the physical buttons, it appear all the time. These three buttons on home screen is fine, but it appear when web browsing, viewing document, photos....etc. it is the same size to g2. It is not true 4.65" it made me very unhappy. Why Google not design hide it when browsing, viewing docs, photos....etc. Second, the color not .good such as white, it seem to buff. If you compare g. Note. G.note much better. The os is slower than 2.3.6. Camera quality so bad. I really hope google will improve the above.

Soft keys disappear when watching a video, which is the only real time you need them to go (maybe a game as well).
If I want to see a photo full screen it goes on my PC

I think the soft keys are a brilliant idea. If the keys were to disappear when you're using the web browser, how would you get them back? ICS is faster than Gingerbread. There are a few little quirks with the GN but nothing is perfect at all.
Tbh, why didn't you look at reviews, both written and video.

Meaple said:
I think the soft keys are a brilliant idea. If the keys were to disappear when you're using the web browser, how would you get them back? ICS is faster than Gingerbread. There are a few little quirks with the GN but nothing is perfect at all.
Tbh, why didn't you look at reviews, both written and video.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly. How the hell would you navigate your phone if they were hidden during browsing?
The only few times I wish the black space of the keys would disappear is when playing a game or watching Flash video. If I'm using the full screen Flash player on a website, it should be as if I was watching a YouTube video. Not Google's problem as much as it is Adobe in this instance though.

I do enjoy the soft keys, but yes, I wish there was a way to make them "disappear" at certain times. For instance, while playing a game or a watching a video. I realize some apps such as 'MX Video Player' will go true fullscreen(as it was programmed to do so), but not all will as it's dependent upon the app. I think it would be cool if they added in a shortcut of sorts to make them disappear/re-appear. There's the screenshot VOL DOWN+PWR option, how about a VOL UP+PWR for the soft keys?

Google can make it hide when web browsing, gaming, viewing docs....etc. the softkey will appear again when you touch the screen. You also can return page. It should be better.

HTCHDHK said:
Google can make it hide when web browsing, gaming, viewing docs....etc. the softkey will appear again when you touch the screen. You also can return page. It should be better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would hate the phone if this became a reality. I definitely do not want the softkeys disappearing/reappearing constantly. Say I wanted to navigate back on a web page, I would have to touch the screen once to bring up the buttons, then touch the back button - no thank you! I think Google has it worked out perfectly. They are there when you need them, and disappear when you don't (which, like stated above, is only necessary when watching videos).
These threads are getting really old...

I think a double or maybe triple tap function that hid the status bar and soft keys could be cool
Sent from my Google phone

ChongoDroid said:
I think a double or maybe triple tap function that hid the status bar and soft keys could be cool
Sent from my Google phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A swipe up from the edge. On my tablet I have an app that hides the bar when you touch the middle of it(I use it a lot)
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

HTCHDHK said:
I have switched from my Galaxy s2 to GN. I have few things not satisfy with the GN. First, the screen. I brought this phone, because it is 4.65", but the 3 buttons as the physical buttons, it appear all the time. These three buttons on home screen is fine, but it appear when web browsing, viewing document, photos....etc. it is the same size to g2. It is not true 4.65" it made me very unhappy. Why Google not design hide it when browsing, viewing docs, photos....etc. Second, the color not .good such as white, it seem to buff. If you compare g. Note. G.note much better. The os is slower than 2.3.6. Camera quality so bad. I really hope google will improve the above.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you trying to tell me that the scren magically shrinks down 0.35 inches because of some on screen buttons?
The colors are supposed to be realistic, Google made it this way, the screen on the Note is over saturated, which many people prefer (including me), but it's not a problem at all.
I agree that it's kind of laggy in 4.0.1, but the new patch fixed it, so your point is invalid.

I would like a auto-hide bar option. Obviously there are people that would not like it and people that would, so it should be an option. Think of Windows taskbar. If you want it always there, it is, but if not, you just move your mouse to the bottom of the screen and there it is. A simple swipe up from the bottom of the screen (sortof the opposite of opening your notifications) would be perfect... for me. Then it could auto-hide after say 3 or 4 seconds or whatever they choose, or make it user-changeable. Not only would this give you slightly more screen real estate, it would also help protect the screen from burn-in.

I worried they would be annoying and take up space I wanted at first too. Now I'm never going back. You're just having a knee jerk reaction to the change....itll get better, don't worry.
I imagine it costs about the same for adding buttons ot having a slightly larger screen ...so why not the screen? Makes sense, right?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

If you haven't tried the Labs features under Browser > Settings > Labs i would highly recommend it.
First, you can enable the quick controls from Honeycomb that makes it so you have to swipe in from a screen edge to reveal browsing options (tabs, url bar, seetings etc)
Also you can enable Full Screen which still keeps the 3 buttons but ditches the Notifications bar.
It would be nice to have Home and Back options on the Quick Controls if it meant we could lose the 3 buttons, otherwise having to refit the page so the bar could popup would be annoying

HTCHDHK said:
I have switched from my Galaxy s2 to GN. I have few things not satisfy with the GN. First, the screen. I brought this phone, because it is 4.65", but the 3 buttons as the physical buttons, it appear all the time. These three buttons on home screen is fine, but it appear when web browsing, viewing document, photos....etc. it is the same size to g2. It is not true 4.65" it made me very unhappy. Why Google not design hide it when browsing, viewing docs, photos....etc. Second, the color not .good such as white, it seem to buff. If you compare g. Note. G.note much better. The os is slower than 2.3.6. Camera quality so bad. I really hope google will improve the above.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a question?

I do agree when it comes to screen size. They advertise a 4.65 screen so you would THINK it would be bigger than a 4.3 or 4.5 screen but it really isn't PLUS the fonts and icons are so tiny due to the higher res. I knew it going in, but it is a bit of fudging specs in the advertising. "Usable space" 99% of the time isn't near 4.65".

Nokia n9 ftw.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Meaple said:
I think the soft keys are a brilliant idea. If the keys were to disappear when you're using the web browser, how would you get them back? ICS is faster than Gingerbread. There are a few little quirks with the GN but nothing is perfect at all.
Tbh, why didn't you look at reviews, both written and video.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could make them reappear by using the proximity sensor.
I hate the soft buttons too, waste of screen space and people are already getting screen burn in problems.
I hope they get rid of them eventually and go back to hardware buttons.

Why are people complaining about this? Don't buy it if that's going to bug you. As for advertisement purposes, it is 4.65 inches. Period. Also, we are able to customize the buttons because it's part of the OS. Just like the rest of the screen.
As for font being too small.. there's a setting for that.

would that cause more burnt in on that area since it is always there?

how about that, keep 3 spots on the same position, while the background changed from black to the same web browser content,,,
should be cool and avoid burning the image on the amoled permanantly.

Is there a way to force apps to run full screen without the black bar at the bottom?

As mention in the title, I have been looking for a way to get apps to take advantage of the entire screen. Most games (Hearthstone, Cosmic Express, etc.) have a black bar at the bottom even when immersive mode is active. I have used apps such as Granular and Nav Bar Hidder to force immersive mode which does work for some apps but not for every app.
Other android phones such as the LG V30 and the Samsung S8/Note 8 have a feature where they force apps to run full screen with no black bar. I know custom ROMs could fix this problem by porting the feature and I have been looking around a ROM that has this feature, with no luck.
Does anyone know of a fix or a ROM that could help?

I think the apps need to be updated to take advantage of the 18:9 screen.

That's how it looks.
Atomregen said:
I measured it, the navigation bar hight is 168 pixels and the black area hight 202 pixels. So I would say on the unfilled area, the developers are to blame because they have not optimized the apps for 2:1 screens.
https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2017/12/tuning-your-apps-and-games-for-long.html?m=1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using XDA Labs

Funny thing is that this phone doesnt auto centered the screen when using an app that havent optimised for 2:1 aspect ratio,
Example, game will use left area of the screen, leave a big black unused space on the right.
Sometimes the "stock" thing in pixel make the phone actually dumber,
My S8 do better handling this situation.

otonieru said:
Funny thing is that this phone doesnt auto centered the screen when using an app that havent optimised for 2:1 aspect ratio,
Example, game will use left area of the screen, leave a big black unused space on the right.
Sometimes the "stock" thing in pixel make the phone actually dumber,
My S8 do better handling this situation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree samsung's solution is better for this issue, should have been common sense by google to do the same.

Honestly the aspect ratio is the only thing that really pisses me off about the screen. Colors, tint, blah blah blah...I don't care about. The fact that many app developers still haven't gotten off their asses to fix this aggravates me to no end. I'd much rather have the 5.5" screen of the Pixel XL in a supported format then a larger device with a 6" screen that triggers my OCD.

Full screen on some applications.

I have a problem with some applications. They don't want to use full screen. For example Spotify. There is a black bar above navigation bar.
Is this problem related to spotify app or something related to operating system?
Do you have similar problem?

I think that maybe the 18:9 aspect ratio or the resolution perhaps isn't supported by all apps yet. I face the same problem with Ingress, but found a workaround to make the black bar smaller: By hiding the status bar for that specific app you have that issue with, here's a link: (No root needed)
https://www.xda-developers.com/how-...icons-or-re-arrange-the-buttons-without-root/

same problem for me with spotify
any solution?

machine1104 said:
same problem for me with spotify
any solution?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wrote a post on spotify community page, but no real answers so far. So, we have to be patient.

More apps have this problem..I asked developer of one of them and they said that in the future they plan to support 18:9 apps lol its 2018 already they should have it..

color os.5 has feature to scale any app to 19:9
so i hope someone can port the feature into aosp/androidOne

any solution?

Solution
If you're looking fullscreen + gestures (like in MIUI) you're looking for this app - Fluid Navigation Gestures (search google play store)
It works BETTER than original, allows for customization and forces all "2D" apps to render full screen. Not games though
You'll need adb as well to make that program work