Android 16 could solve Super HDR's sudden high brightness issue

Samsung introduced Super HDR (based on Google's Ultra HDR) with the Galaxy S24. It increases screen brightness for a more impactful HDR experience. However, sometimes the screen can get too bright, almost blinding your eyes. Many people don't like that behavior. Google appears to be working on the ability to adjust HDR intensity to make the screen more bearable.

In the Android 16 QPR1 release, a new section called Enhanced HDR Brightness was spotted by Telegram channel Mystic Leaks. It can be turned on and turned off to enable or disable Ultra HDR. It also lets you adjust the HDR ‘intensity' according to your preferences. The adjustment can be done with a screen brightness-like horizontal slider, and a live preview of the changes is displayed on the top of the screen.

This new setting isn't readily available in Android 16 QPR1 and was discovered through some hacks. It is being reported that the feature will be made available for beta testing with the next beta release.

Samsung introduced a similar toggle to enable or disable Super HDR with One UI 7.0. However, there isn't an intensity slider for brightness adjustment. Even in the latest One UI 8.0 beta release, there is no intensity slider in the Super HDR settings menu, and there is a possiblity that Samsung could bring it to eligible devices with the stable version of One UI 8.0.

The Galaxy S24 series, Galaxy S25 series, Galaxy Z Flip 6, Galaxy Z Fold 6, and the Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition have Super HDR, while older and comparatively lower-end phones don't have that feature, even if they have 10-bit HDR video recording. The built-in Gallery and Video Player apps support Super HDR. Even Instagram supports Super HDR on compatible Galaxy phones.