Many of the top
flagship phones use AMOLED display technology, and the popular wisdom has
always been that you can save substantial power on these devices by using apps
with a black interface. Is that actually true with a real device, though? With
Samsung's Galaxy S5, Galaxy Note 4, the new Moto X, and even the upcoming Nexus 6 all using AMOLED panels, it's
worth knowing if you can stretch the battery a little longer by losing the
colors.
Where AMOLEDs Shine
The theory of why
AMOLEDs use less power when displaying black makes sense when you understand
how the technology differs from and LCD display. LCDs like the ones you find on
the LG G3 or HTC One (M8) produces light with an LED
backlight. The light shines through the pixels and into your eyeballs. In this
case, a black pixel is simply one in which the pixel has turned opaque—it
blocks all the light streaming in from the backlight. The backlight is still on
just the same.
An AMOLED doesn't have
a backlight at all. Instead, each little sub-pixel
