Smartphone screens are now smarter under the sun with Snapdragon display tech

Have you ever tried to watch a movie or play a game on your smartphone outdoors and the bright light of the sun overpowers and washes out the light from the display?

Well, the days of squinting at your smartphone screen, or even manually changing the brightness of the screen, may soon be over thanks to some clever display technologies developed by Qualcomm Technologies.

Qualcomm EcoPix is a technology integrated in the Qualcomm Snapdragon Display Engine, designed to ensure that your mobile display looks great even under tough lighting conditions. Other display technologies would simply crank up the screen brightness to compensate, at the expense of battery life.

With EcoPix display features, the Qualcomm Snapdragon processor is engineered to adjust the pixel value for each pixel on the screen, taking into account both the content being displayed, as well as the presence and intensity of any ambient light. In laymen’s terms, the smartphone screen will adapt to the lighting conditions by adjusting the pixel values in real time. This method can potentially reduce power consumption by up to 30 percent, while ensuring the display is neither too dark nor too bright for the eyes, and most importantly allowing you to view your screen even in the brightest conditions.

EcoPix has already been enabled on a number of commercial devices, including the Xiaomi Mi-5, Xiaomi Redmi Note3, OnePlus 2, and Google Nexus 6. And if your job—or possibly even your life, as depicted in our video—depended on working with mobile devices under the sun, you’ll especially appreciate what Ecopix brings to the table.

Qualcomm Ecopix, Qualcomm Snapdragon and Qualcomm Snapdragon Display Engine are products of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.