question about background picture

[RémiM]

Hi all,

I have a question, a little weird I have to admit.

When you use a full black background, like a solid color, all the pixels are set to black. Does it make a difference in term of energy spent compared to whatever picture that has million colors ?

I am not trying to save battery or whatever, dont worry. It's just for my personal information.

Thanks !

 

[silkrooster]

Technically it it could affect it. If the color is a value of 255 for red, green or blue channel, a combination of the three, or white the battery would drain faster than a pure black screen. But the brightness value is also a factor.

 

[sharpuser]

Yes, in simple terms, darker colors use less energy, and dimmer screens use less energy.

I once had a dark, dim, Dell laptop. Good thing, because the battery was weak, too.

 

[RémiM]

Thank you for your answers !

 

[ptrkhh]

No, color doesn't matter at all. If you want to reduce the power consumption, you need to reduce the brightness from the settings charm.

Take note though, display brightness don't really matter in term of power consumption. The difference between the brightest and dimmest is only about 15% of the battery. And the dimmest setting is really really dim.

Yes, in simple terms, darker colors use less energy, and dimmer screens use less energy.

Im afraid that this kind of LCD panel doesn't work that way. With the same setting of backlight brightness, the color on display doesn't make any difference at all. Black is basically just blocking the backlight as much as possible, but the backlight stays on with the same level nonetheless.
That's not the case for AMOLED though.

 

[RémiM]

Well, it's interesting to read another point of view. Thank you @ptrkhh .

I knew that the brightness was affecting the power consumption. But when you say that the difference between the brightest and the dimmest setting is about 15% of the battery, to me it sounds to be a lot, doesnt it ?

 

[daniielrp]

No, color doesn't matter at all. If you want to reduce the power consumption, you need to reduce the brightness from the settings charm.
...

That's not the case for AMOLED though.

^^This.

The colour won't affect battery unless it is an AMOLED screen.

A Nokia Windows Phone with an AMOLED screen for example does not illuminate black colours, that pixel just stays off, and therefore does not use as much power when display black colours (though I'm not sure all AMOLEDs do behave this way).

 

[ptrkhh]

Well, it's interesting to read another point of view. Thank you @ptrkhh .

I knew that the brightness was affecting the power consumption. But when you say that the difference between the brightest and the dimmest setting is about 15% of the battery, to me it sounds to be a lot, doesnt it ?

You're welcome

Well, you're not going to use the SP3 with the lowest brightness is bright area and vice versa.

Take an example, in my room, I could only use 40-70% brightness comfortably, otherwise my eyes would be tired. The difference of battery life between 40% and 70% brightness is just about 5% in this case, and that's true in most cases, where only about 30% (70-40=30) of the brightness level could be used comfortably at one particular environment.

 

[sharpuser]

Thanks for the correction on color and power consumption. I was wrong.

 

[silkrooster]

Interesting, I did not know it used a backlight. I was thinking of a normal led screen. But that would explain the other thread, about getting headaches from looking at the screen.
Learning something new every day. Apologies for any misguidance.