Translucent bars might be putting more pressure on the tablet’s hardware

Nov 4, 2013 07:37 GMT  ·  By

Sadly, Google is having a little bit of an issue when it comes to getting the new Android KitKat 4.4 to run on its Nexus 10 slate. As a result, it appears that the tablet won’t be featuring translucent navigation and notification bars with the Android 4.4.1 update.

The translucent bars allow users to set their wallpaper in full-screen mode, top to bottom. A member of the XDA forums stumbled upon some code in Android 4.4.1, which appeared to disable the property for the Nexus 10.

There’s actually a note that can be read in the code saying “Translucent status & navigation bars perform poorly on this device.” The feature is then set to “false,” but developers can go ahead and change it back to “true.” However, it might turn out that this tweak won’t solve the actual problem.

The disappearance of the translucent feat may indicate the Nexus’ problem might be the GPU or the 2560 x 1600 pixel resolution.

Another theory is that the slate isn't capable of overlaying one object on top of another, producing graphical glitches like back lights flickering and horizontal lines.

Following this line of thought, maybe the transparency was causing the same glitches. But so far these are just theories.

Nexus 10 Without Translucent Bars (2 Images)

Google Nexus 10 will not get translucent bars with KitKat udapte
Source code showing the translucent feature set on "false"
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