Light blobs on black screen - Galaxy S II General

Anyone else notice lighter blobs on their screen when a black app is loaded?
Try the night clock and tell me if you see any.
I use my phone as a clock at night and I just got this today and wow is it noticeable.
Sent from my GT-I9100M using Tapatalk

groaner said:
Anyone else notice lighter blobs on their screen when a black app is loaded?
Try the night clock and tell me if you see any.
I use my phone as a click at night and I just got this today and wow is it noticeable.
Sent from my GT-I9100M using Tapatalk
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I also had that issue on my first unit, I had it replaced.
A quite bellow summarizes all the screen issues on the S2.
BarryH_GEG said:
There's really two separate issues that sometimes overlap:
1) The left side banding which appears along with a yellow tint either under certain conditions or, to some, in everyday use. This would seem to be a design issue as, to date, it shows up on every single phone produced.
2) Screen QC issues which include: 1) suction cup circles from production, 2) fingerprints on the inside of the display, 3) dead pixels, 4) vertical or horizontal lines, 5) ghosting, 6) white or black blotches, and 7) wide swings in color temperature.
There's no doubt the QC issues are probably vexing to Samsung. Based on the sheer quantity of displays they need to produce to satisfy demand they're either intentionally allowing displays to go out that shouldn't or are finding out from customers that bad displays got passed QC. Considering the large number of phones sold it's hard to guess the bad:good ratio but it would appear its larger than appropriate. And it doesn't appear to be getting better as newer builds seem to have the same issues as early builds. So banding may be forever but swapping phones may definitely help with the other issues.
I do think that adding the QC issues on top of the banding issue does compound it on some phones. That could certainly explain why some of us are happy and others aren't. There's still a lot of subjectivity at play so it will always be hard to say if what's acceptable to some is unacceptable to others. But with all the phones sold, you'd still think if more than a few percent had serious screen issues there would be a bigger audience for this thread and the issue(s) would have become more prominent on its own. I'd like to think things will get better but production demands may continue to allow QC issues to occur at higher than normal rates. Something that's frustrating for everyone - including Samsung.
Someone said something about the technology being flawed. Here's two links to stories where Apple was/is trying to get SAMOLED for their products. To me, it just helps reinforce that the benefits (color, contrast, viewing angles) still outweigh the downsides (screen life, burn in, inconsistency). And I'm sure Apple's engineers fully reviewed both the upside and downside before considering SAMOLED so it's still kind of a vote of confidence in the technology.
http://www.intomobile.com/2010/05/2...y-for-iphone-hd-4g-due-to-supply-constraints/
http://www.electronista.com/articles/11/05/26/we.rebuff.rumor.of.amoled.ipad.3.in.2011/
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Thanks!
I'll have to get back there to have it replaced.
Sent from my GT-I9100M using Tapatalk

I've had it replaced 3 times now, I'm on my 4th unit. I can exchange one more time before I have to send it out for repairs.
I'll wait for them to get a new shipment in with different serial numbers (all the ones i've had start with the same 4 digits) and hope i get clean ones.
I called Samsung and the rep i spoke to told me that they have not heard of this issue.
Well they have 3 units in their back room with this issue so they will see it.
I think I will have to take a long-exposure photo to show them what the issue is.
Fingers crossed the next shipment is clear.

groaner said:
I've had it replaced 3 times now, I'm on my 4th unit. I can exchange one more time before I have to send it out for repairs.
I'll wait for them to get a new shipment in with different serial numbers (all the ones i've had start with the same 4 digits) and hope i get clean ones.
I called Samsung and the rep i spoke to told me that they have not heard of this issue.
Well they have 3 units in their back room with this issue so they will see it.
I think I will have to take a long-exposure photo to show them what the issue is.
Fingers crossed the next shipment is clear.
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I've seen this isseu quite often when I had my phone exchanged mainly for a different screen defect, just be warned though since you had so many exchanges some people here might not actually believe that you went through 4 phones because 6Million phones sold and all that jazz.
Good idea that you decided to wait for another shipping, maybe you can even get a refund and just buy from another store that has good stocks?

I don't care what other believe or not. If they want to see my receipt plus the 2 exchange receipts I have here in this bag beside me I'll send them a picture.
Regardless, I must be one of the few people who have this screen problem AND use the phone as a night clock.
I am posting this for information to anyone who also has experienced or may wonder if their phone also has this issue.
If you dont have it, GREAT! I wish I had your phone.
(ps, this isnt a rant, just want this to be over)

I have zero issues with my screen; no ghosting, yellow/pink tint, light bolbs etc.
but no one believes me

groaner said:
I don't care what other believe or not. If they want to see my receipt plus the 2 exchange receipts I have here in this bag beside me I'll send them a picture.
Regardless, I must be one of the few people who have this screen problem AND use the phone as a night clock.
I am posting this for information to anyone who also has experienced or may wonder if their phone also has this issue.
If you dont have it, GREAT! I wish I had your phone.
(ps, this isnt a rant, just want this to be over)
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Someone else in Canada (Toronto) went through five phones because of tinting issues with the display. He too exchanged them back-to-back from the same store. If you've been going to the same store, and there was a run of bad displays, all the phones built in sequence could be effected. Can't you go to a different store and exchange it there?

Have the same problem, its like blobs/smudges that are lighter black/greyish. Not an even black color.
Its best noticeable in a dark room without any other light, not even the light of the touch buttons or top bar active (so your eyes are adjusted to seeing in the dark). Using this image I can see it clearly. Auto adjust screen power doesn't influence it.

I think we all may have blobs to varying degrees. The other day I looked at my screen in bright sunlight with polarized sunglasses on. It made the screen look black but you could clearly see random beige blotches all over it. In normal use I think my screen is as close to perfect as there is and when looking at a black background in the dark I don't see blobs or blotches. The "O" in AMOLED stands for organic which means alive. Maybe what we're seeing is a by product of the technology.

Nivekius said:
Have the same problem, its like blobs/smudges that are lighter black/greyish. Not an even black color.
Its best noticeable in a dark room without any other light, not even the light of the touch buttons or top bar active (so your eyes are adjusted to seeing in the dark). Using this image I can see it clearly. Auto adjust screen power doesn't influence it.
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You got it too!
Well, i'm glad I'm not alone sorry that you have it too.
Hopefully I will get a call from the store when the new shipment comes in and the issue will go away.
I tried going to another store and was told DOA's could not be exchanged at other stores that they had to go back to the store it was purchased at.
It is likely that all phones at Bell at all the stores at the same time may well come from the same batch.
I can wait over the weekend. I bought it on the 1st so still have most of my 30 day period to do the exchange. after that its repairs only. trying to avoid that.
I tried to get back the first one I had as it didn't have it as bad as all the subsequent ones I've had. Once a phone is marked DOA it can not be resold until it has been reconditioned and put back through the system. Understandable.

BarryH_GEG said:
I think we all may have blobs to varying degrees. The other day I looked at my screen in bright sunlight with polarized sunglasses on. It made the screen look black but you could clearly see random beige blotches all over it. In normal use I think my screen is as close to perfect as there is and when looking at a black background in the dark I don't see blobs or blotches. The "O" in AMOLED stands for organic which means alive. Maybe what we're seeing is a by product of the technology.
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I agree and I can accept some imperfections but I'd like to get as close to "perfect" as I can seeing that I had it in the beginning (WHY didnt I keep the first one?!)
Oh well, I'll take what I get with the new shipment and be happy with it,unless there is functional issues, then I'll be

BarryH_GEG said:
In normal use I think my screen is as close to perfect as there is and when looking at a black background in the dark I don't see blobs or blotches. The "O" in AMOLED stands for organic which means alive. Maybe what we're seeing is a by product of the technology.
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Well good you don't see any blobs or perhaps you are suffering from a certain degree of Nyctalopia. Sometimes a disorder is not bad, see no evil ... Nonetheless the O in AMOLED doesn't stand for alive, just for a chemical compound containing molecules with carbon.
I must add that two Galaxy S (i9000) models I have looked at don't have this issue, at all. The screens are fully and equally the same black tint/shade. Taking a picture to capture the problem has proven to be somewhat difficult, but this old camera probably isn't really anything to write home about these days.

Nivekius said:
Well good you don't see any blobs or perhaps you are suffering from a certain degree of Nyctalopia. Sometimes a disorder is not bad, see no evil
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OCD is also a recognized disorder in which the pursuit of perfection overtakes one's life. If I had problems with my phone I'd have no problem sharing them. I've posted tons of pics of my phone in the dark, in the light, on grey, showing apps, and at every brightness level between 0% and 100%. I'm not going to apologize because I have a decent screen. Though I do sympathize with those that aren't satisfied for whatever the reason.

BarryH_GEG said:
OCD is also a recognized disorder in which the pursuit of perfection overtakes one's life. If I had problems with my phone I'd have no problem sharing them. I've posted tons of pics of my phone in the dark, in the light, on grey, showing apps, and at every brightness level between 0% and 100%. I'm not going to apologize because I have a decent screen. Though I do sympathize with those that aren't satisfied for whatever the reason.
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I dream of having a phone like yours.
I'm glad that all i have are these splotches on the screen in the darkness. it is not viewable at any other time and all other functions of the phone are perfect.
I can live with the splotches if i have to but would prefer to not. I'll exchange one more time and leave it.

groaner said:
I dream of having a phone like yours.
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I'm sure I'm not special. If you look at the low level of participation in the display threads either people have low standards or the majority of phones are like mine. Even within the display threads, 50% of the posts are by the same dozen or so people. In the other Canadian display thread a bunch of people from Toronto posted they had no problems. So keep spinning the wheel, you're bound to get lucky.

BarryH_GEG said:
OCD is also a recognized disorder in which the pursuit of perfection overtakes one's life.
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Obsessive–compulsive disorder is not how you describe it, perfectionism is. Some more of this perfectionism for a company like Samsung would not be bad at all.
It was not meant to be taken seriously anyway (hence the smiley). Albeit a joke, people whom suffer from night blindness will of course not see this particular issue though.
While I believe I did not post in the other display problem threads. I do have yellow tint and pink/blueish shade from all angles except from front. Which of course doesn't make it sound like a decent and proper SAMOLED+ display at all. Since I have a Galaxy S that doesn't exhibit these problems, it of course makes me a little disappointed.

Nivekius said:
Obsessive–compulsive disorder is not how you describe it, perfectionism is. Some more of this perfectionism for a company like Samsung would not be bad at all.
It was not meant to be taken seriously anyway (hence the smiley). Albeit a joke, people whom suffer from night blindness will of course not see this particular issue though.
While I believe I did not post in the other display problem threads. I do have yellow tint and pink/blueish shade from all angles except from front. Which of course doesn't make it sound like a decent and proper SAMOLED+ display at all. Since I have a Galaxy S that doesn't exhibit these problems, it of course makes me a little disappointed.
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I wasn't attacking you, just having a little fun trading disorders. I actually considered myself anal retentive until I started participating in this forum. ;-)
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App

The anal stage, hmm no let's just leave Freud there. He doesn't have blops on his screen anyway.
I can not exchange my phone, probably because it was included for "free" with a Vodafone plan, even though I just have it a couple of days. The shop implied I could sent it in for repair but I am reluctant to do that for various reasons.

bruflot said:
I have zero issues with my screen; no ghosting, yellow/pink tint, light bolbs etc.
but no one believes me
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Not all phones are affected with the same assortment of issues but I find it hard to believe that your phone does not have any ghosting, its an limitation on the SAMOLED+, Im not saying your lying but I dont believe that claim either. For the yellow banding on the left side user to user and phone to phone subjective.
Nivekius said:
I must add that two Galaxy S (i9000) models I have looked at don't have this issue, at all. The screens are fully and equally the same black tint/shade. Taking a picture to capture the problem has proven to be somewhat difficult, but this old camera probably isn't really anything to write home about these days.
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One of my thoughts also point to that a lot of S2 owners are first time users of SAMOLED screens, hence they dont know what to expect or have an entire low level of expectations. The S2 is my 3rd phone with a SAMOLED based technology and pretty much the expectation should be higher than the first generation SAMOLED right?
But all people say that these defects are expected are we are the minority as millions and millions of phones getting sold but theres no "internet media coverage" about it and they start bringing in other phones as a comparison when the only comparison needed is the previous generation SAMOLED.
I was initially very disappointed on this until I had my phone exchanged (Had to sort out over a dozen phones) and also XXKGx firmware alleviated the yellow banding, right now Im happy with what I got but I can be happier if the quality on the SAMOLED+ surpassed the first generation, The regular SAMOLED is superior in every way even if it was pentile. I just gotta hope for the best when the SGS3 and SAMOLED HD comes out.
Nivekius said:
The anal stage, hmm no let's just leave Freud there. He doesn't have blops on his screen anyway.
I can not exchange my phone, probably because it was included for "free" with a Vodafone plan, even though I just have it a couple of days. The shop implied I could sent it in for repair but I am reluctant to do that for various reasons.
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This could also be a possible reason why Samsung has never said anything about the display issues on the S2, a lot of shops are refusing exchanges and sending customers to the service center and have repairs instead, probably Samsung has informed its retail channel that they will be replacing deadpixels only anything should be dealt with by the retailer.. well just a conspiracy theory =)

Related

Widespread screen defects? Please reply.

Guys as you can see, many started posting concerning some defects of the Note's screen. It's starting to look widespread. Might be wrong tho.
Should we be worried of widespread manufacturing defects? I would hate sending my Note back to Amazon.de even when it hasn't even arrived yet! I hate all the hassle/waiting/delays.
Please only post insightful/informative answers, because I'm starting to get worried and I can ASSURED you I'm not the worrying or nitpicking type so that's says something.
I believe many or some others people are in the same situation as me. Also I got it from Amazon.de so it's EU Model.
Could this be EU model specific "problems"? If it does NOT affect it's performance/reliability and day2day usage I don't even care then..
But I would hate having the screen of a expensive device failing on me after couple months. It's the phones main feature after all and many started complaining about it.
koniakki said:
Guys as you can see, many started posting concerning some defects of the Note's screen. It's starting to look widespread. Might be wrong tho.
Should we be worried of widespread manufacturing defects? I would hate sending my Note back to Amazon.de even when it hasn't even arrived yet! I hate all the hassle/waiting/delays.
Please only post insightful/informative answers, because I'm starting to get worried and I can ASSURED you I'm not the worrying or nitpicking type so that's says something.
I believe many or some others people are in the same situation as me. Also I got it from Amazon.de so it's EU Model.
Could this be EU model specific "problems"? If it does NOT affect it's performance/reliability and day2day usage I don't even care then..
But I would hate having the screen of a expensive device failing on me after couple months. It's the phones main feature after all and many started complaining about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
According to my poll, over 83% of the people here who responded think the Note is the best phone ever made. So I think you might be barking up the wrong tree or singing the wrong Note needlessly.
koniakki said:
Guys as you can see, many started posting concerning some defects of the Note's screen. It's starting to look widespread. Might be wrong tho.
Should we be worried of widespread manufacturing defects? I would hate sending my Note back to Amazon.de even when it hasn't even arrived yet! I hate all the hassle/waiting/delays.
Please only post insightful/informative answers, because I'm starting to get worried and I can ASSURED you I'm not the worrying or nitpicking type so that's says something.
I believe many or some others people are in the same situation as me. Also I got it from Amazon.de so it's EU Model.
Could this be EU model specific "problems"? If it does NOT affect it's performance/reliability and day2day usage I don't even care then..
But I would hate having the screen of a expensive device failing on me after couple months. It's the phones main feature after all and many started complaining about it.
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Click to collapse
Theres absolutely no problem whatsoever. If you display a full-black picture on the phones display in lightless environment you can see the OLED display emits a little bit of light (like 1/1000 of the best LCDs I've seen). Also you might spot few black spots when looking at the screen with your perhiperal vision. So yea... huge problems!
Your never ever going to see these "problems" in normal usage scenarios. Some people just like to make practically non-existing problems into huge "dealbreaker" situations.
Gaugerer said:
According to my poll, over 83% of the people here who responded think the Note is the best phone ever made. So I think you might be barking up the wrong tree.
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Did I say otherwise? That is NOT great phone? Best is subjective to each one needs and opinion. But for me it's the BEST phone for what I want and look after. That's WHY I order it.
Don't take this the wrong way but that's your opinion of insightful/informative answer? Please don't answer. Just think about it.
I did not ask if it's good/best phone or if you like it. I ordered it for the same reasons like almost all here.
I believe my post is very clear of what it's about.
I asked about the display/screen issues some are having. So please next time answer more appropriate and talk about the display/screen "issues" and not about trees and barking and whatever you wan't to talk about.
P.S: See what I had write now? I hate to write such comments/posts. There's no need for them I believe.
A more appropriate answer like: No it's not widespread. I just isolated case or something or whatever, would have been much preferred. Thank you.
koniakki said:
Did I say otherwise? That is NOT great phone? Best is subjective to each one needs and opinion. But for me it's the BEST phone for what I want and look after. That's WHY I order it.
Don't take this the wrong way but that's your opinion of insightful/informative answer? Please don't answer. Just think about it.
I did not ask if it's good/best phone or if you like it. I ordered it for the same reasons like almost all here.
I believe my post is very clear of what it's about.
I asked about the display/screen issues some are having. So please next time answer more appropriate and talk about the display/screen "issues" and not about trees and barking and whatever you wan't to talk about.
P.S: See what I had write now? I hate to write such comments/posts. There's no need for them I believe.
A more appropriate answer like: No it's not widespread. I just isolated case or something or whatever, would have been much preferred. Thank you.
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I apologise if I have offended you by the manner in which I replied. I was not trying to be patronising but just trying to reassure you and that you might be worried unnecessarily.
lehto said:
Theres absolutely no problem whatsoever. If you display a full-black picture on the phones display in lightless environment you can see the OLED display emits a little bit of light (like 1/1000 of the best LCDs I've seen). Also you might spot few black spots when looking at the screen with your perhiperal vision. So yea... huge problems!
Your never ever going to see these "problems" in normal usage scenarios. Some people just like to make practically non-existing problems into huge "dealbreaker" situations.
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I know. As I said I'm not the nitpicking type. I will never turn the brightness to a 100%(had it at the lowest on my SGS2) and wont stare a full-black picture in lightless environment for no apparent reason obviously.
The thing that got me worried was those black spots to be honest. So reliability is a great concern for me.
And thanks for the reply. I really appreciate it.
Gaugerer said:
I apologise if I have offended you by the manner in which I replied. I was not trying to be patronising but just trying to reassure you that you might be worried unnecessarily.
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None taken. I apologize for my saying also. We are all part of a great community here. And also a part of a bigger one too. Yes, XDA Community.
koniakki said:
None taken. I apologize for my saying also. We are all part of a great community here. And also a part of a bigger one too. Yes, XDA Community.
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We all are XDA-Brothers & Sisters !
Spots before your eyes dept.
There seem to be a couple of cases of defective screens, but a huge amount of opinion about the qualities of Pentile screens. The only thing I can notice with a magnifying glass, is that white text on a black background seems to have a fuzzy red edge to it. Black text on a white background is sharp.
Links that shed light on the matter:
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Sams...D---is-the-PenTile-matrix-bad-for-you_id23134
http://www.nouvoyance.com/technology.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active-matrix_OLED
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PenTile_matrix_family
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_light-emitting_diode#Advantages
ankydu said:
We all are XDA-Brothers & Sisters !
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What about married members? Or members dating? Is that even legal?
Xaddict said:
There seem to be a couple of cases of defective screens, but a huge amount of opinion about the qualities of Pentile screens. The only thing I can notice with a magnifying glass, is that white text on a black background seems to have a fuzzy red edge to it. Black text on a white background is sharp.
Links that shed light on the matter:
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Sams...D---is-the-PenTile-matrix-bad-for-you_id23134
http://www.nouvoyance.com/technology.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active-matrix_OLED
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PenTile_matrix_family
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_light-emitting_diode#Advantages
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Click to collapse
Excellent read Xaddict. Thanks for taking the time to post them. It would be useful for future viewers that might find this thread. I know a bit about the PenTile and amoled technology...
My concern are the black spots. I know some SGS2 screens have them. I did not notice them when I checked it on my SGS2. So are those black spots are anything to worry about? Are they inside the margin of error or something?
And my final question. Do they affect the screen's reliability in any way?
koniakki said:
Excellent read Xaddict. Thanks for taking the time to post them. It would be useful for future viewers that might find this thread. I know a bit about the PenTile and amoled technology...
My concern are the black spots. I know some SGS2 screens have them. I did not notice them when I checked it on my SGS2. So are those black spots are anything to worry about? Are they inside the margin of error or something?
And my final question. Do they affect the screen's reliability in any way?
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Click to collapse
Can't comment on black spots as I have not seen them.
Compared to my HD2, the Note has blacks that are black as the ace of spades on a dark night, vivid colours and sharp detail(unless viewed with a magnifying glass), and no spots.
Not sure of differences between SAMOLED Pentile and OLED Monitors but Sony are releasing a new range of OLED Broadcast monitors that sell from $10,000-$30,000. They are replacing LCD and CRT's in the broadcast industry.
To quote phonearena.com "To wrap it up we'd say that the fears about PenTile appear hugely overblown when it comes to the new HD Super AMOLED technology, which delivers higher pixel density."
lehto said:
Theres absolutely no problem whatsoever. If you display a full-black picture on the phones display in lightless environment you can see the OLED display emits a little bit of light (like 1/1000 of the best LCDs I've seen). Also you might spot few black spots when looking at the screen with your perhiperal vision. So yea... huge problems!
Your never ever going to see these "problems" in normal usage scenarios. Some people just like to make practically non-existing problems into huge "dealbreaker" situations.
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Click to collapse
It seems like some people are so obsessed with 'perfection' in their ever evolving cutting edge gadgets that at some point the manufacturers are going to need start binning their devices, selling a velvet glove hand inspected version for say 50% more, or start trashing the majority of new screens/devices due to perceived imperfections thus driving the prices through the roof, unfortunately though these scenarios wouldn't satisfy the majority of the perfectionsts (reading some comments it makes me wonder what the writers are like to deal with in real life, how they would like being held to account at such a nitpicking and unrealistic standard) as everyone wants their cutting edge gadgets to be minimally priced as well.
Think about it for a minute, we are basically packing around the equivalent of a cutting edge laptop from a few years ago in our pockets, what happened to the excitement of being part of the technological cutting edge? Enjoy your gadget while you have it, you'll be replacing it soon enough anyways with something new that is flawed somehow but much more awesome.
I remember a similar controversy that was being peddled when the HTC HD2 came out. If you viewed the screen with sunlight reflecting off it at a 45 degree angle, you could see the etched pattern of the capacitive touchscreen grid. I hardly ever noticed it and when I did it made no difference to the quality of the phone's screen, but some held that it was a defective design.
Well I have seen on a couple of S2s and Notes some dark marks in the background. Best visible to me when looking on a grey background with low brightness setting.
Eg. Maps.
I am not too worried about this, since with increasing brightness it gets much better.
Since I checked a couple of stores and always found it, I believe it is a common issue. Might be worse or better from phone to phone, but always there.
Thank you all for your replies. Greatly appreciated.
So, to answer my own concerns based on your replies: No, is not an issue at all. Well, so far atleast, since it's a new device not many users if any, used it for longer perioed(3-6months).
Let's hope it's all good when it arrives in a couple days. If anything with the phone I will post to the appropriate threads. Thanks again.
This is a general statement and not a direct first hand account of my experiences with the SGN.
The human brain has the ability to ignore small issues or lack of information. For example, you can listen to a conversation with your date at a restaurant even with a lot of background noise. You can look at an image for a split second and be able to make out what the picture was even if you only saw part of it. Tiny issues with the display may not even register.
However, if you are looking for issues you will find them. Also you are far more likely to be bothered by an issue once it is pointed out to you. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. If someone tells you looking at the screen in very specific circumstances will result in a visual artifact, you will tend to always notice it. I am not saying we should not share this information and just unquestioningly accept what we are given. Just be careful what road you go down. Somethings cannot be unseen!
I recently looked up a review of my monitor for my computer and noticed people were complaining about ghosting in some games. I had not noticed it before I read that review, however guess what I always notice when playing games now?
PS. Want to sell a 24" Asus LED LCD.
The OP asked if these marks are an indication of reduced reliability of the screens, i.e. they're defective so they're going to fail sooner. To answer, I don't think there's enough history/data for anybody to answer that question with certainty yet, but I've seen the same marks on my Nexus One AMOLED screen and the GSII AMOLED screen, so I'd venture to say no, reliability is not likely to be negatively affected.
Pops_G said:
....Sometimes ignorance is bliss....
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The bold part is one of the best advices and can apply to many aspects in life as on hardware.
Pops_G said:
PS. Want to sell a 24" Asus LED LCD.
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Interested to get that "faulty" ghosting led lcd out of your hands. Price please?
maxh said:
The OP asked if these marks are an indication of reduced reliability of the screens, i.e. they're defective so they're going to fail sooner. To answer, I don't think there's enough history/data for anybody to answer that question with certainty yet, but I've seen the same marks on my Nexus One AMOLED screen and the GSII AMOLED screen, so I'd venture to say no, reliability is not likely to be negatively affected.
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Click to collapse
Thank you maxh. I agree with you. I said it also that is too early to tell, but the reason I made this whole thread is so someone with some engineering expertises would reply to ease my concerns.
But it seems that is not a reliability issue from all the replies, even if I believe none of us is professionally certified to answer that. Time will tell.
In the meantime let's all enjoy our humongous SGS2 on steroids!
Colour depth
I am having doubts that the screen on the Note is 16M / 24bit colour depth.
GSMArena states the colour depth is 16M.
This is a link to a website with a 24bit png gradient and an explanation of screen bit depth: Gradient
Looking at it on the note, there is banding characteristic of 16bit, which doesn't show up on my pc's screen.
I tried png & jpg gradients i made in photoshop and all had banding on the Note.
Oh well, what was I expecting on a handset?
I guess GSMArena got my hopes up.

How to avoid screen aging?

I have my Galaxy Note for 10 weeks and after using it always with 100% brightness there are aging effects.
Specially at blue backgrounds, but also at white and gray I can see the home screen icons, the clock and some buttons from jelly defense (I played jelly defense 3 weeks daily 2 hours) shining darker. (you can see it on the photo)
Now my Galaxy Note is in service for screen changing.
But what can I do in the future to avoid this aging effects? 80% brightness, 90% brightness?
Samsung didn't know this problems (I'll not believe it).
Has anyone practical experience with this problem?
Typically Blue pixels age the fastest. So pick a warm/red background. Avoid 100% brightness. Use auto if possible. Avoid leave screen on for prolonged period. Avoid static text or icon on the screen for too long. Basically the same care you would do to a Plasma TV except even the plasma TV screen(around 80,000 to 100,000 hrs) lasts 10 times longer than the AMOLED screen (estimated around 10,000 to 20,000 hrs).
Looks like you've discovered amoleds dirty little secret. I avoid pixel burnout by using launchers that auto hide the notification bar as well as browsers that allow you to hide the navigation bar such as opera. Opera let's you browse in fill screen mode.
I often refrain from using apps that show static images for long periods of time. I try to use the browser for everything that can be done through the regular Web portal of a site.
There is no way of getting around static images in apps unless the Dev accounts for it. Some devs are aware of amoled burn out and have options to hide navigation bars.
Ultimately you have to be mindful of static images and make sure to either avoid them on your screen for prolonged periods of time or remember to rotate your screen.
This is why I'm not looking forward to virtual buttons on ICS. It will destroy amoled screens for sure. Hopefully Samsung will retain physical button(s)
10 weeks is a pretty short life time, My friend's Nexus One (1yr++) does not have the very slightest hint of screen aging why my the galaxy S2 that I used for just 2 months already had the AM/PM burned in.
Its normal for OLED screens to age but it should not be this fast, this is probably why apple is not looking into OLED screens as the quality and or lifespan could be problematic.
There are some manufacturing defects. Some screens are just fade faster than others. But in general, if you know how to take good care of your screen, it will last a long time. My old Galaxy S lasted over a year without any noticeable burn-in. My new Galaxy S2 has been 4 months w/o any problem.
foxbat121 said:
There are some manufacturing defects. Some screens are just fade faster than others. But in general, if you know how to take good care of your screen, it will last a long time. My old Galaxy S lasted over a year without any noticeable burn-in. My new Galaxy S2 has been 4 months w/o any problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
like the part where you say "noticeable"
no matter how much you try to take care of it. It will happen. Its already there. (Depends to which degree)
My advice apart those ones about hiding the element that are always present.
Do not look for a screen burn in. Or do not look at the ****ty quality of the AMOLED. When you would look on for example on grey/ brown background easiest to spot when going to the marker you would notice the differences between the different parts of the screen. Its not perfectly even from the time its build. The color is displayed in different shades usually presenting itself in "lines".
Had my Note for 1 hour and I noticed it. Brand new.
But then again I know what to look for (proud owner of Galaxy S) and where to look for it.
I bought this device for the resolution and power. Not for the screen build quality
When I say 'noticeable', I meant to use screen test patterns. Last time I did that with my Galaxy S, I don't see any burn in with the test patterns at all. But I agree one should not purposfully sort after the burn in. It will always be there. But I also don't need live in panic. The great contrast of the screen (or infinite black) outweights any shortcomings it has. Side by side with an iPhone 4/4s, I simply can't stand the foggy looking screen of the LCD on iPhones. Every iPhone owners I encounter liked my SAMOLE screen better.
PAGOT said:
But then again I know what to look for (proud owner of Galaxy S) and where to look for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello fellow Galaxy S owner, This is the phone that brought up my standards and expectation for a SAMOLED device. I never saw any lines/uneven screen brightness and other garbage on my Galaxy S, even on greys. So this has brought up my expectation for a very high level which was crushed by the Galaxy Note's screen.
PAGOT said:
I bought this device for the resolution and power. Not for the screen build quality
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good for you, I bought the device as a while package with the top concern about screen build quality and as an HD playback device which it does not meet the purpose
Just a quick tip I picked up from someone else on this site (I forget now who it was, sorry). Change your clock from 12 to 24 hour every now and then (and visa versa), it shifts all the icons along a little
This is both an interesting and depressing post to find. I was so excited to order my International Note soon, but now I'm super paranoid about screen aging. I've read so much conflicting information about it online, I don't even know what to believe anymore.
Featherbeard said:
This is both an interesting and depressing post to find. I was so excited to order my International Note soon, but now I'm super paranoid about screen aging. I've read so much conflicting information about it online, I don't even know what to believe anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In terms of lifespan, LCDs still trump amoleds. That's a fact you'll have to live with.
No screen technology is perfect. SAMOLED for the moment has the problem that pixels decrease in brightness with ussage. So try to minimize the amount of light you get off the screen. That will also give you more battery life.
Try to use black backgrounds, and white text on black background if the application allows it. Of course if you spend 3 hours a day on a game with static icons and menus, that will wear some pixels more than others and you'll end up with something like the OP.
If you go looking for small variations of color, you're going to find them. But the superior brightness and contrast of a SAMOLED screen wins me over. Even when I know its effemeral and will degrade with time. But anyway, who keeps a phone more than 2 years?
Yeah, but I just found this information for the first time today, which is why I'm so depressed. I'm a digital artist so having a nice little on-the-go sketchpad has me super excited, but also worried because of the screen. Expansys tells me there's a 2 year warranty, but I don't know how that would work on an international phone if the screen goes bad...
---------- Post added at 02:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:45 PM ----------
vcespon : Yeah, I normally keep the brightness on my Atrix down quite low anyways. The max brightness setting is *blindingly* bright. As for the 'who keeps a phone more then 2 years", I had my iphone 3gs for quite awhile thank you very much. That and if I spend 600-700 bucks on this baby I want it to last! If I get at the very least a year to a year and a half out of the screen I'll be somewhat happy, though closer to 2 would be better obviously. I wonder what the long-term outlook is for the life of these screens anyways. Does anyone know the mean-time-before-failure for them?
I would also try using black backgrounds or dark themes on as many apps as possible also. Like tapatalk or k9 for instance.
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk
Featherbeard said:
I wonder what the long-term outlook is for the life of these screens anyways. Does anyone know the mean-time-before-failure for them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think there are some references how long the pixels "live". You should google. Even though Samsung said that they used new materials to build the displays.
I can tell you one thing you get used to the inferior screen in time.(Few rants not and then) So I wouldn't worry about that. If it really fails you. Meaning someone else will notice something wrong on the screen no just you. Claim warranty
Also to pointing out. There is shor-term memory effect as well. I think I already posted some bad quality pics here about that from my SGS. > http://goo.gl/URYzm I do not remember if this is a burn it or just the memory effect. I think its the memory bla bla. Second pic is best.
Thanks for the information! I think I remembered someone saying that the short-term memory effect gets better over time as well. I'm mostly worried about the screen quality as I plan on doing a lot of sketching on it, which kind of sucks because it'll most likely be using a light-colored background then. :\ I wonder if the AT&T version will have the exact same screens or if they'll be a slightly updated version. I guess not considering AMOLED is still AMOLED.
PAGOT said:
I think there are some references how long the pixels "live". You should google. Even though Samsung said that they used new materials to build the displays.
I can tell you one thing you get used to the inferior screen in time.(Few rants not and then) So I wouldn't worry about that. If it really fails you. Meaning someone else will notice something wrong on the screen no just you. Claim warranty
Also to pointing out. There is shor-term memory effect as well. I think I already posted some bad quality pics here about that from my SGS. > http://goo.gl/URYzm I do not remember if this is a burn it or just the memory effect. I think its the memory bla bla. Second pic is best.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Featherbeard said:
Thanks for the information! I think I remembered someone saying that the short-term memory effect gets better over time as well. I'm mostly worried about the screen quality as I plan on doing a lot of sketching on it, which kind of sucks because it'll most likely be using a light-colored background then. :\ I wonder if the AT&T version will have the exact same screens or if they'll be a slightly updated version. I guess not considering AMOLED is still AMOLED.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You worry too much. And you do not even have that phone yet.
First of all not sure how its in your country, but here you can return in if you dont like it in a week I think.
Also if it becomes really apparent you really can go to a service center. I do not remember someone saying that samsung refused to change the screen.
Also I was ranting here already a year ago about the Galaxy S. I hate SAMOLED soo much since I got the SGS (18 months ago). I own an iPhone 4 and love retina and SLCD. And yet bought the Galaxy Note as well (despite the fact I knew how faulty it will be and how I will hate it )
Hey, I'm paranoid! I *really* get upset when I get a device that either isn't stable or has something wrong or defective about it. (Especially something that costs this much!) I'm in the US and am debating ordering through Expansys (USA), and I've heard they have I believe it was a 2 year warranty, but I have a feeling I'd have to send it to Expansys and have them take care of it if something went wrong. I can't see Samsung handling an international phone's repair in the US?
Aren't we strange with how we buy our gadgets? We know we will hate something and yet still buy it.
Featherbeard said:
Hey, I'm paranoid! I *really* get upset when I get a device that either isn't stable or has something wrong or defective about it. (Especially something that costs this much!) I'm in the US and am debating ordering through Expansys (USA), and I've heard they have I believe it was a 2 year warranty, but I have a feeling I'd have to send it to Expansys and have them take care of it if something went wrong. I can't see Samsung handling an international phone's repair in the US?
Aren't we strange with how we buy our gadgets? We know we will hate something and yet still buy it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All oled displays suffer from amoled burn out. Not much you can do.
vcespon said:
Try to use black backgrounds, and white text on black background if the application allows it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here you can see my homescreen. There is already white text on black background.
But I can see the shadows of the big clock and all icons. The shadows are the white parts of the homescreen; for example the "S" of my S-Banking-App is very visible as a black shadow in all other apps with lighter background (Internet-Browser, ebook-Reader etc..).
And the homescreen is visible only for a few minutes, because when I want to use an app I directly start the app. I don't look so much time to the homescreen and my Galaxy Note goes after one minute in standby mode.
That means only 10 minutes/day homescreen with 100% brightness is enough to damage the screen visible after 10 weeks?
Okay, playing Jelly Defense 2 hours a day at 100% brightness is not so good, but the problem is not the time, because a few minutes looking to the homescreen has nearly the same aging effect.

UPDATE(14-07) GsmArena publishes the Galaxy Note's screen issues. Check it out!

Hi,
I wont say I'm new to XDA as I've been following XDA since the Windows Mobile 6.5 days. I was even a member of xda then but unfortunately forgot my account details when I switched to using a Nokia N900 for a year or so. I moved on to the Galaxy SII last year and have been following XDA again since then. I finally sold my SGS II and bought the Galaxy Note last week. And this device has finally brought the need to join again. I never tried playing videos initially, but in a few days I played some videos which were randomly scattered in my sd card and I discovered that every video looks sick on my phone. There were black and purplish pixellation on almost all the dark scenes (even HD videos and FullHD videos, even the ones taken by the phone's camera) and upon googling it, I came to know in detail about this issue. I went through every thread in this forum related to this issue and even found supercurio's abandoned thread. Exchanging phones here in India is a painful experience. Samsung gives a 4day exchange policy which is a headache and after reading through the threads, I realised that there is no point fighting for a replacement or changing the screen as I may end up getting another issue while this issue would still persist to some degree. Since this black clipping problem is going on since release without any solution as of now, I posted the issue to GSMArena along with links to the threads here stating the issue. I never expected them to publish it but check out GsmArena today.
www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_note_plagued_by_display_issues-news-4513.php
Now lets hope for an explanation from Samsung with a fix. I hope this is a good start from my side.
UPDATE (July14th) : Guess we are making some progress. Check this out.
http://www.phonesreview.co.uk/2012/07/13/samsung-galaxy-note-display-problem-could-be-kernel-glitch/
http://www.knowyourmobile.in/news/1482177/now_samsung_galaxy_note_faces_display_issues.html
http://www.phonesreview.com/review/samsung-galaxy-note-display-problem-could-be-kernel-glitch/
http://www.mobgaze.com/news/mobile-phone-news-samsung-galaxy-note-5-3-display-issues
http://american-reviews.blogspot.in/2012/07/samsung-galaxy-note-plagued-by-display.html
http://jtplanet.com/samsung-galaxy-note-display-issues/
http://www.mobilebloom.com/display-issues-plaguing-the-samsung-galaxy-note/2216782/
Welcome to XDA.
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_note_plagued_by_display_issues-news-4513.php
Thanks for reporting it to gsmarena. Glad they did not ignore it.. and welcome.. back! to XDA!
satishp said:
Now lets hope for an explanation from Samsung with a fix.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You'll get your explanation and fix in no time at all, I'm sure.
When it comes to delivering those, Samsung is as fast as a quadriplegic snail.:silly:
They are working on the fix to the black clipping and the Emmc bug!
Galaxy note 2
not sent from an I phone....cos I'm not a fanny
numbnutsuk said:
They are working on the fix to the black clipping and the Emmc bug!
Galaxy note 2
not sent from an I phone....cos I'm not a fanny
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have they specifically stated that there won't be any clipping anywhere? Link please.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2
Samsung are not going to fix anything for the note 1. Be it black clipping or the brick bug..
That will cost them.
Instead they will fix it with the note 2 and make us pay fot it.
Simple business
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda app-developers app
+1
Its not that I expect anything from Samsung, but atleast they have to givevan explanation now as this is in the media. I just bought the note a week ago and everything is perfect. No spots, no tints, no hues, nothing. Everything looks flawless untill I apply a dark wallpaper or play any video. And thats when you realise how disgusting it looks. Even HD videos. Everybody knows that the Note isnt cheap and here in India, nothing is easy. It takes a month or more to recieve a product after warranty. The service team is so bothered about fixing your device as it comes back scratched and scuffed and with other new issues. Replacement period here is 4days and going through that itself is a pain. I still remember waiting for my GSII replacement for almost 9hrs trying to explain to the blind engineers about the Yellow tint which was obvious on the left side of the display. Showed them all the threads online regarding this widespread issue, as it was a 'one of a kind' issue for them. After finally waiting for hours, they finally gave me a DOA with 'screen fade' as the issue. And when my next GSII exhibited the same issues and I went back for replacement the same day, they refused to replace it telling they can only process a DOA for a customer once. They called the Head office here and the retarded 'engineer' said that he couldnt see any tints while he clearly accepted that there is a slight yellow tint on the left side at my face. Finally after talking to Samsung Head office here and after a lot of arguements and hours of waiting, they finally gave me a second DOA. And guess what, the third one was just marginanally better or so I felt but the tint was staring at you on the face. But I gave up and decided to live with it due to the experience I went through. Luckily a kernel update later seemed to fix or hide the issue. Hence, I dont prefer going for warranty or fighting for replacement (which is almost impossible now as its been a week or more) over an issue which may still persist or another new random issue. So for the money I paid, atleast I deserve an explanation from Samsung before I decide what to do. Thats what made me report this to Gsmarena. I wonder why people here just decided to live with it when the issue was stabbing you at the face without a solution and its been almost a year.
I got my gnote 3 days ago I'm on Cm9 and don't have that but my screen sometimes goes from perfect to intermitent yellowish back to perfect again.. Don't know if this its a known issue or a Cm9 kernel issue
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium
satishp said:
Its not that I expect anything from Samsung, but atleast they have to givevan explanation now as this is in the media. I just bought the note a week ago and everything is perfect. No spots, no tints, no hues, nothing. Everything looks flawless untill I apply a dark wallpaper or play any video. And thats when you realise how disgusting it looks. Even HD videos. Everybody knows that the Note isnt cheap and here in India, nothing is easy. It takes a month or more to recieve a product after warranty. The service team is so bothered about fixing your device as it comes back scratched and scuffed and with other new issues. Replacement period here is 4days and going through that itself is a pain. I still remember waiting for my GSII replacement for almost 9hrs trying to explain to the blind engineers about the Yellow tint which was obvious on the left side of the display. Showed them all the threads online regarding this widespread issue, as it was a 'one of a kind' issue for them. After finally waiting for hours, they finally gave me a DOA with 'screen fade' as the issue. And when my next GSII exhibited the same issues and I went back for replacement the same day, they refused to replace it telling they can only process a DOA for a customer once. They called the Head office here and the retarded 'engineer' said that he couldnt see any tints while he clearly accepted that there is a slight yellow tint on the left side at my face. Finally after talking to Samsung Head office here and after a lot of arguements and hours of waiting, they finally gave me a second DOA. And guess what, the third one was just marginanally better or so I felt but the tint was staring at you on the face. But I gave up and decided to live with it due to the experience I went through. Luckily a kernel update later seemed to fix or hide the issue. Hence, I dont prefer going for warranty or fighting for replacement (which is almost impossible now as its been a week or more) over an issue which may still persist or another new random issue. So for the money I paid, atleast I deserve an explanation from Samsung before I decide what to do. Thats what made me report this to Gsmarena. I wonder why people here just decided to live with it when the issue was stabbing you at the face without a solution and its been almost a year.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been living with it, but only due to the reasons you habe given, I am on my third Note, all have had the black crush, I called samsung only to be told that they do not know of yhe proble (thats a lie) and that I need to send my third brand new device in fir repair, I told em to stick it. I am just so fed up with hitting my head against a brick wall that I have pretty much given up on this ever being fixed.
Thank you for letting GSM arena know. I don't think anyone should have to live with a defective product especially if it costs an arm and a tooth. Outside of the US, people pay full price for these things and that's why companies like Samsung need to take it seriously. I don't care if the number of defective units is small, the fact that it exists means that Samsung has f****d up and needs to come out with a fix. AND if they can't rectify it via software, then recall the damn things. Owners of defective units or even just sympathizers should be posting like crazy over at GSMARENA and other news channels if we really want Samsung to take action.
numbnutsuk said:
Samsung are not going to fix anything for the note 1. Be it black clipping or the brick bug..
That will cost them.
Instead they will fix it with the note 2 and make us pay fot it.
Simple business
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with you that chances are few that a fix may come out, but we deserve an explanation for the kind of money we paid and a solution whatever be it. As far as I've seen, most phones here in India are affected. Atleast every phone I've seen and judging by the comments in the original threads, a lot more. Hence, this isnt an isolated case at all. And when every phone in the vicinity experiences it, it becomes very difficult to get a warranty here in India as Samsung immediately blasts out that it is a feature rather than a defect.
Using applications such as a screen filter or Screen Adjuster is pointless as it reduces the contrast and makes the blacks grayer to hide the issue. And for the resulting contrast, it would have been better going for an LCD panel rather than calling it an AMOLED. My GS2 never had any problems playing dark scenes and blacks were pitch black. But the note's screen isnt even true black in the dark. But then most AMOLEDs still look dark gray in darkness but atleast every other AMOLED based device I've seen has played back videos and images well and blacks were jet black in real life situations and I've never noticed black crush or clipping on any other phone. On my Note, the black and purplish pixellation is visible in a well lit room. So its really unpleasant to watch any video or look at any dark image. But the whites and other colours are perfect and browsing is a treat. Thats what makes me feel this isnt a screen or hardware defect
Could everyone who feel their Notes are affected by the black crush/clipping, please leave comments on the gsmarena article. Samsung should know the severity of the issue from the number of comments on that article. Only then will they respond to the situation. In the meanwhile, I'm mailing other reputed tech blogs to bring this issue to light. Lets wait and hope for the best.
satishp said:
Using applications such as a screen filter or Screen Adjuster is pointless as it reduces the contrast and makes the blacks grayer to hide the issue. And for the resulting contrast, it would have been better going for an LCD panel rather than calling it an AMOLED. My GS2 never had any problems playing dark scenes and blacks were pitch black. But the note's screen isnt even true black in the dark. But then most AMOLEDs still look dark gray in darkness but atleast every other AMOLED based device I've seen has played back videos and images well and blacks were jet black in real life situations and I've never noticed black crush or clipping on any other phone. On my Note, the black and purplish pixellation is visible in a well lit room. So its really unpleasant to watch any video or look at any dark image. But the whites and other colours are perfect and browsing is a treat. Thats what makes me feel this isnt a screen or hardware defect
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tend to agree with you. I cant remember having problems with stills, just video. I'll not go through the whole rigmarole of the various tests, but suffice to say that I feel confident that I managed to isolate this to software.
satishp said:
Could everyone who feel their Notes are affected by the black crush/clipping, please leave comments on the gsmarena article. Samsung should know the severity of the issue from the number of comments on that article. Only then will they respond to the situation. In the meanwhile, I'm mailing other reputed tech blogs to bring this issue to light. Lets wait and hope for the best.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've posted on the comments @gsmarena and dropped in my penny worth about the eMMc issues. My thanks to you for making this effort and getting it a wider attention. Please let us know of the other blog/web sites when you get their attention.
Cheers
Its been almost 24hrs since the article came up on gsmarena and we havent heard from Samsung yet.
..and I'm afraid we we'll not hear them.
As far as I know Sammy is well aware about this issue, there is a post that also cover this issue (from Supercurio) but now it has been closed.
Unfortunately Sammy prefer to release new device and not to investigate in faulty one....sad rules of businness.
Bye
ermeda said:
..and I'm afraid we we'll not hear them.
As far as I know Sammy is well aware about this issue, there is a post that also cover this issue (from Supercurio) but now it has been closed.
Unfortunately Sammy prefer to release new device and not to investigate in faulty one....sad rules of businness.
Bye
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Persistent, focused pressure.
But yes, the big corp does work that way, until public pressure hurts the corporate image.
Persistent, focused pressure.
Because there is a very simple fix to it...

Marques Brownlee has spoken!

Check out MKBHD's new review of the Pixel 2 / XL. Thoughts?
Halt shipping and conduct a QC investigation...
Watched this video this morning! Can't wait for my P2XL to arrive tomorrow!
Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
As always, an honest review.
Makes me more excited for my delivery, although it is one day past my ship date and I have no confirmation.
Blue hue, won't bother me at all.
Muted colors. I believe google will provide some options with a software update at some point, but I've already seen the phone at Verizon and the colors didn't bother me at all.
Otherwise, the phone will definitely be the best I've ever had.
bkrickles said:
As always, an honest review.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I worry sometimes that MKBHD is too much of an android fanboy & then a review comes out like this & I don't care anymore. LOL!
Seriously, I've watched him since he was a teenager & I believe what he says.
I don't know what to think anymore. Some say this phone is a turd. Others, like MKBHD, praise it. Guess I'm glad I didn't cancel my order and I can find out for myself. Mine is on a truck for delivery - three full days ahead of schedule. So that's good. Although I'm not sure why I'm getting my 128gb black version ahead of people who ordered a full day before me, but that's Google's terrible shipping for you.
I'm going to honestly say that all this news on the Pixel 2XL feels like a smear campaign or something. I swear, I wasn't seeing as many news stories as when Samsung had phones exploding and they were refusing to let them on planes. Why is something that is largely subjective as screen preference, dotted with a few actual hardware defects being plastered everywhere on the internet. I seriously can't scroll one or two screens, in Google, Newstand, Google+, Facebook, etc without seeing something about the damn screen.
b ..bb.bbbut the screen looks funny when i try to watch a YouTube video at the lowest light setting with 1 eye holding it sideways with a strobe light going off in the background
seriously though i don't know. Google F'ed my shipping up and i went from having it yesterday to having it Thursday so id love to put this thing to the test myself but the wait continues.
Its objectively a bad screen, thats why. Honestly i don't get why people are defending the screen. Its one thing to say you acknowledge the problem but are ok with it, but to pretend this isn't an issue is crazy and if you're ok with a $850+ phone with a bad display, then thats cool, enjoy it. I've seen three pixel 2xl's in real life (the one i bought and two others coworkers bought) and the extreme blue shift is identical on all of them, this is just how the screen is. Its worse than my 2 year old 6p screen. Do i love everything else about the phone, yes, is the display a dealer breaker for me, yes, is it for everyone, no; but again that doesnt make the screen ok on a flagship top of the price range phone. I think its embarrassing to the reviewers who were ok with it, they should be universally trashing this display, cause its the worse ive ever seen on a flagship phone.
love how he explained the color issue.
He made a great review! I don't know why everyone is crying so much. This phone is amazing. I've had it for three days now and I might be lucky but I have 0 issues. The colors for me are fine and it's really smooth. I'm extremely happy with my purchase and can't wait for further development for this phone.
I like his reviews as he is seeing the device for what it is and compares it to how he uses it.. Yes his use might be different than ours but at least he is reviewing in the sense of a normal user (or at least for me he does). The whole display thing i feel is being blown way out of proportion. Its like if no one ever mentioned it would you have really noticed it? or would you have gone about your day like it never existed. For cases where it is faulty that is where warranty comes in play. so i'll be getting my phone and going through my works but most likely i will be keeping mine
jeprokz said:
Its like if no one ever mentioned it would you have really noticed it?
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Both my wife and several coworkers pointed out the tint immediately, "why is it so blue" without any understanding of the controversy around it. I thought i had a particularly bad one, as the blue tint happens at around a 10% angle, but two other coworkers have gotten theirs and they're identical. I thought i could deal with it, but in normal use i dont look at my phone straight on its almost always at a slight angle, so the top of the phone would be blue tinted and the bottom would look fine, and scrolling with two different color temps is a weird thing, particularly peoples faces.
To be clear, all phones shift a little, my nexus 6p has a slight blue shift then rainbow at nearly flat, and my wifes S8 has a slight red shift then rainbows, but the P2XL shift is in another world, its so extreme and so fast, and actually gets better looking at extreme angles than at slight ones.
phyl0x said:
Both my wife and several coworkers pointed out the tint immediately, "why is it so blue" without any understanding of the controversy around it. I thought i had a particularly bad one, as the blue tint happens at around a 10% angle, but two other coworkers have gotten theirs and they're identical. I thought i could deal with it, but in normal use i dont look at my phone straight on its almost always at a slight angle, so the top of the phone would be blue tinted and the bottom would look fine, and scrolling with two different color temps is a weird thing, particularly peoples faces.
To be clear, all phones shift a little, my nexus 6p has a slight blue shift then rainbow at nearly flat, and my wifes S8 has a slight red shift then rainbows, but the P2XL shift is in another world, its so extreme and so fast, and actually gets better looking at extreme angles than at slight ones.
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Thanks for the information. i do believe you on the blue tint being probably that bad. me personally i would have to use it for a week before i can decide if that will really bother me. if other see it i'm eh about it cause it's not their phone. but glad to know you noticed other people have noticed on your phone.
phyl0x said:
Its objectively a bad screen, thats why. Honestly i don't get why people are defending the screen. Its one thing to say you acknowledge the problem but are ok with it, but to pretend this isn't an issue is crazy and if you're ok with a $850+ phone with a bad display, then thats cool, enjoy it. I've seen three pixel 2xl's in real life (the one i bought and two others coworkers bought) and the extreme blue shift is identical on all of them, this is just how the screen is. Its worse than my 2 year old 6p screen. Do i love everything else about the phone, yes, is the display a dealer breaker for me, yes, is it for everyone, no; but again that doesnt make the screen ok on a flagship top of the price range phone. I think its embarrassing to the reviewers who were ok with it, they should be universally trashing this display, cause its the worse ive ever seen on a flagship phone.
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Totally agreed with you on this. for such a high price flagship, we shouldn't be able to oversee issues like this. That's the reason I cancelled it. I'll wait a few more weeks or months if things gets better and re-order. For now, I wouldn't lie to my self and say I can live with this.
His comments on the display were interesting and it is odd that the display supports a wider color gamut but isn't using it (as evidenced by Firefox). That said, the images people typically use to compare the display are grossly oversaturated even if they are using a wider gamut. The first comparison picture he uses with the S8 has much more detail in the Pixel version because the S8 is blowing out the colors so much to produce those saturated neon greens. I'd be interested to actually see the Pixel up against another display that is using proper color saturation with a wider gamut.
Rodeojones said:
I don't know what to think anymore. Some say this phone is a turd. Others, like MKBHD, praise it. Guess I'm glad I didn't cancel my order and I can find out for myself. Mine is on a truck for delivery - three full days ahead of schedule. So that's good. Although I'm not sure why I'm getting my 128gb black version ahead of people who ordered a full day before me, but that's Google's terrible shipping for you.
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I feel like I can live with the screen washout and blue tint at the angle. I'm a little worried about the screen burn in and clucky noises that people are reporting hopefully those are just defects from a really bad batch. I get mine tomorrow so I will definitely be keeping an eye on it. If anything is bad I return it and just get the Pixel XL.
Notable XDA Dev supercurio sheds some light on some of the claims made in Marques' review.
Keep in mind this guy made the software that Erica Griffin used to measure the display. He knows what he's talking about, more than most.
https://plus.google.com/+supercurioFrancoisSimond/posts/8feW5GMgGgt
Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
Rodeojones said:
I don't know what to think anymore. Some say this phone is a turd. Others, like MKBHD, praise it. Guess I'm glad I didn't cancel my order and I can find out for myself. Mine is on a truck for delivery - three full days ahead of schedule. So that's good. Although I'm not sure why I'm getting my 128gb black version ahead of people who ordered a full day before me, but that's Google's terrible shipping for you.
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Go with your own review, who knows what some reviewers motives are. Hell id praise a phone if it meant they kept sending me free stuff and devices! MKBHD is honest I believe though
The blue tint is when it's at a certain angle. Now that angle may be less than most phones, but I don't know of anyone who reads their phone at an angle. He explains that in the video as well. Like he said if your "that guy/gal' then this phone isn't for you. I think when people bring stuff up that bothers them & make a big deal about it everyone is looking for it. If other reviewers had never said anything this wouldn't be as big of an issue. Just nitpicking now.

It's going back. So sad...

After four days, I'm returning my Pixel 2 XL.
It is a wonderful phone in every respect........except for one.
I just couldn't get past the screen. I had a positive attitude and hopes beyond hopes.
I tried. I really did.
No burn-in issues - that wasn't the problem (yet).
It's the blue. Blue everywhere. At an angle, off center, or looking at photographs - everything just had this blue tinge to it that I couldn't deal with. The grainyness and color fringing in the text was there, too. Not cool.
I love and trust Google and have been a diehard Android fan from the beginning, but I paid over a $1000 for this and I refuse to swallow that expensive pill, knowing these annoyances are there.
Why Google? WHY??...
I'm sure Google might send out a patch to deal with some of this, but in the meantime, I'm going back to my Nexus 6.
It's really a shame. The software experience on this phone is amazing. And the camera...oh, that camera. Simply stunning.
Well, at least I get my headphone jack back....
Maybe try a replacement. I've seen some side by side where one was blue at every turn, and another was only blue at extreme angles. Most OLED screens have this problem to some degree, though Samsung has done a great job of minimizing the effect.
The Pixel 2 XL is by far the smoothest Android phone out there and I hope they deal with the quality control issues.
Guyinlaca said:
Maybe try a replacement. I've seen some side by side where one was blue at every turn, and another was only blue at extreme angles. Most OLED screens have this problem to some degree, though Samsung has done a great job of minimizing the effect.
The Pixel 2 XL is by far the smoothest Android phone out there and I hope they deal with the quality control issues.
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I agree. It was a wonderful Android experience. Smoothest phone I've ever used.
I'm just not in the mood to play "order, return, order return, repeat.." with a $1000 device.
If this were a $400 phone, I might have some patience for that.
I was also having some bluetooth issues, but that could have been the device I was connecting to (car).
All in all, if you can tolerate the screen, it's an amazing phone
I just boxed mine up today to return for a refund as well. I decided that I didn't want to go the RMA process at this stage. It's still too early for Google/LG to tighten up manufacturing quality and it's not worth it for me to pay $912 to maybe get a decent one. I want to see how it is in a few months or possible for holiday sales and re-buy it then but until then.. back to my 6P with its rapidly degrading battery. I should note that I returned mine for multiple reasons including the top selling point of this phone, the camera. I could not get a good pic out of that phone for the life of me and I don't know why. Also, charging was not fast at all. So couple those things with the screen issues (for me it was extreme blue tint, graininess, black smear, and overall terrible white balance/contrast tuning to the point where it was actually uncomfortable to look at the screen without night light on) and it was unfortunately the decision that had to be made. I REALLY liked everything else about the phone and know that the charging and camera must have been a true defect as a factory reset didn't resolve it. So if the screen was up to par for a $900-$1000, I'd have just RMA'd it. So sad.. I really hope Google and LG get their sh*t together on the manufacturing side to fix all the little crap with it and the major glaring issue being the screen. Either tighten up ship with the current OLED display or switch to a samsung panel for better/more consistent manufacturing. I have got to believe someone or many people are getting fired over this fiasco.
bye bro
Another one bites the dust... bummer!
jrg67 said:
I just boxed mine up today to return for a refund as well. I decided that I didn't want to go the RMA process at this stage. It's still too early for Google/LG to tighten up manufacturing quality and it's not worth it for me to pay $912 to maybe get a decent one. I want to see how it is in a few months or possible for holiday sales and re-buy it then but until then.. back to my 6P with its rapidly degrading battery. I should note that I returned mine for multiple reasons including the top selling point of this phone, the camera. I could not get a good pic out of that phone for the life of me and I don't know why. Also, charging was not fast at all. So couple those things with the screen issues (for me it was extreme blue tint, graininess, black smear, and overall terrible white balance/contrast tuning to the point where it was actually uncomfortable to look at the screen without night light on) and it was unfortunately the decision that had to be made. I REALLY liked everything else about the phone and know that the charging and camera must have been a true defect as a factory reset didn't resolve it. So if the screen was up to par for a $900-$1000, I'd have just RMA'd it. So sad.. I really hope Google and LG get their sh*t together on the manufacturing side to fix all the little crap with it and the major glaring issue being the screen. Either tighten up ship with the current OLED display or switch to a samsung panel for better/more consistent manufacturing. I have got to believe someone or many people are getting fired over this fiasco.
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Interesting
Not to talk you back into Pixel 2, but there is the fact that the OLED display is designed to display wide gamut colors and is limited in most apps to simply RGB leaving a dull palette and such.... however, Google has said they will release a fix (Saturated Colors) soon..
https://www.xda-developers.com/google-pixel-2-xl-warranty-color-mode/
Then there is this as well:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/77gm3r/android_oreo_color_gamuts_and_pixel_2_explained/
travblue said:
Interesting
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Vague.
dethknite said:
Not to talk you back into Pixel 2, but there is the fact that the OLED display is designed to display wide gamut colors and is limited in most apps to simply RGB leaving a dull palette and such.... however, Google has said they will release a fix (Saturated Colors) soon..
https://www.xda-developers.com/google-pixel-2-xl-warranty-color-mode/
Then there is this as well:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/77gm3r/android_oreo_color_gamuts_and_pixel_2_explained/
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Yes, I am very aware of that.
My argument is, for spending a $1000+, I shouldn't have to wait.......... for something like that to correct itself.
This is a competitive market and Google should know better.
Forgetting the lousy color gamut, overall the screen is just not up to par for a device of this caliber.
I don't expect this phone to be absolutely perfect, but this screen is just not in the same class as the rest of the phone.
As I've mentioned, the phone, the build, and the software experience is top-notch. It is such a shame that Google dropped the ball on the screen - y'know,.....the most-important part of the phone.
Perhaps in six months I'll try again. But I refuse to spend this kind of money for a product that is obviously not ready for prime-time.
flex360 said:
bye bro
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Truly hope to be back soon.
After I posted that, I read a few more posts regarding people returning their 2XLs and the responses literally surprised me. There is so much hate towards people expressing their decision to return it over obvious manufacturing issues and not wanting to deal with the RMA process. It's almost like people are personally offended like they were hand assembling the phones themselves and simply cannot understand there being defective devices out there. Not saying you are being that way by saying "bye bro" bc that is way less harsh than I read earlier but damn. This has become sort of comical that the people who are keeping their phones are defending them so vehemently and not believing others who's phones were defective. It's like basically saying we are whining about non issue mythical problems.
jrg67 said:
Truly hope to be back soon.
After I posted that, I read a few more posts regarding people returning their 2XLs and the responses literally surprised me. There is so much hate towards people expressing their decision to return it over obvious manufacturing issues and not wanting to deal with the RMA process. It's almost like people are personally offended like they were hand assembling the phones themselves and simply cannot understand there being defective devices out there. Not saying you are being that way by saying "bye bro" bc that is way less harsh than I read earlier but damn. This has become sort of comical that the people who are keeping their phones are defending them so vehemently and not believing others who's phones were defective. It's like basically saying we are whining about non issue mythical problems.
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Yup. People like that in every forum on the internet.
jrg67 said:
Vague.
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I haven't received my Pixel 2 XL yet so I'm just taking notes..... Let me know if that's still too vague for you
People that RMA their phone for either a replacement or for a return, do you have to pay for shipping or does Google give you prepaid shipping?
Got my replacement today, I also sent back because of blue. Well my new one is night and day difference. I will post pics when my wife gets home. Can easily see the difference.
i'm doing an RMA myself.. but for other reasons.. but before i divulge too much off the original topic... why is there so much variance between displays?!?! some phones start turning blue at a fairly shallow angle.. and some more at sharp angles.. that's ridiculous how varied it can be. the off-axis shift is certainly worse on my personal one vs the one i looked at before (started 20 degrees instead of 40)
and even though off-axis shift isn't really bothersome to me as much.... the GPS lock was unstable.. great when it works... really bad when not. it feels like when i first had my LG built N5.... GPS problems all over again..
GPS location shooting me over a mile away from where i am? unacceptable!!
a display issue i also did notice was how the display dealt with dark colors and blacks... with significant clipping (aka "black crush").. as well as the lag that causes the "black smear".. it is certainly below average.
with after having troubles with GPS location.. i was done.. support was contacted.. and after troubleshooting with them through various steps... they are going to send a replacement.
now, i am still invested in getting the Pixel 2 XL.. display issues or not... but GPS needs to work and that camera is another reason why i'm still going to give it another go. even looking up my manufacturing date (Oct 19th?!).. i felt it was probably not part of any early batches that might've had worse problems... but goodness... i dunno what they're gonna do... send me a refurb? even newer built? i'll see in a few days..
---------- Post added at 03:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:06 PM ----------
lensgrabber said:
People that RMA their phone for either a replacement or for a return, do you have to pay for shipping or does Google give you prepaid shipping?
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They pay.. Google support emails you the shipping label and paperwork for your package.
more power to you. if you can wait until it goes on sale to buy it again and the kinks are worked out. that's awesome. i on the other hand couldn't wait. but i'm in the third batch. shipping "today" "no movement" lol. so we will see what they have done.
My personal phone is a Pixel 2 XL and work phone is a Samsung S8+ funny thing is off angle they BOTH have a blue tint to them. No doubt it is more pronounced on my pixel 2 xl but it's not detectable looking at either phone and about 5 degree rotation left or right. Using both phone's I never see the tint 99%+ of the time. I guess it's being reported there is a random element in the degree of blue you get when at an angle but really mine isn't that much worse than my S8+ to a point where its not something that even occurs to me unless I am perusing a forum like this etc..
My pixel XL is going right back... In my pocket because it's ****ing dope
SquallLHeart said:
i'm doing an RMA myself.. but for other reasons.. but before i divulge too much off the original topic... why is there so much variance between displays?!?! some phones start turning blue at a fairly shallow angle.. and some more at sharp angles.. that's ridiculous how varied it can be. the off-axis shift is certainly worse on my personal one vs the one i looked at before (started 20 degrees instead of 40)
and even though off-axis shift isn't really bothersome to me as much.... the GPS lock was unstable.. great when it works... really bad when not. it feels like when i first had my LG built N5.... GPS problems all over again..
GPS location shooting me over a mile away from where i am? unacceptable!!
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Can't speak to the GPS issues. I had some Bluetooth issues, but like I said, it may not have been the phone.
As far as the display - it wasn't "bad" per se - I've seen worse. My complaint was it isn't good enough - especially on a $1000 device.
To reinforce my point, if you put my Pixel 2 XL side-by-side against my 3-year old+ Nexus 6, the difference is mind-blowing. Motorola hit it out of the ballpark with this display. That was what really did it for me.
And for the record, my Nexus 6 also has an OLED screen. Still no burn-in that I can see and that sucker is on, all the time.

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