Night mode isn't as dark

[Mr. Orange 645]

Lying in bed last night I turned on Night Mode. I noticed when I pulled down the notification shade, the top portion was still dimly back lit, so I could see the camera cutout and the edges of the screen, no matter how much I dim the backlight.

Well tonight I fired up my Note 9, put it on Night Mode and pulled down the notification shade, and no matter how bright or dim I have the screen, the top part is BLACK. no light. You can't see where the screen ends and the frame begins.

This isn't a huge deal except for battery savings. When an AMOLED screen is true black, those prices shut off. But since the night mode on the N10+ isn't true black those pixels are still lit up and using power.

When viewing video in Netflix or YouTube the black bars are truly black, so I know the screen is capable showing true blacks, I'm just not sure why Sammy changed Night mode so it's no longer truly black.

 

[paul89]

I have just experienced the same thing. I have a note 9 as well to compare. I'm actually deeply disappointed. I also noticed screen mode only has 2 options... vivid and natural. Where as note 9 has 4 screen modes. I'm trying to figure things out to see if I can get it to be true black.

 

[Nastrahl]

It's probably normal since it's a night mode and not a black mode ; in which you wouldn't it to make your screen showing heavy contrasted differences that actually made more eye fatigue than the light one.

Maybe I'll finally like this mode on this new phone.

 

[Mr. Orange 645]

It's probably normal since it's a night mode and not a black mode ; in which you wouldn't it to make your screen showing heavy contrasted differences that actually made more eye fatigue than the light one.

Maybe I'll finally like this mode on this new phone.

No I understand it's a "Night mode" but I'm comparing it to the Note 9 and Note 8 Night mode where it became a true black. And I ran it in Night mode almost 24/7 for some battery savings as well. Well that doesn't work if Night Mode is just a dark grey rather than a true black.

And I'm not sure how true black and contrast made for more eye fatigue? Have you never watched a 4K movie? The whole point of high def is high contrast with true deep blacks, bright whites, and bright colors.

I also noticed on the quick access home screen in Samsung Browser on dark mode, it's not longer a true black. Now if you turn on High Contrast mode in the browser settings, then the background is a true black, so that panel is capable of turning off the pixels and going true black. This means it was an obvious design choice.

 

[Nastrahl]

No I understand it's a "Night mode" but I'm comparing it to the Note 9 and Note 8 Night mode where it became a true black. And I ran it in Night mode almost 24/7 for some battery savings as well. Well that doesn't work if Night Mode is just a dark grey rather than a true black.

And I'm not sure how true black and contrast made for more eye fatigue? Have you never watched a 4K movie? The whole point of high def is high contrast with true deep blacks, bright whites, and bright colors.

I also noticed on the quick access home screen in Samsung Browser on dark mode, it's not longer a true black. Now if you turn on High Contrast mode in the browser settings, then the background is a true black, so that panel is capable of turning off the pixels and going true black. This means it was an obvious design choice.

Dark VS black doesn't make much difference battery wise on OLED screens (let me just find the test back and I'll update my post)

Because the notification panel and anywhere else that it matters contains mostly texts and it produce visual retina persistence (not sure if I translated well), plus it's more annoying to read and and eyes accommodate less than in light mode where everything is light too.

There's nothing to do with movies since it's dynamic and constantly changing from a lot of different colours while texts are more static (but going from dark to light scene still hurts)

I agree that it's absolutely a design choice, but in my opinion for the better.

 

[Mr. Orange 645]

Dark VS black doesn't make much difference battery wise on OLED screens (let me just find the test back and I'll update my post)

Because the notification panel and anywhere else that it matters contains mostly texts and it produce visual retina persistence (not sure if I translated well), plus it's more annoying to read and and eyes accommodate less than in light mode where everything is light too.

There's nothing to do with movies since it's dynamic and constantly changing from a lot of different colours while texts are more static (but going from dark to light scene still hurts)

I agree that it's absolutely a design choice, but in my opinion for the better.

I gotcha. Makes sense. I'd like to see some tests on black vs dark. I had always heard and though the battery savings was due to the pixels shutting off. It's why the AOD is black and not just dark.

Buts also weird. I'm replying to this direct from the Gmail notification of your reply. So it opened up the webpage in the webview. Well the top bar above the page that says reply to topic and has had the Gmail overflow button is true black. But the status bar right above it is dark grey.

I guess what bugs me most is it makes the camera cutout stick out, even in the dark. Because I look up an I see a true black for on a dark charcoal background. And I can see the screen edges. I preferred on the Note 9 where it all just blended away with the true black.

But yet, when I watch a movie, the status bar DOES turn off completely and you can't see the camera cutout. Just can't figure out the inconsistency.

 

[Nastrahl]

I gotcha. Makes sense. I'd like to see some tests on black vs dark. I had always heard and though the battery savings was due to the pixels shutting off. It's why the AOD is black and not just dark.

Buts also weird. I'm replying to this direct from the Gmail notification of your reply. So it opened up the webpage in the webview. Well the top bar above the page that says reply to topic and has had the Gmail overflow button is true black. But the status bar right above it is dark grey.

I guess what bugs me most is it makes the camera cutout stick out, even in the dark. Because I look up an I see a true black for on a dark charcoal background. And I can see the screen edges. I preferred on the Note 9 where it all just blended away with the true black.

But yet, when I watch a movie, the status bar DOES turn off completely and you can't see the camera cutout. Just can't figure out the inconsistency.

It may be because apps got their own night mode colour settings embedded, while all One UI apps got theirs which are different.

Like, if for Google night mode is all black, their apps will just check about system UI night mode trigger and of its on, apply their own settings.

I can only find that reason for it to be such inconsistent.

 

[Mr. Orange 645]

It may be because apps got their own night mode colour settings embedded, while all One UI apps got theirs which are different.

Like, if for Google night mode is all black, their apps will just check about system UI night mode trigger and of its on, apply their own settings.

I can only find that reason for it to be such inconsistent.

That's a good point/thought. I hadn't thought of that. Damn...I just like consistency, LOL.

 

[Nastrahl]

That's a good point/thought. I hadn't thought of that. Damn...I just like consistency, LOL.

I totally understand and agree ! Especially when you like what Samsung did with their UI

In an other hand, there's some third party theme that may be of use to have a black theme : https://forum.xda-developers.com/s10-plus/themes/theme-anxious-t3921645

I don't know if it's working for the Note 10 yet but I think it's just a matter of time before it do

 

[Matsunami]

I totally understand and agree ! Especially when you like what Samsung did with their UI

In an other hand, there's some third party theme that may be of use to have a black theme : https://forum.xda-developers.com/s10-plus/themes/theme-anxious-t3921645

I don't know if it's working for the Note 10 yet but I think it's just a matter of time before it do

I'm using #hex_ and it works very well on Note10+.

Wysłane z mojego SM-N975F przy użyciu Tapatalka

 

[koppee1]

I just use a theme that's mostly black everywhere. No need for night mode..

 

[jkgao]

One UI notification shade isn't actually black for any of the devices on the One UI. I had an S8+ before this and it looked black but if you take a screenshot and measure the color value, you'll see that it's not black. You can do the same thing on your Note 9. Take a screenshot and extract the color value. Or take a screenshot and then transfer that screenshot to the Note 10 and view it on the Note 10. I guarantee that the Note 9 screenshot of the notification shade will look like the Note 10 notification shade. Black will cause AMOLED smearing which isn't good look.

 

[Mr. Orange 645]

One UI notification shade isn't actually black for any of the devices on the One UI. I had an S8+ before this and it looked black but if you take a screenshot and measure the color value, you'll see that it's not black. You can do the same thing on your Note 9. Take a screenshot and extract the color value. Or take a screenshot and then transfer that screenshot to the Note 10 and view it on the Note 10. I guarantee that the Note 9 screenshot of the notification shade will look like the Note 10 notification shade. Black will cause AMOLED smearing which isn't good look.

So I tried this. Set my Note 9 to Night Mode and took a screen shot. Sent it to my N10+. Guess what? The notification shade in my Note 9 screen shot is pure black when viewed on my N10+ screen.

So I did the opposite. Took a screen shot of N10+ notification shade and sent it to my Note 9, and it appears dark grey.

So I'm not saying you're WRONG, but this is proof that the notification shade on Night Mode on the Note 9 (and the Note 8) was SIGNIFICANTLY darker than the N10+. If they aren't true black, then they are so close at to be indistinguishable from it, whereas the N10+ is definitely lighter than black.

I also just used an app to do a color value sample on my screenshots. Note 9 notification shade is #00000. I believe that is true black?

See my attached screenshots. War Machine is Note 9 (The one with the true black notification shade) and the Darth Vader is the Note 10+ (the one with the dark grey notification shade)

To see what I'm talking about, you may need to turn brightness up on your phone or go in a dark room.

 

[Mr. Orange 645]

Screenshots of color picker showing Note 9 notification shade is #00000 (true black) and Note 10+ is #080808 (not true black).

 

[Mr. Orange 645]

I just use a theme that's mostly black everywhere. No need for night mode..

I tried this. The notification shade was still dark grey, not black.

 

[Ace42]

Samsung doesn't use black on the N10, it's that simple. They use a form of grey that's fairly close to pure black, however. The avg person probably uses white themes, so I doubt many will take notice.

 

[koppee1]

I tried this. The notification shade was still dark grey, not black.

Look for a different theme. There are black ones. I'd post mine but I can't seem to post screenshots here.

 

[Mr. Orange 645]

Look for a different theme. There are black ones. I'd post mine but I can't seem to post screenshots here.

It's all good. I fixed it with GoodLock. I have my stock theme and a true black notification shade again.

Thanks!!

 

[Limeybastard]

It's all good. I fixed it with GoodLock. I have my stock theme and a true black notification shade again.

Thanks!!

Write back when you find a solution to make samsung browser black.cheers.

 

[blackhawk]

As Nastrahl pointed out it the pixels don't need to be completely off to save a lot of power. I was going for total black but since I adjust brightness manually a little bit of tint to the black looks nicer and makes it easier to gauge the brightness.

You can use the Good lock app Quickstar to make the pull down notification panel any color or darkness level you want. Mine is almost black with a hint of forest green.
My wallpaper is even darker with the same green tint.
When the brightness is too high the wallpaper's green tint is noticeable otherwise it looks black.