BOE screen issues - Huawei Mate 20 Pro Questions & Answers

I sent back an Mate 20 Pro because (with LG screen) I had intermittent data disconnection issues. I had no gluegate screen issues, the screen was fine. The replacement device has a BOE screen. In comparison to the LG screen, after a few days here are my observations:
- The screen has a greenish tint (not gluegate) when viewed from the side. View the screen at about 45 degree angle (left, right, top, bottom etc.) and the color changes.
- Brightness: the BOE screen I have seems less bright than the LG one.
- The screen also seems less sharp than the previous LG, I would describe it as a bit "grainy" or "noisy", not the pin sharp display you would expect at this resolution
- Low brightness: when the brightness slider is low (10% brightness or less), the grey text breaks up on a black background when scrolling. Here is how to reproduce the issue.
1. Go to Settings and select the BLACK background mode. All text is white or grey and the background is black.
2. Set the brightness slider to minimum
3. Select a submenu in settings (e.g. Battery) then go to a dark room (with brightness at minimum)
4. Scroll slowly up and down the screen in the Battery (or some other) settings menu
5. On my screen the light (white and grey) text breaks up into green/magenta components. When the scrolling stops the text is white again. It's like the screen can not keep up with the scrolling, can not refresh the pixels fast enough so the white text breaks up into various colours.
Anyone has experienced this issue on either an LG or BOE screen? Any feedback is welcome.
I am not pixel peeking. I noticed this behaviour while adjusting some of my settings on the new phone. I did not see this at the LG screen. Because my old phone has been taken back by the courier I can't do any parallel comparisons.
This screen is a BOE screen, serial number 18B08. on the latest 122 software version. Based on my subjective observation the LG screen was brighter and did not notice these low light issues (however I was not looking for it in all fairness). Update: now on 146 software update.
Any feedback is appreciated.
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Update (9 Dec 2018)
I went to a local store and took some comparison pictures / videos between store units and my BOE screen Mate 20 Pro. See them below. All videos taken at MAXIMUM screen brightness on white background to compare the quality (max brightness and colour shift) of both screens.
Here are links to 2 Youtube sample videos:
https://youtu.be/t_BSsJi0f1o - My unit vs a O2 store demo unit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUPe-z5ArfI - My unit vs a Three store demo unit (verified with LG screen)
Some images also attached.

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The green 99% of people report on LG displays is in completely unnatural conditions that would never occur in real life use. They use a grey background, turn the brightness down to 1 and see a tinted glow coming out of the curved part of the OLED display that isn't even part of the actual display area.
The fact that the BOE display is not as bright and smooth as the LG display has been reported by many owners and is also likely the reason there is less light bleed coming out of the curved edges when people use the same unnatural conditions--the BOE screen is natively less bright and powerful at every light level including 1. If you research exactly how AMOLED displays generate color you will understand what I am referring to.
Even though the LG display actually seems to be far superior to the BOE display in normal everyday use with better colors, contrast and pixel response Huawei will probably be using the inferior BOE displays going forward because of the hysteria of some users that believed the LG display was defective.
As far as I know the curved OLED display was used on the iPhone X but not on any Android phone before the Mate 20 Pro so doing the same unnatural display test with the curved Amoled on the Mate 20 Pro and the non-curved Amoled of any other Android phone is obviously not going to yield the same results. The light bleed only manifests where the curve in the Amoled is.
Huawei said this was normal but some people loudly insisted that it wasn't so now going forward everybody is going to get the markedly inferior BOE display.
AMOLED displays do degrade over time so it would be interesting to compare how the LG and BOE displays each hold up but since people are only interested in the newest phones that comparison probably won't happen.

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Wow dude, you don't know what you are talking about...
The green is totally defective and can be seen in many normal conditions!
The fact that it's emphasized by grey screen doesn't mean it cannot be seen.
I now have a BOE screen and cannot be happier, colors look excellent compared with my Galaxy S9+
LG green screen was crap. And I'm not biased towards LG, I have a very nice OLED 4K tv at home.

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jhs39 said:
The green 99% of people report on LG displays is in completely unnatural conditions that would never occur in real life use. They use a grey background, turn the brightness down to 1 and see a tinted glow coming out of the curved part of the OLED display that isn't even part of the actual display area.
The fact that the BOE display is not as bright and smooth as the LG display has been reported by many owners and is also likely the reason there is less light bleed coming out of the curved edges when people use the same unnatural conditions--the BOE screen is natively less bright and powerful at every light level including 1. If you research exactly how AMOLED displays generate color you will understand what I am referring to.
Even though the LG display actually seems to be far superior to the BOE display in normal everyday use with better colors, contrast and pixel response Huawei will probably be using the inferior BOE displays going forward because of the hysteria of some users that believed the LG display was defective.
As far as I know the curved OLED display was used on the iPhone X but not on any Android phone before the Mate 20 Pro so doing the same unnatural display test with the curved Amoled on the Mate 20 Pro and the non-curved Amoled of any other Android phone is obviously not going to yield the same results. The light bleed only manifests where the curve in the Amoled is.
Huawei said this was normal but some people loudly insisted that it wasn't so now going forward everybody is going to get the markedly inferior BOE display.
AMOLED displays do degrade over time so it would be interesting to compare how the LG and BOE displays each hold up but since people are only interested in the newest phones that comparison probably won't happen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello,
Thank you for the elaborate answer.
I don't have a problem with the unevenness of light or bleeding but lower brightness and grainier screen are not OK in my opinion. When I first opened up the first unit with the LG screen, it struck me how better it was than my SONY Xperia XZ Premium's screen, both in terms of perceived sharpness and luminosity. As a first impression.
The BOE screen however, shows much grayer and overall of inferior quality in comparison to the Sony. Might have an inferior screen on this Mate 20 Pro, I don't know, that's why I was asking for feedback.
For this price and being a flagship device having only an "acceptable" quality screen is not acceptable. Having so many posts online and cases of green screens it's a good possibility that there is something ongoing with these screens.

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jhs39 said:
The green 99% of people report on LG displays is in completely unnatural conditions that would never occur in real life use. They use a grey background, turn the brightness down to 1 and see a tinted glow coming out of the curved part of the OLED display that isn't even part of the actual display area.
The fact that the BOE display is not as bright and smooth as the LG display has been reported by many owners and is also likely the reason there is less light bleed coming out of the curved edges when people use the same unnatural conditions--the BOE screen is natively less bright and powerful at every light level including 1. If you research exactly how AMOLED displays generate color you will understand what I am referring to.
Even though the LG display actually seems to be far superior to the BOE display in normal everyday use with better colors, contrast and pixel response Huawei will probably be using the inferior BOE displays going forward because of the hysteria of some users that believed the LG display was defective.
As far as I know the curved OLED display was used on the iPhone X but not on any Android phone before the Mate 20 Pro so doing the same unnatural display test with the curved Amoled on the Mate 20 Pro and the non-curved Amoled of any other Android phone is obviously not going to yield the same results. The light bleed only manifests where the curve in the Amoled is.
Huawei said this was normal but some people loudly insisted that it wasn't so now going forward everybody is going to get the markedly inferior BOE display.
AMOLED displays do degrade over time so it would be interesting to compare how the LG and BOE displays each hold up but since people are only interested in the newest phones that comparison probably won't happen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funny, I was sitting in a dark room with the screen set to grey and on the lowest setting and I was thinking, what the **** am I doing??? When would actually be doing this?? Probably never. I think some people are looking so hard for something that they are starting to see things.
I'm not doubting the there probably are some faulty screens out there, I had one right at the start too. But I've had an LG screen for a while now and it kinda looks green round the edges in that unnatural way of grey screen and low light. But I find it 10 time better than the grey washed out screen of the BOE. I had to turn the BOE screen brightness right up if I wanted to read in bed and the auto brightness was unresponsive.
Normal everyday use of the LG screen is 10 time better and the colours are just more vivid. I think I'm going to stick with LG

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I found myself on Spotify with a really distracting green uneven smear all over my screen.... That wasn't a unnatural situation.

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jhs39 said:
The green 99% of people report on LG displays is in completely unnatural conditions that would never occur in real life use. They use a grey background, turn the brightness down to 1 and see a tinted glow coming out of the curved part of the OLED display that isn't even part of the actual display area.
The fact that the BOE display is not as bright and smooth as the LG display has been reported by many owners and is also likely the reason there is less light bleed coming out of the curved edges when people use the same unnatural conditions--the BOE screen is natively less bright and powerful at every light level including 1. If you research exactly how AMOLED displays generate color you will understand what I am referring to.
Even though the LG display actually seems to be far superior to the BOE display in normal everyday use with better colors, contrast and pixel response Huawei will probably be using the inferior BOE displays going forward because of the hysteria of some users that believed the LG display was defective.
As far as I know the curved OLED display was used on the iPhone X but not on any Android phone before the Mate 20 Pro so doing the same unnatural display test with the curved Amoled on the Mate 20 Pro and the non-curved Amoled of any other Android phone is obviously not going to yield the same results. The light bleed only manifests where the curve in the Amoled is.
Huawei said this was normal but some people loudly insisted that it wasn't so now going forward everybody is going to get the markedly inferior BOE display.
AMOLED displays do degrade over time so it would be interesting to compare how the LG and BOE displays each hold up but since people are only interested in the newest phones that comparison probably won't happen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
biggest pile of rubbish ive ever read in the nicest way possible. to dismiss other peoples experiences just because you havent seen it is rubbish. my friend used my phone in the car at night ( i was using it for sat nav, is that normal enough?) they went on the spotify app to change the song then asked me why is the bottom half of my screen green. if thats not an unusual use case then no one can use their phones at night?
---------- Post added at 02:14 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:09 AM ----------
beta199 said:
I sent back an Mate 20 Pro because (with LG screen) I had intermittent data disconnection issues. I had no gluegate screen issues, the screen was fine. The replacement device has a BOE screen. In comparison to the LG screen, after a day here are my observations:
- The screen has a greenish tint (not gluegate) when viewed from the side. View the screen at about 45 degree angle (left, right, top, bottom etc.) and the color changes.
- Brightness: the BOE screen I have seems less bright than the LG one.
- The screen also seems less sharp than the previous LG, I would describe it as a bit "grainy" or "noisy", not the pin sharp display you would expect at this resolution
- Low brightness: when the brightness slider is low (10% brightness or less), the grey text breaks up on a black background when scrolling. Here is how to reproduce the issue.
1. Go to Settings and select the BLACK background mode. All text is white or grey and the background is black.
2. Set the brightness slider to minimum
3. Select a submenu in settings (e.g. Battery) then go to a dark room (with brightness at minimum)
4. Scroll slowly up and down the screen in the Battery (or some other) settings menu
5. On my screen the light (white and grey) text breaks up into green/magenta components. When the scrolling stops the text is white again. It's like the screen can not keep up with the scrolling, can not refresh the pixels fast enough so the white text breaks up into various colours.
Anyone has experienced this issue on either an LG or BOE screen? Any feedback is welcome.
I am not pixel peeking. I noticed this behaviour while adjusting some of my settings on the new phone. I did not see this at the LG screen. Because my old phone has been taken back by the courier I can't do any parallel comparisons.
This screen is a BOE screen, serial number 18B08. on the latest 122 software version. Based on my subjective observation the LG screen was brighter and did not notice these low light issues (however I was not looking for it in all fairness).
Any feedback is appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
inn regards to this. the BOE screen seems to be less vivid if you had the LG phone before. however i had my S8 on standard or SRGB mode. (maybe it was called basic i cant remember) and to me the colours look fine. i cant say it looks less 'smooth' not sure what that means either and i think you hit the nail on the head. when you start to pixel peep youll see many flaws. even if they arent really there. if you look at the LG display as hard as you have looked at teh BOE, maybe you would have found something else. I know the whole display thing is annoying for the price but i took into account selling my s8 and selling the WAtch GT (which i am using at starting to like) into the price

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I think low brightness usage of a screen is a valid scenario which should work properly without green issues. I am occasionally reading ebooks in the dark, at minimum or close to minimum brightness. I had a number of smart phones and they all worked fine with a pretty uniform screen. I am not looking for perfection, but low light performance is a valid usage scenario where smartphone screen have to deliver - especially top tier, expensive flagship models.

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I have the LG screen and apart from the greenish tint on the curved sides when viewed in a dark room with grey background (low brightness), I really have no issues during the day when there is normal lighting. I've read several forums with other phone manufactures where this complaint seems to be common, clearly Huawei could have done better QC. For me at least this nuisance isn't enough to return the phone.

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Hi The LG is very bad, did you see the anandtech review of the Mate 20 Pro
https://www.anandtech.com/show/13503/the-mate-20-mate-20-pro-review/7

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enrique71 said:
I have the LG screen and apart from the greenish tint on the curved sides when viewed in a dark room with grey background (low brightness), I really have no issues during the day when there is normal lighting. I've read several forums with other phone manufactures where this complaint seems to be common, clearly Huawei could have done better QC. For me at least this nuisance isn't enough to return the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That makes sense. For me the overall brightness and sharpness is important as I am doing a lot of work outside surveying buildings. This is what I am apparently seeing in my BOE screen, the screen seems to be greyer and less bright than the LG one. But again, it might be an issue with my screen only - that's why I am looking for others' feedback.

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uso said:
Hi The LG is very bad, did you see the anandtech review of the Mate 20 Pro
https://www.anandtech.com/show/13503/the-mate-20-mate-20-pro-review/7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for sharing this review - it's so comprehensive and technical, without being too technical (if that makes sense).

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On my 3rd phone with this being first BOE screen.
1st LG screen was utter crap, by the 2nd week at 50% brightness you could see the green around the edges on youtube videos etc... ( I would count that as most peoples use of a phone?)
2nd was much better but was still noticeable while using dark theme and dark backgrounds, which I do a lot. Main issue was I didn't want to wait for it to get worse like the first one.
3rd BOE - Much better screen. It is slightly less vivid but still plenty nice enough for me. Sharpness I have it set to FHD all the time and haven't noticed any issues at all. Only thing I did notice is there is a slight green tint viewed at certain angle, but pretty extreme angle which is unrealistic so doesn't bother me.

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I don't think this is an issue that's specific to LG or BOE screens because I had this on my 2nd LG device. I thought it was because I was using YouTube vanced but obviously not. These screens are garbage.

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I think OLED screens all have the problem to a certain degree. Just some are worse than others.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8146389

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whoops1234 said:
Funny, I was sitting in a dark room with the screen set to grey and on the lowest setting and I was thinking, what the **** am I doing??? When would actually be doing this?? Probably never. I think some people are looking so hard for something that they are starting to see things.
I'm not doubting the there probably are some faulty screens out there, I had one right at the start too. But I've had an LG screen for a while now and it kinda looks green round the edges in that unnatural way of grey screen and low light. But I find it 10 time better than the grey washed out screen of the BOE. I had to turn the BOE screen brightness right up if I wanted to read in bed and the auto brightness was unresponsive.
Normal everyday use of the LG screen is 10 time better and the colours are just more vivid. I think I'm going to stick with LG
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry but you are dead wrong. This does not remain this way. The LG panel shows the green after a few days even on 50% brightness.
The BOE screen is exactly as bright, clear and sharp as the LG and I know this because I had them side by side.
Don't spread nonsense. LG screen TEN TIMES BETTER? Shame on you.
For your information, Huawei admitted to EE on the phone that all the LG panels were in an early batch, and faulty. Good luck getting help when your LG panel goes bad, and it will.

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Jonathan-H said:
Sorry but you are dead wrong. This does not remain this way. The LG panel shows the green after a few days even on 50% brightness.
The BOE screen is exactly as bright, clear and sharp as the LG and I know this because I had them side by side.
Don't spread nonsense. LG screen TEN TIMES BETTER? Shame on you.
For your information, Huawei admitted to EE on the phone that all the LG panels were in an early batch, and faulty. Good luck getting help when your LG panel goes bad, and it will.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No need to take that tone. We're all adults here so please don't act like we're back at school. So shame on you!!
It was just my opinion. I have both of them next to each other and there is a difference, I even posted pictures on another thread showing the difference in colour. I'm also not the only person to notice. Plus I've had my LG screen for 3 weeks now and it hasn't got any worse.
I mean jeez all these people getting het up, when it comes down to it, its just a phone.

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I have a BOE screen as a replacement for my (slightly) faulty LG screen.
I've had other LG & Samsung OLED (both P-OLED and AM-OLED) screens on phones as well as many LCD screens.
I can honestly say that the BOE screen I now have is at least as bright as *ANY* other OLED screen I've had and pretty much as bright as the SuperBright LCD on my LG G7 Thinq.
The resolution of the BOE screen is also pretty bloody good; certainly no worse than it was on my LG screen'd original Mate 20 Pro.
I don't see any light bleed; only the "usual" colour shift evident on pretty much any OLED screen when viewed at an angle; and for me this phone hardware-wise is now pretty much perfect.

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jhs39 said:
The green 99% of people report on LG displays is in completely unnatural conditions that would never occur in real life use. They use a grey background, turn the brightness down to 1 and see a tinted glow coming out of the curved part of the OLED display that isn't even part of the actual display area.
The fact that the BOE display is not as bright and smooth as the LG display has been reported by many owners and is also likely the reason there is less light bleed coming out of the curved edges when people use the same unnatural conditions--the BOE screen is natively less bright and powerful at every light level including 1. If you research exactly how AMOLED displays generate color you will understand what I am referring to.
Even though the LG display actually seems to be far superior to the BOE display in normal everyday use with better colors, contrast and pixel response Huawei will probably be using the inferior BOE displays going forward because of the hysteria of some users that believed the LG display was defective.
As far as I know the curved OLED display was used on the iPhone X but not on any Android phone before the Mate 20 Pro so doing the same unnatural display test with the curved Amoled on the Mate 20 Pro and the non-curved Amoled of any other Android phone is obviously not going to yield the same results. The light bleed only manifests where the curve in the Amoled is.
Huawei said this was normal but some people loudly insisted that it wasn't so now going forward everybody is going to get the markedly inferior BOE display.
AMOLED displays do degrade over time so it would be interesting to compare how the LG and BOE displays each hold up but since people are only interested in the newest phones that comparison probably won't happen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sorry but you made so many mistakes in your assertion. First the LG Display is by no means superior. The BOE display uses the new Synaptics driver that is light years ahead of the Unkown LG driver. I have meanwhile in my family the possibility to test the LG Display directly with my BOE display. The only thing I mentioned was that the colors were a little more vibrant on the LG. After adjusting some parameters my BOE display looked almost identical to the LG. But without the green tint. And your claim the green tint is not that visible under normal circumstances is totally rubbish. On my first mate 20 pro the green was visible under all circumstances. Not from the start, the issue progressed. I must admit Huawei handled my issue very good. I got from the start a very good BOE panel. And believe me if the green tint was anything normal, Huawei would never have exchanged the devices that easy.

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My BOE Screen is great, clear, sharp nice and bright. Except for when the Power Genius app kicks in for Gmail, Chrome and Facebook.