# DO YOU USE ALWAYS ON DISPLAY?



## lvt (Sep 15, 2009)

1. You use it the whole time.

2. You use it from time to time.

3. You don't use it at all.

4. You want to use it but you are afraid about damaging something.

Please share your thoughts on this matter.

Personally I use the AOD from time to time when it's not practical to flip the wrist to see the time, for example while driving and I wear the watch with its face on the inside.


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## ronalddheld (May 5, 2005)

Yes when I am wearing the watch.


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## Rocket1991 (Mar 15, 2018)

Not really unless occasion askes for it. Like when moving wrist around will be inconvenient or during sport activity.


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## lvt (Sep 15, 2009)

The problem with AOD is that while the AMOLED display has a minimum number of active pixels, the processor still uses a certain amount of battery.

The new Samsung Galaxy watch seems to have remedied the problem by using two processors, the bigger for normal operation and a smaller for AOD.


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## Rocket1991 (Mar 15, 2018)

lvt said:


> The problem with AOD is that while the AMOLED display has a minimum number of active pixels, the processor still uses a certain amount of battery.
> 
> The new Samsung Galaxy watch seems to have remedied the problem by using two processors, the bigger for normal operation and a smaller for AOD.


It's a same idea in Snapdragon 4100 (*one of the 2 models*) and I think in Apple watch which is upcoming.

We yet to see what will com out of it but so far always on is really prohibitive due to resolution. New GPUs here to help.
Illumination and it's where Garmin and OLED make it better. Garmin actually has very low clock on CPU they use. something like 6-10% of base clock or normal smartwatch CPU so it's not only screen but whole package: low resolution, no illumination on (it has one but it's not on by default) and uber slow CPU.
people think there is some kind of magic going on but it's 10% optimization of soft (usually it's 0%) and rest is in core clock and complexity of the task. Each switch or operation in CPU burns predetermined amount of energy so more clicks more drain. And that the main driving factor. Rest is more or less secondary.
Garmin has 260X260 at best so it's 67600 pixels.
Top tier WearOS or announced today GW4 are 450X450 202500 pixels. Which is 3 times the Garmin.
Now if refresh rate of OLED is 30-60 FPS you multiply it by number of pixels and you get complexity of the task
For Garmin it's let say 10 FPS or less. I think they are at 10 but may be lower. So 30X202500=6075000 vs 676000 which is already almost 10 times difference. So always on on Garmin takes at least 10 times less energy compared to Samsung.
On flipside one provides with slow moving menu while other moves things instantaneously.

My point there are intrinsic energy drains associated with tasks. There are things which can help and hopefully they will be implemented in the future. One of them is actually higher specked GPU.


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## Dwijaya (Dec 29, 2014)

lvt said:


> 1. You use it the whole time.
> 
> 2. You use it from time to time.
> 
> ...


i did setting on gesture so it only on when i need it with some movement, i thionk it cools and might save the battery


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## Hasaf (Nov 29, 2010)

Yes, all the time. This is one of the reasons I went away from the Samsung Galaxy 3 & 4. I switched to the Garmin Instinct 2 and I am a lot happier with it.


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## jultamaza (10 mo ago)

Not really unless occasion askes for it. There third-party android apps I connect for this purpose. Like when moving wrist around will be inconvenient or during sport activity.


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## Rocket1991 (Mar 15, 2018)

jultamaza said:


> Not really unless occasion askes for it. Like when moving wrist around will be inconvenient or during sport activity.


Same here. In Samsung there is an option to have always on during sport activity tracking. It heavy on battery though.


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## ronalddheld (May 5, 2005)

Yes. Inconvenient to keep turning a wrist, or tapping the display or hitting a button.


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## KM_AB (May 8, 2017)

Rarely. I don’t usually need to know the precise time


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## lvt (Sep 15, 2009)

Rocket1991 said:


> Same here. In Samsung there is an option to have always on during sport activity tracking. It heavy on battery though.


Nice feature.

On my devices I have to manually set the screen on time to 5, 10 or 20 minutes.

Fortunate they made it simple, there is a button in the menu to make the screen stay on when needed.


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## Rocket1991 (Mar 15, 2018)

lvt said:


> Nice feature.
> 
> On my devices I have to manually set the screen on time to 5, 10 or 20 minutes.
> 
> Fortunate they made it simple, there is a button in the menu to make the screen stay on when needed.


Thing is you don't need always on always but there are situations where it comes really handy so readily accessible "on" button is a nice touch!


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## jml9689 (10 mo ago)

When I had Wear OS smart watches, I would enable AOD. I like being able to look at the watch and immediately know the time, but the tilt-to-wake feature of my watches was quite sluggish. Tap-to-wake was nice, but it was kind of slow too and was annoying when I had my hands full.


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## pr1uk (Sep 25, 2012)

Yes, to me a watch must always have a display after all it is a watch


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## MagicNC (Apr 28, 2010)

Don’t wear a smart watch but all my nieces and nephews wear them and then always have the display on. Looks like a Fitbit with no display.


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## rationaltime (May 1, 2008)

pr1uk said:


> Yes, to me a watch must always have a display after all it is a watch


Everyone has an opinion.










Thanks,
rationaltime


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## lvt (Sep 15, 2009)

rationaltime said:


> Everyone has an opinion.
> View attachment 16542463
> 
> 
> ...


Yes nothing can replace an analog watch when it comes to legibility in the outside.


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## peagreen (May 11, 2006)

I must admit I have resorted to disabling the "Always on" display of late because my watch ran out of power while I was out walking.
It's a TicWatch PRO so it still had the LCD screen displaying digital time.


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## Rocket1991 (Mar 15, 2018)

lvt said:


> Yes nothing can replace an analog watch when it comes to legibility in the outside.


It depends. OLED has angles as good and oil filled analog. Brightness vise if you write off all mediocre or bad examples of analog traditional watches yes they win. If you count in all zoo of abominations to legibility which is out there smartwatches are about same. Given they use OLED. I never had any issues with my Samsungs though in case of outside use i cranked brightness to max.
Garmin models with transflective screens are as good as physical face. Especially monochrome ones.

I am not discussing preferences and styles.

In that department i am on analog side when it's not a smartwatch i am wearing.


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## jar (Dec 24, 2013)

Yes, I use always on with all my Samsung smart watches. Even with always on I get one to two+ days with each of them. The smaller ones all have the shorter battery life and the larger ones all go at least two days.

I need to add though that I don't use them as a browser or to play music or videos. They are only time and phone and calendar and health tracking and sms.


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## Gekkko (10 mo ago)

Yes I do, always. It was only the reason why I bought the Apple Watch 7 instead of much cheaper Apple Watch SE(which does not have the AOD), and all my previous smart-watches have such feature. Even the properly implemented auto turn-on feature does not allow you to check the info with a glance - you always need to flip the wrist and I hate that.
Also it's a big factor from the aesthetic side, I like watches and I do not enjoy wearing the blank screen on my wrist. So, the AOD is a dealbreaker for me.
Currently I'am awaiting for Garmin Instinct Solar 2 (finally they got the GarminPay) - AW is a great wearable smart device, but I've finally decided that having 1,5 days of battery life does not allow me to consider this device as a watch.


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## Ron From Texas (11 mo ago)

I tried always on, but prefer to activate the screen with a touch. GW4


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## pr1uk (Sep 25, 2012)

Always on for me every time, a watch is a watch and to me should always display the time


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## peagreen (May 11, 2006)

pr1uk said:


> Always on for me every time, a watch is a watch and to me should always display the time


TicWatch PRO shows the time without "always on" because it has the LCD top layer.


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## pr1uk (Sep 25, 2012)

An interesting idea and watch if you like a digital display may well be one to go for


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## Rocket1991 (Mar 15, 2018)

pr1uk said:


> An interesting idea and watch if you like a digital display may well be one to go for


There been several like Casio but only now potentially it's properly implemented in hardware. Did not bring any popularity to the these early models though.


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## peagreen (May 11, 2006)

Rocket1991 said:


> There been several like Casio but only now potentially it's properly implemented in hardware.


I used to wear a CASIO AWX-10.
Very simple looking analogue watch but the watch "glass" was an LCD screen which could optionally show, superimposed over the physical hour and minute hands, Date, digital time, alarm, stopwatch (with laps), countdown timer.
I still have it and with a new battery, the calendar range should stretch to 2039-12-31.


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## Rocket1991 (Mar 15, 2018)

peagreen said:


> I used to wear a CASIO AWX-10.
> Very simple looking analogue watch but the watch "glass" was an LCD screen which could optionally show, superimposed over the physical hour and minute hands, Date, digital time, alarm, stopwatch (with laps), countdown timer.
> I still have it and with a new battery, the calendar range should stretch to 2039-12-31.


it's a same idea. but in case of smartwatch monochrome LCD is just dumb watch. There is no smartwatch related info there. 
I used to have more advanced Casio model (one with calendar overlay). Was very cool watch.


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## andye36 (8 mo ago)

I always use the always on display. When the Apple Watch came out with that feature, that's when I feel it became a "real watch"


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## garbidz (Jan 11, 2022)

lvt said:


> 1. You use it the whole time.
> 
> 2. You use it from time to time.
> 
> ...


If I charge and restart my Samsung watch, which is unlikely, yes.
On my Samsung Note, of course, it is on all the time.


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## Nemo_Sandman (Oct 28, 2014)

I have been using AOD on my Galaxy Watches as I was on a one day / one charge process.

I'm back on Amoled with an Epix 2.

So far the 16 days of battery stamina of the Epix break the pattern of charging every day.
AOD would shrink the stamina to 6 days. I don't see any advantage to it.
A flick of the wrist and the display light up. There is even some sort of dissolve and gentle lightning up when the wrist movement is slow.

I have even remove the AOD from the activities as the watch is totally responsive.

So no AOD and if I would turn it back on I would use digital watchface.









Sent from my SM-G985F using Tapatalk.


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