Google details just how good dark mode is for your battery
androidauthority.com
androidauthority.com
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It's also funny how Google has only made Android "whiter" since then.
However, in the daytime I would definitely prefer to use light mode, with a brighter screen. So over the course of a day I might have 80% of my usage in light mode and 20% in dark mode.
"People with astigmatism (approximately 50% of the population) find it harder to read white text on black than black text on white. Part of this has to do with light levels: with a bright display (white background) the iris closes a bit more, decreasing the effect of the "deformed" lens; with a dark display (black background) the iris opens to receive more light and the deformation of the lens creates a much fuzzier focus at the eye." - Jason Harrison – Post Doctoral Fellow, Imager Lab Manager – Sensory Perception and Interaction Research Group, University of British Columbia
It's just that I like having my backlight blasted in my face even less, so it adds up to a sufficiently more pleasant reading experience that I switch everything to dark theme when I can.
Glad they're finally shining light on the situation ;)
In the world where Google claims energy efficiency is a key goal of theirs, their white UIs should be thrown out as even an option, as the waste of energy powering big fields of white light on billions of devices being charged in billions of homes is just wasting electricity on a massive scale.
1. The vast majority of devices are LCD, which does not use less power when displaying dark images. In fact, it might increase power consumption slightly. Not only are all discount devices LCD due to lower price, but OLED (as a stop-gap technology akin to plasma) has many shortcomings that lead to even premium devices not including it.
2. Average power consumption of an OLED is significantly higher than that of an LCD, due to poor efficiency of the OLED technology itself compared to standard LED backlighting of LCD's, so OLED devices do not have a power advantage.
Thus, claiming that dark mode would make a difference on global power consumption is false, as it only applies to a relatively niche technology, and suggesting that the technology should be adopted to allow for this saving mechanism would be counter-productive as the technology is less efficient for average workloads.
Your windows phone ran for days due to low screen/wake time (lacking apps, perhaps), not because of dark mode.
Does an extra-bright screen unnecessarily consume power? Most likely. However, one can probably find much-greater efficiency gains by being careful to turn out the lights before leaving home, moving the thermostat closer to outdoor temperatures, or by being careful with hot-water usage.
And Google's apps have been going more white, instead of less white: https://www.androidpolice.com/2018/09/25/google-testing-colo...
I never set my screen above 40% brightness on my Nexus 5X, and often turn it lower at night.
I ask since the numbers seem to indicate that dark themes have a much smaller impact at 50% brightness.
...should I not be doing that?