Many smartphone users adopt dark mode mainly because they believe this saves battery life. Does dark mode save battery life? It appears that it does save battery life in some cases but you wouldn’t notice much of a difference in others. Choosing light vs dark mode depends on the environment, your visual preferences, and your needs.
What is Dark Mode?
Dark mode allows you to switch the color scheme of a device or app from a light color to a one. Enabling it means the background display becomes black or dark gray. Text and other elements are in lighter colors. The main reason for this is to reduce eye strain. It makes the display more comfortable for viewing in low-light conditions. It can also extend battery life because OLED or AMOLED displays use less power to display darker color pixels than lighter color pixels. Dark one isn’t the same as the black light app that simulates the appearance of a black light on the phone screen.
Knowing how to enable dark mode on Mac can be an asset. You can enable it on Mac by using its built-in features. From the Apple menu, you will select System Settings Appearance. You will see Light, Dark, and Auto options. Select the dark option. To turn on iMessage mode go to Settings Display & Brightness and select Dark under the Appearance section. You can set a shortcut for Dark mode on Mac by going to System Preferences Keyboard Shortcuts. You will click on Services, press the General button, and look for Toggle Dark Mode. Now you can select Add Shortcut.
Does dark mode improve battery life?
Researchers from Purdue University found that enabling dark mode didn’t offer major efficiency gains, except in certain scenarios. The most battery life improvement came when switching from light to dark at 100% brightness. Study researchers looked at dark mode power usage on different applications. They tested the power draw in dark mode for 60 seconds when running six popular apps. These apps were Calculator, News, Phone, Maps, YouTube, and Calendar. Tools the researchers built were able to accurately measure power draw in pixels.
The researchers found that changing from light to dark reduced the phone’s power consumption. The energy saving was about 42% at a full screen brightness level. At 50% brightness level, the switch from light to dark had a 9% energy saving. At 30% brightness level, the energy saving went down to only about 3%.
Is dark mode better for your eyes?
Is dark better for your eyes? It can reduce eye strain when watching displays for a long period in a dark room. Light mode’s high contrast can make it easier for people with color blindness or low vision to see text. Dark can be helpful for those with visual challenges such as photophobia. Some people may prefer the light option for reading but prefer the dark mode for streaming videos. For people with normal vision, light can offer a greater depth of field, and more ability to focus on details.
Does dark mode help you to sleep?
Another term for dark option is night mode. It can improve your sleep by reducing the amount of blue light your screen emits. This is known for interrupting the secretion of melatonin, a hormone that helps you to fall asleep.
Does the device display matter?
Dark mode only works on particular displays – OLED and AMOLED. Newer devices use organic light-emitting diode displays. The display creates pixels without needing an external light source. Older phones have liquid crystal displays (LCDs). They need an extra backlight to illuminate pixels. Developers of apps today can design user interfaces using darker colors with the aim of making software more energy-efficient.
Conclusion
The choice between using light or dark mode is largely subjective. Light is associated with clarity and users often prefer to use it in well-lit conditions. Dark can reduce eye strain in low-light conditions. When you turn on dark mode on an OLED display, you can save battery life, especially at maximum brightness. Using less power means you save electricity and generate less of a carbon footprint. In this process, you save the money that you would otherwise spend on buying a new battery.
