The Galaxy Note 9 Always On Display feature can be incredibly useful for people who put their phone on a dock or keep it set on a desk. However, having it on does use up your battery life so if you aren’t a fan of this feature then let me show you how to disable it.
The trend of having an always on display feature on smartphones happened a couple of years ago. I want to say it was around when LG released the dreaded G5 that we saw this feature spread throughout the industry. This is a feature that made sense for companies like Samsung who use an OLED/AMOLED screen as it didn’t use that much battery life.
However, with the LG G5 using an LCD screen it was just another one of the factors that made that smartphone a failure. In any case, people began to see how useful having some information displayed on the screen even when it was locked. Things like the time, date, weather and even notifications icons are perfect to be display using such a feature.
But How Can it Not be a Good Feature
The main reason why a lot of people disable the Galaxy Note 9 always on display option is simply due to personal preference. I know that I personally find it to be a distraction to have something on the screen that will change and move around. See, to prevent burning the pixels in place, Samsung has to move the information on the screen just a bit.
This gives the other pixels time to rest and will let the others pick up the slack for a bit. Again, for me, having the time and notification icons come in on the screen while I have the phone on the desk is a distraction. It’s just not something I like so it’s one of the first features I disable when I get a new Samsung smartphone in.
However, another reason why people disable this always on display feature is because they want to save a little bit of battery life. Now, I’m not going to say turning the feature off on the Galaxy Note 9 will give you an extra hour of idle/screen on time, but every little bit helps. It only takes a few taps so let me show you how to turn this feature off.
How to Turn Off the Always On Display Feature on the Galaxy Note 9
- Open up the Settings application
- Tap the Lock Screen menu option
- Then simply tap the toggle to the right of the Always On Display feature
- Now when you lock the Galaxy Note 9, nothing will appear on the lock screen
That really is all there is to it. You can turn off the Galaxy Note 9 always on display feature in just three simple steps. As with many of the features that Samsung stuffs into their Samsung Experience firmware, you just have to know where it is. You also have to know that being able to disable such a feature is possible too as that’s just not something everyone is aware of.
When someone who is not tech savvy buys a phone (or any electronic they are familiar with) it’s going to come with features the person knows nothing about. In the case of the Galaxy Note 9, the person who bought it may simply not know that the always on display feature can be turned off. This leads to the person keeping it on and either getting used to it, or becoming annoyed by it.
How Does Turning Off the Always On Display Save Battery Life?
This is actually a very good question and again, it’s something that people who are unfamiliar with technology aren’t aware of. Lighting up the screen of your smartphone is the most battery intensive thing it does. Granted, this isn’t an absolute anymore thanks to OLED screens like we have in the Samsung Galaxy Note 9, but it still uses battery life.
I won’t get into the differences between LCD and OLED screens, but an OLED, AMOLED, Optic AMOLED, Super AMOLED, P-OLED and all of these other types use less battery than a regular LCD screen. This wasn’t always the case but the technology has matured to the point where it’s difficult to argue the benefits of an LCD screen. At least when you combine all of the pros and cons of both technologies.
Anyway, lighting up even one pixel of the Super AMOLED screen of the Galaxy Note 9 is going to be using your battery life. This is why the brightness is so low when the always on display feature is turned on (to reduce the battery usage) and it’s why Samsung is lighting up as few pixels as possible to display the data that is shown on the screen.
But How Much Battery Life is Saved?
I don’t have any hard facts to show you and it wouldn’t matter if I did. As I mentioned in the video, we all use our smartphones differently. I may have 200 apps and games installed and you may only have 5. I may only use the Galaxy Note 9 always on display feature during the day and you may only use it at night. At the end of the day though, the feature is lighting up pixels on the screen.
This unequivocally means that having the feature enabled and active proves it is using your battery. I’m not going to say it will add an hour of screen on time (or even just idle time) to your overall battery life. But turning off the Galaxy Note 9 always on display feature will use less of your battery than if you had it turned on.
So the decision you have to make is whether or not you find the feature useful (or if you like having the feature on in the first place). If I found it to be useful then I would keep it on but again, I just find it to be a distraction so I keep it off.
