Replacement HTC Desire has a washed out screen :( - Desire General

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. :/

Related

[Q] LCD Bakclight Glow

Hi
I've bought yesterday my Desire and I've noticed that in the upper middle screen part there is a small yellowish backlight glow only seen on black background. Can You tell me if there should be one or I should take it back to the shop ? This is probably the new SLCD version. I don't know is this a flaw or all of the sceens have some little glow on the black.
Thanks in advance
yellowish backlight?
is it in a dot size?
have you try different background color (red, green, blue)?
yellowish backlight?
is it in a dot size?
have you try different background color (red, green, blue)?
It is some kind of LCD bleeding. It looks similar to the picture attached below.
Mine is just slightly visible compared to this photo (copied from androidforums.com) but still it's the same issue. I just wanted to confirm from a SLCD Desire user if this is a typical for those diplays, or if I should take it back to the shop.
Most LCD screens bleed light to some degree, but that looks totally unacceptable to me. I'd take it back.
EDIT: Oops, should have read the full post. Well that one above is really bad, any chance of getting a picture of yours?
aljwatson69 said:
Most LCD screens bleed light to some degree, but that looks totally unacceptable to me. I'd take it back.
EDIT: Oops, should have read the full post. Well that one above is really bad, any chance of getting a picture of yours?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I finally managed to do some photos.
The second one is with other light source (a 20W lamp). The first and third are without any lamp, high iso photos, but the first one has added brigthness in Photoshop, and third is on default. Remember these photos are on full display brightness, just to show how the screen behaves on dark, black background.
cant u see if its slcd on the side of ur package?
ninjaijutsu said:
cant u see if its slcd on the side of ur package?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is a slcd because it doesn't say it's amoled on the back. I just wanted to know if all slcds in Desire have this problem. I don't want to take it back just to get another device that has the same problem or even worse.
Well that's definitely SLCD... OLED (like my phone) will be pitch black when it's on a black screen, as there is no backlight on them.
Yes that is definitely a flaw. I would definitely take it back. It's unlikely you'd get another one that bad.
I've found a film on YouTube:
So it's just probably the thing with all SLCD's. Still I love the phone and since I know that I won't get a AMOLED version I'll probably keep this and just have fun with it. Thank You all for Your replies

[FYI] AMOLED or SLCD - HTC response

FYI - Can HTC tell whether your phone has an AMOLED or SLCD screen?
Short answer:
No.
Longer answer:
I bought my phone from Orange and thus the box comes Orange branded. Therefore, it doesn't say on the box whether than phone is AMOLED or SLCD (referred to as multitouch or something like that). I contacted Orange who haven't got a clue and just told me is AMOLED by reading their stock description. I contacted HTC UK and gave them the serial number of the phone. They said that at this present time there was no way for them to decipher whether I had an AMOLED or SLCD screen. There may be in the future but at the moment there is not.
The one bit of interesting information HTC could provide is that 90% of their stock is AMOLED and 10% is SLCD.
The reason I looked into this is because I can't really tell from the videos online what screen I have. There are some murmurings that all SLCD phones are bootloader 0.83 (what I have) but unfortunately not all 0.83 phones are SLCD.
http://pocketnow.com/android/how-to-tell-if-your-htc-desire-has-slcd-or-amoled-screen
Already read that. And I'd say it's actually pretty difficult to tell unless you have their exact screenshots.
And a magnifying glass!
The box for mine said "3.7-inch touch-sensitive screen", but it has the 0.75 HBOOT, so I really need to find a magnifying glass to check it.
tinytjf said:
Already read that. And I'd say it's actually pretty difficult to tell unless you have their exact screenshots.
And a magnifying glass!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it's so hard to tell why bother?
It really is easy to tell
Go into a dark room and go into the settings menu (which has a black background colour). If the black is lit at all or slightly grey, you have SLCD. If it is totally black (and I really mean no light at all) you have AMOLED. I have both and it really is easy to tell them apart in by the contrast of the settings menus, not so easy otherwise.
familyhousing said:
Go into a dark room and go into the settings menu (which has a black background colour). If the black is lit at all or slightly grey, you have SLCD. If it is totally black (and I really mean no light at all) you have AMOLED. I have both and it really is easy to tell them apart in by the contrast of the settings menus, not so easy otherwise.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's not entirley correct. I have Amoled, and even in a dark room, it's not 'totally' black.
BarnOwl said:
If it's so hard to tell why bother?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because there are some rooting methods that require you to know whether you're on SLCD or AMOLED... Having said that there are workarounds but it would be nice to know which method before I start.
As for the dark room idea, I'll try it. Thanks.
I'm 99% sure mine has an AMOLED screen because the bootloader was 0.80 (before the 2.2 upgrade)
My box didn't mention AMOLED on the box (so it could have been either)
One thing I have noticed is that a block of white against a darker background appear to have a slight pinkish toothcomb on the left edge of the white block (eg the HTC clock widget that's usually on the main home screen.
I believe this is a sign of the pentile arrangement of pixels that you get in the Desire's AMOLED screen.
ie:
****
****
Without a magnifying glass though its difficult to be certain.
Do what I did:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=7257878&postcount=10
Take a picture of the phone with a macro zoom camera. The pentiles become easily distinguishable.
i had both amoled and slcd side by side and all i can say is that the difference is huge...
if open your browser and set text size to large and than browse to xda forums... with amoled you won't be able to read clearly without zooming in, but on slcd you will be able to read and see everything clearly..
other than that amoled is brighter and has more contrast but slcd has a lot more clearer picture, that is easily visible when you put two phones side by side
for me slcd is a lot better.
mr.vandalay said:
i had both amoled and slcd side by side and all i can say is that the difference is huge...
if open your browser and set text size to large and than browse to xda forums... with amoled you won't be able to read clearly without zooming in, but on slcd you will be able to read and see everything clearly..
other than that amoled is brighter and has more contrast but slcd has a lot more clearer picture, that is easily visible when you put two phones side by side
for me slcd is a lot better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A work colleague has just received his Desire and one of the first things he did was compare it to mine. He has an SLCD screen and I have AMOLED. When placed side by side the difference is gobsmackingly obvious. On the SLCD text appears far smoother, although the colours do appear to be washed out.
I agree that the SLCD is better, but I will say that I am more than happy with my AMOLED screen.
stats101 said:
that's not entirley correct. I have Amoled, and even in a dark room, it's not 'totally' black.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, I exaggerated a little. I actually have an AMOLED Legend and an SLCD Desire. Just for my own sanity I checked again and the Legend AMOLED screen does have totally 100% blacks, even in a completely dark environment. I assume an AMOLED Desire would be the same and hence as easily identifiable.
If you think about it, AMOLED will always produce complete blacks as each pixel is not even powered for black output. The light you report to see on an AMOLED screen can only be explained by reflection. If your screen emits light from 100% black areas then you have SLCD.
Sent from my HTC Legend using XDA App
Well,one easy way is to put it next to your computers monitor while it shows a black image.The phone should be in the settings menu.If both seem about the same colour,you have an SLCD.If the monitor's picture seems grey while the phone's is pitch black,it's AMOLED.
I hope it helps those who don't have two devices to compare.
I have both the AMOLED and SLCD Desire. It's a clear difference. Mine has no bleeding around the edges. But It's clear to see the SLCD when the Call screen is on. The AMOLED is a lot blacker where as the SLCD is more gray than black.
The colours are also a lot more vibrant and alive on AMOLED, the SLCD looks washed out. The brightness is also higher on AMOLED.
You dont need magnifying glass. Droplet of water on screen will do.
I will be getting a Desire tomorrow or the next day and I don't know whether I'll get AMOLED or SLCD, so I want to know, are their quality worlds apart? Would it really make a difference to have either one of those? Is one better? How does both of them compare to iPhone 3GS's screen?
To the average person both are very very similar and you would not notice a difference without knowing there was two sorts of screens.
Chances are you won't get a choice of which to get, it just depends what is in stock.
Stat wise SLCD takes it on paper as being the best, but only marginally.
Honestly it really doesn't matter which you get, unless you compare two devices side by side you won't even know.
Because of the pentile matrix on the AMOLED, I would go with the S-LCD. The AMOLED is said to be over saturated in dark environments, and unable to read in the sun. I'd rather have balanced colors inside and readable screen outdoors. Also, the S-LCD have a real 800x480 resolution
Had both side by side for a while.
They are absolutely equal in bright sunlight. That said, people suspect that some amoled screens come out of the factory better than others.
Blacks, contrast and bright colours are absolutely better on the amoled
Bright whites and overall colour balance is probably a bit better on S-LCD
Pixel smoothness and small text readability is a bit better on S-LCD. That said, after you have amoled for a while you will realize that unless you keep your nose touching the screen, your vision will process the amoled screen the same way as the S-LCD. Takes some time though.
Battery usage: we made -accurate- -measured- tests, of the battery drain in milliamperes/milliwatts. They came out very close, the main difference is obviously that amoled display is optimized for displaying dark stuff. Overall I think you save a bit of battery with amoled, but anyway the results were that:
- on low-medium brightness (inside) amoled is almost always better. If you are displaying all white screen, they are closer
- on medium brightness it depends on what you are displaying (light vs dark) but there is not a lot of difference, although amoled tends to save a bit more
- on high brightness (outside) amoled almost invariably drains more than S-LCD, except when the screen is very dark. When displaying almost completely white screens at max brightness, amoled loses big time compared to S-LCD, but that is the only situation where this big difference happens.
One last noticeable difference is colour temperature, but that also varies from handset to handset. Amoled tends to be a bit on the warm side (at least on mine) and S-LCD on cool. The old 'problem' of the pinkish tint is gone with the froyo update, those few displays still affected by it could be counted as defective.
Oh and by the way, here almost invariably if the box doesn't say 'amoled' you are getting a S-LCD screen. I have to admit I was very surprised at first by the quality of S-LCD and mistaken it for a differently calibrated amoled for some minutes. Blacks are good, but not close to amoled, if you go into a dark room you should notice

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.

Screen tint

The screen on my 8.4in Tab S is bugging me, is it just me?
With all "super enhanced" colour settings set to plain and boring colour, I keep noticing a slight green tint in the central area of screen when viewed square-on, it's very subtle and seems more obvious with text on the screen, e.g. the Tapatalk forum listings. Also when viewed from an angle the display takes on a slight blue tint, despite reviews saying how good the angles are, it seems worse than the LG G Pad.
Is this just a feature of AMOLED displays or could it be a faulty unit (how?)?
I don't see it. Sorry.
Armpowered said:
The screen on my 8.4in Tab S is bugging me, is it just me?
With all "super enhanced" colour settings set to plain and boring colour, I keep noticing a slight green tint in the central area of screen when viewed square-on, it's very subtle and seems more obvious with text on the screen, e.g. the Tapatalk forum listings. Also when viewed from an angle the display takes on a slight blue tint, despite reviews saying how good the angles are, it seems worse than the LG G Pad.
Is this just a feature of AMOLED displays or could it be a faulty unit (how?)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There shouldn't be any differences viewed at any angle with this screen. Try this... in bright sunlight, with the screen off, look at the screen on an angle. It should look a uniform color - actually almost exactly matching the titanium bronze bezel... just to make sure there is no physical defect.
Something to note - if the screen is OK, it could be your eyes (not joking). The eyes can play many tricks - for example, seeing a lightly shaded box with text on a piece of paper that is only black and white - the box can appear to be shaded slightly red. That's one example, but there are many. And with the resolution and technology of this screen, there are no imperfections to draw your attention, like staircasing, blur, backlight irregularities, that you are used to seeing. It is a bit confusing to our physiology, and our brain does this thing called "patternization" that can contribute to us truly seeing something other than it is. This seems to be more subtle, yet more frustrating on a display that is so close to perfect.
I'm not saying that there is something with your eyes specifically. It could certainly be a defective screen. One way to find out would be to take a look at someone else's - also, if you have another decent camera, you can take a picture of the screen and look at the picture - that will usually confirm (or not) whether what you are seeing is there. Like I said, it's not you or your eyes I'm dissing. These are things I've picked up on over the years. In fact, it could ONLY be my eyes. If that's the case, I'd probably rather not know.
You can also use a colorimeter and software like HFCR to get the discreet measurements from different parts of the screen. When I have done this, I've found that there was no real difference in chromacity. Of course, that has always made me walk away thinking that the colorimeter must not be accurate. So human.
I would definitely be interested in your feedback about what you find because I've obsessed over high resolution displays trying to figure out what is real and what I'm imagining... it's an active area of interest for me.
Mike
Armpowered said:
The screen on my 8.4in Tab S is bugging me, is it just me?
With all "super enhanced" colour settings set to plain and boring colour, I keep noticing a slight green tint in the central area of screen when viewed square-on, it's very subtle and seems more obvious with text on the screen, e.g. the Tapatalk forum listings. Also when viewed from an angle the display takes on a slight blue tint, despite reviews saying how good the angles are, it seems worse than the LG G Pad.
Is this just a feature of AMOLED displays or could it be a faulty unit (how?)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I have also noticed this. I've seen these green or pink tints on all the amoled devices I've owned. You need pretty good eyesight to be able to notice it. You shouldn't be bothered by it, they're all like that, if you can see it. But you'll get used to it.
I probably will not get used to it...
Freshman206 said:
I probably will not get used to it...
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Thanks Freshman206 and SrAdama, glad (?) to hear that it's not just me, I've had the tablet just over a week and still notice it. Any slight tilt and the colours appear/shift, green, pink and when angled beyond what I'd consider normal, blue.
Have photographed it and will have another go at getting it clearer but by winding up saturation the effect becomes visible in the photos (on pc).
I'm now trying to decide what to do about it, I have an LG G Pad which doesn't annoy in this way, though it has just gone away for a warranty screen repair for bright spots (not stuck pixels)!
Armpowered said:
Thanks Freshman206 and SrAdama, glad (?) to hear that it's not just me, I've had the tablet just over a week and still notice it. Any slight tilt and the colours appear/shift, green, pink and when angled beyond what I'd consider normal, blue.
Have photographed it and will have another go at getting it clearer but by winding up saturation the effect becomes visible in the photos (on pc).
I'm now trying to decide what to do about it, I have an LG G Pad which doesn't annoy in this way, though it has just gone away for a warranty screen repair for bright spots (not stuck pixels)!
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It is probably the antiglare coating you are seeing.. If you have the coating on your glasses and check them out, it will do the same thing as your tablet... I also noticed it appears to have a anti fingerprint coating on as well, very nice indeed :>
In shops I also have compared 3 different Tab S.
All had an immediately visible green tint, white looks not white but greenish and a bit "washed out".
I find it a bit surprising that with other devices, when they have a tint (like the yellow tint of the Xperia Tablet Z), people complain much, while here, with this really apparent tint, people tend to say: It's normal, get used to it...
I would never buy a Tab S, just because of this tint and because of the, compared to other devices, low maximal brightness.
These devices are overrated.
I ran a poll in this forum as to whether people were satisfied with white reproduction on their tablets or not. Out of 15 responses 12 were satisfied.
We have heard reports of manufacturing defects such as yellows screens, muddy splotches in the middle of screens, loose creeky backs, warped backs and excessive lag/stutter.
These are not "normal" for this tablet but represent what may be a bad run of tablets that made it out of the barn. If you are experiencing the issues suffered by the OP, I suggest you seek a replacement unit. If you have observed similar performance from other tabs in the same store that would make sense as they are likely from the same faulty production run.
When operating normally, white should be white on the Tab S. For myself and the large majority in the poll, this is the case. I have also not read any reviews by professionals mentioning this discoloration and believe me, if CNET or THEVERGE had something to rag on the Tab S about they would have.
---------- Post added at 01:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:01 PM ----------
hasenbein1966 said:
These devices are overrated.
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The average rating by actual owners of the Tab S 10.5 bronze at BestBuy is 4.8 out of 5 stars with 53 reviews.
The average rating by actual owners of the Tab S 10.5 white at BestBuy is 4.9 out of 5 stars with 36 reviews.
You will see very little if any mention of an issue with yellow or green discoloration. I'm sure you are seeing what you are seeing but the problem does not appear widespread.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchp...&id=pcat17071&iht=y&cp=1&nrp=15&st=Tab+s+10.5
---------- Post added at 01:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:15 PM ----------
I just took a picture of a webpage with a white background on my 10.5 and sent it to my laptop which has software that measures colors.
The website background from my Tab S 10.5 measured at 255:255:255. That is pure white. This was a photo and not merely a screen shot.
Saw the 10.5 inch and 8.4 inch models together on display in a shop. The 8.4 inch version also had slightly yellow tinted whites when looked at directly, not as bad as I was expecting though. The 10.5 inch model had no yellow tinted whites at all, when looked at directly or tilted.
Mine has pinkish tint at the top visible when everything is white especialy when reading wikipedia
Vertron said:
Saw the 10.5 inch and 8.4 inch models together on display in a shop. The 8.4 inch version also had slightly yellow tinted whites when looked at directly, not as bad as I was expecting though. The 10.5 inch model had no yellow tinted whites at all, when looked at directly or tilted.
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so when i switch screen mode to amoled basic, my screen have yellow tint (like warm color) and a little washed out color, is it normal or just my unit?
because when i switch screen mode to amoled cinema, everything looks saturated which is i think okay...
Armpowered said:
The screen on my 8.4in Tab S is bugging me, is it just me?
With all "super enhanced" colour settings set to plain and boring colour, I keep noticing a slight green tint in the central area of screen when viewed square-on, it's very subtle and seems more obvious with text on the screen, e.g. the Tapatalk forum listings. Also when viewed from an angle the display takes on a slight blue tint, despite reviews saying how good the angles are, it seems worse than the LG G Pad.
Is this just a feature of AMOLED displays or could it be a faulty unit (how?)?
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At what angle are you looking at it.???
serious96 said:
so when i switch screen mode to amoled basic, my screen have yellow tint (like warm color) and a little washed out color, is it normal or just my unit?
because when i switch screen mode to amoled cinema, everything looks saturated which is i think okay...
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Yes the Basic profile is meant to be that way its not the screen problem being discussed here, if you wanted an accurate image then Basic is the closest of all the profiles. If Basic looks washed out to you then your used to looking at an oversaturate screen, if you were used to looking at calibrated screens then all three profiles would look over saturated.
I had the 8.4 and just returned it. I also had the greenish-blue tint when the screen was even just slightly tilted. More noticeable indoors with brightness set to below 40%. If I had the tablet flat on the table and walked across the room, I could see it too - screen only looked good if looking at it directly in front of you. As others have said, I think it's probably due to some coating on the screen, which explains why it would be more noticeable with the screen brightness set lower.
I've checked out a few display models at stores, they all basically look the same, though some were slightly worse than others. That being said, the 10.5" ones I saw don't seem to have this problem... if they do, it's definitely not as noticeable. Not sure if it's just an optical illusion or what, but the 10.5's look OK. I'm going to go buy the 10.5 one today, mainly for the size. I'll post again if there are any tints on the screen.
aimfire72 said:
I had the 8.4 and just returned it. I also had the greenish-blue tint when the screen was even just slightly tilted. More noticeable indoors with brightness set to below 40%. If I had the tablet flat on the table and walked across the room, I could see it too - screen only looked good if looking at it directly in front of you. As others have said, I think it's probably due to some coating on the screen, which explains why it would be more noticeable with the screen brightness set lower.
I've checked out a few display models at stores, they all basically look the same, though some were slightly worse than others. That being said, the 10.5" ones I saw don't seem to have this problem... if they do, it's definitely not as noticeable. Not sure if it's just an optical illusion or what, but the 10.5's look OK. I'm going to go buy the 10.5 one today, mainly for the size. I'll post again if there are any tints on the screen.
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The problem was a green tint in the center when looked at head on not at an angle, seeing shifts in color when tilted is normal for this tablet. I would have kept yours if it was fine straight on.
My 10.5 had greenish yellow tint when looked at head on exactly the same as the op.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-tab-s/help/normal-screen-faulty-t2822471
I was gonna return for the 10.5" anyways, the screen tint wasn't part of that decision, but I certainly won't miss it, heh.
Mine it is extremelly yellow! I hate this bug... It happends to me every 10 minutes, i need to restart every time to revert this.

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.
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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 ?
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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.
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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.
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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

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