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

[Crimis]

Mattias_ASUS

Hello everyone!

I just got a reply from R&D, this is what I got.

• Because the screen flashes rate supported by each APP and interface is different, this is a normal reaction that the naked eye may see when switching, If the screen is set on locked 60hz this can fix the issue.
• 
  
• When the refresh rate is set to AUTO, if the refresh rate changes from 90hz to 60hz, which does not support DC dimming,
• It must be set to a fixed refresh rate of 60hz since that's the only setting that supports DC dimming.

This seems to be part of hardware limitations and nothing that can be adjusted by firmware.

View post

Maybe it's an idea to offer "auto 90hz" and "auto 120hz" options like suggested here? https://zentalk.asus.com/en/discussion/63018/dynamic-refresh-rate
Because the biggest problem seems to be mayor color and brightness differences at 90hz.

[Crimis]

Mattias_ASUS

Hello everyone!

I just got a reply from R&D, this is what I got.

• Because the screen flashes rate supported by each APP and interface is different, this is a normal reaction that the naked eye may see when switching, If the screen is set on locked 60hz this can fix the issue.
• 
  
• When the refresh rate is set to AUTO, if the refresh rate changes from 90hz to 60hz, which does not support DC dimming,
• It must be set to a fixed refresh rate of 60hz since that's the only setting that supports DC dimming.

This seems to be part of hardware limitations and nothing that can be adjusted by firmware.

View post

So if I understand correctly the screen is not capable of keeping the same brightness and colors when switching between refresh rates? On most other high refresh rate phones it's almost impossible to see the difference when switching refresh rates. Maybe the screen in the Zenfone is recommended to only use at 60hz by Samsung?
I see the same issues with the screen and auto dynamic refresh rate were also present in the Zenfone 8 which uses the same screen? https://www.reddit.com/r/zenfone/comments/o9gh4k/zenfone_8_display/

[clavo]

Danishblunt

https://zentalk.asus.com/en/discussion/comment/226908#Comment_226908

The problem here is that the devs might even not be able to touch the calibration due to licensing issues. When you brand something as "calibrated by pixelworks" u cant just recalibrate yourself with an update without having 100% consent and approval from pixelworks, otherwise you break contract with pixelworks and have to pay big stacks.

Also keep in mind, mattias is a nice guy who tries his best, hes active and does whatever he can. He is NOT a developer but asks the team responsible to communicate between the devs and the community mods. Its not his fault that he gets that answer. Its unreasonable to believe the devs respond here.

From experience of being a rog3 user and seeing same complaints on zf8 id say its safe to say either they wont do anything cuz they arent allowed to or wont because they dont care, regardless of the reason, dont expect a fix. At this point a fix to the zf9 would trigger the rog 3 and zf8 users.

View post

After a bit of research, it looks like that Asus is just not able to get an accurate calibration.

Zener0

Hello everyone,

with the brightness at the minimum and 90Hz the screen gets "washed out" and loses contrast. If using the same brightness and switching to 60Hz of 120Hz the screen gets his contrast back.

Is this this something that can be deactivated with some option, a bug or else?

Do you have the same issue?

Washed out screen at 90Hz and low brightness

@Anders_ASUS said:
"It's not a bug but rather a result of 90Hz not being as well tuned as 60hz and 120hz. There's not much we can do but we continuously look at the tuning we've made and how to improve it."

Leonardo Garzi

I have noticed that when you switch from to 90 from 120 or 60, and you are in a dark zone, the grey change. I have spoken with six people with Zenfone 8 and they confirmed this bug. I put this picture in order to try this bug. It Is important low light and the brithness of smartphone must be low too.

Bug when you switch from 60 or 120 top 90 hz in a dark mode,

@Anders_ASUS said:
"We were aware that we couldn't get 90Hz to look as good as 60 and 120hz before we started selling Zenfone 8 but decided to offer this possibility anyway contrary to what other manufacturers have done with phones that offers a 120hz AMOLED.
Would you rather have us remove 90Hz?"

Well, to the question I would answer: If you can't get the calibration right, then you should at least not use the 90Hz for the auto mode.

[ASUS_Bot]

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