[Updated] OnePlus 6 adaptive brightness feature causes screen flickering, some users say

Update (August 23):

Users say the problem continues to persist even after OxygenOS 5.1.11. Head here for details.

Update (August 04):

Upcoming update likely to fix OnePlus 6 screen flickering issue. For more information head here.

Orignal story

Adaptive brightness is a display feature that automatically adjusts the brightness of your device’s screen depending on how well lit your surroundings are. But, what if this feature triggers screen flickering on your phone? Troublesome, right?

Well, that’s the case with at least some OnePlus 6 users who say their device’s screen begins to flicker especially in outdoor conditions under direct sunlight when screen brightness is on the higher side (95% and above).

Users say…

A quick glance at the following user comments will give you more clarity about the flickering behavior being discussed:

When having autobrighness turned on the screen flickers in daylight / bright lights. This isn’t the normal autobrighness behaviour, where you would get a gradual adjustment in brightness. Its although it’s flickering between 95-100% which is very frustrating.

Yeah it seems to work correctly at the lower end of the scale (nice and steady adjustment). But when walking outside it’s extremely frustrating as it just flickers from i assume 100% to around 95%ish.

I’ve notice an issue with automatic display brightness, when activated, under direct sunlight the luminosity set at right level but the screen start to flick

Yeah, I have this too. The screen flickers rapidly when in direct sunlight.

Currently, the issue is being discussed across OnePlus Community (1,2,3) as well as online discussion forums XDA and Reddit.

It’s difficult to say whether the issue has been there since launch or has been introduced by an update. Reason being, reports on XDA stared pouring in May, while elsewhere some users say they started noticing the problem after OxygenOS 5.1.8 (which arrived in June).

First noticed in 5.1.8 and still doing it in 5.1.9.

Can confirm this too. At least in 5.1.8 and 5.1.9 I have seen this problem.

I too have this problem. Had problem since 5.1.8

It’s worth mentioning that similar adaptive brightness induced screen flickering has been reported in the past with older OnePlus phones as well.

We aren’t sure if it’s a bug or an expected behavior, but it’s reasonable to say the bahavior causes hindrance in phone usage, something which isn’t expected from any phone, let alone a high end device like OnePlus 6.

We tried reproducing the behavior on our OnePlus unit, but couldn’t. So it’s possible the issue doesn’t affect all OnePlus 6 units. However, we’ll continue to test, and will update the story in case we observe screen flickering at our end.

Are you observing any such flickering on your OnePlus 6 unit? If so, how severe is it? Do let us know by dropping a comment below.

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