For a few years the use of displays with OLED technology (AMOLED, OLED, P-OLED or any of its variants). There are many users who love this type of screen and having one of them is often related to having a high-performance mobile (although this is not always the case). In any case, everything has its whites and blacks, and this technology also has its flaws, and they seem to want to fix them.
Yes, we will have to explain a little bit of hardware to understand this new software feature that will be implemented. We will tell you in a summarized way.
The problem: blinks
It is a very extensive topic, no doubt, but as we have said, we will summarize it as much as possible. OLED screens usually use to control the screen brightness a technology called Pulse-width modulation (more commonly known by its acronym PWM, and that in Spanish is translated as Pulse width modulation). This technology consists of reduce display signal duty cycles to reduce glare. That is, to make it more understanding, a frequency that works best is 100%, and lowering the brightness reduces its working frequency and that causes it to not work as well. If you are curious and want to find more information, we recommend read the OLED-info article dedicated to PWM, if you have a good command of English.
Well, once explained quickly, let's get to the heart of the matter. What problem does this reduction in frequency cause when lowering the brightness? Well it turns out that what it produces are flickering on the screen, You may not be able to see them with your own eyes, but they could see it, for example, a camera recording video (although on some phones it can be seen with the naked eye). But if I don't see them… How important is this? Well, more than you think.
The problem with these flickers on the screen, no matter how much you don't see them, is that can cause headaches or dizziness in many users, because you are not seeing it, but your eyes are perceiving those blinks.
So what can we do?
The solution: DC Dimming
Oppo, the parent company of OnePlus, has started adding DC Dimming to your new phone, the Oppo reno (which has not yet come out and we will be waiting to see what it will bring us) and some previous models.
But wait, What is DC Dimming? DC Dimming is a technology that allows you to regulate the amount of current sent to the screen, thus being able to increase the frequency even with low brightness. It is also a technology that can be implemented in an application. In this video you can see its effect on an Oppo.
This too we assume it will improve the phone's battery consumption a bit, since the frequency will be more constant and the low brightness will be more usable without problems, so in the long run they are all advantages for the user.
Pete Lau, CEO of OnePlus has said that they are investigating to add it to their phones, so we have to wait and perhaps we will have a much more pleasant experience when using our phone in low light. Although they say that they may add it in the OnePlus Laboratory or in the developer options, to test its operation, but that from what has been tested so far it works well.
Are you looking forward to it?