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How to change LCD density on rooted Dell Streak

Streak-lcd-den

If your Dell Streak is running the unofficial Froyo build, then you may find yourself holding the device a little closer to your face than you used to.

No, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. The icons, text, and other elements are a tiny bit smaller. The LCD density in this build is set at a lower level to enable more items/text to fit on the screen, which is nice for taking advantage of the Streak's large screen but may be hard on the eyes.

Fortunately, you can change the density to suit your preferences and eyesight as long as your Streak is rooted.

There are two apps in Android Market that are supposed to make the process very easy (LCD Density Changer and LCDDensity for Root), but neither of them seems to work on the Streak running the Froyo V1 ROM. They didn't work on my Streak, anyway. You can try them on yours, as they're both safer than the method I'm going to outline below; I don't know if they work on any of the 1.6 or 2.1 build.

This is how to change the LCD density on your rooted Streak running DJ_Steve's Froyo V1:

Since things could always go wrong, please take all the necessary precautions (Nandroid backup, etc.) and proceed at your own risk. Anything you do to your Dell Streak is your responsibility.

1. Download and install Root Explorer (£2.50) from Android Market.

Chart
It's one of my top picks for root apps for the Streak, so you may already have it installed. You don't have to use this particular app if you don't want to (I'm sure there are some great alternatives), but it's my personal preference and what this tutorial is based on.

2. Open Root Explorer on your Streak, scroll to the bottom, and tap the system folder.

3. Tap the Mount R/W button at the top of the screen to gain read-write access to the files.

Streak-change-lcdbp

4. Long press on the build.prop item in the list.

5. Select Open in Text Editor from the pop-up menu that will appear.

6. Scroll down about halfway and locate the # other edits section. The first line in this section reads ro.sf.lcd_density=140. Change the value to 160 if you want Dell's stock LCD density setting back (result is shown in the before/after screenshot above). You can change it to other values in increments of 20 as well, but 160 is what you were looking at before the Froyo build.

7. Tap the Menu button on the Streak.

8. Tap Save & Exit from the toolbar that will appear on the bottom of the screen.

9. Tap the Mount R/O button at the top of the screen to return to the previous read-only state.

10. Exit Root Explorer and reboot the Streak.

When the Streak reboots, the new LCD density will be in effect.

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Jenn K. Lee

Jenn K. Lee is the founder of Pocketables. She loves gadgets the way most women love shoes and purses. The pieces in her tech wardrobe that go with everything are currently the Samsung Galaxy Note II, Sony Tablet P, and Nexus 7, but there are still a couple of vintage UMPCs/MIDs in the back of her closet.

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