One of the key advantages of OLED – displays is that they can turn off the backlight when displaying a dark or black image. In this regard, there was a hypothesis that the dark mode in the system and applications helps to save battery power. However, there was no real confirmation of this. Until now. The company Google has confirmed that using the dark mode really saves battery life.
Google noted that when the display brightness increases, so does the power consumption. The use of dark mode can reduce energy consumption. According to research Google, the smartphone uses less power with dark mode even at maximum brightness. How much less? Up to 63%.
For research Google I used the original Pixel with AMOLED – display and iPhone 7 with LCD – display. When displaying a screenshot from Google Maps with maximum brightness, the Pixel spent 250mA, and iPhone 7 – 230mA. However, with night mode, the Pixel dropped 63% to 92mA, and the iPhone 7 score remained unchanged.
The study also showed that power consumption depends on what color is displayed on the screen. Blue consumes more energy than green or red.
Google even admitted that she used to urge developers to use the wrong color in their applications – white. Luckily, Google is working to add dark mode to all of its apps. It is already on Maps and on YouTube.
Apple agree with Google. The company switched to OLED – panels only last year along with iPhone X, and in iOS only a white theme remained, which does not have the best effect on battery consumption . Fortunately, many third-party app developers have already added dark mode to their apps, and Apple itself advertises them in App Store.
Hopefully, the survey results will lead both companies to add dark mode to Android Q and iOS 13 coming out next year.