Develop Bugs

Replacement HTC Desire has a washed out screen :(

The phone also feels tangibly heavier.
Think it may be a Super LCD screen rather than AMOLED (how can I check?). Overall, the screen just looks grey. I want my old AMOLED one back?!

Some things to try:
- look at the screen through a circular polarisation filter, eg. RealD glasses (no idea if this works with SLCD...)
- set brightness to maximum and display a black image in a dark room
- look really closely at the screen with a magnifier (or someone with good eyesight) to see if it's Pentile (I guess an LCD screen could be Pentile too...)
- weigh the phone on some good scales to see if it really is any heavier

I've weighed it - and it's just a bit higher than 135 grams. Even though it matches the spec listed on HTC's website, I still think my previous phone was lighter. Now to test the AMOLED screen. Hmm..

Schmeggma said:
Some things to try:
- set brightness to maximum and display a black image in a dark room
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the backlight is apparent then. when i switch the phone off, it goes completely black, otherwise it's a grey colour. does that mean it is not AMOLED?

It certainly sounds like that may be the case
Would you be able to post pictures? This is bad news for anyone wanting a replacement. AMOLED was a big selling point for me.

However,
Can you read it in daylight outdoors?

stats101 said:
the backlight is apparent then. when i switch the phone off, it goes completely black, otherwise it's a grey colour. does that mean it is not AMOLED?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it's LCD, can I have your Desire then? I hate the Pen-Tile pixel layout...

Seems the black wallpaper in the dark test isn't a valid avenue to test if it's AMOLED (see: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=725656).
Think it may be either me just imagining things - or a defective AMOLED screen.

I'm sending my Desire for repair as I have dust under my screen, I contacted HTC support worried if I may get an LCD screen and they asured me they are currently still using AMOLED displays only

tell me if my screen looks washed out to you. I'm sure my last desire, the colours were a lot more vivid.

Can't really tell if it looks washed out in a photo with nothing to compare it to, but it's definitely a Pentile matrix...

Yes, definitely Pentile. Damn.

Well to me it looks ok and very much the same as mine. I have never returned my Desire to be fixed.
My colors are very vibrant and i can see the screen on daylight (using auto-brightness).
I have noticed one thing on your photos though: your Internet icon is different from mine. Yours seems an older icon, really washed out, being gray and having the home icon. Mine looks more recent, it's a earth icon in blue (same blue as the mail or message icons) with some orbits rotating around the world...
Could this be it?

Necroman_AI said:
Well to me it looks ok and very much the same as mine. I have never returned my Desire to be fixed.
My colors are very vibrant and i can see the screen on daylight (using auto-brightness).
I have noticed one thing on your photos though: your Internet icon is different from mine. Yours seems an older icon, really washed out, being gray and having the home icon. Mine looks more recent, it's a earth icon in blue (same blue as the mail or message icons) with some orbits rotating around the world...
Could this be it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The internet icon i think is Orange's reworking (notice the orange door to the house).

I just wanted to mention, I 've had 5x different Desires and some have had a more vibrant screen to others.
Through the range of brightness from minimal to maximum I've definitely been able to see that some of the handsets are bright but seem to have very slightly less clarity, whilst others have a sharper image but loose some vividness.
I prefer the brighter / more colourful one I have now.

teffers said:
I just wanted to mention, I 've had 5x different Desires and some have had a more vibrant screen to others.
Through the range of brightness from minimal to maximum I've definitely been able to see that some of the handsets are bright but seem to have very slightly less clarity, whilst others have a sharper image but loose some vividness.
I prefer the brighter / more colourful one I have now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
5 Desires. I've been through 3 so far. The first two were very similar (although the second one for some reason just felt so much lighter). This one is washed out. Going to try and phone Orange and try and see if I can have another one sent. :/

Disadvantages of AMOLED screen

Hi all.
Last night I accidentally discovered the burnt pixels on my one year old Focus screen The sights of high contrasts Metro-style icons (such as IE, phone and marketplace) are visible on the white background as a darker "shadows" (actual color is like a light-light yellow, close to white). These "shadows" are visible on the white background in the dark only.
It's not a big deal but I'm kinda disappointed
So, my conclusions are:
- high contrasts Metro-style tiles on the home screen are evil, at least for AMOLED screens. However live tiles (probably) can solve the issue (he-he, just thought - may be it's a real reason why MS implemented and pushing live tiles? Kidding );
- periodical changing of tile location on the home screen also can help;
- using AMOLED handsets for development is not so good. The best practice is to keep AMOLED screens off all the time (what is not acceptable for development).

My Focus is one year old, but I don't have any burn in problems some reported. Granted, I don't leave my phone screen on for extended periods, but my live tile arrangement really never changed.
Now that I have the HTC Titan, I have no regrets with the SLCD screen. The colors seem more natural to me. While AMOLED screens certainly have a "pop" factor, it's not a must-have for me.

This is a well known issue that you have to live with: AMOLED will get screen burn-in if it is use for an extend period of time.
I know most of the Android Galaxy phones also have screen burn-in especially on the status bar.
My own Samsung Focus developed screen burn-in (esp. Metro buttons) after only three months of use.

day2die said:
This is a well known issue that you have to live with: AMOLED will get screen burn-in if it is use for an extend period of time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How about Super AMOLED screens, is problem still persists?

I notice things on my Omnia 7. Normally if i've had a menu open for a minute or more and i switch to a black background i can see a kind of greyish imprint of the last displayed icons.

sensboston said:
How about Super AMOLED screens, is problem still persists?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SAMOLED has it as well. I'm sure it was a big issue in the focus forums last year

The biggest disadvantage of an amoled screen is when you move to another type of screen, and notice just how gray blacks can be. Using my old focus and having the blacks blend with the bezel was so visually pleasing, and the colors had so much pop. I hear that the colors aren't as accurate, but what does that mean really? 90% of what I look at on a phone is arbitrary colors anyway; how would I ever know that the blue tiles are really supposed to be one shade vs. another, and why would I care?
(btw yes, I had the same screen burn-in problem on my focus)

Yeah i had a major burn in problem with my Omnia 7, I think it was something to do with the bright blue theme i used, i have pictures here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=973337

use a screen saver?
Oh ya.. nevermind

Wow... I had no idea of this...
I have a Galaxy S I9000 (as well as an LG Quantum) and luckily it hasn't burnt in...
Is this a really wide spread problem?

renatofontes said:
I have a Galaxy S I9000 (as well as an LG Quantum) and luckily it hasn't burnt in...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try to look at your screen in darkness (set white background on the fullscreen first), then say "luckily"

sensboston said:
How about Super AMOLED screens, is problem still persists?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem is particularly bad on Super AMOLED screens.
Super AMOLED is still AMOLED.
My Vibrant, if I turn my screen on to the home screen and let it sit there for 10 seconds and then open another app, I can see the shadows on the home screen superimposed onto the app that's running. It's very noticeable, and gets irksome after a while. You won't see that on LCD screens.
The status bar is burnt in, which is noticeable when the phone is used in landscape mode because you can always see that faint strip where the status bar is (in portrait) on the side of the screen.
I set my screen timeout to 30 seconds to "preserve" the screen.
---------- Post added at 05:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:30 PM ----------
renatofontes said:
Wow... I had no idea of this...
I have a Galaxy S I9000 (as well as an LG Quantum) and luckily it hasn't burnt in...
Is this a really wide spread problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All of Samsung's displays have this issue. Perhaps you just haven't noticed it, or are just fortunate
Not really widespread, and not really a "problem" per se. Just a component of the screen tech. It burns in and shadows easily.
However they have better power management than LCD screens and better brightness, viewing angles, and outdoor visibility - as well as better color saturation and reproduction. For example, I increase my Vibrant's stock battery life by like 4+ hours doing absolutely nothing but putting a true black background on the launcher...
It's a trade-off. It's worth it for someone like you who doesn't notice it, though. It's worth it even for some people who do. It really depends on how long you keep your phone, Lol. If you upgrade yearly it's not that big a deal. I can't see myself going 2 years with the Vibrant as my primary device and dealing with it, though. It's too startling to look at at times, especially after you spend a significant amount of time in one app with static UI elements and move to something else...

If you look at the AMOLED technology, it's understandable really. All the colours displayed on the screen are composed of green, red and blue sub-pixels.
In an AMOLED screen, there is no backlighting. The sub-pixels themselves generate the visible light, hence why the blacks are so black, because the black pixels are not powered on. (Think of an AMOLED screen as having thousands of tiny tiny LED's)
However the problem with AMOLED is the manufacturers could not produce a specific chemical compound for each colour that would wear evenly. For example, the blue sub pixel has a shorter lifespan than the green. When the AMOLED sub-pixels gets used, the intensity of light produced decreases, hence there is uneven wear. The pentile arrangement was to actually arrange the pixels in a way, which as the display wears, the colours look normal. When there are static pixels displayed, a certain portion of sub pixels gets used more than others, hence why you can notice it.
In an LCD, each sub-pixel is a polarizing filter, which filters out either red/blue/green and displays it or blocks it, so an LCD doesn't suffer from screen burn in as much as AMOLED and PLASMA displays.
From day one I have only ever used my phone on the lowest setting and I have alternated every few days from red/green tiles. I have never used blue due to the low lifespan of blues!!

I don't think it's a huge problem if you are smart. I made the mistake of leaving my screen on as often as possible when I first got my focus. Once I started noticing the burn in, I moved my tiles around, put my screen on 2 minute timeout, and didn't notice any more of the burn in. Just the original images.

As Big K mentions, blue pixels are the quickest to degrade, that is why you never use a blue theme with an AMOLED display. Also, displaying white actually activates some blue pixels and draws more power, so the black system theme should always be used over white.
Every AMOLED owner should know these 2 things and it is a shame that Samsung and the carriers don't do a better job of informing their customers of these simple facts.
I cringe every time I see an AMOLED phone with a white background and blue theme.

This is why I still stick to Super LCD.
I saw an S2 get a burn in within 2 months of use. Lawl.

ohgood said:
use a screen saver?
Oh ya.. nevermind
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The solution is ridiculously obvious: turn off your screen when you're done using the phone. Duh. That's obvious from a simple battery life perspective.
Of course, I see people *constantly* who just set their phones down with the screen on and walk away. Idiots.

jasongw said:
The solution is ridiculously obvious: turn off your screen when you're done using the phone. Duh. That's obvious from a simple battery life perspective.
Of course, I see people *constantly* who just set their phones down with the screen on and walk away. Idiots.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The solution is not ridiculously obvious because other screen types do not suffer from thsi issue, therefor the user who moves from an LCD screen to an AMOLED has absolutely no clue that this screen type has these deficiencies. They simply assume their screen will always look the way it does as long as they take care of their phone.
That is not a bad assumption. It just doesn't jive with this display tech.
I love the deep blacks and color saturation on Samsung's AMOLED screens, but I don't think I can ever convince myself to get another one.
The issue isn't just keeping the screen on. I've always used a 30 second screen time-out on all my phones, so they aren't just sitting there a ton with an image on them. Even when you have something on the screen for like 10 seconds and move to another app you can see the image shadows on the screen. Yes, it gets pretty noticeable after a while to the point where it's constantly drawing your attention.
It's actually worse than the PenTile they use in the 1st gen SAMOLED screens, TBH.

N8ter said:
The solution is not ridiculously obvious because other screen types do not suffer from thsi issue, therefor the user who moves from an LCD screen to an AMOLED has absolutely no clue that this screen type has these deficiencies. They simply assume their screen will always look the way it does as long as they take care of their phone.
That is not a bad assumption. It just doesn't jive with this display tech.
I love the deep blacks and color saturation on Samsung's AMOLED screens, but I don't think I can ever convince myself to get another one.
The issue isn't just keeping the screen on. I've always used a 30 second screen time-out on all my phones, so they aren't just sitting there a ton with an image on them. Even when you have something on the screen for like 10 seconds and move to another app you can see the image shadows on the screen. Yes, it gets pretty noticeable after a while to the point where it's constantly drawing your attention.
It's actually worse than the PenTile they use in the 1st gen SAMOLED screens, TBH.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1st gen? It's being used in the Galaxy Nexus, too

It's a really useful point to raise, and something to think about for people using their phones for development. Automatic screen time-outs can be an annoyance when you're testing features (against a real device), and wanting to stay connected (in visual studio) to the phone for debugging info and deployment. I know I have my current phone on most of the day to test tile and page updates etc. so there's bound to be large areas of the screen remaining static for long periods of time.
It's made me think twice about getting a Lumia (which I assume would be prone too) for this reason
I'm surprised manufactures don't include info on it bundled with the phones (e.g. on not having a white background) - that's pretty irresponsible.

Blacks are not completely black

Previous to my GN, I've had a Nexus One, Nexus S, and Galaxy S II (international version) and on all of the phones black levels were pitch black and no different to the screen being completely off. Despite still being an AMOLED display, it seems the GN's screen can't do pitch black.
As a test, go in a dark room and open the clock app. Long press anywhere on the screen and the clock will go into night mode where it will be a completely black screen with just the time showing. You'll notice that there is a still a bit of light emitting from the dark spots.
A little disappointing... I wonder if this could be fixed in software.

PrawnPoBoy said:
Previous to my GN, I've had a Nexus One, Nexus S, and Galaxy S II (international version) and on all of the phones black levels were pitch black and no different to the screen being completely off. Despite still being an AMOLED display, it seems the GN's screen can't do pitch black.
As a test, go in a dark room and open the clock app. Long press anywhere on the screen and the clock will go into night mode where it will be a completely black screen with just the time showing. You'll notice that there is a still a bit of light emitting from the dark spots.
A little disappointing... I wonder if this could be fixed in software.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It can do pure black but not everything is pure black. I just rebooted and say the Google boot image. Its solid black. I'm in a dark room now and can't tell a difference where the soft keys end and the case begins.
LTE Google Galaxy Nexus! - Stock
Asus Transformer - OC/UV

PrawnPoBoy said:
Previous to my GN, I've had a Nexus One, Nexus S, and Galaxy S II (international version) and on all of the phones black levels were pitch black and no different to the screen being completely off. Despite still being an AMOLED display, it seems the GN's screen can't do pitch black.
As a test, go in a dark room and open the clock app. Long press anywhere on the screen and the clock will go into night mode where it will be a completely black screen with just the time showing. You'll notice that there is a still a bit of light emitting from the dark spots.
A little disappointing... I wonder if this could be fixed in software.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually that's just the clock app, you can easily see that it's an extremely dimmed version of your wallpaper. My wallpaper is this http://cooldesktopbackgroundsx.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/34327523.png
and I can easily see the eye in the dark mode.

I don't see how your background could make a difference. Night mode is completely black. Just look at the screen shot.
I can also notice this when first booting up and see the Google logo. It was the same this on two other units that I looked at, so I don't think it's unique to my phone. To truly notice it you have to be in a pitch black room. I only noticed it because I was using my phone as a bed side clock.

No screen will give you true black that close... Maybe you need a plasma tv screen
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

tryceo said:
No screen will give you true black that close... Maybe you need a plasma tv screen
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The whole point of AMOLED is that each pixel is it's own light source which can be completely turned off. True black was possible on every AMOLED phone I've ever used prior to this one.

PrawnPoBoy said:
The whole point of AMOLED is that each pixel is it's own light source which can be completely turned off. True black was possible on every AMOLED phone I've ever used prior to this one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is exactly correct. Fortunately, at very low brightness, my GN does indeed display true black. I have an all black background and if I cover the time, I can't tell a difference between the phone off and on. Keep in mind that true black only occurs under extremely low brightness. Turning the brightness up introduces a bit of light polution.

PrawnPoBoy said:
The whole point of AMOLED is that each pixel is it's own light source which can be completely turned off. True black was possible on every AMOLED phone I've ever used prior to this one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, no... I've owned the Fascinate on Verizon and when in complete darkness you can see a little bit of light emitting from the screen. The Gnex just has more pixels so there's probably more light emitting. But the blacks don't seem to be any less black than my Fascinate. When you turn the screen on the pixels must be excited in order to know when they must turn on or off, this will still emit a miniscule amount light.

PrawnPoBoy said:
I don't see how your background could make a difference. Night mode is completely black. Just look at the screen shot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sorry but you're TERRIBLY mistaken and I wish this thread would get deleted before you confuse others! Night mode is simply DIMMED. It is NOT 100% black, but transparently darkened. There is a really easy way you can see this for yourself, simply turn on an animated live wall paper and go into night mode in the clock. You'll se the moving live wallpaper in the background in the "black" areas. That screen shot you took is showing the TRANSPARENCY where it's black. It is NOT actually black there!!!
The GNEX screen is JUST as black as any other SAMOLED Screen if not even more so! If you want to see 100% black - just boot into clockwork mod recovery! the entire background ther is 100% black and you'll see how inky black it looks! That said the status bar at the top of the screen is also black, and blends right in with the bezel.

PrawnPoBoy said:
The whole point of AMOLED is that each pixel is it's own light source which can be completely turned off. True black was possible on every AMOLED phone I've ever used prior to this one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
when i dim my clock app i can still easily see my background live wallpaper...

Let's leave race out of this. We're all created equal.
Sent from my iPad 2 using Tapatalk

jburnette87 said:
Let's leave race out of this. We're all created equal.
Sent from my iPad 2 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, uhm, white ain't completely white either. haha.

pukemon said:
well, uhm, white ain't completely white either. haha.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol
Sent from my iPad 2 using Tapatalk

Protonus said:
I'm sorry but you're TERRIBLY mistaken and I wish this thread would get deleted before you confuse others! Night mode is simply DIMMED. It is NOT 100% black, but transparently darkened. There is a really easy way you can see this for yourself, simply turn on an animated live wall paper and go into night mode in the clock. You'll se the moving live wallpaper in the background in the "black" areas. That screen shot you took is showing the TRANSPARENCY where it's black. It is NOT actually black there!!!
The GNEX screen is JUST as black as any other SAMOLED Screen if not even more so! If you want to see 100% black - just boot into clockwork mod recovery! the entire background ther is 100% black and you'll see how inky black it looks! That said the status bar at the top of the screen is also black, and blends right in with the bezel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What are you smoking? Download that screen shot and check thd color yourself. Its #000000, meaning BLACK. The only confusion is with people not knowing how to go into that mode in the clock. LONG PRESS, not just a simple tap.

Managed to finally find another thread talking about this. Theres even photographic evidence using a long exposure shot.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1371449
I guess the comment that there is always a minimum amount of power in even the black pixels could be accurate.

PrawnPoBoy said:
Managed to finally find another thread talking about this. Theres even photographic evidence using a long exposure shot.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1371449
I guess the comment that there is always a minimum amount of power in even the black pixels could be accurate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. From what I have read (OLED information, a few book selections, and an interesting patent) sAMOLED displays include what is called "pixel pre-charging".
This is due to the fact that it is far easier to precisely control the pixel, which corresponds to a "drive voltage", when the starting point is a pre-charge. Its faster and more accurate. However the pre-charge causes light to be emitted. There is no avoiding that. As much as people say "my nexus s/galaxy s/galaxy s 2 have pure black", there is NO SUCH THING even on a sAMOLED display. Contrast ratio for the Galaxy Nexus is 100,000:1 rather than infinite.

Hi, just wanted to put this topic to rest.
Was somewhat disappointed in the screen performance of the Galaxy Nexus, coming from an Galaxy S2. However I reckon it is an issue that can be fixed with drivers.
The blacks on the Galaxy Nexus are far from as good as the SAMOLED+ panel on the SGS2.
Here are some pictures of them side by side with the clock app set to night modus.
Not a deal breaker for me, but I hope this is improved in future updates.
PS: Sorry for the big-ass pictures..

my screen is blacker than the bezel..
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

Godo_PPL said:
Here are some pictures of them side by side with the clock app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What is your wallpaper, cause I think I can see it in the second to last photo. Like stated above, the clock is only a semi transparency over the wallpaper. Run a screen checker and take pictures of that black, that would be a better test and example
Edit: in all likely hood its just a calibration issue. Franco's kernel improved whites and colors significantly over stock. Personally, I can see that its not 100% black at the moment, but it is 99.999% black. And 100x better than backlit
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus Bugless Beast 4.0.3 lte +franco#5

The technology switches off the pixel so there is no blacker than that if you are not getting pure black then something is wrong most probably the wallpaper is not really black.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

Tab S 8.4 Screen homogeneity issues

The reasons why I purchased a Tab S 8.4 were its awesome screen quality and high grade processor. For the later, the poor touchwiz optimization and the average gpu led to disappointing results. But well, the screen IS awesome !
Or is it ?
At first, I was truly impressed. But after some web browsing and reading e-books, something felt wrong with the colors homogeneity. On white backgrounds, the right part of the screen in portrait mode would tend towards a yellowish tone, while the left part would tend toward purple tones. Nothing obvious, but quite annoying when noticed.
After trying around with different backgrounds, it become more obvious with certain colors. The one used in settings background for example: The left side of the screen is deep blue, the right part is much lighter.. and greener.
Further investigating the issue, I figured it is most obvious when watched in the darkness and using dark colors: RBG such as R:0, G:10 , B: 20 or even R:20, G:10, B:0
Did anyone else notice similar issues ? Would you guys mind trying to create a R:0, G:10, B:20 (#000A14) background and check the result on your tab S in a low light environment ? On mine, it results in an obvious gradation from dark blue to green.

Attaching some pictures. The rendering is not the best especially in the darkness, but the issue remains clearly visible.

There is something very wrong with your screen. Return it.

suzook said:
There is something very wrong with your screen. Return it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I second that, that is not normal

I concur with the others, get it replaced.
AMOLED screens can fail for any number of reasons (pixel death is the main one) , if yours is showing problems get it replaced now rather than live with it and have a more serious problem later.

We've seen this yellow color issue reported by a few others. Looks like Samsung let a few diseased horses out of the barn. I concur with the others. Return it.

Thanks for your feedback, guys.
I'd like to highlight the fact this issue goes completely unnoticed in most scenarios. A friend I showed it on white background didn't notice it at all, in movies/games/pictures I don't see it at all. I only felt it while reading, and even then it was not obvious, just a persistant feeling that led me to further testing.
Only the extremely dark colors seem to be affected, and even then it's only noticeable in the darkness. I will go back to the store tomorow and exchange it for a new one, but I'm wondering if the issue isn't widespread and simply went under the radar as its effect is hardly noticeable in 99.9% of the situations.
Did anyone else check at an homogenous R:0, G:10, B:20 image in the darkness with their tab ?
I personnally used Moon+ Reader's background color settings for testing purpose, pretty easy to set up.

New Tab S, same issue
I changed my Tab S 8.4 today for a brand new one. Same test, same issue: the background is still not homogeneous. The issue is visible in the darkness on dark colors such as the one used for the settings menu, which seems naturally gradated from deep to lighter blue on my screen.
Could someone else test and reproduce the issue on their tab ?

I have tried to reproduce what you're seeing on my 10.5 and honestly I can't. I'm not going to say the white is always 100% pure white but it's close enough. At the same time I'm trying to avoid looking for something that's not there for my Tab.

ukael said:
I changed my Tab S 8.4 today for a brand new one. Same test, same issue: the background is still not homogeneous. The issue is visible in the darkness on dark colors such as the one used for the settings menu, which seems naturally gradated from deep to lighter blue on my screen.
Could someone else test and reproduce the issue on their tab ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe you can go into Settings / Accessibility / Vision / Color Adjustments and see if your calibration is off. There is a test there where you arrange tiles by color gradation and it adjusts your screen. I am having none of the issues you mentioned, but my 10.5 Tab also passed that test with no color adjustments required. Give it a try.

mitchellvii said:
Maybe you can go into Settings / Accessibility / Vision / Color Adjustments and see if your calibration is off. There is a test there where you arrange tiles by color gradation and it adjusts your screen. I am having none of the issues you mentioned, but my 10.5 Tab also passed that test with no color adjustments required. Give it a try.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Test completed successfully. The calibration is fine, and the issue is not noticeable during the test. The issue is actually not noticeable in most usages, I only see it on homogenous very dark color backgrounds (the 10% darkest colors), and while in a dark environment myself. In most common usages, the screen looks fantastic and flawless.
Unfortunately, I often use my toys in my bed in the darkness. AND I am concerned about a possible defect that would get worse over time.
That said, tests on similar colored backgrounds on other AMOLED screens (PS Vita, Galaxy SII) lead me to think this could be a global issue with AMOLED.

Unfortunately, I often use my toys in my bed in the darkness.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol, to those of us with a perverse sense of humor we would refer to that as a hanging curveball.
Whatever issues you are experiencing I would take that over LCD light bleed any day.

ukael said:
Test completed successfully. The calibration is fine, and the issue is not noticeable during the test. The issue is actually not noticeable in most usages, I only see it on homogenous very dark color backgrounds (the 10% darkest colors), and while in a dark environment myself. In most common usages, the screen looks fantastic and flawless.
Unfortunately, I often use my toys in my bed in the darkness. AND I am concerned about a possible defect that would get worse over time.
That said, tests on similar colored backgrounds on other AMOLED screens (PS Vita, Galaxy SII) lead me to think this could be a global issue with AMOLED.
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Dear Friend. Like you I am very sensible in that point. I have a lot behind me and I can tell you, that homogeneity is something we can not expect from all types of modern displays, except the pro ones with a special function that takes care about this issue. Any screen has such issues, the question is just what type of and the intensity differs. The lower the light in our environment the more sensible our eyes get. The longer we stare into the screen the better we see all color details. Worst case scenario is a totally darkened room. Your eyes won´t get more sensible than in such a situation. Especially AMOLED displays will show the strangest kind of irregularities you would never see normally. I remember the Tab 7.7 -- in a dark room the screen was over and over covered with black circles. Wow ! The Vita shows strange textures instead. It is horrible.
My advice to you would be to start trying to avoid using your tablet or any display in a dark room. Turn a light on, it will be nice for your brain and eyes and you will not see the described things. It´s just a matter of habit, nothing else. You will get used to it and probably feel very well with it. Anyway there will still be the green haze.... Not to talk about the yellowish etc. stuff.
I returned the Tab S for a MiPad and it´s much better, really nice homogeneity (compared to other actual devices).
I had 4-5 iPad Mini Retina and all of them have horrible yellowish/blueish tint.
I had 4 iPad Airs, 3 were horrible in a similar way, now the 4th one is okay, I finally had luck.
I had 2 Galaxy 12.2 - the first one yellowish in a quarter, the second has just a slight, short yellow stripe on the bottom border.
I had a Kindle Fire HD + HDX - both with bad, ugly green spots at borders and corners. Also partially yellowish.
Once I held a Galaxy Tab 3 in my hands that was actually flawless. I was shocked. It never happened again. Was from a classmate.
Today I guess it was a mistake since I could not test in in a home-at-night-environment.
I checked dozens of Tablets in big stores here - guess what I found ???
Look at the iMacs .... Horrible yellowish tint. Horrible. It´s a shame.

I use my Tab S 10.5 in a dark room with some regularity. I've never experienced any of these odd artifacts you guys are discussing. My black screen is just black. Colors look right. White is white. I think its a fallacy to claim that all amoled screens face these issues. The amoled screen on the Tab S is the best most advanced amoled screen ever created. Problems from older devices shouldn't apply here.
Please remember based upon other user input, Samsung did seem to have a run of defective screens on these tabs they put out.
Here's a quick video test taken in a pretty dark room (it's daytime here). As you can see the screen is just black. There is absolutely no reason to avoid viewing your Tab S in a dark room. If you are not seeing the solid black I have demonstrated in this video I suggest exchanging your possibly defective unit.

ukael said:
Did anyone else check at an homogenous R:0, G:10, B:20 image in the darkness with their tab ?
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In my experience 100% of AMOLED displays exhibit this behaviour, i.e. both Tab S 8.4 I've had! The first one (exchanged because of unhappy whites) had it so obviously that it looked like a diagonal gradient fade to one corner. The second tablet shows it as a slightly patchy screen, see attached photo which looks worse than the reality.
This is only visible in a completely dark room with the display set to its darkest (or close to), displaying a very dark image (my photo is of the spec. you mentioned - hence blue/green colour). To show this I needed to use an exposure of about 1 second, if you use less the image will appear black, likewise (probably) if you try to capture it as a video using normal ISO values in camera, the camera won't pick up the background.

Armpowered said:
In my experience 100% of AMOLED displays exhibit this behaviour, i.e. both Tab S 8.4 I've had! The first one (exchanged because of unhappy whites) had it so obviously that it looked like a diagonal gradient fade to one corner. The second tablet shows it as a slightly patchy screen, see attached photo which looks worse than the reality.
This is only visible in a completely dark room with the display set to its darkest (or close to), displaying a very dark image (my photo is of the spec. you mentioned - hence blue/green colour). To show this I needed to use an exposure of about 1 second, if you use less the image will appear black, likewise (probably) if you try to capture it as a video using normal ISO values in camera, the camera won't pick up the background.
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All I can say is that is seriously messed up. My screen looks nothing like that and just as pitch black as in my video. Considering black pixels in amoled screens are basically turned off, they should be utterly and completely black and devoid of light. Am I misunderstanding and your picture is of a blue background?
All other dark colors should be solid without strange light effects as well.

mitchellvii said:
All I can say is that is seriously messed up. My screen looks nothing like that and just as pitch black as in my video. Considering black pixels in amoled screens are basically turned off, they should be utterly and completely black and devoid of light. Am I misunderstanding and your picture is of a blue background?.
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It's daytime for me at the moment but yes from memory, if you display an actual black image then it will appear as black, you see this effect when trying to display an image that is almost black, at very low levels of light output the (my!) panel isn't even.
The attached image is R0 G10 B20 and on my PC looks black - it isn't I just used "ColorPic" to check the screen colour and it shows those values.
It's not a big issue but does appear when using in fully dark room with brightness turned down, I notice it in some apps that have very dark background colours (which you'd assume were black and see as such in daylight, but aren't).
Obviously under these circumstances an LCD would appear as a (relatively) bright grey !

Armpowered said:
It's daytime for me at the moment but yes from memory, if you display an actual black image then it will appear as black, you see this effect when trying to display an image that is almost black, at very low levels of light output the (my!) panel isn't even.
The attached image is R0 G10 B20 and on my PC looks black - it isn't I just used "ColorPic" to check the screen colour and it shows those values.
It's not a big issue but does appear when using in fully dark room with brightness turned down, I notice it in some apps that have very dark background colours (which you'd assume were black and see as such in daylight, but aren't).
Obviously under these circumstances an LCD would appear as a (relatively) bright grey !
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OK I'm a bit confused. The image you attached looks either black or very very dark gray on my screen. No color variation at all. Oh well

mitchellvii said:
OK I'm a bit confused. The image you attached looks either black or very very dark gray on my screen. No color variation at all. Oh well
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Same on my tab in daylight, it only appears patchy when in a very dark room with brightness turned right down. Maybe amongst the variations some will be perfect?

Armpowered said:
Same on my tab in daylight, it only appears patchy when in a very dark room with brightness turned right down. Maybe amongst the variations some will be perfect?
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Still beats LCD light bleed

inverted burn in?

So I just bought a cheap used tab S 10.5, and though it is in otherwise perfect condition it seems that it was some sort of display model at some point, because against a blue or white background there is some visible burn in of some text that is obviously from a samsung promo video.
Thing is, the "burned in" part is actually brighter than the rest of the screen, not darker, and the video that i believe was playing on this screen for a long time has black text over a white background. Here's a pic of what seems to be the same video that was running on mine: i.imgur.com/drGA93d.png
So the conclusion i've come to is that the whole screen is worn in except for where that text was shown. Is it a good solution to just leave the screen on with a fully white screen and high brightness to try to wear down those bright pixels to the same level as the rest of the screen? would it be better to maybe do that with only that specific section of the screen lit up instead?

Here is an link to the Same image that burned you tablet, you might be invert it so the black becomes white and you can avarge the burn across your whole tablet screen.
Also i inverted the image for you, make sure the image lines up perfectly with the burn-in on you screen then stop the screen from turning off, and run the brightness at max or whatever you are same with, I accept no responsibility for any damage that happens.
http://www.sammobile.com/2014/06/06/here-are-a-few-samsung-galaxy-tab-s-images-and-features/
John.

I don't think that's going to work. The display is amoled not LCD. The dark parts will simply be in an off state, so will have no effect.
Only the active pixels in the middle are going to be on, which may further increase the burn in effect.

^thats the main idea, if you read the post again, it was a black text over a white background. I.verting the color and burning in the white text over a black background may help lessen the degration between the burned in parts

ThE_SoUrCe said:
^thats the main idea, if you read the post again, it was a black text over a white background. I.verting the color and burning in the white text over a black background may help lessen the degration between the burned in parts
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Although this may not be exactly what you're looking for it may help in fine tuning your screen colors to lessen the burn-in effect. It is a new SAMOLED color control but needs root which is possible without tripping KNOX (keep waranty). The devs are looking for beta testers.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=61807935
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