brightness randomly seems to change...
 

Any thoughts on why this may be happening? it is quite annoying and strange...

Re: brightness randomly seems to change...
 

it happened to me and i had no idea what was going on also. When you put your finger over te top left of the phone/top right in portait/ its a sensor that automatically changes the brightness.

Re: brightness randomly seems to change...
 

Hrm i don't think it's that... the sensor isn't being covered...

Re: brightness randomly seems to change...
 

doesnt necessarily needs to be covered. even if your finger is creating a shadow it can make the screen brightness adjust.

Re: brightness randomly seems to change...
 

Yep. I operate the device left-handed (hold it in my right and use my left forefinger on the screen) and I have two issues: the screen brightness changes all the time because of the shadow from my finger / hand, and my right hand seems to absorb a lot of the cell signal (the cell antennas are on the right of the device).

The second one only becomes a real issue indoors or in poor coverage areas.

I guess the N900 was meant for right-handed people.

Re: brightness randomly seems to change...
 

Yet pop-up menus are made for lefties... they appear under thumb for right handed people :/

Re: brightness randomly seems to change...
 

as ArmandHammer said, it doesnt need to be covered... if im not mistaking the sensor works according to ambient light and therefore changes according to the slightest ambient change... also worth noting is that it's also a bit slow... in the sense that it takes a second or so b4 it notices the ambient light dimming or lit up b4 it changes the brightness accordingly... i think u can disable this feature by removing the power saving option in the display settings. (guys do correct me if im wrong on this one)

Re: brightness randomly seems to change...
 

if you have a digital camera, you can do a simple field test without expensive light meters. just point your cameras lens to the directions your n900s top side is aligned when used.

then just press shutter button halfway and look at aperture and shutter time (f4 1/500 for example) when moving a camera little bit. specially when there is dark outside and lamps are used, simple 5 degree movement can more than double the amount of light.

just tested with my dslr. when facing a lamp(read: screen parallel to roof) : shutter time 1/5000. 5 deg turn and it changed to 1/1600 so amount of light changes 5000/1600 = 3,125 times.

Re: brightness randomly seems to change...
 

Have exectly the same problem with both my N810 and my N900. It seems to me that there are certain thresholds for the ambient light sensor... So it can be that whenever the light in your room is around such a threshold but changes only slightly (maybe because you're movin the device a bit), the screen brightness will over-adjust noticeably.

And, as twisted said, it doesn't react immediately. It takes some time. I remember one day when I used my N810 indoors on a reletively sunny, but windy day, it would change brightness each time a cloud covered the sun... But it would become darker when the sun re-appeared behind the cloud and a little brighter again a few moments later. Funny thing was that I myself didn't even notice the change in ambient light, I only noticed the screen becoming darker and brighter.

The algorithm may need some tweaking. ;)

Re: brightness randomly seems to change...
 

:D:D:D
This is the funniest thing that Ive ever heard!!! :D:D:D

I suggest you to destroy your display with a hammer to solve this "annoying strange" problem! :cool:

Are you kidding, aren't you!?

Re: brightness randomly seems to change...
 

?? I personally think its annoying that a shadow that my finger can change the brightness drastically.
Its a simple ? you dont have to come in and be a dick about it.
Isnt the main feature of the light sensor is to turn off the screen when you have it come to your face in the phone?

Re: brightness randomly seems to change...
 

No. It isn't.

Re: brightness randomly seems to change...
 

In this case I suggest only YOU to build in the hammer into you balloon head! :D

Re: brightness randomly seems to change...
 

People little more civility please. OTOH I have the same 'issue' with the screen dimming and find it annoying too.

Re: brightness randomly seems to change...
 

Well i had the same thing and found it annoying, went into setting and changed the brightness from the 4th bar to the last. No longer have the screen changing.

Re: brightness randomly seems to change...
 

In my opinion, there should be an option to turn auto-brightness off. I can change the screen brightness anytime I want to on my own, I don't need a program that keeps changing it (seemingly) randomly. The ambient light sensor should only control the keyboard backlight.

Re: brightness randomly seems to change...
 

/settings /display /uncheck power saving mode.....

Re: brightness randomly seems to change...
 

i noticed this happening to me today when i was playing super tux it just randomly kept dimming and then going bright again.
i've tried replicating conditions when it was happening but can't seem to reproduce this bug.

Re: brightness randomly seems to change...
 

Tried that, doesn't work for me...

Re: brightness randomly seems to change...
 

The solution to disable the light sensor is here:
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=64191