Does a dark theme actually consume less battery?

Research has been done to answer the question; does a dark mode, or the dark theme, indeed reduce the energy consumption of smartphones? It appears that under various circumstances there is hardly any energy savings.

Dark Mode and Stamina

Thanks to Android 10, more and more applications have been given a dark theme. This is not only more pleasant to read in the evening (and early) hours, but also ensures less battery consumption under various circumstances. This is especially true with AMOLED/OLED screens. With this type of screen, each pixel is controlled separately. With black, a pixel is off, and therefore does not require any energy. With LCD screens, the entire panel is illuminated and the influence is much less.

Purdue University researchers have tested a range of popular applications on everyday phones, including several Pixel devices. The influence of the dark theme on battery consumption was examined. This involved apps such as Google News, Google Maps, Google Phone, YouTube, Google Calendar and the calculator.

When a phone is used with a brightness of 30-50 percent, a dark mode saves battery between 3 and 9 percent. If you go outside, where the sun shines in full, and shoot the screen to the highest brightness with automatic brightness, then there is more to achieve. The battery saving with the dark mode in Android then comes to 39-47 percent. So on a sunny holiday it can certainly pay off to use a dark mode.

The researchers have created a tool, Android Battery+, that accurately calculates the energy consumption in Android. This tool should be made available to manufacturers and app developers at a later date.