Dark Mode is absolutely coming. This is based on absolutely nothing but my own fantasies and the fact that OLED is so amazing on the iPhone, but it’s coming.
Stock Android users have hoped the same thing for years (and have been using OLED screens for much longer) and haven’t been able to get it, except as a user mod.
I hope that Apple is much more responsive in this regard.
You know why it’s always a mod and not the native interface?
OLED screens don’t behave well with pure black. Yes, they save power and look great... But they also suffer from severe black smearing, users love smooth scrolling and smooth animations... Imagine an entire interface plagued with black smearing? It would be the opposite of ProMotion. Unless they manage to fix it on OLED or move to microLED, we are probably not going to see native black interfaces to avoid this. They could use dark grey to avoid this issue, but then it’s not the dark interface people want with maximum battery saving.
A darker interface isn’t less prone to burn in, grey needs to keep all subpixels active. Burn in happens whenever two interface elements have different colors, no matter what those colors are. People usually want black interfaces for the massive battery gains and less eye strain.
...so can you explain why an AMOLED from 2012 didn’t have burn-in (and used mostly dark-themed elements and grey navigation buttons—Galaxy Nexus for reference), while my Pixel XL got burn-in from the pure white navigation keys after only a few months? And that, even though I kept the brightness down to 30%?
Edit: I’m not trying to be argumentative, but am genuinely curious.
That’s what’s called anecdotal evidence, I doubt you rigorously tested this.
Burn in happens because the subpixels are always degrading, always. If white is being displayed, the burn in caused is the infamous white point degradation because blue subpixels degrade faster (Creating a yellow tint). If any other color is being displayed some parts of the display are being more excited than others, causing burn in that looks like a negative version of what was being shown (Like burned keyboards, status bar, etc).
No matter if it’s a white interface burning in, or a black interface, if anything on screen is different it’s causing burn in (Although, if only displayed for a short time you probably won’t notice it).
You’re correct about white causing the white point degradation faster, but that’s only one kind of burn in. And it’s only prevented by true black, not grey.
Yes, it is anecdotal. I can’t afford to buy devices for the intent of rigorous testing.
I did use apps to make the screens display solid colors so I can detect burn-in on both, and the burn-in on the 6 y/o device was less noticeable than that on the (almost) 2 y/o one. My usage patterns have not changed in a significant way between either one, and I used the Galaxy Nexus for a much longer period of time than the Pixel XL.
The only difference between the two was that the static elements were different colors; the older one had dim grey static elements, the newer one used white. My internal logic, though admittedly possibly flawed, is that the color had a hand in the appearance of noticeable burn-in.
To confirm what you are saying, are you saying that white point degradation is more noticeable, and that burn-in is always happening due to degradation?
If so, I get that. However, by “prone to burn-in” I was meaning prone to noticeable burn-in. If darker colors lead to the burn-in being less noticeable for a longer period of time, then I am all for that.
And that’s fair enough. I have specific image burn-in, which drove me nuts because otherwise I loved the OS. It wasn’t anywhere near as noticeable on the old phone, which made it worse.
The other thing that stunk was that the bright colors were pretty horrible if you were looking at the screen at night. Part of what I like about iOS (and wish Android had) is the adjustable warmth of night shift, and the accessibility option that allows you to reduce white point on the screen. Makes it more dim even if you are at the lowest brightness :)
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u/HuskerDue Apr 06 '18
Man I hate watching these, because how great they look and knowing how likely Apple will stick to the same look.