The screen becomes darker whenever the fps drops to 60

[argaman48]

The colors on the screen very visibly become darker about a second after going in or out of anything when using the automatic refresh rate option, it could be when I'm going between apps, opening a new page or even when pulling down the notification panel, it happens all the time.
Video example: https://imgur.com/a/zVJPYyL
Now I think I found the source of the issue.
Enabling the "low brightness DC dimming" option in the display setting, which is only allowed when the phone is on 60fps, solves the issue completely by simply always being darker, but then again, you must force it to be on 60 fps.
So I tried going back to the automatic refresh rate, but now I monitored the fps, and the issue became very clear.
Whenever the fps drops to 60 the DC dimming is probably enabled automatically, even when disabled manually on the settings, causing the screen to become darker whenever it switches between 60 and other refresh rates, since this feature is not supported on higher ones.
Video example: https://imgur.com/a/JK9tAtR
Look at the color of the keyboard and notification panel when the fps switches from 90 to 60 and vice versa, note that it is more visible than it looks on the video

[clavo]

argaman48

https://zentalk.asus.com/en/discussion/comment/224143#Comment_224143

For me the brightness issue doesn't occur on all constant refresh rates.

Moreover, when I enable the DC dimming on constant 60 fps I get the exact low brightness I get when it drops to 60

So I am pretty confident it has something to do with that, at least in my case.

But thanks for letting me know!

View post

Try to use the quick settings toggle to change the refresh rate, you will see a difference (button color/brightness) when it's at 90Hz compared to 60/120Hz

[Danishblunt]

argaman48

https://zentalk.asus.com/en/discussion/comment/224143#Comment_224143

For me the brightness issue doesn't occur on all constant refresh rates.

Moreover, when I enable the DC dimming on constant 60 fps I get the exact low brightness I get when it drops to 60

So I am pretty confident it has something to do with that, at least in my case.

But thanks for letting me know!

View post

It has nothing or at the very least extremely little to do with DC dimming. The problem is that due to the fact that in order to drive the pixels on the phone you push more voltage it messes with the color profile of your original calibration at 60hz. To combat this the manufacturer have to write a new calibration profiles to fix this. So at every single refreshrate you get a new profile applied to the screen. Since its a throwaway samsung screen, it only has calibration profiles from factory at 60hz and 120hz, the 90hz is something ASUS has added in as a feature but as you can see, they arent exacly great at calibrations, the Rog3 users are crying right now reading this message.
Believe me when I say I know exacly what I'm talking about:
Asus ROG Phone 3 users fixes black crush & color banding issues

[billytys]

+1 with the same problem.

[argaman48]

clavo

https://zentalk.asus.com/en/discussion/comment/224153#Comment_224153

Try to use the quick settings toggle to change the refresh rate, you will see a difference (button color/brightness) when it's at 90Hz compared to 60/120Hz

View post

You are absolutely correct, and I'm sorry I miss understood your previous comment.
Yes, the brightness on 60 and 120 are the same, and it probably has nothing to do with DC dimming.
I for some reason can no longer edit my post, so I'll just say that despite what the other guy said about the ROG phone 3, the 90 seems to me the most bright, so I guess I'll stick with that until it gets hopefully fixed soon

[Mattias_ASUS]

Hi!
I have now created a ticket to R&D so they can take a look at it 🙂