Hands on with OS 4.0 - what are your thoughts on Extra Dark Mode?

adbo · 2025-10-09T10:00:00+00:00

[upl-image-preview uuid=9654aeb8-12db-4bd3-877c-7d649bfc8a31 url=https://cdn.nothing.community/2025-10-09/1760000500-938586-image.png alt=banner] Hey everyone! One of the most in-demand features I've seen for Nothing OS over the past year has been a "true" dark mode, which changes backgrounds from dark grey to a deeper black, improving contrast and readability, potentially extending your battery life and making nighttime reading easier on your eyes. This highly requested feature is implemented as "Extra Dark Mode", as of Nothing OS 4.0! What are your thoughts on this feature? Is it something you're a fan of? Could it be improved in any way? Haven't checked OS 4.0 Open Beta out yet? You can do so here: https://nothing.community/d/43141

CMF1_hacker

HarrisonCole I’m still getting well over 10h SoT on NOS 4.0b on my NP3.

As far as dark mode goes, I didn’t really care before, so I probably won’t even switch it on.

HarrisonCole

CMF1_hacker Not sure what I’m doing wrong, background battery usage has been restricted for some apps, I don’t use many apps either - WhatsApp, Nothing X, YouTube Music & Chrome. Shouldn’t be draining that much battery in my opinion. I’ve tried a reset, I’ve tried manually adjusting brightness etc, I’ve come from a Xiaomi 15 Ultra (Global), known for battery issues, even that lasted me longer, frustrating.

CMF1_hacker

HarrisonCole can you post the percentage used by each app and the SoT from the battery menu settings? I use most of those apps with BT to 2 devices and don’t have major issues? Also, video calls on WhatsApp do drain the battery as the SoC seems to run at 100%. However, the hit to battery isn’t as bad as you’re describing. Battery Guru also does good tracking.

HarrisonCole

CMF1_hacker

This is today - I can’t show yesterday as I charged to 100% last night in an attempt to get fresh data. I’m sitting at 46% after just over 2hrs, which is a slight improvement, although not the best. I don’t use video calling, it mostly messaging.

YoLo

HarrisonCole I honestly don’t get why they’re calling it extra dark mode. The whole point of dark mode in the first place was for AMOLED screens, where black pixels turn off completely, helping save battery. Now most apps just use dark grey and still call it dark mode, which defeats the purpose. If you’re going to call something true dark, it should actually be pitch black. Otherwise, just name the grey version something like dark mode lite for people who don’t prefer true black.

CMF1_hacker

HarrisonCole Can you show the services (is that the other option that apps?) I left my phone at home today … also can you scroll to the bottom of that list as App as there is an over Google service % and mine is around 10% over a full charge, I mean those percentages shown are percentage app usage of total percent used (you’ve used 54%, so what’s app has only used 10% of battery, which isn’t bad for 45 mins on and 6h in the background). And then it drops to 5%, that item at the bottom must be huge.

YoLo it’s not white, that’s why it’s dark mode. The original Android versions had all this on a white screen and “dark mode” is simply not a white background.

HarrisonCole

CMF1_hacker

Here you go, system apps at 29% is wild, never seen that before.

CMF1_hacker

HarrisonCole yeah, you need to dig deeper. That is bananas.

This is my NP3 with NOS 4.0b.

KenBrownstone

DJ really , man that sucks …I was wanting pitch black all the way around ..Thanks for info

LpmeenaSingh

All features are nos 4.0 boaring and nonsance

JochieSantiago

adbo not so extra on widgets and apps. Only on the phone’s settings screens.

Jose Mathew

adbo kindly please fix the black crush issues on Phone 2a

Anonymous931

Jose Mathew What is “black crush”?

CMF1_hacker

I just tried it in a dark room (in the UK after all) and man did the switch immediately strain my eyes and the white text got wavy.

Eye strain hardcore and immediately noticed it so I looked it up. Thus, I’ll be keeping that setting off.

I also turn off all blue light on my devices but haven’t yet on my CMF1/NP3 and I don’t use them so much.

Jose Mathew

Anonymous931

During video playback, the shadows and deep black areas appear pixelated. And

On the lock screen, when the notification panel swipe down, especially at low brightness levels, the display shows a noticeable green tint.

Anonymous931

Jose Mathew Ah, that, got it. That’s unfortunately normal for OLED panels because true black = pixels are off. They can’t turn on instantly when needed so those patches are visible. Exactly that is one of many reasons why Google is pushing on dark grey instead of true black: https://m2.material.io/design/color/dark-theme.html

Those artifacts are a limit of OLED technology. Even high end OLED gaming monitor have that present.

Good comment on that matter from Reddit, just saw it an hour ago while I was reading something totally irrelevant to this matter:

shreyasnegi

Extra dark mode is ok but I think nothing should bring depth wallpaper. Because it’s attractive and looks good, for now this two three fonts upgradation doesn’t meen you are upgrading the lockscreen. So, nothing please introduce depth wallpaper in nothing OS 4.0

CMF1_hacker

shreyasnegi nah. I find it looks garrish.

katheria09

Love it, bring it to more places. Quick setting panel please.

JochieSantiago

Needs to be true dark. Not that grayish color. I know someone posted something about it, but still, other phones have a real dark mode.