Research from BBC R&D indicates that using dark mode on apps and websites can lead to higher energy consumption due to users increasing device brightness, with 80% of participants doing so.
So, if you thought you were increasing your battery life by using dark mode, you have been laughably wrong.
In my case, I have been using dark mode because I like the look of it—not necessarily for the energy savings. Apparently, some used it to save energy “for the planet.” I didn’t think that far, to be honest.
Whatever our reasons were, it appears we were not getting the benefits of going dark because we cranked up the brightness to see that white text on a black background better. This research shows that we are better off using light mode, where we can get away with lower screen brightness levels.
If you still want to do something for the planet, BBC R&D suggests reducing device brightness (as explained above), using smaller devices, and prolonging the lifespan of existing devices to minimize environmental impact.
For some reason, they call this practical advice. Maybe I’m just one of those people, but I just don’t think telling people to use smaller TVs and phones to save the planet is practical. If you would do that, the planet thanks you for your service, I guess.
Anyway, the BBC’s findings challenge common sustainability assumptions and remind us of the need for data-driven guidelines in matters like these. I’m afraid many of the so-called green initiatives that have upended our lives have been shown to be a waste of time over the years.
The study emphasizes the importance of understanding user behavior in energy consumption, revealing that many sustainability recommendations may not be effective in practice.
I feel this is exactly why socialist/communist ideas are doomed to fail. They ignore human behavior and somehow believe a powerful elite few won’t turn tyrant. I digress, though. The lesson here is that if you’re into saving the planet—or just selfishly into getting better battery life—you’re better off switching back to light mode.
Comments
11 responses
Using dark mode during the day is the worst, you’ll definitely crank up the brightness to max. I can understand for nighttime.
Mine is set to Auto dark mode from 1830-0500 and it works well.
Do you use an LED based display or LCD. Cause I don’t think it’s very responsible under the subject to lump them up as one. LED displays switch one pixel at a time with black being off and white being all on to the max and everything else inbetween. Dark mode has always been best for LED based displays both aesthetically (with the deep contrasts) and for power because an off pixel doest use power. On LCD there isn’t any power benefit and even the look leaves black looking washed. I haven’t gone through the research myself but pakutamba hedu the article didn’t do justice.
Kkk interesting point. I use LED display phone
What kind of reporting is this, you reference research done by a third party constantly throughout the article (one might even say you are just regurgitating the research) and there is isn’t a single link to the research in sight.
Do better.
It’s counter intuitive to think not using bright mode eats more energy. It also strains our eyes. Thanks for the heads up’
Its always been my understanding that dark mode is best on LED based displays ie the OLEDs etc as they switch individual pixels at a time such that black is shown buy an off pixel and an off pixel doesn’t use any power.
So without actually getting what the research says this article doesn’t do justice as no one knows which parameters were under consideration. Most people’s phones I see used auto brightness which is determined by ambient conditions and doesn’t consider how well one can see. Another hanging aspect of the article, are we saying study says most use manual brightness???
It seems to lump all displays as one which would be very irresponsible without explanation.
Thank you very much. You said everything i was thinking as i read through. The article is filled with a lot of assumptions.
And i think most people using dark mode to save energy are doing it for their battery level not to ‘save the planet’.😂
I stand in solidarity with Elp there, your article should clearly state that whatever you wrote applies only for LCD phones like iphone 11 not the LED, OLED or Super Armoled since they switch on only the pixels that needs to display text or images, the black on these screen are actually switched off pixels, meaning there is literary no power consumed by the dark pixels
Interesting research but I don’t know why they didn’t use an OLED where the black pixels will be off entirely. LCDs wouldn’t benefit from this.
One interesting to try however would be to look at the impact of blue color schemes on energy use. That would be interesting since blue leds need more energy than red and green.
Here’s the mentioned research btw: https://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/articles/2025-01-sustainability-web-energy-consumption
Actually please research deeper into display tech. Whilst dark mode will no improve battery life on display technology like lcds and tft screens . It how ever greatly improves battery life on devices with OLED and AMOLED displays. These display concepts are that when ever the screen is showing black those pixels are literally off.
Hence the battery saving. Pleas do more research
That’s not true