This tutorial is on how to lower the resolution of your Dell Venue 8 7840 or pretty much any Android device. You might be asking yourself why would anyone want to change the beautiful 1600x2560 resolution to something 1/4th in quality? The simple answer is because it runs a heck of a lot faster as there isn't as many pixels to push around. The trade-off is that things are fuzzier but that's just the way it is. There are minor glitches here and there with apps that don't behave quite right since they base their scaling off of physical dimensions instead of configured dimensions. In my experience the apps that behave poorly are a very small handful so if you are interested let's get to it.
As always you do this at your own risk I take no responsibility for anything that goes wrong. This is even more critical with the Dell 7840 since you can't install a recovery and instead have to rely on a tethered recovery which takes more time and headaches.
1) Get root for your device (all of the cool things start with root access).
2) Install a terminal emulator such as "Terminal Emulator" or "Termux" from the Play Store
3) Start the terminal program
4) Type "su" and press enter. NOTE: You will need to grant your terminal emulator root access after you press enter.
5) Type "wm size" and press enter. You will see the default resolution of 1600x2560 displayed.
6) Type "wm size 800x1280" and press enter. Honestly, you can try other resolutions however you should try to keep to logical evenly divisible numbers. Ie. if you typed "1080x1920" it would work but be fuzzy since it is 67.5% the size of 1600 horizontally.
7) After you press enter above the screen will become quite large. Don't fret!
8) Type "wm density 160" and press enter. This is half of the 320 DPI that is default for our Dell Venue 8 7840 and should now look normal again except for the navigation buttons and such. Still don't fret!
9) Press the round home button to return to your desktop. You will be shocked with what you see. Again, don't fret!
10) Press and hold the power button and select "Restart". And of course one more prompt...
Upon rebooting you should see what looks like your normal desktop. If you had a custom photo selected as your backdrop it may be 1/4th the normal size but can be fixed by picking another image. As a test, I have included two images that show a "seascape benchmark" at 1600x2560 and again at 800x1280. The higher resolution received 12.4 frames per second playback while the lower resolution returned 33.6. While not four times the speed increase it is a sizable 2.71 times faster. Other benchmarks echo similar results.
I'm interested in what other people are seeing or different resolutions tried. Just be careful before you press the "enter" button because you could accidentally set some insanely low or high number and be unable to fix the problem. Rebooting wont help because this is persistent. As for me, I found that switching to 1200x1920 resolution (density of 290) a more fitting setting and a compromise between 1600x2560 and 800x1280.
If you want to reset the resolution and the DPI simply type from your terminal emulator:
1) "su" and press enter
2) "wm density reset" and press enter
3) "wm size reset" and press enter
What about having it run at 3/4 resolution of 2560x1600?
joeminati said:
What about having it run at 3/4 resolution of 2560x1600?
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Oooh, I just tried it and it looks good to me. The resolution is 1920x1200 at 3/4th the default resolution and leaving the density at 320. I might lower the density to 300 or some number but will experiment. With the same seascape benchmark v1.1 I am getting 18.2 as the average frames per second. It's better than 12.4 FPS at full default resolution.
Density of 290 seems to work well when the resolution is set to 1920x1200.
Good suggestion.
Haha no thank you for your help with the res changes and such. How did 300 look?
---------- Post added at 08:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:44 PM ----------
I changed it to 1920x1200. Looks good. Runs a bit quicker too. I wonder how this affects the battery.
joeminati said:
Haha no thank you for your help with the res changes and such. How did 300 look?
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I'm loving running at 1920x1200 the tablet is much snappier and the resolution clarity is minimally less. I settled on density of 290 for mine.
The weird thing is that benchmarks such as AnTuTu 3D visually run much smoother however I get a lower benchmark result. Really weird. but it's what you see that counts in the end.
Just Perfect
Your instructions are clear, concise, and just perfect. The resolution has been way too high, and it has been quite difficult to click the navigation buttons. Using your instructions has helped me greatly!
Related
I have a Dell Streak 5, but I bought a Galaxy S II last night. I realize the screen is a bit smaller, but I find the resolution or density extremely poor...I like a lot more on my screen, and it seems everything is too large. It's a show stopper for me. Is there anything I can do to change this before I return back to the Streak?
There isn't really a viable software fix for this, so just return the phone and get a Galaxy Note (1280 x 720 at 280 something PPI, 5.3inch screen).
1. Get your device rooted
2. Download "LCD Resolution" from Market.
The lower the number, the higher the resolution.
NOTE: Apps may not be fully optimized for this kind of resolution such as Phone, where the keypad is smaller than the screen. Market works with this DPI modification.
Also click on "Always Set On Boot" in the app so that it would automatically adjust your desired Density at boot.
How can I do it?
Afaik only possible with an AMOLED screen as only there every pixel is illuminated separately
Sebibalu said:
How can I do it?
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Yes, absolutely. You need working ADB setup, then just type following in CMD window:
adb shell wm size 1080x1920
adb shell wm density 460
After that, your home screen might look messed up. Go to Settings, Apps, Show System Apps and Force stop "Home" launcher. Just hit home button and it will restart with correct dpi.
Default values can be seen by typing this in adb:
adb shell wm size
> Physical size: 1440x2560
> Override size: 1080x1920
adb shell wm density
>Physical density: 640
>Override density: 460
keywords: LG G5 resolution and density change adb command
Does this make any sense for actual usage? On amoled screens you can save battery as less pixel are illuminated but they are constantly lit up with LCDs.
Is the GPU load lower as only "clusters" of pixels are calculated?
Because of the time I would like to display. If it would be better if.
lolmensch said:
Does this make any sense for actual usage? On amoled screens you can save battery as less pixel are illuminated but they are constantly lit up with LCDs.
Is the GPU load lower as only "clusters" of pixels are calculated?
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asestar said:
Yes, absolutely. You need working ADB setup, then just type following in CMD window:
adb shell wm size 1080x1920
adb shell wm density 460
After that, your home screen might look messed up. Go to Settings, Apps, Show System Apps and Force stop "Home" launcher. Just hit home button and it will restart with correct dpi.
Default values can be seen by typing this in adb:
adb shell wm size
> Physical size: 1440x2560
> Override size: 1080x1920
adb shell wm density
>Physical density: 640
>Override density: 460
keywords: LG G5 resolution and density change adb command
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Click to collapse
I had a problem with camera after change the resolution image between camera and the result is different, and the result is wider than before take(camera app)
Any solution ?
What's the lowest resolution/ DPI that this screen can be set to?
Answer: 720p.
Hi guys,
The default for the Asus 3 Zoom is resolute 1080x1920, density 480. I found that you can change the resolution to 900X1600 at 408 density no problem. This would further save your battery. At the ADB:
adb shell density 408
adb shell size 900x1600
To reset:
adb shell wm size reset
adb shell wm density reset
Afterwards DO NOT adjust the the "Display Size" under "Display" in settings on your phone. If you change that you will get a repeated error to the Asus Launcher and it wont be able to reload until you go back into ADB and type "adb shell density 408" again. Since that requires a PC it will be annoying.
NVM. In 900x1600, the bottom part of the touch screen becomes very insensitive. I guess it is best to just keep everything at default.
In fact I find myself typing better at 540 density.
NVM on the 540 density. The camera app will crush when you enter portrait mode. Leave the screen size and density at default until/unless Asus fix their camera app.
I used Easy DPI Changer App. so far no issues...
FYI, even if you lower the resolution, all it does is stressing the gpu less. In real world usage, the difference is minimal since most of the battery consumption is via screen on time, and all the pixels will light up even with lowered resolution.
This has been proven time and time again that it helps your gpu sensitive apps, such as games, perform better. Battery life savings will be negligible.
Besides, why are we worring about battery life with this phone anyways?
I changed the digitizer and display in my phone. The digitizer seems to think its resolution is larger (1080x1920) than the real display resolution (720x1280), so my touch is misplaced. I know how to change the display (physical) resolution using wm size, but that scales the digitizer resolution proportionally.
How do I change the digitizer resolution?
Output of dumpsys SurfaceFlinger: pastebin.com/gXnfxJKv
Output of dumpsys display: pastebin.com/bwkjXHxH
(The phone is Lenovo A7000, but that shouldn't matter. The error persists after upgrading firmware, rebooting etc. I haven't flashed/rooted - yet.)
After using adb shell wm size ----x---, did you try adb shell wm density ---? Density is basically the dpi of which the device will utilise
Good luck.
ramiabouzahra said:
After using adb shell wm size ----x---, did you try adb shell wm density ---? Density is basically the dpi of which the device will utilise
Good luck.
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Thanks, but yeah, I tried and it doesn't affect the digitizer resolution either, none of the wm options do anything worthwhile.
It seems I need something like a way to change sizes of SurfaceFlinger layers.
Xellos0 said:
Thanks, but yeah, I tried and it doesn't affect the digitizer resolution either, none of the wm options do anything worthwhile.
It seems I need something like a way to change sizes of SurfaceFlinger layers.
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SurfaceFlinger is integrated into the GPU if I am correct, so good luck with changed that
Other than that, at the time of writing, I can't come up with a solution.
Wish you best of luck
Just going to add that I have a similar yet different problem to you.
The similar part is I too also need means to change digitizer resolution but instead of going from 1080p(FHD) down to 720p(HD). My scenario needs to go from 1080p(HD) up to 2160p(UHD)
So I'm just adding more traffic in hopes people know of commands specific to the digitizer or a method to locate & modify files which report the device as only 1080p to most apps
See I've tried Shell/ABD commands but unlike most phones giving my phone a command to report itself as 4K to apps is creating an issue because seemingly even though the device knows it's 4K it reports to itself/apps as 1080p so my the digitizer is running itself as 1080p even though the hardware is sending a 4K signal to light the screen even if most times what's displayed is simply 400% 1080p
If anyone knows what files to get to (as well as how) I as well as OP can manually add the appropriate values to use the correct amount of our screens whilst utilizing the correct resolution, because like he said the PDI stuff isn't related to digitizer only display scale, we need digitizer scaling
OJKLLC said:
Just going to add that I have a similar yet different problem to you.
The similar part is I too also need means to change digitizer resolution but instead of going from 1080p(FHD) down to 720p(HD). My scenario needs to go from 1080p(HD) up to 2160p(UHD)
So I'm just adding more traffic in hopes people know of commands specific to the digitizer or a method to locate & modify files which report the device as only 1080p to most apps
See I've tried Shell/ABD commands but unlike most phones giving my phone a command to report itself as 4K to apps is creating an issue because seemingly even though the device knows it's 4K it reports to itself/apps as 1080p so my the digitizer is running itself as 1080p even though the hardware is sending a 4K signal to light the screen even if most times what's displayed is simply 400% 1080p
If anyone knows what files to get to (as well as how) I as well as OP can manually add the appropriate values to use the correct amount of our screens whilst utilizing the correct resolution, because like he said the PDI stuff isn't related to digitizer only display scale, we need digitizer scaling
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
& to clarify when in 4K all the time mode with the ABD/Shell command it's not like I can use the whole screen to touch but it'll scale that touch to 1960 by 1080, not the touch for my case is 100% accurate to where I place my finger, issue is that its only sampling 1960 by 1080 of the pixels aka just 1 corner so only useable quarter of the touchscreen with the other 75% completely dead
With mate 10 lite's resolution being 1080x2160 (18:9) instead of the traditional 1080x1920 (16:9), I find that some apps (particularly clash of clans) are too blurry with standard settings applied. For some apps the phone offers the "full screen display" option, which is basically only for apps in vertical position. Due to clash of clans being displayed in portrait mode, it's really blurry up until the moment I change the DPI settings under developer options. Standard is 432 and I change it to 502. But everything becomes pretty small on the phone at that point and after the reboot, it will jump back to 432 dp. Does anyone have another solution for this non-traditional resolution size?
You could try using the adb commands in this post. I used to use it to force the resolution I wanted on my Z5premium
https://forum.xda-developers.com/z5-premium/general/root-4k-screen-resolution-t3631413
I have also noticed like you that after a restart the changes in developer options reset to default. It's pretty annoying and I can't find the any setting in build.prop to try make it permanent. It's not in the list as far as I can see.