Note 10+ completely unusable in sunlight due to forced screen dimming

pj737

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May 8, 2017
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I am coming from the Samsung Note 9 (before that was the S8+ and earlier Note phones). Basically been with Samsung for over 15 years. The Note 10+ is the first Samsung I have ever owned that is virtually unusable in bright sunlight. I live in a fairly warm climate (day time temp about 82 degrees currently) and if I use the phone in sunlight for more than 3 minutes or so the screen will dim about 20%. Then if I continue to use it for another 4-5 minutes in sunlight it will continue to dim even more... taking it all the way down to a maximum of 50% screen brightness. As you could probably imagine, having your screen set at 50% screen brightness in direct sunlight results in a useless phone as it's almost impossible to read or see anything.

I know it takes it to 50% because when I try to move the brightness setting bar it will brighten up to 50% of the bar (right in the middle) but does not go any brighter if the bar is pushed further to the right.

I understand that this is probably to protect the phone from overheating but why on earth wouldn't the engineers at Samsung gimp the processor (to reduce overheating) since the vast majority of the heat generated from a phone is from the processor - not the screen. It's one thing to deal with a slow phone in direct sunlight... it's another when the phone is entirely useless because it's too dim to read.

As noted, I have had many other Samsung phones and not one has reduced the brightness level so drastically in direct sunlight that the phone becomes useless.

Do I have a bad phone or is this what others in warm climates and direct sunlight use are experiencing? If this is a new but totally normal gimping feature for the Note 10+ is there any possible way of overriding this? I would prefer to have a shortened phone lifespan (I don't keep my phones for more than 1.5 years) then to have a phone that is the equivalent of a brick in direct sunlight. Any feedback is much appreciated.
 

pool_shark

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I have had my phone in direct sunlight plenty of times in 80 and 90 degree temps. The brightness was all the way up.
 

runfar262

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I live in the southwest at a high elevation. It's usually VERY sunny. I've not noticed any problem.Sorry you are having difficulties.
 

me just saying

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do you have automatic battery saver on or whatever it is called - too lazy to get my phone and check. It is the feature where when the battery gets low, one thing it will do is to reduce brightness.
 

pool_shark

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I live in Hawai'i, it's sunny year round, and I've never had this problem.

Hey! I live in Ohio, winter is coming. No need to brag. :)

I just remembered, last year we hired a guy from Hawaii.
When I read his resume I immediately assumed he was lying about wanting the job.
 

zorian99

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Aug 29, 2010
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I work outside every day and have never had any problems seeing the screen with any Note phone...the 10+ included...it's one of the reason I keep going back to the Note
 

rabernet

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I'm in HOTlanta, and haven't experienced this in bright sunlight. In fact, I rarely even think about being able to read the screen.
 

strikeIII

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Yeah no issues here either with direct sunlight. Possibly a defective device. I was playing some games outside on my lunch break for about 10 minutes straight and didn't have any problems with the screen dimming.
 

anon(7901790)

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Hey! I live in Ohio, winter is coming. No need to brag. :)

I just remembered, last year we hired a guy from Hawaii.
When I read his resume I immediately assumed he was lying about wanting the job.

He was telling the truth! The cost of living is forcing many here to find employment on the Mainland. We're losing over 1,000 people/families a year just from cost of living. Throw in other factors like lowered birth rate and deaths, it comes out to a couple thousand or so.

Hawai'i is the 5th worst state to work in. We are the Democratic Socialists State of Hawai'i.
 

pool_shark

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He was telling the truth! The cost of living is forcing many here to find employment on the Mainland. We're losing over 1,000 people/families a year just from cost of living. Throw in other factors like lowered birth rate and deaths, it comes out to a couple thousand or so.

Hawai'i is the 5th worst state to work in. We are the Democratic Socialists State of Hawai'i.

Yeah, I had to ask him why he wanted to come here. Turns out he was from Ohio. Having family here and the high cost of living is what made him want to come back.

His wife is native, never experienced snow.
 

ChrisN094

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Hi

I have had this problem a few times in direct sunlight. Today was the worst. At lowest brightness it was black. Had to go into house to get it back on.

I tried Samsung support but they were no help. Tried optimising function and that brought it back to life.

I presume I had too many apps on and it's a 20 degree day in direct light. Took case off and phone is very warm. I run the phone with the screen up fully in sunlight but otherwise recommended options with adaptive settings off.

Did you ever get a solution for your problem?
 
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mustang7757

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Hi

I have had this problem a few times in direct sunlight. Today was the worst. At lowest brightness it was black. Had to go into house to get it back on.

I tried Samsung support but they were no help. Tried optimising function and that brought it back to life.

I presume I had too many apps on and it's a 20 degree day in direct light. Took case off and phone is very warm. I run the phone with the screen up fully in sunlight but otherwise recommended options with adaptive settings off.

Did you ever get a solution for your problem?
Hi welcome!
You can try high performance mode , see if it works better . It adjust the screen brightness higher