All thebest Android phones todayshare a few features, like OLED displays, fantastic octa-core processors, and large batteries to power it all. However, two-day battery life has been the stuff of urban legend since the advent of modern smartphones, with power saving mode being the only saving grace.Android 14has a new beta feature which could bring a few phones closer to the legendary two-day standby mark — wallpaper dimming.
Android 14 Beta 3 droppedjust a few days ago, and it includes bug fixes and new features in equal measure. One of the latter is a slight tweak to Battery Saver, making the wallpaper dimmer than the rest of the UI when the mode is enabled. All your app icons and theAt a Glancewidget on Pixel phones remain at the set brightness. The effect is particularly noticeable on lighter and more vibrant wallpapers.
Before this change in Beta 3, you had to resort to theExtreme Battery Saverfeature, or the Digital Wellbeing service’sBedtime modeto dim the wallpaper for you. At least with the latter, the focus has been on your health and not the battery’s longevity.
Android 14 Beta 3 Battery saver’s wallpaper dimming in action
Google’s idea of dimming the wallpaper to save battery seems to draw inspiration from theExtra dimfeature on Pixel phones,dark mode, andAlways-On Displays. All these systems continue displaying essential information while dimming or switching off other pixels to conserve power.
Although one could argue the benefits will hardly be noticeable, modern OLED display power draw is a function of the number of pixels in operation and their brightness. So, in theory, if some pixels operate at a lower brightness when you’re on the home screen, there should be a small amount of power savings. These savings could make the Android OS more power efficient, prolonging the usable battery life of your devices.
The home screen with a dimmed wallpaper(left); and without(right)
A useful by-product of the wallpaper dimming is a faux high-contrast mode, of sorts. Because the background is darker and the icons remain bright, they are more easily visible, even if your wallpaper has a busy design. This is a neat addition to Android, and hopefully, Google makes this Battery Saver change available to all Android 14 builds from here on, including those for third parties.
