Using the screen in sunlight

[OWybPPgO]

I keep my brightness pretty low most of the time and found I couldn't even see my screen well enough outside to find the brightness settings!

I used Tasker to create a little auto-brightness toggle widget on my home screen and I just tap it if that's the problem. Simple and it works great.

 

[bassmig]

Display Brightness is an app that adds a little slider bar on your screen and the little slider bar can be adjusted to be on the side, top or bottom of your screen, can be practically invisible and adjusts your screen with a mere swipe of your finger.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=rubberbigpepper.DisplayBrightness&hl=en

 

[will_solo]

This is the honest truth. It's impossible to see it in the sun.

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

Even at 100% brightness the display just isn't capable of going bright enough to see in direct sunlight. Anybody that says this ISN'T an issue is kidding themselves. This isn't me trying to bash the S3's display, either, it's a measurable attribute of the phone. The display looks good for sure, but Samsung needs to seriously work on the brightness problem.

Fix that and color accuracy and Samsung will have the best display on Earth.

 

[PaulQ]

Even at 100% brightness the display just isn't capable of going bright enough to see in direct sunlight. Anybody that says this ISN'T an issue is kidding themselves.

Has there ever been a phone that works in direct sunlight? My first experience with any device that actually does this is my ASUS Transformer Prime Infinity with "Super IPS" mode. You activate that and wow, it's bright!

 

[PaulQ]

Display Brightness is an app that adds a little slider bar on your screen and the little slider bar can be adjusted to be on the side, top or bottom of your screen, can be practically invisible and adjusts your screen with a mere swipe of your finger.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=rubberbigpepper.DisplayBrightness&hl=en

Ok... you get my BIG THANKS of the week. Great app! Better than my method. Even works on the pattern lock screen! Before, I had to hope I was hitting my pattern because I had to unlock before I could adjust brightness.

I'm donating if this works for a few days!

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

Has there ever been a phone that works in direct sunlight? My first experience with any device that actually does this is my ASUS Transformer Prime Infinity with "Super IPS" mode. You activate that and wow, it's bright!

Yes. The One X is perfectly usable in direct sunlight. Next to an iPhone 4S and sgsiii it's not even close. Both of those get washed out in comparison where as I don't even need to shield mine.

I'm not saying this particular ability is that important to everyone, but it is for me.

I haven't seen the Infinity in person, but looking at the brightness level I would bet you can't even tell that there IS sunlight shining on it lol.

Sent from my HTC One X using Android Central Forums

 

[anon(153966)]

...this is the one thing about the SGSIII that makes me want to (from time to time) go back to my iPhone 4S. No issues at all with the iPhone 4S outside, and taking 'crisp' photos, too.

 

[Lanhoj]

...No issues at all with the iPhone 4S outside, and taking 'crisp' photos...

I only have an iPhone 4 not 4S, however, when turning off the iPhone camera's "HDR" setting and I find it takes worse pictures than my stock Galaxy Nexus camera.
When turning "HDR" on it takes practically the same quality photos as my Galaxy Nexus using an App called "HDR Camera+".

As for sunlight, both were equally hard for me to see with brightness set to low & easy to see with it set to high.

iPhone was difficult for me to type on & enjoy watching videos using...something that can't be tweaked by Apps.

 

[FunkMasterJoe]

I guess it's just different for everyone. While indoors I tend to keep my phone at 15%, which is plenty bright for me personally. Now if I'm watching a movie or tv show I may up it. If I go outside into direct sunlight, I usually up it to 75% and I can see it fine.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy SIII

 

[tsells]

Display Brightness is an app that adds a little slider bar on your screen and the little slider bar can be adjusted to be on the side, top or bottom of your screen, can be practically invisible and adjusts your screen with a mere swipe of your finger.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=rubberbigpepper.DisplayBrightness&hl=en

This app works really well. It took a while to find the exact placement as to not interfere with other icons. I ended up with these settings:
Right Top Alignment; Horizontal Offset-7; Vertical Effect-225; Auto-Hide Indicator

(Unfortunately, 100% brightness is still not enough in bright sunlight; but it's better than the 40% where it is regularly set.)

 

[Lanhoj]

I like "Flick Widgets" for quick access to various sliders with the flick of my wrist depending on the direction--> https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...seappsdev.android.flickwidgets&token=NmWzkRTU

 

[tsells]

I like "Flick Widgets" for quick access to various sliders with the flick of my wrist depending on the direction--> https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...seappsdev.android.flickwidgets&token=pygUdk7_

Just tried this one. Great concept, but the Brightness toggle comes on but does not adjust the brightness. And the Contacts toggle comes on and then freezes the phone when a contact is picked.

 

[Lanhoj]

...Brightness toggle comes on but does not adjust the brightness. And the Contacts toggle comes on and then freezes the phone ...

- Brightness change takes effect when you turn your screen off & back on (not ideal, but oh well - behaves the same as "My Profiles+"
- Contacts works for me

 

[tsells]

- Brightness change takes effect when you turn your screen off & back on (not ideal, but oh well - behaves the same as "My Profiles+"
- Contacts works for me

The contacts problem was "user error". It now does work but still sometimes freezes the phone.
The brightness toggle does also work, but sort of defeats the purpose by having to turn the screen off to get it to change.
It's a cool app though and with a little polish it could be really good.

 

[Grigsby Poland]

This is my only complaint about the phone but it is a major one. It's bad enough that the email screens are so dim regardless of brightness settings, but the screen is altogether invisible in bright sunlight.

When I'm out on the ocean sailing on a bright day I can't see squat on my phone's screen yet my handheld Garmin GPS is readily visible and crystal clear. Seems like Samsung could match that quality.

 

[GSDer]

If your primary usage is in sunlight, you need a phone with different screen technology - Amoled-based phones are going to give you the same set of problems.
You could try a phone with an IPS display (iPhone) or one with an SLCD display (I'd have to rummage around to see who's shipping those).

Sent from my rooted, debloated, deodexed Sinclair ZX-80 running CM -0.001 using Tapatalk 2

 

[meyerweb#CB]

The S3 has a negative colors widget that helps in bright sunlight.

 

[watson777]

Im presently trying the anti glare screen and it doesn't work cost 30bucks

- - - Updated - - -

Im presently trying the anti glare screen and it doesn't work cost 30bucks

 

[TaranQ]

I tried to go another route.
Just upping the brightness level doesn't do the trick for me.
I prefer my normal 'indoor homescreen' to black with white icons just to keep power consumption low.
But outdoors it is realy impossible to see anything on my screen.
So I tried a white wallpaper which in fact is pretty good readable in direct sunlight.
Theming my launcher just didn't do the trick so I was thinking about using 2 different launchers with different icons (one white and the other black) and use the Home Switcher app to switch whenever I go outside.
Only problem is the Wallpaper remains when switching launchers.
So I have to manually change wallpaper to black for the white launcher and white for the black configged launcher.
Still looking for maybe some other easier way.....