Can you also try with the always on display feature enabled? And then of course turn off the screen.
1 Like
I turned off “Always show time and info” so that the screen is turned fully off when phone is locked down or times out.
The screen is set to time out after 15 s of inactivity, and can be woken using proximity sensor. Automatic lockdown (security, not the same as timeout) is after five minutes, so the screen can be turned off by waiting for 15 s and turned on again to display what it was displaying when it timed out, simply by activating the proximity sensor.
I prepared a jpg image 1224x2700 of 000 (51.4 kB).
I opened this image from the Files app to display it full screen, and tapped the screen once so as to hide the tools and display just the image. The screen appeared to be completely black.
I took the device into the darkest space available (some light filtering in but not much)*, waited for the screen to turn off, waited some more, activated the proximity sensor, waited again. I saw absolutely no change to the display which remained black.
[Edit: after turning Adaptive brightness OFF, and manually turning the brightness up to maximum, there is a short period when the “image” is shown as grey, before the pixels get turned off.]
When using AOD the result is the same, except that the digital clock etc. is displayed. The rest of the screen remains indistinguishably black as compared with the black image.
However, when I set this image as wallpaper, it is displayed as dark grey and not absolute black.
My conclusions:
- The screen and software are capable of displaying a black pixel by turning it off.
- Black pixels are turned off only in certain conditions, such as displaying an image full screen, or with AOD.
P.S. - I am using DC dimming, this might possibly have an effect on the turning off of black pixels?
* - I later made the experiment in a room with no light at all. I could not see anything.
6 Likes
Do you have visual enhancement completely turned off? I’m a bit uncertain what this does (when it kicks in) but that also might have something to do with it.
1 Like
Yes, all the VE options are off, and Colour mode & temperature = Standard.
1 Like
So your AoD shows complete black but do you also have the battery drain with AoD turned on? If yes, your conclusion should be that the battery drain comes from the AoD “app” and not from a dark grey AoD?
I have a battery drain problem but without AOD. In fact I’ve hardly been using AOD at all, having read that it contributed to battery drain. I’m now running some tests to see whether the drain is increased when using AOD. If not, then my conclusion would be that (my) drain problem is coming from elsewhere.
Just to give an idea, at night in Aeroplane mode with no connectivity at all, the charge level decreases by about 2% / h. In “normal” usage, using 5G data, phone calls, the occasional hotspot, it’s 3% / h.
But this is off topic. I’ll either start a new one, or more probably contribute here:
1 Like
Hello,
I realized that I had the same issue after reading your messages. I tried that 48h video in a black room and I could see a grey haze.
I managed to fix it by turning on and off reading mode (it was off by default, but doing that fixed it).
Have you managed to fix it already?
Unfortunely no. I think its genuinely just a hardware problem, and to be painfully honest, ive just learned to ignore it. I know, I should fuss up about this, but quite frankly I don’t see it as enough of an issue to get customer support to send a replacement display. Glad you found a solution though.
I can reproduce this too with the image below. On my Pixel 3 the image is total black. On my FP5 the image is gray. The notification bar remains with a gray tint (due to Google Photos) and there is backlight bleeding at the edges of the screen and in general remains gray.
With AoD it is also not off, the display still uses the backlight?! This explains the battery drain as well.
I think it’s a software issue, at least I hope so. I’ll report it to FP support.
4 Likes
Where can I find this setting? And how do you know it’s enabled if the setting is not listed?
1 Like
You cant yet
2 Likes
With DC Dimming enabled the screen is not having visible black light bleeding anymore. Did anyone already get a response from FP support about this?
I still get light bleeding with DC Dimming on unfortunately
Just checking, but you do test with a fully black image in full screen? You probably do, just making sure.
Yes, making a black image with an RGB value of 0,0,0, DC Dimming turned off and screen display settings/colour correction set to default perimeters, I still get a bleed of light, like the pixels can’t seem to turn themselves off fully. What’s funny is now ive been using this phone for around 1 and a bit months, I can start to see my status bar icons begin to burn in on what is supposed to be a fully black screen.
I dont know, maybe I’ll reach out to Customer support later down the line and try for a replacement screen, I dont use the AOD so it isn’t draining battery and its only majorly noticeable at night so for me its nothing major, just an annoyance that, for my personal use, doesnt require a screen replacement.
I see it now too, with the brightness at 100% with a black image in Google Photos. With DC Dimming off the blacklight bleeding happens with low brightness already, but when turned on it is deep dark black. So there is some difference, just not with high brightness 
I did the same test with my Pixel 3 as well, but on that phone the display is pure black with 100% brightness. I use on both phones Google Photos to display the image.
However, when I reboot my phone into the recovery mode (turn off the phone, and then long press the volume up button and power button at the same time untill you see the recovery menu), then I do see a pure black screen with high brightness. So I think the display is just fine. But there is something odd about it in the software. I also messed with the color profiles in the display settings, but that doesn’t seem to have an effect.
So TL;DR, I think it’s a software issue since the display can show deep black with 100% brightness. You can also see it partially when you pull down the notification bar twice. But of course it’s not total dark, but you should see that it can have this deep dark contrast.
In the My Fairphone app you can also do a display test, but it doesn’t go full black, the notification bar is still visible. But no backlight bleeding in the black areas.
3 Likes
I also tested it now. With DC-dimming on or off and color profile “neutral” I can actually see light in completely dark room with this picture → https://www.solidbackgrounds.com/images/5120x2880/5120x2880-black-solid-color-background.jpg
It doesn’t really affect me at all, but I do still hope this is an easy fix!
1 Like
What fix are you referring to exactly? Or do you mean that you hope a fix becomes available?
I hope that they just accidentally messed up the black level, that they communicate to the screen, similarly to how TVs sometimes work on limited range signals. If that is the case, they can do a simple firmware update to fix this issue.
3 Likes
Holy smokes it may actually be a software fault, I also tried android recovery mode and the black background was proper OLED black, no light bleeding whatsoever. I also noticed when booting the phone, the default android boot screen ALSO is properly OLED black, but as soon as fairphone splash screen plays with the 4 spinning dots, the black begins to have the light bleeding through.
This is, in my books, great news! As it may now just need a small patch to fix, and not a brand new display. I will contact customer support about this, I encourage others to do so if they are also having this issue.
5 Likes