There is an issue in the stock builds of Android 14 for devices such as the Pixel 4a (5G) that, to this day, Google has neglected to fix. Specifically, the issue is the entire user interface (System UI, apps, etc.) slowing its refresh rate down to 30Hz when watching video at 30fps in any app including YouTube and Grayjay. The issue disappears when watching 60fps video, or when you delegate the playing video to the background so it's not visible on-screen.

I've linked below a thread on Google's IssueTracker of numerous people complaining about this issue, with one user in particular noting that the issue has to do with the frame rate at which foreground video is being played at, and how it likely has something to do with Android's Adaptive Refresh Rate feature, which the older devices (such as bramble) do not support, but the OS seems to try and force anyway, with no obvious way to turn it off.

https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/303693361?pli=1

So, question for the GrapheneOS devs: Is this also an issue in GrapheneOS A14 builds for bramble? Or has it been patched? I have a Pixel 4a (5G) running stock Android, and will gladly wipe my phone and flash it with GrapheneOS if this issue is solved.

  • de0u replied to this.

    NOTE: I did stumble across these ADB commands that appear to (almost) remedy the issue, but it doesn't apply to the app(s) playing video, and the changes don't persist after rebooting:

    adb shell settings put system min_refresh_rate 60.0
adb shell settings put system peak_refresh_rate 60.0

    josephm101 I don't speak for the GrapheneOS project, but just in case an official answer takes a while: the developers appear to focus primarily on security and privacy issues, and often leave upstream non-security/privacy issues (such as video playback glitches) to be fixed upstream.

    I suspect that if, hypothetically, the developers were to look into an issue like this, it wouldn't be for a device like the 4a (5G), for which the official GrapheneOS statement is "Pixel 4a (5G) and Pixel 5 are end-of-life and shouldn't be used anymore due to lack of security patches for firmware and drivers". The issue here is that once Google stops supporting the firmware the device is dramatically less secure, so it arguably makes more sense to focus any development effort on other devices that can be reasonably secure.

    Perhaps DivestOS might be of interest, since that project does support devices (at greatly reduced security) after Google has given up on them?

        de0u Thank you for the clarification. Kinda sucks because I liked some of the features that GrapheneOS had to offer. Like sandboxed Google Play Services and the ability to disable user-installed apps rather than only being able to uninstall them. I thought all that stuff was really cool.

        Thanks for bringing DivestOS to my attention! I'll have to look into it!

        • de0u replied to this.

            josephm101 Thanks for bringing DivestOS to my attention! I'll have to look into it!

            If your goal might be expressed "as much security is possible for a 2020 Pixel", DivestOS is probably worth a look. However, at some point you might want to carefully consider what's on your device and thus what might be at risk. If somebody snatches your phone and sells it to a well-funded criminal gang that knows exploits for older devices, what might they get their hands on?

            Retiring working hardware from service is painful, but if it's portable hardware that can be stolen and it contains data you really want to keep confidential, retirement might be the thing to do. Luckily the newer Pixel devices all have much longer expected support lifetimes.