yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S 4 General] puremind:
You can only defeat it by using automatic brightness. In manual brightness it is always on in those two browsers (until a Mod can deactivate it)

No there is no remedy for it: for bright content white will be less bright than for darker contents (e.g. menus). There may be a way to remove this mechanism at kernel level BUT:

It is a protective mechanism intended to avoid burn in (which will happen over time and will be worse at higher brightness)

It is battery-saving - bright content at full brightness would kill the battery

So even though there may be a fix later, it should be used carefully. AMOLED's are not meant to be run at high brightnes for prolonged periods of time. Spot brightness for checking a couple of messages in the sun, yes, but don't count on permanent brightness increase for web browsing.
[Galaxy S 4 General] puremind:
It depends on your objecives.

In my opinion, Power Saving is not that necessary if you are on auto-adjust, because auto-adjust has the same effect as Power Saving, it lowers your brightness consistent across all APL levels but more dependent on ambient light, so it enough to protect your battery and is actually more flexilble.

Auto-adjust screen tone will throttle brightness above 60% average picture level, so for web browsing and testing, it will save extra battery intelligently but will clip whites, so it is a trade-off, depends on your priority. I have to do more analysis on it though, because for now I only touched brightness, I still have to do more analysis on how gamma and black crush is impacted in each mode.

Overall auto-brightness without Power Saving is better. I think "auto adjust screen tone" will add value for films (more to come on this).
[Galaxy S 4 General] exec99:
Ok, I understand the second issue (brigthness vs APL), but stil not sure about the first one.

On page 7 of this thread bala_gamer came up with a mod (http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2272275) - but it doesn't help with stock browser brigthness clipping - is that right?

So, when you showed us that one vs gs4 photo the gs4 screen was on light orange curve (s4 power saving) behaviour right? And this was not because you turned on power saving but because stock browser always use power saving mode. Do I get that right?
[Galaxy S 4 General] puremind:
1. No it doesn't help. the mod only changes Power Saving to off, which you can do in the menu.

2. Yes, this is correct. the stock browser and Chrome will reduce whites by 25% on manual brightness. In auto-brightness they will not engage power savin mode, however in practice the dimming is quite severe even outdoor and at auto+5, so you end up at similar levels in most situations and only very bright light will make auto brightness tap into "boost mode". Devs are looking for a way to control the thresholds, as right now they are quite conservative.
[Galaxy S 4 General] exec99:
Ok thanks, now everything's clear.

However I have a small request: could you please take another photo of htc one and gs4 with the same page open but this time use different browser on gs4 (opera mobile for example). Or actually if you have some spare time ;) you could do two photos in current ambient lightning conditions: one with gs4 and stock browser and another with opera so we could see how does it compare to a good, bright slcd screen.

I'd really appreciate it. :)
[Galaxy S 4 General] puremind:
Good news everyone.

Supercurio will soon be releasing Display Expert to deactivate dynamic contrast on the Galaxy S4. It will normally not require you to flash a custom Kernel.
[Galaxy S 4 General] DocRambone:
Wrong forum section...
[Galaxy S 4 General] puremind:
I think it is interesting to readers of this thread. It is a general info. I will let him post in the development section when it has come to that moment.

Edit: ah, now I see I mistyped. I meant to write for the S4. :)
[Galaxy S 4 General] puremind:
I only have 1 HTC One and 1 S4 unit left, so I can't take a picture.

However when I measure the white on a google.com web page, this is what I get at max brightness without power saving:

Stock: 233cd/m²

Chrome: 233cd/m²

Opera: 286cd/m²

HTC One: 485cd/m²

Based on this, it seems the stock browsers apply Auto Adjust Screen Tone rather than Power Saving.
[Galaxy S 4 General] puremind:
Correct except you can't switch off auto adjust screen tone for Chrome and the stock browser. High ambient light does not boost web browsing because it has near white content. Both curves are very close.
[Galaxy S 4 General] puremind:
Just to put the graphs into perspective, I am showing the maximum reachable brightness for various Android applications:

Android Menu: 5% APL | Maximum Brightness: 465cd/m²

Android Menu with radio buttons: 10% APL | Maximum Brightness: 455cd/m²

OLED fiendly web site: 15% APL | Maximum Brightness: 445cd/m²

Random Gallery Picture: 40% APL | Maximum Brightness: 410cd/m²

Google Play: 60% APL | Maximum Brightness: 395cd/m²

Anandtech with zoom on picture: 70% APL | Maximum Brightness: 350cd/m²

Google Maps: 75% APL | Maximum Brightness: 320cd/m²

Whatsapp: 80% APL | Maximum Brightness: 305cd/m²

Android Contact List: 85% APL | Maximum Brightness: 295cd/m²

Google Results page: 90% APL | Maximum Brightness: 290cd/m²

Google: 95% APL | Maximum Brightness: 285cd/m²
[Galaxy S 4 General] noideaforusername:
I tested today my S4 under direct sunlight (it was like 35 Celsius degrees here), in the stock browser and I was able to see very clearly the webpages I viewed (Google, Gadgety.co.il, gsmarena.com, phonearena.com, etc). In GSAM it shows me 25% of the screen time (2.5 hours) was light and 1% was bright (about 45 minutes which about the time I used it under direct sunlight).

Before I went out it showed only Dark, Dim or Medium.

So I find it weird you get different results :confused:
[Galaxy S 4 General] puremind:
Maybe you just are used to OLED screens, but I can assure you that 290cd/m2 in the sun is not "very clear". It is readable at best. :) It is only when you have tasted 500cd/m2 that you understand what comfortable, very clear reading means. :)

Did you test with direct sunlight falling on the screen, though? No clouds in the sky? No turning away from the sun?
[Galaxy S 4 General] noideaforusername:
Brightness isn't everything in sunlight legibility, you need to check the reflectivity and the contrast ratio of the screen. The HTC one is only better in brightness, the other two parameters the S4 takes him hands down.

Direct sunlight and no clouds, in Israel almost all the year is summer :p

I was outside on the beach, so all the time direct sunlight :silly:
[Galaxy S 4 General] puremind:
Actually, the One was tested to have slightly better reflectance than the S4.

PS: I have and use both phones, and in a bright environment, the HTC One takes the S4 hands down.
[Galaxy S 4 General] noideaforusername:
Can you give me a link to this test? Cause every review I saw comparing this two devices said the S4 have better sunlight legibility because of better reflectance and contrast ration.
[Galaxy S 4 General] puremind:
I think you may have mistaken the HTC Desire with the HTC One. The displaymate test of the S4 compared it to the HTC Desire and iPhone 5, not the HTC One.

CNET did mention better reflectance values on the HTC One in their HTC One vs. S4 match up and also Androidauthority here (which focuses on sun legibility and viewing angles):

http://www.androidauthority.com/galaxy-s4-vs-htc-one-screen-display-comparison-212438/

AMOLED screens have deeper blacks and slightly better viewing angles (especially vertical) but brightness, sun legibility, color accuracy and sharpness is not where they excel. The deeper blacks do not matter in a bright environment, because they are washed out by reflections.

AMOLED will be best for home cinema in a dim or pitch dark environment - this is where they can play out their advantage, even surpassing the best plasma screens...But smartphones are on-the-go devices, so AMOLED devices do not shine as bright in a smartphone as they would in a TV for example (also because of energy consumption for brighter content).
[Galaxy S 4 General] exec99:
Recently I compared my friends s4 to my i9103(slcd) and the s4 was really weak in sunlight. My i9103 was better at 60% brightness than the s4 on 100% (i tried auto as well).
[Galaxy S 4 General] puremind:
Yes, that seems about right. Did you use auto brightness though? Max brightness doesn't give max brightness on the S4. Also did you use Chrome or the Stock browser? Those use undefeatable Auto Adjust, so will be dimmer than other browsers.
[Galaxy S 4 General] noideaforusername:
You brought an example of site which concludes that the S4 is brighter than the One (funny name :p) and we know for fact that it is not true (unless you "overclock" the screen), so I can't take any of their conclusion true.

In CNET I didn't find anywhere any comparison between the 2 phones.
[Galaxy S 4 General] puremind:
It was a typo on their part. Just look at the pictures and see for yourself what the reflectance is.

CNET:

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19736_...-s4-vs-htc-one-a-clash-of-two-android-titans/

David Katzmaier is behind the CNET display review on the S4, and his TV reviews are considered the most elaborate and professional of any online publication (together with hdtvtest.co.uk).
[Galaxy S 4 General] elkay:
Never tell me something is undefeatable.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=42351023#post42351023

:)
[Galaxy S 4 General] BarryH_GEG:
Screens test: HTC One vs. Samsung Galaxy S4

CNET tests the screens of the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4.

by David Katzmaier and Brian Bennett | June 6, 2013

The two hottest flagship Android smartphones right now, the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy S4, both earned CNET's Editors' Choice Awards for their stellar designs, massive feature sets, and overall appeal.

So which one has the better screen?

In the tradition of our original screens tests last year, we set out to answer that very question. We used a combination of objective measurements courtesy of the same expensive test gear we use to evaluate and calibrate HDTVs, and subjective observations courtesy of our priceless, expert eyes.

As we found previously, each screen has particular strengths and weaknesses, but to our minds

the Samsung Galaxy S4 has the better screen

. Its victory over the One, however, was by no means a slam dunk.

Overall color accuracy between the two is nearly a wash by the numbers, and the One has a decided advantage in brightness -- making it the better choice if you spend a lot of time outdoors under a bright sky. But the deeper black levels and insane contrast of the GS4, along with the versatility afforded by its many settings, helped put it over the top.

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-6452_7-57587774/screens-test-htc-one-vs-samsung-galaxy-s4/
[Galaxy S 4 General] omidwar:
Very Very Nice
[Galaxy S 4 General] puremind:
Yes, this shows exactly what I was saying all along - the HTC One has color tempersture that fluctuates between near perfect and overly cool. Depending on the device, the display can be better or worse.

The S4 on the other hand has a display that has extremely low device-to-device variability. On the 3 devices I tested so far greyscale and overall brightness was almost identical. Only the green color varies a little.

Overall the size of the display on the s4 makes it more comfortable to use and if you use it inside, the black levels give you extra contrast. I am waiting for FauxDisplay to be able to recalibrate color on the S4, that's the only annoying aspect on this device.
[Galaxy S 4 General] sak500:
I dont know how you can be openly lying about something.. The stock browser on my i9500 has auto brightness option. If unchecked it can go very bright to even hurt the eyes.
[Galaxy S 4 General] sak500:
Stop lying man. Did HTC pay you or something? You dont even have an S4.
[Galaxy S 4 General] puremind:
LOL Just two posts above. The results are almost identical on every web site for the S3. Anandtech, Displaymate, CNET and my own measurements.

Read the tread again so you can understand what is at play here. Pretty much everything is said in the original post and I have spent quite a lot of time studying this screen now.

So much that I can even tell you how bright the picture you attached is on your phone by calculating its APL and correlating with the measurement curves...

Give me 10 min.
[Galaxy S 4 General] puremind:
The picture you attached has got an APL of 56%. At this APL, white brightness will be 400cd/m², which is very bright. Check the original post for more examples of pictures and their APL.

Low brightness only kicks in above 70% APL, so for typical web pages without menu overlay See examples below and their respective brightness and APL (the less white on screen, the brighter the white):

Android Menu: 5% APL | Maximum Brightness: 465cd/m²

Android Menu with radio buttons: 10% APL | Maximum Brightness: 455cd/m²

OLED fiendly web site: 15% APL | Maximum Brightness: 445cd/m²

Random Gallery Picture: 40% APL | Maximum Brightness: 410cd/m²

Google Play: 60% APL | Maximum Brightness: 395cd/m²

Anandtech with zoom on picture: 70% APL | Maximum Brightness: 350cd/m²

Google Maps: 75% APL | Maximum Brightness: 320cd/m²

Whatsapp: 80% APL | Maximum Brightness: 305cd/m²

Android Contact List: 85% APL | Maximum Brightness: 295cd/m²

Google Results page: 90% APL | Maximum Brightness: 290cd/m²

Google: 95% APL | Maximum Brightness: 285cd/m²
[Galaxy S 4 General] BarryH_GEG:
That's the part that's the most confusing. There are so many display related settings in the SGS4 they really do cloud comparisons. A lot of the less thorough sites don't even factor in how the various settings can affect the display's output. A good question was raised though. We know the master auto-brightness setting has to be in "auto" to achieve maximum brightness. What affect does the browser auto-brightness setting have both on its own and as it relates to all the other global brightness settings?
[Galaxy S 4 General] puremind:
The browser's brightness setting just acts as a shortcut to the global setting. If you change one, it also changes the other. It is one and the same.

The original post I think covers all possible scenarios (except it doesn't show curves at each ambient brightness in lux only at multiple control points including the extremes).

Overall there are only 4 items that impact brightness:

Brightness/Auto-Brightness

Power Saving (20% cut off)

Auto-Adjust --> only kicks in above 70% APL, this clips white and near white content faster than through natural throttling - this achieves a good portion of power saving because it clips the energy-hungry whites, while maintaining brightness for dark to medium light pictures.

Screen Mode (minimal effect).
[Galaxy S 4 General] BarryH_GEG:
You know, with all the Samsung devices I've had I never realized until now it was just a shortcut to the master brightness setting; I always thought it was discrete to the browser. Shows you how much I use it. ;)
[Galaxy S 4 General] puremind:
I am the same, I just keep it on auto-brightness, especially now since you can vary the auto-brightness baseline.

I am torn. On the one hand I wish for Kernels to enable boost mode at a lower threshold, but on the other hand I know that my battery will get depleted. It is like with overclocking. I appreciate the extra performance boost, but when I think about the battery consumption, I am actually running my device at 1.674Ghz with 50mv undervolting.

I think battery life more than brightness is what smartphone manufacturers should improve on for the next generation of devices. I am still hoping for a breakthrough in battery technology that would allow battery life of several weeks!

The advantage of those larger devices like the Note 3 and HTC One Max is that they will carry huge batteries. But unfortunately that's above my size limit for a smartphone. A friend of mine hat the Galaxy Note and it was a pain to take out of his pockets and generally looked more like a productivity device. I think I could probably still take 5.2 inches, but not more.
[Galaxy S 4 General] sak500:
I called you out because of not your charts and stuff but you said there is no brightness control in the default browser. The pics i posted show there is adjuster there. Rest of your stuff may be correct about the levels in brightness but to me even half way on the auto brightness it's quite bright. The comparison pic in your OP with HTC clearly is biased and with full brightness S4 screen will be more brighter than HTC.
[Galaxy S 4 General] BarryH_GEG:
Your post is why I asked about the browser brightness setting. Puremind's right; it's just a shortcut to the master brightness setting and doesn't just affect the browser. What he found out in his testing and other people have pointed out too is that the browser brightness doesn't go to the same max level brightness as it does elsewhere in the OS. He said it's 20% dimmer. Perhaps because the browser is so biased to light colors Samsung's done that intentionally to conserve battery life. You can turn Adapt Display off in settings but it seems to stay on in some form in the browser. But your point is valid, how many cd/m2 the browser displays is less important than whether people are satisfied with it. The SGS4's browser at 80% is probably 40% brighter than the SGS3's at 100%.

A lot of people complaining about the display/browser not being bright enough probably aren't using auto-brightness. The SGS4's the first Samsung device to actually be brighter in auto-mode than it is in manual mode.

OLED displays are generally not as bright as the brightest LCD displays. There are two reasons for this: first, while OLED power efficiency has been steadily improving they are not yet as power efficient as the best LCDs. Second: there is a marketing obsession for producing ultra thin and light weight Smartphones, which sacrifices much needed battery power. Since the display often uses 50 percent or more of the total Smartphone power, various display power management schemes are frequently used. The Galaxy S4 uses one innovative approach to overcome this – when Automatic Brightness is turned on, the Peak Brightness becomes significantly brighter in high ambient lighting than is possible with Manual Brightness, up to as high as 475 cd/m2, which is

34 percent higher than is possible with Manual Brightness.

This is done so that users can’t permanently set the brightness to very high values, which would run down the battery quickly.​

http://www.displaymate.com/Galaxy_S4_ShootOut_1.htm
[Galaxy S 4 General] puremind:
I came from the S2 and the S2 is as bright as the S4. The last 3 days were very sunny in Frankfurt. And in the sun, the display is not comfortable to use but readable. It is not optimal but I prefer to conserve battery over more brightness, as OLED's just don't make it energy efficient to display bright whites.
[Galaxy S 4 General] BarryH_GEG:
C-Net ran the same tests on the SGS3 that they did on the SGS4. At full brightness it achieved 143 cd/m2. Your test of the SGS4 above at 95% APL got 285 cd/m2; a result two times greater than the SGS3. So it's kind of a "glass half full/half empty" thing. It kind of sucks that Samsung won't allow the SGS4's browser to achieve the same max brightness as the rest of the OS but if people lived with the SGS3's brightness levels they should be ecstatic about the SGS4's.

And your lowest reading for the SGS4 is still higher than C-Net's highest reading for the N2. So at least in the AMOLED world the SGS4's display is pretty decent.
[Galaxy S 4 General] puremind:
I am not sure about those measurements for the S3. On the S2, the brightness could be doubled by deactivating the "power saving" option. I think it just happens to be so that the S4 has that option deactivated as a default whereas on the S2 and S3 you had to remove it to recover some brightness.

To be confirmed on the S3, though, as I didn't test that device.
[Galaxy S 4 General] snake2332:
I do love the S4 screen, but the brightness does seem lacking. I haven't found any really good data on my previous phone, the (CDMA) Galaxy Nexus, but side-by-side with the S4 using manual brightness the Nexus is easily brighter. I'm running Jellybeans ROM on my S4 with power saving and screen tone auto-adjust turned off. I imagine if I took them in bright light outside and put the S4 on auto, it would get brighter than the Nexus, but I haven't tried that yet.

What I'm curious about, and why I'm posting in a month-dormant thread, is the screen calibration of the S4. Is it worthwhile to calibrate it? I don't mind the over-saturation as long as the colors are somewhat accurate. I would like more brightness. I would actually like to increase the baseline for auto-brightness. I wish it was just like 10 or 20% brighter all the time on auto mode. I don't mind the loss in battery life. Can this be done, and if so, how?

Thanks!
[Galaxy S 4 General] Hunt3r.j2:
Best of luck with that endeavor. Samsung's display adjustments are pretty much not possible to defeat.
[Galaxy S 4 General] DANOFDANGER:
As far as I know since 4.3 update brightness is now held constant and not throttled in any specific apps as previously. This is as long as auto tone, adapt display and auto brightness are all off. The only time brightness changes is when overheating occurs, such as charging while using or intense usage such as games but very rarely.
[Galaxy S 4 General] moyanous:
Pre-calibrated gallery viewer

There's a new app "Calibrated Photo Viewer" on Play Store which is a gallery viewer with pre-calibrated color and gamma corrections for the Galaxy S4 (among others). Both sRGB and Adobe RGB color spaces are supported.

Here's the link

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.auralisoft.jpegviewer
[Galaxy S 4 General] Bingley:
Fantastic. If only it worked for the whole phone outside its own gallery!
[Galaxy S 4 General] emandt:
If someone is interested I've developed an App called "ColorModeChanger". You can visit XDA forum thread at: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=3154845
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S 4] mike3000000:
Hi,

any one lose auto rotate after the update?

Thanks
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S 4] KillaHurtz:
Are you sure the toggle is on in the status bar ?
[LG Optimus 2x] w4rr3nSU660:
sorry for bad english

heres my problem, im using rugglez,s MIUI 3.4.5 when plugging on my laptop, it always appear as Portable Media Player, and not as an USB Storage :( it took me an hour copying my files:crying:

PLEASE CLOSE THIS THREAD
[MDA II, XDA II, 2060 General] mwpeters:
Hello,

My MDAII has been a stellar performer until recently. The active sync process has been working since the initial connection to the host. Now when I try to active sync, I get the connection sound on both the host and the MDAII. Then a Communications Error box with the white X and red circle comes up stating "Cannot start communications with the desktop computer. Remote Networking could not start due to a critical error (Error 635). I tried a soft reset, hard reset on the MDAII, re-installing active sync on the host and still the same error. I tried upgrading the firmware on the MDAII but the process failed for what seemed to be the same type of error. I tried connecting the MDAII to another host and got the same problem. USB and Irda present the same Comm Error dialog box. It would seem there is a hardware problem in the MDAII. Any ideas from the wise gurus on this forum?

Thank-you for your time in reading this. Michael Peters.