Feeling "forced" to use a black wallpaper

[7412]

Ever since I got my first OLED smartphone, I feel "forced" to use OLED wallpapers because of that Asperger part of me who feels the need to optimize my device. I hate it though, I'd love a light wallpaper, but I also want to optimize battery life. Strangely enough, I enjoyed NOT having that option with a regular IPS panel.

Does anyone else feel that way?

[Jae Tee]

Nope. I like my tech life Monochromatic.

[Guest]

Yes! I do it for every screen, OLED or not.

[5x5]

I honestly don't care. Used a Lumia 950 OLED and now I have a Nokia 5.1 IPS. I honestly don't pay heed to the panel type at all.

[Rylyguy]

I just prefer darker wall papers

[Chris Pratt]

Having a non-black wallpaper is no different than just having whatever wallpaper you like on an LED. It's not like the OLED uses more power. Using black or "dark mode" and such is just a way to optimize the battery even further, since you don't have to light up all the pixels, but even if you don't, it's not like your battery is going to be dead in an hour. Make your device how you want it, and then worry about the battery life later.

[NineEyeRon]

My wallpaper is a picture of my wife and son, used to help on those 12 hour shifts at work.

[WereCatf]

21 minutes ago, 7412 said:

Ever since I got my first OLED smartphone, I feel "forced" to use OLED wallpapers because of that Asperger part of me who feels the need to optimize my device. I hate it though, I'd love a light wallpaper, but I also want to optimize battery life. Strangely enough, I enjoyed NOT having that option with a regular IPS panel.

Does anyone else feel that way?

Think about it this way: how many hours a day are you staring at your phone's wallpaper during the day, instead of some app or game? I'd be surprised if that was even 30 minutes a day. Now, think about how much enjoyment you are skipping out on while stressing yourself out, just for a slightly lower power-consumption level during those few minutes -- not to mention that it doesn't actually lower power-consumption all that much! You're not saving even 1% of your battery's capacity with your antics overall -- do you really think the benefits outweigh the cons?

 

As a fellow Assburger, I understand this kind of drive behind your actions, but it seems you're not quite counting your own enjoyment as a benefit in the same way as you count increased battery-life, or stress as a disadvantage. Once you internalize the idea that those also count, it may become easier to figure out how to balance these kinds of things.

[dizmo]

I'd just get a phone with a big enough battery that you can do whatever you want.
That said, my wallpaper is mostly black anyway. So.

[7412]

19 minutes ago, dizmo said:

I'd just get a phone with a big enough battery that you can do whatever you want.

Mine has 4700 mAh, but I still feel compelled to do it.

[Lord Vile]

42 minutes ago, Chris Pratt said:

Having a non-black wallpaper is no different than just having whatever wallpaper you like on an LED. It's not like the OLED uses more power. Using black or "dark mode" and such is just a way to optimize the battery even further, since you don't have to light up all the pixels, but even if you don't, it's not like your battery is going to be dead in an hour. Make your device how you want it, and then worry about the battery life later.

OLED actually does use more power when displaying colour 

[Chris Pratt]

26 minutes ago, Lord Vile said:

OLED actually does use more power when displaying colour 

Only at certain lower LED backlight levels.

[Lord Vile]

7 minutes ago, Chris Pratt said:

Only at certain lower LED backlight levels.

Unless you’re a psycho and have it as full brightness. Most people have it at auto. 

[BuckGup]

I mean how often are you even looking at the wallpaper? I'd be more concerned in making the apps I use dark theme. I don't just sit and stare at the homescreen

[Roswell]

22 minutes ago, Chris Pratt said:

Only at certain lower LED backlight levels.

There’s no backlight in an OLED panel.

 

And that person was correct. For every black pixel displayed on an OLED screen, you save energy regardless of brightness settings.

[Chris Pratt]

1 minute ago, Vitamanic said:

There’s no backlight in an OLED panel.

 

And that person was correct. For every black pixel displayed on an OLED screen, you save energy regardless of brightness settings.

I specifically said LED. I know OLED doesn't have a backlight. The point is that LED is only more efficient that OLED, lighting up all the pixels either way, if you have the LED backlight on the lower end. Mid-to-high, LED is not meaningfully more power efficient.

[TetraSky]

For the few seconds my phone's background would be displayed vs when I start an app and just have that up... I'd rather have a nice looking background for the few times I see it, than care about the extra 2 minutes I'd get with a deep black background.

I'm not sure what OP is doing by staring at the background wallpaper so long that it would drain the battery. 

[TomvanWijnen]

I have an OLED phone but have a blue background. It's the same background as my previous phone, but I just quite like it. The phone that I got in 2012 also had an OLED panel (AMOLED specifically) and I still used a non black background there. Just use whatever you like.