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  • Samsung screen brightness test for three phones

    From Bret Hess@21:1/5 to All on Sat Jul 15 11:39:46 2023
    I've flown with Samsung phones and XCSoar for years, mostly the Note 4. I wanted to document a comparison of three inexpensive Samsung phone screens. Brightness levels at high, adaptive/automatic turned on. Taken just next full sunlight at noon.

    The photo is at groups.google.com/g/rasprime/c/RNTkVEvx6Xo

    The Note 4 and S9 seem about the same, with the A51-5G brighter than the other two.

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  • From Moshe Braner@21:1/5 to Bret Hess on Sat Jul 15 15:01:38 2023
    On 7/15/2023 2:39 PM, Bret Hess wrote:
    I've flown with Samsung phones and XCSoar for years, mostly the Note 4. I wanted to document a comparison of three inexpensive Samsung phone screens. Brightness levels at high, adaptive/automatic turned on. Taken just next full sunlight at noon.

    The photo is at groups.google.com/g/rasprime/c/RNTkVEvx6Xo

    The Note 4 and S9 seem about the same, with the A51-5G brighter than the other two.


    Looks like the phones in the photo are in the shade, while the bottom
    edge of the photo is in sunlight? Can you take a photo with the phones
    in direct sunlight? Of course it would not look as good - the question
    is, it it good enough?

    I use Nook and Kobo e-readers with e-ink screens to maintain contrast in sunlight.

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  • From Bret Hess@21:1/5 to All on Sat Jul 15 12:10:08 2023
    Yes, it's good enough for me...I've done lots of XC flights with the Note 4. In direct sunlight you can't see all the details, but I find it's not an issue as I'm turning often enough that I can also see it in shade. That's why I took the picture just
    next to full sun.

    I agree you can't beat e-ink for contrast. Is there a good color one available?

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  • From Moshe Braner@21:1/5 to Bret Hess on Sat Jul 15 15:08:29 2023
    On 7/15/2023 2:39 PM, Bret Hess wrote:
    I've flown with Samsung phones and XCSoar for years, mostly the Note 4. I wanted to document a comparison of three inexpensive Samsung phone screens. Brightness levels at high, adaptive/automatic turned on. Taken just next full sunlight at noon.

    The photo is at groups.google.com/g/rasprime/c/RNTkVEvx6Xo

    The Note 4 and S9 seem about the same, with the A51-5G brighter than the other two.


    BTW, XCsoar runs on recent versions of Android, but Tophat (which I
    prefer, based on XCsoar, but has not been updated in 6 years) cannot run
    on some recent versions. I am not sure what version of Android is the
    cut-off, I think I've heard Tophat still runs on Android 10? I have it installed on Android versions 6 and 7. So if you plan to use Tophat on
    a phone, get an old-enough phone.

    I've recently re-compiled Tophat with some minor changes: to keep FLARM
    traffic data for a bit longer after the signal drops out, and to allow
    it to connect (wirelessly) to XCvario and use the data arriving in the
    XCvario protocol. This re-compilation is in the old environment, so it
    does not make it run on too-recent versions of Android. Ideally the
    Tophat UI should be re-built on top of a recent version of XCsoar, but
    that is a major undertaking.

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  • From soaringjac@21:1/5 to Bret Hess on Mon Jul 17 10:30:21 2023
    On Saturday, July 15, 2023 at 12:10:11 PM UTC-7, Bret Hess wrote:
    Yes, it's good enough for me...I've done lots of XC flights with the Note 4. In direct sunlight you can't see all the details, but I find it's not an issue as I'm turning often enough that I can also see it in shade. That's why I took the picture just
    next to full sun.

    I agree you can't beat e-ink for contrast. Is there a good color one available?

    I have been flying with TopHat on a Samsung Galaxy S10 for the past couple years and no issue at all in extreme sunlight. Battery also lasts about 5-6 hours

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  • From Javelin 77@21:1/5 to soaringjac on Wed Jul 19 11:56:46 2023
    On Monday, July 17, 2023 at 1:30:25 PM UTC-4, soaringjac wrote:
    On Saturday, July 15, 2023 at 12:10:11 PM UTC-7, Bret Hess wrote:
    Yes, it's good enough for me...I've done lots of XC flights with the Note 4. In direct sunlight you can't see all the details, but I find it's not an issue as I'm turning often enough that I can also see it in shade. That's why I took the picture
    just next to full sun.

    I agree you can't beat e-ink for contrast. Is there a good color one available?
    I have been flying with TopHat on a Samsung Galaxy S10 for the past couple years and no issue at all in extreme sunlight. Battery also lasts about 5-6 hours

    Any overheating issues with the Samsung?

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  • From Bret Hess@21:1/5 to All on Sun Jul 23 09:22:18 2023
    Any overheating issues with the Samsung?

    I never had a problem with overheating in the air. Waiting to launch on a hot day in a closed cockpit you should protect it from the sun. I suppose a light colored case can help.

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  • From Chip Bearden@21:1/5 to All on Tue Jul 25 20:49:33 2023
    BTW, XCsoar runs on recent versions of Android, but Tophat (which I
    prefer, based on XCsoar, but has not been updated in 6 years) cannot run
    on some recent versions. I am not sure what version of Android is the cut-off, I think I've heard Tophat still runs on Android 10? I have it installed on Android versions 6 and 7. So if you plan to use Tophat on
    a phone, get an old-enough phone.

    TopHat runs great on my Pixel 5a phone with Android 11 (screen visibility in sunlight is a different story but this is just a backup). BUT--you have to give the app permission to access files:
    Settings>Apps>All Apps>Top Hat Soaring>Permissions>Files and enable Allow files access. You might have to enable Locations the same way, I can't remember. Thx to Roman Michalowski for this tip; he assured me this spring that TopHat still runs fine on the
    latest versions of Android.

    Yeah, TopHat could use an update but it still does what I need it to do. FWIW, I run it on a Kobo connected to my Portable FLARM for location and FLARM target data.

    Chip Bearden
    ASW 24 "JB"

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