“Deplete” the battery and destroy the screen: why is the Always-On display mode dangerous for smartphones?

Experts from the Dxomark technical laboratory learned during a study how the Always-On display (AOD) function affects battery status and screen wear of smartphones, writes on the Ghacks website. It turns out that not everything is “pink”, as the manufacturers say. Focus introduces readers to test results.

What is AOD

The Always-On display is a very useful feature that first brought Nokia’s smartphones to market when launching them on the Windows Phone operating system. AOD allows you to see basic information about incoming notifications (calls, SMS, social networks, time, date, etc.) without unlocking the smartphone screen. This feature is not only aesthetically pleasing, but also very useful if the engineers did not equip the smartphone with a flashing notification LED on the front panel, which many devices do not have. Its users have to constantly “tap” the screen or unlock the gadget to make sure they don’t miss anything important.

Why is the Always-On display dangerous?

For any convenience, you always have to pay with something, and when it comes to AOD, we’re talking primarily about the screen. Depending on the matrix type (IPS, OLED, AMOLED), the screen will wear out in different ways.

In the case of a standard IPS matrix installed in most entry-level and mid-budget smartphones, it will experience constant heating leading to rapid degradation of the entire screen.

If we talk about more expensive models with OLED or AMOLED screens, then due to the always-on AOD function, individual pixels will burn out in them, which does not add aesthetics and comfort when viewing content.

Expert advice:

To reduce these risks, experts recommend trying to choose darker themes so that all screens don’t force the backlight once again, and using the “night mode” screen for apps.

In addition to “consuming” the display resource, the Always-On display also negatively affects the battery. The more you use AOD, the more often you will need to charge your smartphone, and as you know, each battery has a certain charge/discharge cycle life. It is equivalent to an average of 600 cycles in modern lithium-ion batteries. This means that the user can discharge their smartphone to 0% and recharge it to 100% approximately 600 times until the battery stops “holding” charge and fails.

Actually, this indicator is temporary and depends on the brand, battery quality and usage conditions. Previously, this problem was not relevant at all – the batteries were defective, but on the other hand, it was easy with a flick of the wrist to open the back cover of the device and replace the defective battery with some kind of cheap Chinese counterpart.

Now everything is much more complicated: for the refinement, aesthetics and strength of the design, manufacturers make one-piece cases that are very difficult to disassemble on their own without the help of SC. Therefore, some users prefer, although less functional and prestigious, “old-fashioned” smartphones from China, although they allow quick replacement of the battery. For example, the Cubot Max 3 or Cubot Note 20 Pro models feature quick battery replacement by simply removing the back cover. Although there is a big question about their reliability – carefully study the reviews on the same AliExpress and do not trust the opinions of YouTube bloggers.

Expert advice: Avoid using in extreme conditions (extreme cold/hot/overheating) to prolong battery life. While Lithium Ion batteries are not affected by the “memory effect” of aging, it’s best not to let them completely discharge down to 0%. They should also not be charged to 100%, but it is better to keep these indicators at 20% (charged) and 80% (uncharged). There are special Android programs that will help you automate this process.

How does AOD affect battery life?

The more advanced the display technology, the less the Always-On display mode affects battery consumption. IPS is a relatively old technology, but inexpensive, but requires the entire screen backlight for AOD. Therefore, a smartphone with an IPS matrix will discharge much faster than its “brothers” with more modern OLED and AMOLED matrices. There, certain individual pixels are used for imaging, while the rest are disabled, which saves battery.

But not everything is as good as the producers promised. Dxomark specialists took the Xiaomi Ultra 125, iPhone 14 Pro Max, Samsung Galaxy S22 and Google Pixel 7 Pro smartphones for testing – they all have AMOLED and OLED matrices. The test was carried out under normal conditions at room temperature. Experts have included an adaptive screen refresh rate, as well as a “flight” mode and auto-brightness. Wireless modules (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS) were disabled and the testers did not use the devices during operation.

As a result of tests, it turned out that the battery of each smartphone is enough for an average of 100 hours of operation, and if you turn off the AOD, the smartphones can last four times longer – 400 hours.

In summary, experts recommend that you do not use the AOD function on your smartphones all the time, but only turn it on in rare cases when it is really important not to miss a single notification. However, you can always choose a smartphone with a notification sensor (flashing LED on the front panel), and although it is not as informative as AOD, it does not consume battery and screen life by signaling incoming information.

Previously Focus told how to save battery power so that the smartphone works longer.