How to make Android look sexy on a black handset!

[+Warwagon MVC]

Turn the wallpaper off

That is all!

So I've been using this Samsung fascinate (black handset) for a month now (my first smart phone) and one day I turned the wallpaper off. I was surprised how much better looking it looked because you couldn't tell were the screen ended and the side of the phone was. Try it!

[Pupik]

How do you turn the wallpaper off?

[McKay]

Use a Black Wallpaper.

[+Warwagon MVC]

How do you turn the wallpaper off?

Press and hold on the screen and choose no wallpaper.

[McKay]

Press and hold on the screen and choose no wallpaper.

My Nexus doesnt have that option.

[Pupik]

Use a Black Wallpaper.

Not what I was looking for :)

Press and hold on the screen and choose no wallpaper.

What rom/launcher you're using? No such option on 4.0.4.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Now what I was looking for :)

What rom/launcher you're using? No such option on 4.0.4.

4.1 Cyanmod

But ya like someone says just choose black.

[pes2013]

You can tell its your first smartphone; Any person who has delt with any smartphone can clearly see where it ends.

And no, but it does not look "sexy"

[Mr. Gibs]

So I've been using this Samsung fascinate (black handset) for a month now (my first smart phone) and one day I turned the wallpaper off. I was surprised how much better looking it looked because you couldn't tell were the screen ended and the side of the phone was. Try it!

Keep in mind your phone needs to have an AMOLED screen for it to look like that ;) Nokia and Samsung both use those screens, HTC uses LCD.

You can tell its your first smartphone; Any person who has delt with any smartphone can clearly see where it ends.

If you have a good AMOLED screen (super amoled or clear black) it's pretty hard to see where the screen ends and the bezel begins if you're looking at it head on.

[Pupik]

4.1 Cyanmod

But ya like someone says just choose black.

Didn't want that option for the "sexy" look. Wanted it to free up even more memory, by disabling the wallpaper function at all.

All black is going to be boring after a while. I usually just use dark wallpapers to save battery, but still have something nice to look at when checking the phone.

[HawkMan]

Looks nice with a nice plain well done wallpaper that doesn't try to be all graphical. Like a nice grey clean wood panel wall.

Didn't want that option for the "sexy" look. Wanted it to free up even more memory, by disabling the wallpaper function at all.

All black is going to be boring after a while. I usually just use dark wallpapers to save battery, but still have something nice to look at when checking the phone.

Only saves power on amoled, and even then it's insignificant.

Keep in mind your phone needs to have an AMOLED screen for it to look like that ;) Nokia and Samsung both use those screens, HTC uses LCD.

If you have a good AMOLED screen (super amoled or clear black) it's pretty hard to see where the screen ends and the bezel begins if you're looking at it head on.

HTC has used amoled on some and Nokia no longer use it on their top of the line phone since SLCD is better.

[Pupik]

Only saves power on amoled, and even then it's insignificant.

Doesn't matter what kind of screen you got. The brighter it's on, the more battery it uses.

[Detection]

Doesn't matter what kind of screen you got. The brighter it's on, the more battery it uses.

Agreed, if I dim my tablets brightness to half, I get a shed load more battery life from it, droid also reports screen being No.1 and WiFi being No.2 for battery killers

Darker wallpapers apparently help too

[_neutrino Veteran]

i generally always either use a solid black background or a textured black background on my phones, i also think it makes widgets easier to see with a lower backlight.

[HawkMan]

Doesn't matter what kind of screen you got. The brighter it's on, the more battery it uses.

Brightness has zero to do with background color or wallpaper though.

Agreed, if I dim my tablets brightness to half, I get a shed load more battery life from it, droid also reports screen being No.1 and WiFi being No.2 for battery killers

Darker wallpapers apparently help too

How do you get wifi as number 2, have wifi on all the time, and it's less than cell standby. Right in between that and phone not in use which is about the same as google service.

[Mr. Gibs]

HTC has used amoled on some and Nokia no longer use it on their top of the line phone since SLCD is better.

Um no. Both screens have their drawbacks and their benefits. The 900 screen has far superior blacks and vibrant colors but suffers from over-saturation and viewing angles. The SLCD in the 920 doesn't have deep blacks and the colors aren't as vibrant but the viewing angle is better and readability in sunlight is better. It's a matter of preference rather than one tech is better than the other.

Doesn't matter what kind of screen you got. The brighter it's on, the more battery it uses.

AMOLED screens use next to 0 power to display the color black, however they use a lot more to display white.

[Detection]

How do you get wifi as number 2, have wifi on all the time, and it's less than cell standby. Right in between that and phone not in use which is about the same as google service.

Thats what battery settings in JellyBean report, and droid has always reported that since Honeycomb

This is a tablet though, so no cell, but I definitely see at least 50% better battery life with brightness down to half

[Pupik]

Brightness has zero to do with background color or wallpaper though.

You're crazy, man. The darker the color the screen has to display, the less brightness has to be applied for it to properly display the color.

That's why dark wallpapers recommended to save battery life. Has fewer bright colors to stress the screen.

[Detection]

How do you get wifi as number 2, have wifi on all the time, and it's less than cell standby. Right in between that and phone not in use which is about the same as google service.

Just booted the tablet up, but this is the same trend no matter the uptime

[tsupersonic]

I use dark wallpapers because a) it's easier on the eyes and b) battery life (using AMOLED).

[HawkMan]

Um no. Both screens have their drawbacks and their benefits. The 900 screen has far superior blacks and vibrant colors but suffers from over-saturation and viewing angles. The SLCD in the 920 doesn't have deep blacks and the colors aren't as vibrant but the viewing angle is better and readability in sunlight is better. It's a matter of preference rather than one tech is better than the other.

AMOLED screens use next to 0 power to display the color black, however they use a lot more to display white.

The ONLY advantage to amoled today is the black levels, which gives it "dynamic" contrast. SLCD has better colors, viewing angles, daytime viewing and real contrast

You're crazy, man. The darker the color the screen has to display, the less brightness has to be applied for it to properly display the color.

That's why dark wallpapers recommended to save battery life. Has fewer bright colors to stress the screen.

Ugh, no. ONLY if its amoled, on any other screen the light is a uniform LED based backlight on a diffuser plate. Meaning a all black or all white creek use exactly the same amount of power. Theonly thing affecting the power use on a LCD based screen is brightness setting of the screen.

[Stetson]

You're crazy, man. The darker the color the screen has to display, the less brightness has to be applied for it to properly display the color.

That's why dark wallpapers recommended to save battery life. Has fewer bright colors to stress the screen.

A standard LCD screen (not OLED) has two parts, a backlight and the LCD. If you have a black area on the screen, the backlight doesn't dim because you still need the backlight on to allow the other parts of the screen to show through. To display black, the LCD is just blocking out the light of the backlight in that area.

Some LED TVs can dim part of the backlight in a dark area of the picture, but I don't think any phones can do that.

So really on a phone with an LCD display showing a black screen with the brightness at full and a white screen with the brightness at full should be pretty much the same.

[Julius Caro]

On LCD, the backlight is ALWAYS on. And to display dark colors, you need to un/twist the crystals to prevent that light from passing on to the front. So technically, black screens on LCDs require more energy than a white screen. I wouldnt say that all black or all white on LCD use the same amount of power. In terms of the backlight, yes, it remains constant (unless you have local dimming), but the liquid crystals are mmm in their default position so you dont use extra energy.

In AMOLEDs, yeah, a black pixel is turned off so it saves battery, and white would use more battery.

Brightness is another thing. On LCDs, a higher brightness means cranking up the backlight. on AMOLED I guess you apply more energy to get brighter pixels.

[Growled Member]

I prefer lighter colors and I'll willing to charge every day or so to use them.

[Pupik]

You're all are crazy, people :) No matter the technology, lower voltage usage always going to be on the side of displaying darker colors.

Displaying lighter pixels (bright colors), is more draining on the battery than to display darker pixels (dark colors). It's like if you light two fires and will want to make the second one brighter than the other one, you'll have to feed it more wood. No other way around it.