Automatic Brightness Sucks?

[ThirstyTurtle]

So when I had my iPhone, I would set it on auto-brightness and it was very good at determining how bright it needed to be. With the Droid, I've tried simply setting the display to the dimmest setting, which is bright enough for me as long as i'm not outside, and I've gotten 16+ hours of use out of the thing with the screen taking about 40% of the battery life (according to the "Battery Use" app in the phone). BUT, if I set it on auto-brightness, I feel like it's near full brightness all the time, even in a poorly lit room at night I feel like it's running 80% brightness or something, and I'm able to get more like 11 hours of battery life, with 60% or so going to the screen. Essentially I'm just saying I think the auto brightness feature could be better, anybody else have feelings on this? Do you guys use auto-brightness or set it yourselves? The only time it's a problem for me to not use auto-brightness is when I walk outside in direct sunlight and i can't see a damn thing on the screen. Any 3rd party apps maybe to help? Maybe set specific parameters for screen brightness and Droid-perceived atmospheric brightness?

let me know.

 

[gobroncos]

I have mine set at like 30%. Auto brightness uses to much battery

 

[ThirstyTurtle]

I have mine set at like 30%. Auto brightness uses to much battery

YES, thankyou, auto brightness on the droid SUCKS.

 

[ThirstyTurtle]

Well I should have looked probably before creating a thread, but there are some decent apps in the market that can toggle between two brightness levels, pretty much exactly what I needed. Because it's quite rare that I'm in direct sunlight trying to use my phone. I think the best is "FastBright", under the settings you can set what brightness you want it to jump to when you click it, that way you can use it regularly to either switch from a dim screen to a bright screen or from a bright screen to a dim screen, better than the power control widget that comes on the phone because it takes only one slot as opposed to 4. Hope this helps people with similar problems, although better auto brightness would be a better alternative, this will do for now.

 

[Rich Rasp]

I have mine set at like 30%. Auto brightness uses to much battery

Really? I found that my battery was getting killed at 40%. Switched to auto and was getting double the battery life, easy.

 

[04redgto]

Auto Brightness has sucked on every phone I've tried it on, so I turn it off. I put the brightness on 100% 24/7. I do text, have 3 e-mail accts pushed, lots of work calls, and I always have 30-40% batt left at midnight when I go to bed. I also take it off the charger at 6:30 am. My phone charges EVERY night though. I'm not one of thoes people that need a phone to last more than a day!

 

[Rich Rasp]

Auto Brightness has sucked on every phone I've tried it on, so I turn it off. I put the brightness on 100% 24/7. I do text, have 3 e-mail accts pushed, lots of work calls, and I always have 30-40% batt left at midnight when I go to bed. I also take it off the charger at 6:30 am. My phone charges EVERY night though. I'm not one of thoes people that need a phone to last more than a day!

Thats amazing if thats what you are getting. The only way I knew the auto brightness was helping the battery was after a day with it on and moderate use, only 30% of the phone's battery was used from the screen. With it off and the screen at 40%, same use thru-out the day and 70% screen on the battery use. Simple math.

 

[Adiliyo]

i agree, the auto brightness is too finnicky and keeps adjusting.

i keep mine at the lowest setting, and have the power control widget which lets me quickly switch it to something brighter if i'm outside.

 

[chuckthepilot]

+1 On the power control widget. Very handy to have, and coming stock on the phone makes it even better. The widget actually has 3 settings, all the way down, about 30% or so, and all the way up.

 

[Adiliyo]

the whole widget in general is super handy

 

[darkstar]

I was getting 70% before going on Auto.. was getting 40% afterward... though I'm trying it on 30% now...

 

[ThirstyTurtle]

well if I put mine on the lowest setting then I can do whatever I want on the thing all day long and i'll have about 20% battery left from 8am to midnightish, but put that sucker on auto-brightness and we're talking DEAD by 9:00 or so, and the idea of my phone dying FREAKS me out haha, so I just go dim until it NEEDS to be bright, the lowest setting is plenty bright imo for indoor use.

PS_i think i may just not like bright screens, I have both of my 26" Westinghouse monitors on my computer turned to about 10% brightness, any higher than 30% and they hurt my eyes, hmph.

 

[mojo_droid]

try these apps: display control, dimmer lite

they will let you set your brightness levels and toggle between them. display control has its own auto brightness as well and will let you set the brightness levels for it

 

[pops.comp]

I haven't been a huge fan of autobrightness because it never seems to go 100% brightness in the sun, other than that it works great, but I can never see my screen with autobrightness on when I'm outside

 

[ericatomars06]

I downloaded Brightness Level (CurveFish) from the Market (free) and it has a little widget... I use it everyday, it's awesome and I've never had a problem with it. The brightness can really drain your battery and then theres times before bed that Im playing with my phone before bed and set the level to zero is still pretty bright but it really helps.

Also there are other apps that link to the display such as the Battery Widget....

 

[dj928]

I downloaded Brightness Level (CurveFish) from the Market (free) and it has a little widget... I use it everyday, it's awesome and I've never had a problem with it. The brightness can really drain your battery and then theres times before bed that Im playing with my phone before bed and set the level to zero is still pretty bright but it really helps.

Also there are other apps that link to the display such as the Battery Widget....

Every time I try to download this program, I get a message stating the download was unsuccessful. Never had that before. Anyone else having that problem?

 

[azjerry]

I can't download anything through the market today. Don't know if it's related to my Droid's 2.1 update or not.

 

[azjerry]

Market isn't working for me since I manually updated this morning. I get a message that the download of xxxxxxx was unsuccessful and try again.

 

[Fuchueson#AC]

power control widget is beast. I just turn my brightness off unless i'm outside or in the car.