This has been long debated among smartphone users. While there’s no doubt that live wallpapers eat up more power, many believe that the use of bright and colorful (static) wallpapers can also decrease battery life faster. This is actually true but this phenomenon only affects certain type of displays because different manufacturers use different kind of display technology.
How wallpapers affect battery life in smartphones and tablets
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| LG G2 LCD VS Samsung Galaxy S4 LED VS HTC One LCD screen |
LCD VS AMOLED
Two of the most popular display technologies used today are LCD and AMOLED. LCD or Liquid Crystal Displays are the most widely used screens on Android smartphones or tablets. Nexus 5 and Xperia Z use this type of display. LCDs have actual crystals which are illuminated by the lights underneath them or backlit. So in this case even you have all black wallpaper, the backlit is still on to illuminating the dark surface. This means your LCD screen is lit up almost all the times and it uses lots of power to do so.
AMOLED or Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode is also a popular display techonology used in Smartphones, Tablets and TVs. There are also OLED displays which are different because they don’t use active matrix. Most of the Samsung smartphones like Galaxy S4, S5, Note 4 use AMOLED. The latest Moto X and Nexus 6 also use this display tech. AMOLEDs are less power hungry than LCDs because AMOLEDs are lit up pixel by pixel unlike LCDS, where all the pixels are illumined all the time. So if you have dark wallpaper in AMOLED display, those dark areas actually don’t lit up and become true black. You can do further research to study about the underlying tech of AMOLED involving electroluminescence.
How do you save battery life via wallpaper
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| Dark Theme for Android |
If you have an LCD display then the choice of wallpaper won’t affect your device’s battery life. Fortunately, devices with LCDs come with larger batteries, power efficient processor or some battery saving software features. Now, if you have an AMOLED display, you can do the following to save your battery life:
- Use a all-black or darker wallpaper and themes. AMOLED displays with dark wallpaper/theme can reportedly save over 8% of battery life at full brightness. Source: XDA
- Use nightmode: Many e-reader apps come with nightmodes which turn background into black and text into white so that it’s easier to read at night. This function also saves battery life when used on AMOLED screens.
- Dark Screen filters: There are screen filter apps which add darker shades to your android screen.
- Dark Themes: Some ROMS and android launchers also support dark themes where all the icons, texts and backgrounds are turned into black or monochrome.
If you have an OLED or AMOLED display and you want better battery life, give the above tips a try and share your experience with us.
