[Q] "Grainy" display issue? - Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

The display on my GS2 has a "grainy" appearance when used at medium to low brightness. It's hard to describe, but it basically makes colors on the phone look like they have a grainy texture. When stuff scrolls on the screen (pulling down the notification bar, for instance), it looks like partially transparent images moving over a textured background.
Is this a normal aspect of the SAMOLED+ screen? I haven't seen this reported, but I've seen it on all 3 of the GS2 phones I've used. It basically makes the display look like total crap at lower brightness settings.

Are you using a screen protector?
I've had a couple on mine, and have noticed different the quality of brightness and colours between each, particularly at lower brightness levels.

Nope, no screen protector.

What is your Product code & Firmware (PDA, Phone, Kernel etc). Are you rooted and or using official or custom firmware?

try using a different screen mode?

UpInTheAir said:
What is your Product code & Firmware (PDA, Phone, Kernel etc). Are you rooted and or using official or custom firmware?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I flashed the following firmware, rooted, then installed a Cyanogenmod 7.1 nightly.
PDA:XWKJ3
PHONE: XXKI4
Date: 25/10/2011
Android 2.3.5
I've noticed the problem on the stock firmware that came on the phone, with the new firmware, and with CM 7.1.
iocar said:
try using a different screen mode?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm running CM 7.1 -- I'm not sure what you're referring to, or if it's something you can only change on the stock Sammy firmware.

Even just a confirmation that someone else experiences this would make me feel a lot better

I do have it, only visible at a low brightness setting, and even then it's mostly on white/light-grey colors.
I think this is the same issue as well:
http://androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-s2-international/444844-do-i-have-problem-my-screen.html
Nothing to worry about, just another price to pay for having an AMOLED screen. Search the forums, you'll find a couple more prevalent issues with those screens. As long as it doesn't affect your everyday use just pretend it's not there.

this happened with my old white Galaxy SII. I posted a topic about it a month ago. There are other users who also have this issue, so you are definetely not the only one
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium

Related

[Q] Lockscreen brightness less compared to homescreen?

I have noticed that the lockscreen brightness on my SGS II is less compared to my homescreen. Is anyone else having this problem?
I have tried almost everything but haven't found any possible way to correct this.
Any help would would be highly appreciated
PS: My SGS II is on stock rom KE1 (Non - Rooted).
I think that's a feature. Which personally I didn't notice until you mentioned but am quite happy with anyways.
aussiebum said:
I think that's a feature. Which personally I didn't notice until you mentioned but am quite happy with anyways.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for your reply. I am quite relieved so to speak. Was a little worried that my device is malfunctioning. Even I was assuming that it might be a feature of the device's UI. Just needed a confirmation
When you go to settings, you see an option about image analysing or something. (My phone is in Dutch, so I'm not sure if it's called like that.)
The phone adjusts brightness according to the displayed image. I notice it a lot when opening the keyboard on a page with a white background.
Edit: turning this off has no effect. I thought it had to do with this.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy SII with XDA Premium

Screen Color Difference Between UCKK6 and Previous

So today, I put my friend's SII right next to mine and pulled up images on both to compare. She got hers in December and is running the older build, and I got mine a month ago and am running the latest update from Samsung/at&t.
I noticed that aside from the worse battery life, mine also has a skewed screen saturation. It's way more unnatural and quite dark (the blacks and their contrast make it almost impossible to see) and the whites are more dull. On hers (not updated), the screen color was excellent, just like how I saw on the Skyrocket and the Infuse, with more brighter colors and whiter whites. Both were set to auto brightness and then on every other brightness level to rule that out as being the cause. Even on auto brightness (and really, on every brightness level), hers was always a little bit more "brighter".
So, did anyone else notice the different color change when they updated to the newest build? I would like to know, in case it is my actual phone hardware that is being the issue.
Samoled screens vary so inconsistencies are there, other than that try setting your "screen mode" to dynamic in display settings. Might have been different compared to your friends the whole time. The last thing you could do is wait for Supercurio as he is working on a screen tuning app. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1241590
silver91342 said:
Samoled screens vary so inconsistencies are there, other than that try setting your "screen mode" to dynamic in display settings. Might have been different compared to your friends the whole time. The last thing you could do is wait for Supercurio as he is working on a screen tuning app. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1241590
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh wow, I didn't know SAMOLED screens could vary by that much, thanks for the heads up. I tried looking for the screen mode option, but it seems like it's only on the international version (or perhaps also on the older official Samsung/at&t ROM, mine doesn't have that option).
I'll first try waiting to see if anything gets changed for the upcoming ICS update. If not, I may just have to go back to the good old days when I was flashing like a mad(wo)man when I was on the Infuse 4G.
Very common thing apparently. I have three co-workers who also have a GS2 and two of them look more "blueish" than the other two. We compared them on the simple google.com page with brightness all the way up on each phone, with stock ROM's.
It's the same thing with any phone. Put two iphones next to each other and the screens will look different.
harlenm said:
It's the same thing with any phone. Put two iphones next to each other and the screens will look different.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True, but two iPhone's together still aren't even as good as one Android IMHO.
yohannie said:
Oh wow, I didn't know SAMOLED screens could vary by that much, thanks for the heads up. I tried looking for the screen mode option, but it seems like it's only on the international version (or perhaps also on the older official Samsung/at&t ROM, mine doesn't have that option).
I'll first try waiting to see if anything gets changed for the upcoming ICS update. If not, I may just have to go back to the good old days when I was flashing like a mad(wo)man when I was on the Infuse 4G.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's available on customized AT&T firmwares and ported international firmwares.
One of MANY features AT&T intentionally removed and why I basically no longer ever touch AT&T-mangled crap.

Color banding issues

Why does my SGSII show banding on colors with ICS?
Examples: Facebook login, when I first set up the phone, ICS dialer background etc.
I never tried GB as I bought it a month ago.
It does the same with AOKP CM9. The banding disappears when using Camera scenario, but that just gived the screen an ugly blue hue.
Is my phone faulty, or is it a common problem to the SGSII which the community has accepted?
It's a known problem, AFAIK. Stock GB kernels had the same problem, some custom kernels took care of the problem with various patches (if I remember correctly, Speedmod's excellent kernel had different display tweaks and there was no banding visible - there's a changelog here which lists them, but don't go flashing it right away - it's a GB only kernel).
Wait and see
So this is a issue on all SGSII on stock ROM?
Well, yeah. First result goes to this older thread about color banding
That's an old thread regarding stock GB rom...
Yeh.. As previously stated OLD ISSUE.
Jeeze
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA

SOLVED Screen brightness on ICS compared to Gingerbread

I have been using the same rom since the day I received my Galaxy Note so I am used to it by now since I have been using it for over four months. I even flashed a couple other Gingerbread roms which were nice but I came back to the Solaris Prime rom qickly after flashing. After waiting since the first ICS leak I got bored and flased a custom ICS rom with the intention of playing with it for a while then flashing back to Gingerbread. The screen was bright on every Gingerbread rom I flashed, but on the ICS rom I flashed it was nowhere near as bright. I always use full brightness and never use auto adjust which is what I set it to on the ICS rom. This is the ICS rom I tried out http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1686320 Now my question is, has anyone else noticed this or is it maybe only a problem with this rom? Are ICS roms not as bright as Gingerbread roms cause I need the screen to be very bright? I noticed the brightness was very dim compared to Gingerbread roms I have used within five seconds of setting the brightness to full and turning off auto adjust. If all the ICS roms are like this I think I will stay with Gingerbread cause this is a deal breaker for me.
EDIT: I figured it out. It is the Auto Adjust Screen Power setting, when checked the screen becomes dim when unchecked the screen is vived and bright. I guess this setting is not in all roms.
Hard to compare since I can only load one ROM at a time. But I never noticed the difference in brightness. I leave mine turned up also as I am frequently outside with my work and play. The 15 toggle mod is not somehow overiding your brightness setting in ICS?
I believe I have noticed the same issue. I thought maybe it was just me, but apparently I am not the only one. I am rooted and running BlackStar rom right now, and I can compare it side by side with my girlfriends stock unrooted note and hers seems noticeably brighter. But even that I chalked up to her not having a screen protector and me having one. But I wouldn't think the screen protector would inhibit the brightness much if at all.
I also have gotten to the point of using full brightness, becuase auto brightness is unusable at times, even indoors.
Are we the only 2? LOL. I have noticed another issue with the backlight today. The screen seemed dim, but every once in a while would get bright for like half a second then go back to dim. I have it set to full brightness, but I tried covering the sensor, or at least what I think is the sensor(gonna have to google that) and it didn't change anything.
mike208 said:
I believe I have noticed the same issue. I thought maybe it was just me, but apparently I am not the only one. I am rooted and running BlackStar rom right now, and I can compare it side by side with my girlfriends stock unrooted note and hers seems noticeably brighter. But even that I chalked up to her not having a screen protector and me having one. But I wouldn't think the screen protector would inhibit the brightness much if at all.
I also have gotten to the point of using full brightness, becuase auto brightness is unusable at times, even indoors.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well did you compare when you both stock? Not every screen is created equally. I've seen identical phones next to each other and both have completely different temperatures on the screen (one bluish and one yellowish).
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda app-developers app
porkenhimer said:
I have been using the same rom since the day I received my Galaxy Note so I am used to it by now since I have been using it for over four months. I even flashed a couple other Gingerbread roms which were nice but I came back to the Solaris Prime rom qickly after flashing. After waiting since the first ICS leak I got bored and flased a custom ICS rom with the intention of playing with it for a while then flashing back to Gingerbread. The screen was bright on every Gingerbread rom I flashed, but on the ICS rom I flashed it was nowhere near as bright. I always use full brightness and never use auto adjust which is what I set it to on the ICS rom. This is the ICS rom I tried out http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1686320 Now my question is, has anyone else noticed this or is it maybe only a problem with this rom? Are ICS roms not as bright as Gingerbread roms cause I need the screen to be very bright? I noticed the brightness was very dim compared to Gingerbread roms I have used within five seconds of setting the brightness to full and turning off auto adjust. If all the ICS roms are like this I think I will stay with Gingerbread cause this is a deal breaker for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The devs on custom roms turn down the brightness due to ocer heating..even if u can move the bar all the way to bright its still not the same
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda premium
erick161 said:
Well did you compare when you both stock? Not every screen is created equally. I've seen identical phones next to each other and both have completely different temperatures on the screen (one bluish and one yellowish).
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is not anything that I needed to compare. It was noticable and since it happened I have read about other devices having the same issue after upgrading to ICS. It seem like the only devices this happens with are Samsung devices cause every device I found with this issue was a Samsung device. Not sure if they are putting a limit on brightness cause I know a lot of people said the contrast was too high on the Note but there is clearly something making the screen look washed out with ICS. I want my screen to be bright like it is capable of. I want my whites to be white like they are on Gingerbread.
erick161 said:
Well did you compare when you both stock? Not every screen is created equally. I've seen identical phones next to each other and both have completely different temperatures on the screen (one bluish and one yellowish).
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is not anything that I needed to compare. It was noticable and since it happened I have read about other devices having the same issue after upgrading to ICS. It seem like the only devices this happens with are Samsung devices cause every device I found with this issue was a Samsung device. Not sure if they are putting a limit on brightness cause I know a lot of people said the contrast was too high on the Note but there is clearly something making the screen look washed out with ICS. I want my screen to be bright like it is capable of. I have also read lots of people sayin that for some reason after rooting ICS their screens are not as bright but they cannot figure out why rooting would cause this to happen.
JB calhoun said:
The devs on custom roms turn down the brightness due to ocer heating..even if u can move the bar all the way to bright its still not the same
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That makes no sense. I need a dev to tell me they limit the brightness we can use before I would beleive that. And not only that the problem seems to be happening on official firmware upgrades not just custom roms. I do not think its a coincidence that all the devices I have found this problem happening on after updating to ICS were Samsung devices.
I recreated the problem so people can see it happening on their devices. Try this
1: Turn full brightness on and turn off auto adjust.
2: Open the default browser, and Gmail and leave them running.
3: Now go to home and long press the home button and the app icons will popup. Pay attention to Gmail and the browser, and you will notice the task manager icons are much brighter than the apps.
4: Without taking your eyes off the task icons open the browser and you will notice it gets dimmer then the task icons.
5: Now hit the menu button and when it pops up the browser will get brighter. Hit it again it will get dimmer.
6: Now hit the tab button and you will also see the tab icon is much brighter than the app itself.
I have noticed the apps that have the black menu popup get lighter and darker when you push the menu button but the ones with the white menu popup stay the same when you push the menu button. The weird thing is it seems like the system menus, app menus and the launcher are all as bright as they should be its just the actual apps that are washed out. I have only tried two AOKP roms so maybe this is a problem with those roms but it is very noticeable especially on apps that have white backgrounds. I cannot figure out why the whole system is bright til I open an app then the app gets dimmer then the rest of the system.
Lol
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda premium
This ICS rom I'm using (FJ ucle2#6...is not "darker" per sey .
I'm leaning more toward darker theme features perhaps ?
But I prefer the dark background popups with white letters etc. And I suppose it's possible that the ICS leaks are reduced to improve battery life ?
I honestly can't say, but I do know that my stock GB was like looking into the sun at night for me.
My eyes don't do bright very well ....g
I have the same problem!!!
I use my Galaxy Note (ATT) at full brightness and I have had it for 4 months. Got bored and decided to root it yesterday and installed an ICS rom. The screens were noticeably darker even at full brightness. It was depressing me and I wanted to go back to Gingerbread, but the MDSUM of my nand backup was incorrect for some reason, so I have not been able to do that. Looking around now for some Gingerbread roms to flash today!!!
ariot said:
I have the same problem!!!
I use my Galaxy Note (ATT) at full brightness and I have had it for 4 months. Got bored and decided to root it yesterday and installed an ICS rom. The screens were noticeably darker even at full brightness. It was depressing me and I wanted to go back to Gingerbread, but the MDSUM of my nand backup was incorrect for some reason, so I have not been able to do that. Looking around now for some Gingerbread roms to flash today!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this Gingerbread rom its great http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1563390
porkenhimer said:
Try this Gingerbread rom its great http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1563390
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you!
porkenhimer said:
Try this Gingerbread rom its great http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1563390
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just an FYI, - I was downloading another rom from the same team as the one you recommended when I saw your update, so I went ahead and flashed the one I already downloaded. Took me back to 2.3.6, but it did NOT fix my screen brightness issue. I therefore went ahead and took my phone completely back to stock,unrooted and it's all good now.
ariot said:
Just an FYI, - I was downloading another rom from the same team as the one you recommended when I saw your update, so I went ahead and flashed the one I already downloaded. Took me back to 2.3.6, but it did NOT fix my screen brightness issue. I therefore went ahead and took my phone completely back to stock,unrooted and it's all good now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats the rom I use and its super bright. Try it out I promise you will like it.
just pointing out - I agree about the brightness thing.
specially so in my favorite new rom, the latest from team perfection (the one released at the end of june 2012). it's an amazing rom, but it is quite dramatically dimmer in autobrightness modes than GB roms and is in fact so fim in autobrightness modes that I can't see it very well with my old eyes. I had no problem with other roms, and the stock gb rom is MUCH bright in auto mode.
then I take it out of autobrightness and go outside in the sun. it's almost unreadable in the sun outdoors (walking around). reverted to stock nandroid in autobrightness mode - I can read it ok in the sun. reverted to nandroid of the new ics rom. crank the brightness, can't read it, autobrightness is no brighter (maybe even dimmer) in the sun.
this isn't acceptible - the display on the note is amazing, why take away one of the best features of the note?
I cant' even use the phone in the sun when walking now.
I hope someone can find a way to change the brightness levels after the fact - that would be a really helpful tweak for those of us who can easily tell the difference (between readable and unreadable) in our roms.
I've looked through build.prop files but can't see anything there obviously related to screen brightness, so it must be something in teh roms or kernels.
cheers
Don
dkelley said:
just pointing out - I agree about the brightness thing.
specially so in my favorite new rom, the latest from team perfection (the one released at the end of june 2012). it's an amazing rom, but it is quite dramatically dimmer in autobrightness modes than GB roms and is in fact so fim in autobrightness modes that I can't see it very well with my old eyes. I had no problem with other roms, and the stock gb rom is MUCH bright in auto mode.
then I take it out of autobrightness and go outside in the sun. it's almost unreadable in the sun outdoors (walking around). reverted to stock nandroid in autobrightness mode - I can read it ok in the sun. reverted to nandroid of the new ics rom. crank the brightness, can't read it, autobrightness is no brighter (maybe even dimmer) in the sun.
this isn't acceptible - the display on the note is amazing, why take away one of the best features of the note?
I cant' even use the phone in the sun when walking now.
I hope someone can find a way to change the brightness levels after the fact - that would be a really helpful tweak for those of us who can easily tell the difference (between readable and unreadable) in our roms.
I've looked through build.prop files but can't see anything there obviously related to screen brightness, so it must be something in teh roms or kernels.
cheers
Don
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I mentioned this on one if the rom threads and they got mad for some reason. They acted like I was making the issue up. I do not know how I noticed the ICS roms are not as bright as the Gingerbread roms but not many others have noticed. It is insanely evident that the ICS roms do not match up in brightness when compared to Gingerbread. I have also searched the web about the issue and all the devices with this problem are made by Samsung. The big bright screen should not suffer with an upgrade. I want my screen to be just as bright on ICS as it is on Gingerbread. With this issue ICS is a big turn off for me. I am beginning to think that all the reports of over saturation on the screen of newer Samsung devices have forced Samsung to put something in the newer ICS software to control the problem that some had with the saturation being too bright. I really hope someone else notices so it can be taken seriously and someone will give it some attention and fix it.
cool, yea I read that... LoL, I felt bad for you.
I think I may have found the possible culprit, if devs are doing this on purpose at least.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1541180
I'll look at this tomorrow and see if I can brighten up my new favorite rom, team perfection (the june 28th or whatever latest rc1 version is).
PS: I killed my flash of that rom by accident this afternoon and now am reinstalling the whole damned thing and all of my apps again. all in an effort to brighten up the display. {stupid}
cheers
Don
---------- Post added at 04:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:24 PM ----------
side note:
in my attempt (and final success) to download apkmanager/apktool, I came across ******* (an ad website - edit: "adf .ly" without the space). I've hit it before too.
It is very unsual for me to get so angry with a website developer that I get violently negative feelings of aggression toward them, but in this case I can strongly and confidently say that the developers of ******* need to be forcefully removed from existence. or at least their crap advertising code does.
as you were, gentlemen.
now I'm off to start hacking away at the brightness framework apk.
Cheers
Don

Fuzzy/blurry text

Does anyone else notice the ugly presentation of letters? Text looks blurry around the edges, kind of like when you have a picture with text in it and you increase jpeg compression. You get those tiny artifacts around the edges of small objects, this is what text on the S3 reminds me of.
I know it has a pentile Display, but can this be somehow improved? I had the syiah kernel and was under the impression it was less severe. I think there was a tweak under the "screen" section that did something to aleviate the problem. But maybe I'm just imagining things...
I'm completley on stock and unrooted now so I can't go back and check
Any input on this would be appreciated!
Btw: The fuzzy text can best be seen with black text on gray background, .e.g. when wieving stuff in play store!
Ok, I believe the setting that made the fonts look better is called "mDNIe Sharpness Tweaks". Is there a way to get this without syiah? I have ordered the i9305 and siyah kernel is not supported sadly
Choosing the a different font can help in some situations. I do not know if this is relevant in your situation but it is worth mentioning.
Vipeout said:
Ok, I believe the setting that made the fonts look better is called "mDNIe Sharpness Tweaks". Is there a way to get this without syiah? I have ordered the i9305 and siyah kernel is not supported sadly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
CM has it built in if you wanna go pure-like Android UX
bnbasarir said:
CM has it built in if you wanna go pure-like Android UX
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no CM for the i9305 and probably never will be. However the Perseus kernel supports the i9305 and it has the very same tweak!
Just wondering, no one else is feeling like text on stock rom looks utter crap? It literally hurts my eyes because they try to refocus all the time because of the blurry text. Bad Samsung, just bad
I do..
Vipeout said:
There is no CM for the i9305 and probably never will be. However the Perseus kernel supports the i9305 and it has the very same tweak!
Just wondering, no one else is feeling like text on stock rom looks utter crap? It literally hurts my eyes because they try to refocus all the time because of the blurry text. Bad Samsung, just bad
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm going to buy one.. but I even don't like the blurry text!
My girlfriend has the Ace2, but even there it is blurry. I will see if there is some Android setting, but for now.. I can't find it.
We'll keep in touch.
Kind regards,
Gerard
Vipeout said:
There is no CM for the i9305 and probably never will be. However the Perseus kernel supports the i9305 and it has the very same tweak!
Just wondering, no one else is feeling like text on stock rom looks utter crap? It literally hurts my eyes because they try to refocus all the time because of the blurry text. Bad Samsung, just bad
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried changing the Screen Mode (Settings >> Display) to Dynamic and turning off Adaptive Display? I find this helps with overly sharp text a lot.
P.S. I used to use the Perseus kernel on the i9300 and it didn't have a simple on/off sharpness tweak, I think putting Amount on -128 and Radius & Threshold at +128 was the closest I got.

Categories

Resources