Database Develop

Browser Screen brightness is not maxed (browser locked-setting)

I'm not sure if this has been brought up before, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was missed. I am the type of user who likes to use the phone at full brightness, as it does not seem to have a huge negative impact on my battery life in day to day operations.
I was looking carefully at the browser on the Galaxy and wondered why the whites looked so dimmed in comparison to other parts of the operating system.
I had already done the following:
1. Turned the OS brightness all the way up.
2. Turned browser brightness all the way up.
3. Disabled the screen power saving mode.
I then downloaded a flashlight application and maxed it to 100% while switching to the browser with the Home key multitask, and going back and forward between the flashlight app and the browser app, it is very clear that the browser is not pushing max brightness. Even though the brightness settings on both the OS and the browser are maxed, it seems as though the browser is capped to 80% brightness or so.
My friend also verified this during his test run, as he has just bought the Samsung Vibrant and noticed the same thing. I understand many will just leave the auto-brightness setting on, but that's not really addressing the issue here.
Is there a way for an XDA developer to correct this issue through a patch or ROM?
thanks

I checked with the shell and when brightness is at 100% it has an absolute value of 255, the same when I'm at the browser set with full brightness, so it seems it's working as it should.
You can check it with this command
Code:
cat /sys/devices/platform/s3cfb/spi_gpio.3/spi3.0/blacklight/s5p_bl/actual_brightness

darksnarfer said:
I checked with the shell and when brightness is at 100% it has an absolute value of 255, the same when I'm at the browser set with full brightness, so it seems it's working as it should.
You can check it with this command
Code:
cat /sys/devices/platform/s3cfb/spi_gpio.3/spi3.0/blacklight/s5p_bl/actual_brightness
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know, I experience the same thing as the OP. Everything's bright, except when surfing the web.

Same issue here. I use Opera in bright daylight.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

If you go in to the brightness settings there is an option at the very bottom called "Power saving mode". I'm not sure if that is having any effect on the browser.

Thanks for the numbers, but I gotta say, just comparing the flashlight app and hitting the back arrow to toggle to the browser, it is beyond obvious that the browser is not as bright as the flashlight application. I used google with it's white background and zoomed in to an area that was just white to avoid other distractions.
This is the best way to test since there will be no transition in between the application toggle and you see the screen dim easily.
As indicated by my original post, I have also turned off the power saving feature so that is not a concern. Someone did say that the Behold 2 has the same cap for their browser and that this is a samsung specific setting that's probably there to save battery. I haven't been able to confirm it on that phone yet but just give the flashlight test a chance and you'll see.
oh one last thing i noticed is, when going from the browser back to the flashlight, sometimes the flashlight app is also dimmed at the same level brightness as the browser, but tapping the screen 'wakes' up the app into full brightness.

TGalaxy browser brightness
To me it's very obvious that the browser is dimmed down, I'd say more than to 80%... Having google as the default homepage couldn't make it more obvious when opening the browser! Samsung obviously thought that no one with a decent eyesight will buy their phone. Or anyone who feels capable of managing their phone's battery life themselves.
It's just one of those niggling things that had to be included, lessening the experience of an otherwise rather breathtaking phone. Another one is the compulsory vibration when charging is finished - makes me wonder when others, or the developers for that matter, charge their smartphones! I charge them overnight, and of course every night... or at least used to, as with the Galaxy S, I can no longer sleep.
I think I've been through every menu possible to change these couple of features, with no success... if anyone knows anything, please share.

It happens on the dim-side, too
I have the same problem, but on the dim side. The browser brightens the screen when it comes on if you have the brightness set to zero. I like it dimmed all the way at night if I'm reading in bed when the lights are out and my partner is asleep, but it keeps turning it up so it's pretty bright in the pitch dark. Arrgh. It's my phone, can't I set it the way I want? Grr.
I've read that there are limitations on how much the screen dims and brightens unless you have a rooted phone and you use an app that's not built into the OS.
I rooted mine and there are some configuration apps that will set it to 0, but I think the built-in operating system slider doesn't go all the way to zero and might not go all the way to 255 when you slide it to the very edges. Supposedly it only goes to 10 on the low side from the notes on some apps.
So, probably it's a similar limitation on the slider for the screen brightness in the browser. We're probably stuck with this problem until someone writes an app that lets you change this setting to any value between 0 and 255 since the default sliders don't allow the low side and I'm guessing not the high side either.
So . . . any android developers out there, it would be cool if you could make an app to change this setting if it's available programatically somewhere.

I tried the "Dimmer" and "Brightness!" apps from the market. But none of them 'Keep' the brightness at the minimum always.

[Android] Total Screen Control (updated on 12 April)

I would like to take the opportunity given by XDA forum and share with you my application, named "Total Screen Control".
I would be more than happy if I will receive through this thread opinions, features requests, bug fixes requests, new ideas, anything that could improve the application.
Thanks !
Total Screen Control
Total Screen Control is an application for setting the Brightness Level, Screen Filter, ScreenOn Lock and Rotation Lock preferences individually for any application installed on your phone.
Allows you to apply a filter that dims the brightness below minimum value so your eyes don't hurt during night viewing. Very useful in low light conditions especially on AMOLED screens where even the lowest brightness value is still bright. Also can save a lot of battery combined with ScreenOn Lock based on phone orientation!
More features:
- Screen Filter/Privacy with schedule and brightness slider for fine control !
- Dynamic Screen Filter based on phone's light sensor! Forget about classic auto-brightness, switch to Dynamic Screen Filter!
- Screen Filter Bar for easy and cool control of Filter dim
- ScreenOn Lock based on phone orientation! Keeps the screen on as long as you use your phone! SAVE BATTERY also!
- ScreenOn Lock, Brightness level and Rotation Lock individually for any app
- Option to disable softkey backlight (not working on all phones)
- Tasker/Locale plugins !
- Notification icon on Status bar with all needed information
- Up to 5 configurable Screen Filter Presets
- 3 Widgets for easy access
- Configurable preferences, alerts
- Start at boot
Does your eyes hurt you when reading or playing before bedtime ? Enable the Screen Filter
Tired to get the screen off while reading your eBook, browsing on Web or playing? Setup the ScreenOn Lock
Want to set the brightness or rotation individually? Configure them with Total Screen Control
For all these this application is for you!
Changes log:
12/04/2012 - Ver 2.4.2
- Added option to manually input a value for Light sensor when using Dynamic Screen Filter
- Increased the list for dynamic levels to 10 items (from 5)
10/04/2012 - Ver 2.4.1
- added option for changing text color in notification status bar
- few bug fixes
26/02/2012 - Ver 2.4
- Tasker/Locale plugin for ScreenOn Lock event !
22/02/2012 - Ver 2.3
- Tasker/Locale plugin for Screen Filter settings !
- "Install button fix" option. Enable it only if you can't press Install button when installing an aplication.
- To come: Tasker/Locale plugin for other Total Screen Control features (eg ScreenOn Lock)
28/01/2012 - Ver 2.1
- Enhanced Softkeys backlight module. Turn off softkeys when screen filter value reach a configurable preset value
- New Softkeys off detection method (Root devices)
- Fixed first detection method,now it will work on supported devices. If not,select another method or contact me.
19/01/2012 - Ver 2.0
- Added NEW FEATURE: Screen Filter Bar - Control Filter dim with a swipe of you finger in any application you're in!
If you like this feature check Total Screen Filter which allows more customizations !
Check video for demo of this new feature
- Redesign of the application interface
- ICS compatible
- Various code enhancements
02/12/2011 - Ver 1.9.3
-Redesigned Screen Filter Schedule to be more intuitive
-Better performance when using Dynamic Filter
-Fix bug in Screen Filter Presets
11/10/2011 - Ver 1.9.2
Added option to delay Screen Off after the ScreenOn Lock is released.
07/07/2011 - Ver 1.9.1
Added option to select the interval Total Screen Control checks what application is visible and apply configured options.
Useful for those who want a better response time in changing the configuration but also for those who don't use settings per individual application by increasing the checking interval and by this achieving a lower battery usage.
26/06/2011 - Ver 1.9
*** New feature ***
- Option to disable softkey backlight when Screen Filter is enabled (not working on all phones)
Changes:
- Removed brightness popup window when brightness is changed
18/06/2011 - Ver 1.8
*** New feature ***
Screen Filter Color - allows you to change the color of the Screen Filter !
20/05/2011 - Ver 1.7
New feature !!
*** Dynamic Screen Filter ***
With this option you can configure Screen Filter levels based on phone's light sensor! Assign for every light sensor value a value for the Screen Filter !
Forget about the inexact auto-brightness option of your phone and enable Dynamic Screen Filter for better control of your phone's brightness!
28/02/2011 - Ver 1.6
New feature:
"Bright Light Detection", automatically disable Screen Filter based on Light Sensor readings when bright light is detected.
Useful when Screen Filter is enabled and the phone is used under direct sun, this feature will temporally disable the Screen Filter if the light threshold is passed.
14/02/2011 - Ver 1.5.1
Fixed Android 1.6 compatibility
07/02/2011 - Ver 1.5
Added option to disable Global Screen Filter for certain applications (e.g. you want Global Filter enabled but for Video Player or Messaging you want it disabled).
Just go in Application Tab/Brightness Icon and configure this feature for what application you want!
29/01/2011 - Ver 1.4.2
Added No Movement Detection in ScreenOn Lock based on phone orientation feature. Allows to set the time after that the ScreenOn Lock will disable if the phone was not moved.
Various enhancements in phone orientation detection algorithm.
Download: trial version valid until 06.02.2012

you might wanna say if its for android or winmo in the thread title

Kameirus said:
you might wanna say if its for android or winmo in the thread title
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I have only Android in my head, I didn't realize that it could be also for other platforms

Yeah, quite surprised that XDA hasnt created sub-forums for the different OS's aswell as mandatory topic titling.
Very nice idea though and thaks for posting info on your app bud

Really a good app , it could help me use lowest brightness value to save my battery.
But what i got a highly battery usaege on this app..... too bad~~~ Could some one tell me what's going on ?
My phone is idle , i even did not use it when i plug out the ac.
But ..

great app but it crashes everytime i try to change one of the settings :/

A great app, I like this.

Great app. working so far fine. No crashe....till now I can not confirm that battery problem.

serect said:
Really a good app , it could help me use lowest brightness value to save my battery.
But what i got a highly battery usaege on this app..... too bad~~~ Could some one tell me what's going on ?
My phone is idle , i even did not use it when i plug out the ac.
But ..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok I have got an equal result like you. 82% usage for the last 1h 20 min....Gonna keep it for a while on my device and watch its usage with the monitoring function of the app "SystemPanel".

Here is a screen shot of the usage

Hi guys,
thanks for your feedback:
Regarding battery use, this is something it needs deeper investigations, I have also encountered this high battery use REPORT but not always and I have gathered the following info:
- This is related only to ScreenOn Lock based on Sensor Orientation feature. So anyone that doesn't need this function just disable it and 99% that this usage will not appear anymore
- For the others, who find this feature useful there are 2 remarks:
1. First is a quote from another, much known application who's users reported also this high usage report:
* Battery usage is an insanely misleading stat. Many people assume that it means "80% of my battery was consumed by ****", and consequently, "if ***** were not running, my battery would last 80% longer". This simply isn't true. It's not even close. I've tried to get clear answers from Google on what the stat actually means, but haven't gotten more than "the amount of power consumed by an app when it is running". ***** doesn't run much.
* Some phones appear to get confused and attribute nearly all system battery usage to *****. This problem is not unique ******, and in fact applications such as Locale have started providing disclaimers for certain devices to warn users of the issues.
* ***** still suspends itself whenever the screen is turned off. The ***** service puts all threads into a sleep state using Thread.sleep(99999999999). It's possible that the Service is still being attributed some kind of resource usage since it hasn't been terminated (even though the threads have been suspended). I'm looking into this. At this point from what I can tell, there are no running threads once the screen is turned off...
I'm continuing to look into this, as I'm getting absolutely hammered at this point from a ratings (and consequently sales perspective), but I'm not sure that there is much I'm going to be able to do about improving the battery usage stats on specific devices.
The bottom line is this: ***** either improves your phone's battery life or it doesn't, regardless of what the battery stats say. On my Nexus One, ***** averages around 2-3% on the stats list. Sometimes it goes higher, but will generally drift back down to around that level.
2. This occurs randomly, please try to reboot your phone and check if the usage is still high.

DirkStorck said:
Ok I have got an equal result like you. 82% usage for the last 1h 20 min....Gonna keep it for a while on my device and watch its usage with the monitoring function of the app "SystemPanel".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using also System Panel and there it could be clearly seen that Total CPU Time and Average Consumption for Total Screen are in limits.

reaperzero said:
great app but it crashes everytime i try to change one of the settings :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please provide more details, when it crash, what setting you try to modify, phone model, Android OS version...

muntos said:
Hi guys,
thanks for your feedback:
Regarding battery use, this is something it needs deeper investigations, I have also encountered this high battery use REPORT but not always and I have gathered the following info:
- This is related only to ScreenOn Lock based on Sensor Orientation feature. So anyone that doesn't need this function just disable it and 99% that this usage will not appear anymore
- For the others, who find this feature useful there are 2 remarks:
1. First is a quote from another, much known application who's users reported also this high usage report:
* Battery usage is an insanely misleading stat. Many people assume that it means "80% of my battery was consumed by ****", and consequently, "if ***** were not running, my battery would last 80% longer". This simply isn't true. It's not even close. I've tried to get clear answers from Google on what the stat actually means, but haven't gotten more than "the amount of power consumed by an app when it is running". ***** doesn't run much.
* Some phones appear to get confused and attribute nearly all system battery usage to *****. This problem is not unique ******, and in fact applications such as Locale have started providing disclaimers for certain devices to warn users of the issues.
* ***** still suspends itself whenever the screen is turned off. The ***** service puts all threads into a sleep state using Thread.sleep(99999999999). It's possible that the Service is still being attributed some kind of resource usage since it hasn't been terminated (even though the threads have been suspended). I'm looking into this. At this point from what I can tell, there are no running threads once the screen is turned off...
I'm continuing to look into this, as I'm getting absolutely hammered at this point from a ratings (and consequently sales perspective), but I'm not sure that there is much I'm going to be able to do about improving the battery usage stats on specific devices.
The bottom line is this: ***** either improves your phone's battery life or it doesn't, regardless of what the battery stats say. On my Nexus One, ***** averages around 2-3% on the stats list. Sometimes it goes higher, but will generally drift back down to around that level.
2. This occurs randomly, please try to reboot your phone and check if the usage is still high.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks muntos. I like this app because the function on it equal to Screebl + Screen Filter .And I only need to use one app.
The "ScreenOn Lock" is same as Screebl. But i notice that when i use screebl it only have about 2~3% battery useage.
Hope you could find out the root cause about the heavily battery usage.
FYI , my phone is Galaxy S I9000.
BTW , How many days for trial version?

serect said:
Thanks muntos. I like this app because the function on it equal to Screebl + Screen Filter .And I only need to use one app.
The "ScreenOn Lock" is same as Screebl. But i notice that when i use screebl it only have about 2~3% battery useage.
Hope you could find out the root cause about the heavily battery usage.
FYI , my phone is Galaxy S I9000.
BTW , How many days for trial version?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My Phone it's also Galaxy S I9000. Please, could you do a phone reboot and then check if the same high values are shown in Battery use ?
Regarding trial version, as this moment you can check when the version expires by going to menu->about, but check in the Market when an update appears, this will extend the trial period.

muntos said:
My Phone it's also Galaxy S I9000. Please, could you do a phone reboot and then check if the same high values are shown in Battery use ?
Regarding trial version, as this moment you can check when the version expires by going to menu->about, but check in the Market when an update appears, this will extend the trial period.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yep~~ I had do a phone reboot. The picture which i posted before is a result after phone reboot.
Anyway , much appreciated your instant reply ,I will do a phone reboot again and observe if any change on battery usage.

Thanks Serect!
Anyone who uses this application please provide feedback regarding Battery Use Information in Settings->About Phone->Battery Use.
Thank you !

serect said:
yep~~ I had do a phone reboot. The picture which i posted before is a result after phone reboot.
Anyway , much appreciated your instant reply ,I will do a phone reboot again and observe if any change on battery usage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is a pity that i got a trial expire after my phone reboot .
It seems the battery usage has improve after reboot. But I only power on 37min~~lol...

serect said:
It is a pity that i got a trial expire after my phone reboot .
It seems the battery usage has improve after reboot. But I only power on 37min~~lol...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I believe that at least until you would recharge your phone you would not see anymore that high usage report...
Please check the Market for an update, trial period extended

muntos said:
Well I believe that at least until you would recharge your phone you would not see anymore that high usage report...
Please check the Market for an update, trial period extended
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
...I found when my trial expire , the "screen on lock" function automatically been disable , that's why I got a lower battery useage.
And I have a suggestion when the trial expire , I hope I have a chance to disable the Total Screen Control service , everytime I only been stick on "buy" or "close" option , but the service is still been enable there and i have no chance to disable it.
...It make me only have one option to uninstall it , too bad...

[Guide]The Quest for Better Battery Life on Your S5

Hello guys and gals! Been a while since I've started a thread heh. So let me start off by saying this thread is a collection of both tweaks I've found through my incessant tinkering and apps I've come across throughout the last few years. That being said the apps I will cover are the work of the developers who created them and all credit goes to them.
Settings Tweaks:
One of the first things I do on any Android phone is enable Developer Options under system settings (you do so by tapping build number under about phone 7 times). There is a specific group of settings in there that can help give you more screen on time with less battery drain.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Window animation scale, Transition animation scale, and Animation duration scale can all be turned off. Without having to draw these animations constantly your screen will consume less power, and may even seem snappier.
I know there are very mixed reviews of Smart Stay, but I feel like it can only help. Samsung has also included some settings to adapt the brightness and color based on the onscreen image in order to save battery. I assume that can only help our cause. Disabling the screen to wake on all buttons except power can also save wasted battery from your screen turning on in your pocket (there are xposed modules that can do this or you can get into editting key layouts with a root browser).
Lastly, as far as user level things for helping with more screen on and less power use, keeping your wallpaper on grayscale or dark images and using dark theming really helps as drawing light colors on the screen uses more energy.
Power Saving Tools:
The first on the list is a heavy hitter, the app Greenify. I cannot stress enough how crucial this app is. It allows you to put set apps into Hibernation, stopping them from running in the background and eating your memory and causing wakelocks preventing deep sleep. It has a great built in auto-hibernation option in settings which I highly recommend enabling.
I also suggest supporting the developer and buying the pro version. It enables some experimental features which backbone on the Xposed framework, allowing you to hibernate system apps, which proves very useful for running services that don't need to be 24/7.
Paired best with Greenify is any one of the large selection of battery monitoring apps. The best one in my opinion is GSam Battery Monitor, it gives you a detailed breakdown of what is using your battery so you can hone in on sources of drain. BetterBatteryStats and Wakelock Detector are a couple more of my favorites.
Tasker is quite possibly one of the best apps out there. Another one I highly suggest to support the developer and buy the pro version. You can set up automation tasks to control your phone without lifting a finger. In order to get the results we're trying for it will also need the plugin app Secure Settings.
I have 3 profiles that are relevant. The first 2 are linked, Home Mode and Away Mode. Home Mode sets all of the settings shown above in the At Home task when WiFi detects that it is near my home network. When WiFi detects it is NOT near my home network, the settings change to what is shown in the Away task image above. Allowing Tasker to control the aspects will help make sure your phone is more battery friendly when you are away from a power source.
The third profile is a simple Shake to Greenify, which hibernates all set apps through Greenify by a good shake of the phone.
Even though we cannot overclock due to the locked bootloader, don't forget about the option to underclock which can greatly save power. I use SetCPU to run 2 profiles, one which slows the CPU to a crawl when the screen is off preventing any apps from going too crazy with cpu wakelocks. The other profile gives the full range of voltages when the screen is on. I prefer to use OnDemand as my governor to save cpu power for when I need it.
Last on the list is Lux Auto Brightness. The free version does just fine; this app controls your light sensor far better than the native auto brightness setting, and the different update modes give you different options as to how you want the brightness adjustments handled.
With this list of tweaks and helpful app usage, I encourage you to test and try different things to find what works best for you. Hopefully I have helped in your quest for better battery life. Cheers!

Can I safely hibernate any of these system apps?
Thanks for the detailed info, I am always looking for better battery stats!

I would Greenify Quick connect, S Finder, and ROM Mart. If you need to use the app it will exit hibernation once you go into it.

What all do you have greenifyed? I don't wanna greenify something and mess up my phone, I have an AT&T S5.

Basically anything coming up in Greenify showing wakelocks and long run times gets Greenified.

So one I greenify something will I have to regreenify it if I use the app again?

No, once you Greenify it it will hibernate any time you trigger the hibernate all option, either by shortcut, shake, or auto-hibernation. When you use the app it will wake up, and will re-hibernate when hibernate all is triggered again.

I originally saw your post in the Dynamic Kat thread, two days with four hours of screen time is amazing! Is there anything else that you can tell me (apps or settings) that will increase my battery life? I've done everything you said in your guide. I usually get 13hr of battery with two hr of screen time.

Stephenparrigin said:
I originally saw your post in the Dynamic Kat thread, two days with four hours of screen time is amazing! Is there anything else that you can tell me (apps or settings) that will increase my battery life? I've done everything you said in your guide. I usually get 13hr of battery with two hr of screen time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I personally use power savings mode and restrict the processor and turn on gray scale. I get around three days generally, but I don't use my phone nearly as much as my tablet.

whmgreen said:
I personally use power savings mode and restrict the processor and turn on gray scale. I get around three days generally, but I don't use my phone nearly as much as my tablet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only time I use powersave mode is when I'm out and my battery is less than 25 percent. At work I usually listen to music for at least 4 hours, and at night I usually play games for at least 2 hours. The only other things I can recommend are freezing a crap ton of system apps in Titanium Backup. Also, any games that you have that give push notifications will hang out in memory, so disabling notifications will help keep them from waking up. And it goes without saying that bluetooth, gps, wifi, and mobile data should stay disabled until you need them, and turned back off after you use them. Regularly check BetterBatteryStats and Gsam Battery Monitor to see what's using your battery the most and nip it in the bud.

You also need to know that smartphone batteries these days are smart as well. They learn your usage patterns and adjust accordingly. When I first got this phone my average battery life was 12 hours, and after about a week it lasted a lot longer. Then after flashing DK my battery life went straight into the toilet for about 3 days until it re-learned. You have introduced a bunch of new changes to your phone, so it may take a few days or even a week to fully adjust to everything. It can also never hurt to go to safestrap and clear your cache and dalvik cache.

Here was first day testing out Sm-G870A. Mostly just WiFi usage this day. Might have got 10 hours.
Straight out of box.
Here few days later with kool_active.
Samsung unlock bootloader on SM-G870A ...

XRange said:
Here was first day testing out Sm-G870A. Mostly just WiFi usage this day. Might have got 10 hours.
Straight out of box.
Here few days later with kool_active.
Samsung unlock bootloader on SM-G870A ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is impressive my friend! For the sake of the Guide do you use any of the same techniques I employ or do you have other methods you could give to aid in the quest?

Just froze most if not all bloat. Set screen on least brightest inside house. Add u can see WiFi & mobile signal where full strength. So that might had some to do with it. Mobile was on AT&T Micro cell that day also. Use most stuff as everyone else, xpose, gravity box, greenify, tb to freeze bloat.
Samsung unlock bootloader on SM-G870A ...

Oh man been looking for better ways to safe battery and bam just found them .. Thx man awesome article .. as big fan of tasker i have totally forgot about that app ... Could you post tasker profiles?

wizardslovak said:
Oh man been looking for better ways to safe battery and bam just found them .. Thx man awesome article .. as big fan of tasker i have totally forgot about that app ... Could you post tasker profiles?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm always willing to help! I will post full breakdowns of my battery saving ones only though to stay on topic in the thread. Any thing not battery life relevant can be shared through PM

Also glad you enjoyed the guide!

d34thbl00m said:
Also glad you enjoyed the guide!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thx again..

Feel free to post screenshots of the battery I've helped you save!

Impression.

I just used the phone for half a day and thoroughly enjoy it. On first impression, the phone is very light for the size and they give nice accessories considering the price; earphones, screen protector, case. The phone have an RGB notification light.
Interface:
-The interface is not stock Android, it's more like a modified version of MIUI. It's very usable once you install your choice of stock launcher, replace the default keyboard, and disable some of the bloat apps.
-Since it's not stock Android, I find it take a bit of time to get used to finding things in the Settings menu.
-The swipe up hardware toggles (Control center, similar to iPhone toggles) are pretty useful and more well organized than stock Android imo.
-Screen off gestures, you get many different commands (double tap on, camera, flashlight, customize your own, etc) and it work pretty good.
-Feature to display network speed on the notification bar
-"Close all" button in the recent apps menu.
-There is a feature to modify apps permissions called "Permissions of App".
-I can not find the shortcut to "Smart Lock" window anywhere, even though it is supported in the OS, if you pair a bluetooth device it will display the notification to enable it. But there seems to be no way to get to the actual Smart Lock window to enable other smart lock features, or I miss it somewhere.
Performance:
I installed all my programs pretty quick. I don't see any lag issues. All the apps launches fast and run smoothly. I don't intend to play any heavy games on a $100 phone, all the light games I play like Subway Surfer and Horizon Chase have no lags.
Connection:
Cell: The dual sim feature seems to work good. I still have to to test the signal quality, but I have to say the data speed is average. I get about 10 to 12mbps down for T-Mobile LTE speed test.
Bluetooth: I'm happy to report the Bluetooth have good performance, the motion of people lips in videos are in synced with the audio from the bluetooth speaker.
WiFi: Can reach high speed, no problem.
GPS: No problem.
Storage:
There is a strange quirk with the phone which is by default your microSD is acts as the main 'internal storage' of the phone (sdcard0), and the actual internal storage act as external (sdcard1). So it would help if you use a fast microSD. I think this is because I have the microSD inserted the first time I set up the phone. Maybe this problem can be prevented by not inserting the microSD for the first time you boot up the phone. I don't know, but I'll just live with it.
Display:
The screen is very nice for a 5.5" 720p AMOLED display. It's not going to be sharp, but it the pixels are smooth so you don't get so much of that pixelation effect. Pretty much deep black, saturated colors and good viewing angles you expect from AMOLED. It's definitely not the brightest of display though, so you might have some problem under direct sunlight.
Camera: I haven't used it too much, but it's pretty average. Like all lower end camera, it have issue with under/over exposure, also the white balance is really off on auto mode. I like the manual mode that let you control the ISO and shutter speed. It's no where bad in good lighting condition, I'd say it takes good enough details for a budget phone.
Speaker: Very average, don't expect much here.
Charging: I used my Anker quick charger and it seems to charge the device fast and safely.
Ringtones selection:
The only thing I don't like is that if you have music in your phone, when you go to change the default ringtones, it will display every single songs in your phone and you have to scroll through it. The way to remedy this is to use the file manager in the phone and create a file called ".nomedia" in your music folder, so the phone will not recognize songs in it. Once you set your desired ringtone, you can remove that file. Or you can simply use a third party app to do the job.
Aside from some quirks, I honestly have no complaints so far, I would have no problem paying the full $150 for this device. I definitely like it better than the Moto G3, except that Motorola phones tends to have superior signals and call quality compared to most other brands. I definitely will not use this phone without a case though since it's on the light side.

Couple of things I noticed
1. The navigation buttons at the bottom (Home, Back & Option) does not have backlight. Not sure if there is a LED there that can be enabled in settings. I couldn't find any setting for that.
2. The data connection drops from 4G LTE to 'H' (HSPA) when on a call.

One of thing I notice about the Gallery app in this phone is there is an "Encrypt" option. If you press it accidentally it encrypt the file and move it into the "Pictures\.GallerySafe" folder. To access the encrypted photo, you have to "pinch outward" in the app.
No Smart Lock support: I tested and even though the smart lock feature turned on when you paired a bluetooth device, it actually doesn't work.

Here are some photo samples. The main problem are over exposure, white balance detection and some lost of saturation. The quality suffers when you're indoor with less lights.
https://goo.gl/photos/j9BrJ7gcbDCXBQgD6

The LED notification light seem like its set a ways under the glass and has this really bright shining affect versus a little glow other devices have.
I must say, the amoled screen on this is quite impressive for $100 phone..
wifi and data speeds are very similar compared to my oneplus 2 (both running Tmobile)

I noticed that the user cannot remove home screen icons. Like when you press and hold there's no option to remove the icon. Some apps show an option to uninstall. But for some pre installed apps there is no option to remove the icon.
Like Google chrome, opera browser, BLU help, amazon etc....
I don't want to uninstall the app, just remove from home screen.
Yea I noticed the LED light being very bright. I could read a book under that lighting.

hamilLewiston said:
I noticed that the user cannot remove home screen icons. Like when you press and hold there's no option to remove the icon. Some apps show an option to uninstall. But for some pre installed apps there is no option to remove the icon.
Like Google chrome, opera browser, BLU help, amazon etc....
I don't want to uninstall the app, just remove from home screen.
Yea I noticed the LED light being very bright. I could read a book under that lighting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
just use another launcher. google now, nova

eksasol said:
One of thing I notice about the Gallery app in this phone is there is an "Encrypt" option. If you press it accidentally it encrypt the file and move it into the "Pictures\.GallerySafe" folder. To access the encrypted photo, you have to "pinch outward" in the app.
No Smart Lock support: I tested and even though the smart lock feature turned on when you paired a bluetooth device, it actually doesn't work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The smart lock is really baffling. It prompts to turn on smart lock but never works after that.

tlxxxsracer said:
just use another launcher. google now, nova
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks, that's what i finally did

so i found that there is an option on the desktop settings to 'hide' apps that you don't want to see on the desktop. it will hide the apps, with a password / pin. i'll post a guide later.

I've been using the Honor 5X a bit today so here is a comparison.
Things I prefer on the Vivo XL:
-This is a faster device. Everything about the Blu is more responsive and I don't think it's down to just the 720p display. It seems that this Mediatek CPU is actually pretty decent, games are smoother on it as well. In comparison, Honor 5X is slightly sluggy, not just in the interface, but in apps as well. This is probably due to the EMUI OS on the Honor 5X.
-Blu's UI is actually easier to understand and getting used to, especially if you're not accustomed to MIUI style interface on the Honor 5X.
-I'm not sure if it's due to the screen protector preinstalled on the Honor 5X, but the Blu touchscreen is a bit more sensitive and responsive to touch. Though it's not bad on the Honor 5X.
-The slide up "Control Panel" on the Blu is more useful with lots of options. Hate to admit it, but I prefer this slide up behavior more than Android's default because it's faster being close to your thumb. The notification toggles for the Honor 5X is missing a few options, but not a big deal.
-Blu is thinner and more light weight.
-The USB Type C connector is god sent.
-Removable battery.
Prefer on the 5X:
-Sharper screen that is very bright, its actually brighter than some highend flagship devices. The viewing angle isn't great however, but that is non-problem because it's a phone, not a TV.
-The camera is (only) slightly better. It have a bit more details and much better handle at white balance. Although the Blu camera's tap to focus is faster and more responsive. At this price range, it's not a big difference between the two phones.
-While their EMUI interface takes time to learn, it have some useful features, such as network control for apps. This let you disable data or wifi access for any apps you want, which is a very useful security feature.
-Very nice metal body.
-Finger print scanner, which I don't use.
It's a bit hard to choose which phone I would use as the daily driver. I think that if you go with the Blu, the software is good enough that you don't need to install custom roms. If you go with the Honor 5X, I believe you will need to install custom roms if you want the most out of the performance. I would have to pick the Blu Vivo XL as better value for the money, since it performs better for $50 less, and may last longer due to removable battery and USB Type C connector (more durable than microUSB). Also I like it when companies throw in free phone case and headphones, which is lacking in the Honor 5X packaging.

hamilLewiston said:
so i found that there is an option on the desktop settings to 'hide' apps that you don't want to see on the desktop. it will hide the apps, with a password / pin. i'll post a guide later.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wheres the guide?

Thanks you for this app

Personal pros & cons after a month use

My phone is Global ROM PFGMIXM 10.3.5.0.
Model M1901F7G. Bootloader locked. Many apps were removed using SAKI program.
I mainly use my phone for gaming, listening to music, messagings, and browsing internet. I experience no lag at all even when I play pubg.
Overall I'm more than satisfied with this phone, especially when compared to my previous phone, Samsung J7. Below are my random thoughts/nitpickings/wish on the phone and things I noticed through my daily usage. It's really subjective opinion of mine, but could be more intriguing than most of those same boring reviews you can find on YouTube. If anybody knows how to fix or can suggest for workaround for my complaints, please let me know.
Pros:
Bluetooth headphones' remaining battery % can be checked in bluetooth connected device inside settings.
Removing app vault and Google app using SAKI program seem to have noticeably extended the battery life.
Unlocking with finger print really is responsive.
Because battery lasts really long time and it charges super fast with Q3 charger, I don't even charge it over 70% these days. Q4 charger is overkill too.
Headphone sound quality is surprisingly good. Comes with many presets you can choose from. Also LDAC audio codes is supported. Great for Sony headphones.
Available RAM increased by 0.1GB after uninstalling app vault and disabling it inside Home screen & Recents setting.
Cons:
When I set timer in clock, it doesn't show how many minutes left in notification bar, instead it shows what time the timer will go off. I wish it showed countdown time.
When I receive WhatsApp message, it doesn't give notification although I didn't disable it. This is pretty bad.
Golf clash app suddenly shut it self down. Happens once in 3 days or so, pisses me off when I go out of time because of this. I've reinstalled the app after the last crash and that might have solved it, didn't crash for 2, 3 days now.
When I play pubg for long time, sometimes the phone gets quite hot.
I've seen MI shopping/payment icon showing up in notification bar while browsing internet with chrome. This was very strange because I've removed all the MI apps through saki already 10 days ago. It's the icon that looks like shopping bag with "M" in the bag.
After uninstalling Google app, if I swipe up from home button, screen is covered with blank Google app remainder. This can only be solved if I changed launcher as I understand because there is an integration of Google app in MIUI launcher. Something minor and I'm not changing the launcher just for this.
Stock weather app update only once a day. This really bothers me. If I install 3rd party weather and time app and its widget, I can choose to update hourly. But then the time in notification bar shows up when in home screen. I don't need 2 times shown in home screen.
Stock camera can't be removed.
Can't choose gcam as default app to launch it by pressing volume down button twice.