There are a few threads out there that have touched on this issue but none as far as I can see that deal with it directly.
The problem comes when you display a pure black screen in low light conditions. It shows that the AMOLED screen is actually grey / blotchy / cloudy instead of being pure black. Initially I thought mine had fingerprints or smudge marks on it, until I realised they were behind the screen. I guess I might have got a phone with a screen that was replaced, but the amount of people who have also reported a similar issue leads me to believe that it might be a manufacturing default? The blotches / clouds on the screen dont change, but exhibit a random formation as one would expect from a defect. It is also possible to see a very faint outline of light running along 3 edges of the screen.
Naturally this is a situation that doesnt reveal itself very often. But I as I use my phone a lot at night, especially reading ebooks or watching films, you start to notice it more and more where you have large expanses of empty black screen.
What I would like to know is how many people have got screens that exhibit this behaviour and how many of you have sent them in for service or had them replaced?
Is it a common issue and something that is to be expected from this type of screen?
You can test if yours has this problem using 'Screen Test' (its free) from the market place. It cycles through solid colours and patterns every time you touch the screen.
Just do it in bed with all the lights out P), give your eyes a few seconds to adjust and see what your screen looks like displaying pure black.
I'm very interested in everyone's experiences and any input or information you have.
Thanks everyone in advance!
ps: I came from a ZTE blade (OLED) which has a uniformly dark grey background when displaying pure black. I kinda expect this as it is a budget phone (albeit with a better than budget screen), but I didnt expect the SGS2 to be quite as bad.
Use "screen adjuster" from the market and set contrast to -60
i have never seen this black low light screen defect. but i am asking you people if any of you have noticed that ugly blurry shadows which are perfectly visible with low light, on white backgrounds especially. they look like marks above the actual display and make high quality images look like low resolution.. it is annoying as hell..
I have this. Noticed it one night when my phone was switched off and charging.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
I also have this, noticed the first evening i used the phone...you can notice this during the screen wake delay, or when in a call if you cover then uncover the proximity sensor...don't know if it's a defect but sure it bugs me, i know many won't notice it and will say they don't have this...i will add that if u look carefully to the screen dimmed at lowest brightness in a low light (buy not dark) environment, like early morning, you'll see some "interferences" behind the image, also the darker/yellower left half screen is still visible in these conditions
These things shouldn't be there in a 500€ phone
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
Thanks for the feedback already.
@elmerendeiro: I have also noticed some 'interference' lines on my phone from time to time. I did a bit of research and it seems when your phone's brightness is set around 25 - 30% it picks up interference from either the wifi or 3g radio. Notch the brightness either above or below this level and you wont see it anymore.
I agree with you when you say we shouldn't be having these problems on such an expensive phone.
It bugs me too - if it wasnt for this i'd have to say it would be an amazing phone
Might give the Samsung service center a call and see if its something they're aware of and if they are replacing screens with this problem?
Related
Hello XDA,
I've searched around for this problem a bit, and it seems this issue hasn't been brought up anywhere. If it has, then I apologize.
The S2 has an awesome display with great colors, blacks included, but I noticed this issue one night when I was watching a film on my S2. When the display is showing black/dark images you can clearly see what appears to be glue smudges all over the screen, especially along the rims. It is only noticeable when there's little to no other light in the surrounding environement. Increasing brightness seem to worsen the problem.
It is hard to describe and very difficult to capture on camera but I made an attempt. I can't post links yet it seems but here's an imageshack url:
img842.imageshack.us/img842/5420/blotches.jpg
The image was taken with a Canon 450D with 20 sec exposure (hard to focus when it's that dark I'll tell you). Edited slightly in photoshop to cut down the size.
Here you can see the general color of the screen (gray-ish) and some of the blotches of (what I'm guessing is) glue in the back. If I had to guess I suspect the blotches might come from the capacitive touch layer of the screen. Is this an issue or is it to be expected on phones like these? It's not a major problem but it's actually quite annoying when you're watching a film/youtube clip/playing a generally dark game or whatever. Should I return my device? I've used it for just about a week and a half.
Thanks in advance for any help.
i have this too, its the AMOLED display. you can turn the screen off and on and you'll see it go off n on. not the sgs, but amoleds generally. my omnia HD had this too (1st gen AMOLED)
the blacks are not 100% black i say
Im having this too, nothing to worry about this as it doesnt disturb the beautiful display of this mobile.
I bought this phone 2 days ago, new, sealed, free from contract, and so far I love everything about it, except for this problem which I have found only today. I guess It was all the first excitement keeping me to notice earlier.
Like the thread's title says, it's like a perfect pattern across the screen, from edge to edge, consisting in perfect parallel 10-degrees-from-horizontal-oblique stripes. They are very very subtle and only visible on light backgrounds and more from looking from the upper part of the screen down.
Do not confuse them with the pixels matrix, whose density, by the way, is great. They are all right, and the effect described above seems to appear on a layer which is on top of those pixels.
To make an almost perfect comparison, this effect looks almost like the striped background from market.android.com (as seen on a computer), but with more subtle greish on white stripes inclined from right to left, and only like 10 degrees oblique from the horizontal. That is what's making me curious, why is that pattern oblique? If it were straight horizontals or verticals I would have confused them with the pixels arrays, and it would have been bearable. But like they are I can't stop but notice this pattern every time and it annoys me a lot! In GMail, Browser etc... all the apps with plain backgrounds...
It wouldn't appear on any close picture I tried to take, and I guess filming for you to see it isn't a good idea either, because you won't notice it. It's only visible with the naked eye, at a distance closer than 30 cm from the screen. It isn't also a problem of my eyes, because my wife is noticing it too.
Thank for any shared thought.
stnel said:
I bought this phone 2 days ago, new, sealed, free from contract, and so far I love everything about it, except for this problem which I have found only today. I guess It was all the first excitement keeping me to notice earlier.
Like the thread's title says, it's like a perfect pattern across the screen, from edge to edge, consisting in perfect parallel 10-degrees-from-horizontal-oblique stripes. They are very very subtle and only visible on light backgrounds and more from looking from the upper part of the screen down.
Do not confuse them with the pixels matrix, whose density, by the way, is great. They are all right, and the effect described above seems to appear on a layer which is on top of those pixels.
To make an almost perfect comparison, this effect looks almost like the striped background from market.android.com (as seen on a computer), but with more subtle greish on white stripes inclined from right to left, and only like 10 degrees oblique from the horizontal. That is what's making me curious, why is that pattern oblique? If it were straight horizontals or verticals I would have confused them with the pixels arrays, and it would have been bearable. But like they are I can't stop but notice this pattern every time and it annoys me a lot! In GMail, Browser etc... all the apps with plain backgrounds...
It wouldn't appear on any close picture I tried to take, and I guess filming for you to see it isn't a good idea either, because you won't notice it. It's only visible with the naked eye, at a distance closer than 30 cm from the screen. It isn't also a problem of my eyes, because my wife is noticing it too.
Thank for any shared thought.
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Much better to send you're mobile to the store were you bought it. because as what i have know the problem is the LCD. that is what they called wire stripe or ribbon.... maybe that is the problem. Try it, there is noting to lose.....
I see that too, only on light (white) backgrounds. I thinks it's normal, you may ask your local Sony Ericsson customer service or a phone shop, but I don't think this is a production fault.
On a dark blackground it is purely invisible.
Try it with and without the Bravia engine enabled.
kirbygonzalo said:
Much better to send you're mobile to the store were you bought it. because as what i have know the problem is the LCD. that is what they called wire stripe or ribbon.... maybe that is the problem. Try it, there is noting to lose.....
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kirbygonzalo, thanks but even googling it I couldn't find anything about wire stripe or ribbon.
sdk16420 said:
I see that too, only on light (white) backgrounds. I thinks it's normal, you may ask your local Sony Ericsson customer service or a phone shop, but I don't think this is a production fault.
On a dark blackground it is purely invisible.
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sdk16420, thanks for sharing this, It is somehow a relief for me to know I'm not alone in this. Yet, I'll wait until next week to see if I can find more explanations, and then maybe I'll return it for a replace. It's especially bad for me, as I waited a lot to receive the silver one (a week or so), and I don't know if I can find another.
LenAsh said:
Try it with and without the Bravia engine enabled.
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It doesn't depend on Bravia Engine, unfortunately. It was also the first thing that came into my mind, tried it several times, even with deactivating and rebooting, but the effect is persistent.
Again, it's only visible on light backgrounds, especially white and large ones (browser, gmail, etc). If you read this, please check yours also find some time to post a reply with the result. I would be very grateful.
Thanks!
I have the blue model but i can barely see that pattern with a screen flashlight (on full white) and i don't find it annoying at all in daily use of the phone.
You can check the screen from a new phone in a shop, to see if it looks like yours ... or you have a eagle eye
PS
check softpedia also
I think I can see what you're talking about on my Red Neo but only if I max the screen brightness and look really closesly (like practically inserting the Neo into my eye). 99.99% of the time I don't notice a thing.
I just followed your description and found the same with my neo, so I think it the LCD design. Not an issue to me indeed.
Does anyone have another phone model (e.g. Samsung, HTC) with a LCD touchscreen? Is it also visible on other phones?
sdk16420 said:
Does anyone have another phone model (e.g. Samsung, HTC) with a LCD touchscreen? Is it also visible on other phones?
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I have a Samsung Galaxy S with SAMOLED, a HTC Desire with S-LCD and an Asus Transformer with IPS LCD, and they all have better screens. The Desire's is the most problem free, whereas the Galaxy S has problems with screen burn-in (or image retention, like some are identifying it, but for me it's still like the old good plasma screen burn-in ), and the Transformer's has light bleeding. But, like I said, when put aside, the Neo's looks the worst.
I don't know if you noticed it already, but it comes with another "feature" that is so annoying: it stays always on auto brightness regardless of the custom level set, maxing that automation on that custom level. It's so annoying, cause it's always too dark for me, and being a "feature" it doesn't have also a switch for that. At least it has for Bravia....
stnel said:
I have a Samsung Galaxy S with SAMOLED, a HTC Desire with S-LCD and an Asus Transformer with IPS LCD, and they all have better screens. The Desire's is the most problem free, whereas the Galaxy S has problems with screen burn-in (or image retention, like some are identifying it, but for me it's still like the old good plasma screen burn-in ), and the Transformer's has light bleeding. But, like I said, when put aside, the Neo's looks the worst.
I don't know if you noticed it already, but it comes with another "feature" that is so annoying: it stays always on auto brightness regardless of the custom level set, maxing that automation on that custom level. It's so annoying, cause it's always too dark for me, and being a "feature" it doesn't have also a switch for that. At least it has for Bravia....
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When I put brightness on 100%, and hold my finger on the light sensor, I don't see the screen getting darker. What does annoy me is that you can't make the brightness less than about 30%. I use widgetsoid for brightness adjustment, and the screen will only become darker than 30% if I hold my finger on top of the sensor. That sucks. I I want to sacve energy, I have to hold my hand there, while using the phone.
I don't see why people need the brightness that high anyways, aside from in some games with small hard to see details I'm perfectly fine with my brightness set at just 30% or even just 20%...heck I can still use the phone when the brightness is completely off though that does get a little hard to see everything.
SCHUMI_4EVER said:
I don't see why people need the brightness that high anyways, aside from in some games with small hard to see details I'm perfectly fine with my brightness set at just 30% or even just 20%...heck I can still use the phone when the brightness is completely off though that does get a little hard to see everything.
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I use it a lot outside, and its sunlight legibility isn't as good as SAMOLEDs or others, but that I knew from reviews before the buy. If it wasn't for the problem in this thread, I wouldn't be so harsh on it.
LE I se new posters here. Do you noticed the problem described in the first post? Does it bother you?
I'v noticed a burn in signs somewhere in the middle of the screen (later I'll take a photo), its looks like a little shadow, darker...
Seen it only when I used RGB screens...
There is something to do (without replacing the screen)?
I'v heard about 2 options, donno how much its safe or will effect:
1. Using Jscreenfix - most for stuck pixels (its not the situation) but maybe it will do something after running few hours
2. Use blank white screen for few hours while the phone is on.
some says with full brightness, some says with low brightness, some says it will burn in the screen and will cause more damage....
Do you have any experiance with these 'methods' or any other tips to get it fix or halfix?
Thanks!
Are you using a non-oem battery? I order one from eBay (yes, I know ugh) and it was a snug fit and caused dark spots on the screen from the pressure.
Mine has a dark spot too, right in the middle of the screen. Looks almost like a shadow. I noticed it the first day I purchased the phone, within 2 minutes of first turning it on so its not burn-in. Its more noticeable for me on white screens like the google search page. I seem to recall one of the many cell phone models I've owned also having this problem. Maybe EVO?
Personally it doesn't bother me but I could see how it would drive others nuts.
I can personally vouch for the jscreenfix when you have issues with stuck pixels, however i dont think it will do anything for a burn in or dead pixel. I had a cluster of 4 or 5 pixels on an old blackberry of mine get stuck and played that jscreenfix for hour or two and it brought them back. But like I said I don't see that helping with a burn in though, if that is your issue.
Here's a picture of this burn-in, bad quality but can't miss the 'shadow' ...
@jrebo - I'm using the original motorola's battery.
Any chance it will 'fix itself' or there is nothing to do?
What about the option of using a white blank screen on with low/high brightness ? will it make it worst or its possible help?
Thanks!
I have a white spot in the middle of my screen and I've been using the oem battery.
Sent from my MB855 using xda premium
Why these dark spots / clouds appears anyway?
Seems like its happening at lots of smartphones...
I have a Nexus One which have a top notification/status bar burn in - maybe because it was on the stock rom with the white bg and set to be shown all the time.
But here its looks different, as you mention - cloud / smoke / dark spots...
Still not sure if keeping the phone on with full white BG will do the job or will **** it up more.... also not sure what brightness should use with this white bg...high or low...
@jrebo - about the replacement battery you bought, after how much time using this non-oem battery you've notice these dark spots ?
I'm considering to buy another battery from ebay (there is no other place here to buy oem batteries for photon) seems like there are some 'OEM' batteris (HF5X) out there with tag price of ~10$, not sure if its real or knockoff and what problem could it cause...
screen burn in can not occure on lcd and plasma displays since there is no phosphorous layer that the colors are being shot through... however there is something similar but its not permanent... pixels of other colors are not releasing there charge so they end up not going back to their neutral state. To cure this issue you get any one of the apps out there that run your screen through random colors every so often or leave the phone off and with no battery for a few days that will get rid of the immage permanence that you see. if that area on your screen is showing a cloud that does not match your current wallpaper than there is some other issue going on. and to cure that i have no clue lol
Hello,
Im Using Amoled Smartphones since the Galaxy (i7500). They all were always showing at 100% Brightness for Black parts of a picture a true Black like the Display is OFF.
If you put the Brightness to 100% and go to an complete Dark Room and open an Black Picture you see some Gray/Yellow Tint on the Screen. You can compare this good by locking the phone to see the Screen OFF and than unlock it to view the Black Picture again. You should see a huge difference. Hope to hear from your experiences.
I've seen that already on the S1 when abusing it a a nightstand clock.
Best guess I've heard is that the (AMO)LED screen leaks some luminosity to other pixels in the background which is then visible as a very faint glow.
However I rather believe that the AMOLED are not truely off but rather get some leak voltage and thus have a very-very-very faint glow (like one photon per second xD )
That would explain the black spots most people seem to mind on AMOLED when on minimum brightness with a black screen; they are truely off or without insufficient leak voltagage (LED's requie a minimum voltage to work).
AMOLED production is somewhat complicated (very thin layer of silver as a power source and a control-layer) so I wouldn't be surprised if the above is true.
Nothing is perfect, especially not a rather new technology.
What else did you expect from a backlit display.
jbadboy2007 said:
What else did you expect from a backlit display.
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It's not backlit is the point.
Correct me if im wrong here but amoled is, by design, not backlit.
Sent from my LG-P920 using xda premium
Yeah so I was wondering why it does this little/ hard noticeable yellow/gray tint on a dark room...
There is no Backlight... Unfortunely i Sold my Galaxy S2 so I cant compare it.. But im Sure it wasnt like this
I have this on my gsiii and also on the Gnote... I think is due to the pentile screen
I had this on my Fascinate but realized it wasn't a big issue. Definitely more noticeable on my Gnex but it also has more pixels so that could be why you see more light. I wouldn't call it a problem because the majority of the time it's absolutely unnoticeable. Each pixel has so have some sort of voltage to be ready to react to changes. Turning off/on completely each time light is needed might waste battery.
P.S. I'm noob at displays but that's my theory.
Zacisblack said:
I had this on my Fascinate but realized it wasn't a big issue. Definitely more noticeable on my Gnex but it also has more pixels so that could be why you see more light. I wouldn't call it a problem because the majority of the time it's absolutely unnoticeable. Each pixel has so have some sort of voltage to be ready to react to changes. Turning off/on completely each time light is needed might waste battery.
P.S. I'm noob at displays but that's my theory.
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I was curious about this issue as well. It's my understanding that OLEDs do not produce any light in their inactive state.
Regarding your theory, I wonder if it's similar to plasma displays. Even though plasmas are capable of true black (they do not use a backlight) The individual plasma cells have better response times if they aren't fully discharged on blacks. So they have a faint glow that comes from the low power they are using to keep the pixel charged up and ready to go when a color change is needed.
This actually costs a little power though, rather than saving it. So if thats what they are doing, it is for screen quality reasons so that movies and other things look better.
Did some Googling and I couldn't find much information, but there is talk of delivering pre-charge voltage to the OLED pixels to improve response times. So it could be that they are indeed similar to plasma displays in that respect: Capable of true black, but the benefits of not using true black are too good to pass up.
Are you SURE the picture is actually true black? By that i mean pure 100% black in an uncompressed image? If not then you cant expect the phone to display true black. A JPEG of black may not be enough.
My screen it totally off when displaying true black.
I can confirm the screen showing a faint glow on S3 with a true black screen.
Use Firefox with Fullscreen extension (Chrome and the default browser don't seem to have fullscreen mode yet) and go to http://d4f.pf-control.de/black.html
That's rendered on the phone so we can expect it to be the blackest black an app can produce, however in a (very) dark room you'll see a very faint glow coming from the screen and you'll be able to see the black spots (truely black) that people keep complaining about.
The theory about it being a precharge voltage does indeed sound plausible since LED's have a certain reaction time which unfortunately cannot be compensated by e.g. Overdrive as is used in LCD screens.
Note that the S3's "black" is still far better than any LCD.
No mine is still jet black, no light at all.
Go to a COMPLETELY dark room and make sure the screen is actually turned on when on the website (not timed out).
Then take a long-exposure photograph of your phone (still make sure the screen is turned ON!).
I don't have a long exposure camera, but the room is completely dark and my eyes have adjusted, there is no light.
All sgs3 ( as sgs2) screens emit a very week glow on a black pictures ( with the screen on )
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
It would seem to me that the 'ink spots' many have are not overly dark spots at all, they are what the screen should be. My screen emits no visible light when displaying a true black image, at least nothing my eyes can see, even at the edge of my vision field where light cell are most sensitive. My screen is on maximum brightness.
My screen has no patches, no streaks, no spots, no pink or excessively blue tint. I guess i have a screen thats as near to perfect as they get.
yes there is very faint glow indeed making the screen a bit greyish instead of pitch black
Excuse me if I am being naive but where is real life use would this ever be a negative impact?
jfenton57 said:
Excuse me if I am being naive but where is real life use would this ever be a negative impact?
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no negative impact, but still raises a question "why so?"
jfenton57 said:
Excuse me if I am being naive but where is real life use would this ever be a negative impact?
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I don't think anyone is trying to paint it as an issue that needs to be resolved. It's more of an odd technical mystery rather than a real problem. The blacks are still extremely deep on an AMOLED, just like with Plasma it puts LCD to shame in that department.
Hello, I own a i9100 and I have some burn-ins at the top of the screen that replicate some buttons of a browser or something, and some burn-ins at the bottom as well. I have read that leaving overnight an app that's constantly switching colours, with full brightness, could help a bit on that. I also read that leaving a blank screen (white image) on the same conditions (overnight, full brightness) would help as well. My question is, how true these both things are? I don't want to end with a bigger problem than the one I currently have. The burn-ins are most viewable at Blue, Red, and Black screen colors.(like if I put a background with one of those colors on it)
Never had any of these on my S2,but from my experience with the galaxy s plus,these tricks won't work.None will to be honest.It's permanent.This shows how immature amoled technology is.Learn to live with it or replace the screen if that bothers you much.
what a sign you got there...
Lucky you. Mine is not THAT noticeable if you're using it normally, but as soon as you open something with a plain color on it, the burn in shows itself on all its glory. So right now you can't tell if leaving the white image all the night or the thing switching colors will damage my screen more?
mwehehe
Well,back then when I tried every method you described above on my i9001,I didn't noticed any improvement nor any further damage.Even after running those for 10h+.So I assume it's safe.Can't say the same for the S2 though,have no problems with it.