Develop Bugs

Dirt and lines under screen

I noticed as soon as I turned my Nexus on today that there was a line across the screen that looked like dirt under the display.
It is only noticeable on low brightness but the auto brightness set the phone to minimum when I turned it on so I saw it. I can only also see it on bright backgrounds like the forum - it is not visible on dark backgrounds or the home screens.
Does anyone else have this issue? I will return it soon and get it replaced but I am wondering if this is widespread or I was just unlucky.
Try turning the brightness right down and looking at this page and see if you see any lines/marks under the glass.

I have a line as well but it's quite small so I'm not really bothered.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

Few very feint lines here too. Setting phone to fixed second lowest brightness setting and they vanish though.

This issue is on the gs2's too.

if you go to every forum of a phone that launches you will see the same complaint. its a plague

Spinstorm said:
I noticed as soon as I turned my Nexus on today that there was a line across the screen that looked like dirt under the display.
It is only noticeable on low brightness but the auto brightness set the phone to minimum when I turned it on so I saw it. I can only also see it on bright backgrounds like the forum - it is not visible on dark backgrounds or the home screens.
Does anyone else have this issue? I will return it soon and get it replaced but I am wondering if this is widespread or I was just unlucky.
Try turning the brightness right down and looking at this page and see if you see any lines/marks under the glass.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can also see two faint grey vertical lines on either side of the screen if I have a light (white) background and brightness settings 1-3!
I haven't come across any other issues, I only noticed it after reading this thread and now its in bugging me. But I love the handset.. better than I expected!
Are these lines normal or do I have a duff handset? I have a couple of weeks to change it if necessary but I am also aware of the stock availability due to high demand.
Anyone else in same situation (O2 UK handset)?

I have the same issue on the lowest brightness, but not on the highest. It is also very faintly noticeable on my SGS2 on the lowest brightness. On my Omnia 7 (samoled) it is also very visible on low brightness, I think it is an amoled thing.

BiGMERF said:
if you go to every forum of a phone that launches you will see the same complaint. its a plague
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Click to collapse
Exactly even the iphones with it's tinting issues SGS2 with it's Blotches in the dark
and the glass isn't perfect around the bezel
people just look for this stuff

I don't understood if this lines means defective screen or if all phones will have this lines.

I have the same thing on my Galaxy Nexus. I guess it's just a thing with Super Amoled screens, rather than a defect.

gambiting said:
I have the same thing on my Galaxy Nexus. I guess it's just a thing with Super Amoled screens, rather than a defect.
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+1 Just as I said in my post above I have 4 amoled screen devices and they all it to some effect. Do not worry, your phone is fine.

could someone please post a picture so i can see what you guys are talking about? i'm curious to see what it looks like since i don't notice this on the samoled screen on my nexus s.

I had that issue with 2 evo screens. I would also get dead pixels or blotches.. Just have to get lucky with one I guess.

jms.flynn said:
+1 Just as I said in my post above I have 4 amoled screen devices and they all it to some effect. Do not worry, your phone is fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
why is fine if it seems to have a problem?
do you think that it is normal to have lines on the screen?
can you tell for sure that every phone have that lines?

I have the same thing on minimum brightness. Its best seen by using a white image as wallpaper and having nothing on your far left and far right home screens. I have many vertical lines. When I scroll the home screen all the way over to the left until I see the blue gradient appear, the gradient varies in shades exactly where the lines are.
I noticed it as soon as i first powered on the device, same as the OP, as it was set to minimum brightness but I dont generally notice it any other time. I dont recall having the same problem with my galaxy S2

Green tint?

Just got my VZW galaxy nexus, and im loving it so far, but have noticed something odd: toward the top of the screen (about 1/4 of the way down from the top) there seems to be a very slight green tint, noticeable only when looking at a dark background (like the settings menu).
It's kind of hard to explain, does anyone else have something similar on their phones? Is this normal for amoled screens or should I ask for a replacement phone?

i believe it has to do with it being a pentile screen... well, 'HD' pentile, but still..
i'd say if you try an exchange, make sure you the test the other in store first.

can anyone with a galaxy nexus please post a photo of their phone on the settings menu? (scroll all the way down)

melterx12 said:
can anyone with a galaxy nexus please post a photo of their phone on the settings menu? (scroll all the way down)
Click to expand...
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Pretty sure the setting menu is a background gradient with an intended color shift.
But yeah, mine has a blueish/greenish hue if I tilt the phone away or towards me in portrait mode. Straight-on, I don't notice anything.

yeah i am talking about viewing straight on

mine has this greenish tint slightly at the top right screen...
that settings menu then scroll all the way down is normal.. the color is not as dark as the top. I'm seeing greenish tint when on white background

I have a very light greenish tint on the right side of the phone on white backgrounds with text when at low/automatic brightness. The green goes away when I bump brightness to 40%+.
Did you try that?
Oddly, when I ran pixel checker, the pure white background has no green tint to it at all.

Yeah, at low brightness I see a tint/haze but at full brightness, everything looks beautiful.

Welcome to the world of pentile.

I see the same green tint on my screen. I thought it was normal, but I compared it to another unit today and saw that my display was both dimmer at the same brightness level and had a greenish cast and different color temperature than the unit I was comparing it to. I'm not sure if this is within the normal variance for these displays, but my phone certainly looks worse to me than the one I compared it to.
Both units also showed a green/blue tint when viewed off axis but with greater discoloration on mine. The second unit showed almost no discernible tint when viewing a white screen straight on unlike mine.
melterx12 said:
Just got my VZW galaxy nexus, and im loving it so far, but have noticed something odd: toward the top of the screen (about 1/4 of the way down from the top) there seems to be a very slight green tint, noticeable only when looking at a dark background (like the settings menu).
It's kind of hard to explain, does anyone else have something similar on their phones? Is this normal for amoled screens or should I ask for a replacement phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

i have the same problem. Sometimes (usually after a power down and restart) my entire screen is very dark and has a, very obvious, green tint to it. I compared my phone to my girlfriends at the same display setting and the tint is very obvious (especially when i'm viewing menu, text messages, browser). When i adjust the brightness it seems to make it less obvious, but still there. However after certain power down and restart this "green tint" seems to 'go away' only to either gradually re-appear or just happen when my phone self adjusts to "automatic brightness" setting.
p.s. my phone also, had another minor issue of random re-start when listening to music (via google music) and adjusting the sound effects option. After that restart my phones display was significantly tinted and dark. Weird, Either way getting a replacement unit tomorrow.

Mine has a very slight green tint on the left hand side of the screen when at the lowest brightness and viewing a white background.
I normally have the brightness bumped up a bit, but it still bugs me when I have it low
EDIT: Checked pixel checker, has the green tint. I can definitely see it on the keyboard as I'm typing this though

I took my unit in to Verizon today for an exchange. New one doesn't have as significant of color shifting or banding issues.

crazeco said:
I took my unit in to Verizon today for an exchange. New one doesn't have as significant of color shifting or banding issues.
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Click to collapse
yeah i got mine replaced the next day, all good now. No green tint, reduced banding, and much better viewing angles (the first one heavily tinted green or pink colors when viewing it from the right or left side, respectively)

Alright, got a replacement today.
No green tint that I can see, almost no banding and the colors don't change like, at all when I tilt the phone.
Now my nexus truly is perfect
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

DoctorSasquatch said:
Alright, got a replacement today.
No green tint that I can see, almost no banding and the colors don't change like, at all when I tilt the phone.
Now my nexus truly is perfect
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, I find this very hard to believe. *ALL* pentile AMOLEDs change colours like crazy when you look at them at a sharp angle. It's a characteristic trait of this kind of display.
Pics from various angles or it didn't happen. ;-)

Valynor said:
Sorry, I find this very hard to believe. *ALL* pentile AMOLEDs change colours like crazy when you look at them at a sharp angle. It's a characteristic trait of this kind of display.
Pics from various angles or it didn't happen. ;-)
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Click to collapse
Yeah, I was exaggerating, but compared to how bad it was with the other one its crazy. Very less noticeable than my first one
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

Well my screen has a burn in where the nav bar is

Watching Netflix or anything in full screen it's noticeable. Very noticeable. After one week of owning it about a month ago, I saw a similar topic and thought "this would never happen to me". Fast forward a month later, I have it. And a scratch on my screen after putting it in my pocket only with nothing else in it.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

monkey hung said:
Watching Netflix or anything in full screen it's noticeable. Very noticeable. After one week of owning it about a month ago, I saw a similar topic and thought "this would never happen to me". Fast forward a month later, I have it. And a scratch on my screen after putting it in my pocket only with nothing else in it.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Take a photo and post it please.

Mine does too, mighty thanks to amoled
This is going to happen regardless of what you do.
Acceptance is key

Can someone post a picture? I would like to see what all the fuss is about.

By nav bar, do you mean the notification/status bar? If so, I know exactly what you're talking about. The static cyan text is a burn-in waiting to happen. I noticed a little bit of cyan tint in that area when brightness is low and the screen is white. It's by no means that bad at all but I use the hide the status bar option in ADW to prevent it from getting worse. 2 months later and it hasn't gotten worse.

waiaung1 said:
By nav bar, do you mean the notification/status bar? If so, I know exactly what you're talking about. The static cyan text is a burn-in waiting to happen. I noticed a little bit of cyan tint in that area when brightness is low and the screen is white. It's by no means that bad at all but I use the hide the status bar option in ADW to prevent it from getting worse. 2 months later and it hasn't gotten worse.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By nav bar they mean the soft keys (Home - Menu - Recent - Back) buttons on the bottom.

Oh, in that case I haven't seen that problem but I have heard of people with it. You can get rid of those soft-keys with custom mods too that makes your phone full-screen.

I noticed this on my Gnex as well. Rotating the screen clockwise to a landscape orientation, the left side of my screen where the soft buttons were has a notably bluer tint. For the record, I keep my screen on auto, which I was hoping would reduce the burn-in effect. Setting the screen brightness to 100% seems to hide the burn-in. Dunno if that will always be true.
Even worse, when I did a screen compare of my previous Nexus vs the display model at the Verizon store back in early Jan, the demo model's screen was noticeably dimmer and off color even at full brightness. Seemed like running in torch mode 24/7 with a bright red background caused the screen to degrade noticeably after only a week or so.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

The only time I notice any sort of image retention (relating to the notification bar) is when I first open the XDA app and it quickly goes full screen. Other than that I never see it. However, I commonly see image retention going from home screen to Market but it fades very quickly.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Mine as well as my friend's has burn-in at the top and bottom where the status bar is and the soft buttons. Also my old nexus S as well as my friend's has burn in at the top status bar. It's inevitable I guess...

I started seeing this too but i quickly switched to transparent top and bottom bars so that those pixels got even wear, and it actually reversed my burn in mostly. My screen is near perfect now.

this happen to me, too. it sucks. can this be exchanged in person somewhere instead of shipping it? i don't want to wait.

Burn in was a term for lcd screens. For this situation think of it as "reverse led fatigue". The leds that are not used as much as the rest of the screen will appear brighter giving you the impression that it is burn in. On the first gen amoled's some would leave and entire white screen on full brightness overnight to normalize or calibrate the leds. Doesn't bug me one bit though.
good day.

chopper the dog said:
Burn in was a term for lcd screens. For this situation think of it as "reverse led fatigue". The leds that are not used as much as the rest of the screen will appear brighter giving you the impression that it is burn in. On the first gen amoled's some would leave and entire white screen on full brightness overnight to normalize or calibrate the leds. Doesn't bug me one bit though.
good day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly right. But the term burn in is so familiar to people it will likely never change.
I forgot to say that to eliminate this burn in i also use full screen browser at all times to hide the status bar. And i consistently rotate the screen to different views while i read my webpages to give the other pixels a rest. The effect is excellent.
To test this the best, install dead pixel detect from market and toggle thru every color. Rotate the screen too to see both areas. The color red is the only one that shows the burn in for me. Which is strange cause blue is the weak color that wears out the quickest. But my blue looks fine.

This will probably happen to all of us to some degree sooner or later.
The image retention that lasts 1-3 seconds we might see within a month or two usage is actually one of the characteristics of AMOLED "Ghosting effect"
which is not the same as AMOLED "reverse led fatigue" (or although technically incorrect but more widely understood term "Burn-ins") which maybe seen as permanent image retention shown as yellowish outlines of icons / keyboard outlines, etc.
Sadly, there's really nothing you can do about this problem after the fact, except to change the screen itself if it is really bothersome. Or you may try to change/delete/make transparent of the permanently placed icons/other objects/pictures to try to reverse these effects.
The only preventive measures would be changing screen rotation from vertical to horizontal, and make sure you don't have the screen on at a stay still image (preferably set auto screen off to 30seconds or so.)

It is humorous how particular many people are about "pocket" screens. Oled technology in reality is like the merger of lcd and plasma screens. And oled does get image retention and burn in similar to plasma. It is harder to avoid on a cell phone with so many possibilities of static images. Really though, it is good to mention/complaint about it so it gets attention and oled manufacturers try to improve upon the technology and try to minimize or get rid of the issues altogether. Many people still think plasmas get burn in very easily and that is far from the truth. The last 3 years or so Panasonic and Samsung have made great strides in minimizing the possibility and you see very few complaints about it. And it is even more humorous that many people think lcd technology is better for viewing because it is newer than plasma when the exact opposite is true. LCD technology is older than plasma, and aside from power usage and weight, lcd doesn't have many benefits over plasma. And because of the post processing to try and overcome the deficiencies of lcd viewing lcd screens are closing the gap in power consumption with plasma. But yeah, all you can do about the image retention of oled now is put pressure on samsung and lg and any newcomers to the technology to improve it. Hopefully, oled will overcome its shortcomings to lcd and plasma and be the better tech out of all three in the near future. I wish they made laptops with plasma screens. That would be an awesome option for laptop users that use theirs as desktop replacements like myself.
Sent from my Nexus in Texas.

I don't have any "burn in". I guess different screens behave differently.

case0 said:
I don't have any "burn in". I guess different screens behave differently.
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Click to collapse
Many people think they dont have it till they install dead pixel detect and check each color. I bet you have it on the color red.

RogerPodacter said:
Many people think they dont have it till they install dead pixel detect and check each color. I bet you have it on the color red.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All my pixels are fine but I notice the notification bar retention on brown with the XDA app and I notice the bottom (whatever it's called bar) on grey from the app you suggested. Either way, I still love the phone!!!
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

RogerPodacter said:
Many people think they dont have it till they install dead pixel detect and check each color. I bet you have it on the color red.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't. Out of curiosity I tried that app out after reading about it on this thread.

[Q] Does ANYTHING near-black look purple on your gnex at ANY brightness?

Some people are saying that my purple screen issues documented here:
Matt08642 said:
So I am on my second Galaxy Nexus, and I'm on my way to a third tomorrow.
My first one was absolutely awful, with blacks looking bright purple (Phone 1: http://i.imgur.com/2bjUZ.jpg ) and now OTHER elements looking purple (Phone 2: http://i.imgur.com/1EI0V.jpg ). That's not all. My first one was somewhat free of screen banding, but this one is riddled with it in every menu: http://i.imgur.com/j2oxB.jpg
How common are these issues? I'm getting kinda fed up here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are nothing more than standard AMOLED behaviour. They are saying that terrible colors like I am experiencing are normal if the phone is dim.
Is this true? Does anyone have ANY color issues at ANY brightness?

Well... I don't have ANY issues at ANY brightness fyi.

anton2009 said:
Well... I don't have ANY issues at ANY brightness fyi.
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Click to collapse
Good to know there are some phones out there that look great all the time
I'm not leaving the store tomorrow until I am certain the screen is perfect!

When you look at the phone in the store tomorrow, and you go to settings, don't get scared away by what appears to be "banding" in the background image. It' just a poor quality image google has chosen to use as the background. See?

anton2009 said:
When you look at the phone in the store tomorrow, and you go to settings, don't get scared away by what appears to be "banding" in the background image. It' just a poor quality image google has chosen to use as the background. See?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, why the hell would they use that AWFUL image?
Tomorrow I'll mostly just be looking for purple colors on low brightness.
EDIT: Here's a new picture showing that the screen is still purple http://i.imgur.com/uaRwP.jpg

Wauw that looks bad. I'm currently struggling with a grainy (gray) screen, but looking at other nexuses that seems normal. On light i can however see darker spots and lines on black screens (including boots and black images) but seeing other topics crawled with the same issue I don't put much trust in a device without it...
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA

amonfog said:
Wauw that looks bad. I'm currently struggling with a grainy (gray) screen, but looking at other nexuses that seems normal. On light i can however see darker spots and lines on black screens (including boots and black images) but seeing other topics crawled with the same issue I don't put much trust in a device without it...
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oddly enough, neither of my Nexus' have had the grainy screen problem, just this discoloration

I received my 2nd Nexus today after the firsts' volume buttons stopped working. The new one has purple where black used to be, like yours, but doesn't make the experience any worse. However, when I pull the notifications area down on low brightness, the screen dims further - does this happen on yours? It's quite annoying...

Mine is okay. Not perfect but okay. There is still a little bit of purple (not that extreme like uours) but after a few days you barely notice it
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA

3ddyz said:
I received my 2nd Nexus today after the firsts' volume buttons stopped working. The new one has purple where black used to be, like yours, but doesn't make the experience any worse. However, when I pull the notifications area down on low brightness, the screen dims further - does this happen on yours? It's quite annoying...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
on low brightness the notification tray is almost an opaque black

Same here but top bar gets even darker when notifications area is pulled down, even when brightness is set to 0. Whites are a LOT better tho.
Edit: just noticed that when taking photos, the brightness of whats being photographed affects the screens brightness. Also, top half of pages on tapatalk are a lot brighter than the bottom halves, it's strange and quite annoying once you notice it...
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

Screen of GN

Hello, I intend to buy the Galaxy Nexus but the problem of the screen burn-in scares me. When I buy a phone, it's for two years, does the problem still exists in the new series?

Bump

I know the ones at the store have this problem, but thats because they are full brightness all the time. I make it a point to use my phone in landscape clockwise, i.e. with pogo pins down, so the on screen buttons are on the opposite side as they usually are, and i haven't noticed any burn in. In low brightness conditions, you'll occasionally see some ghosting, but its not a big deal. They gave you extra blue pixels (rbgb), since those are the ones that are the weakest, to make sure your screen lasts 2 years.

had gnex since release date and had no problems with it what so ever, however, when bough had issues with screen itself e.g uneven colouring and banding (quite visible grey bars), replaced it and the model i got is fine so far...

I use most of the time my phone with middle brightness or minimum+screen filter during the night, as i don't use it at maximum, i will not get burn-in ?

Never had this issue with any phone.

Don't wanna open a new thread since this is a similar topic.
I've noticed a very faint light blue-ish stripe on my screen (where the notification bar is) while reading text on a white background (in fullscreen).
Is that burn-in? If so, is it covered under warranty?

Puck24 said:
Don't wanna open a new thread since this is a similar topic.
I've noticed a very faint light blue-ish stripe on my screen (where the notification bar is) while reading text on a white background (in fullscreen).
Is that burn-in? If so, is it covered under warranty?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
People say it is not burn in but uneven wear of the pixels. I know if read about people running a white background I think it was overnight on high and it will start to remove the marks. The idea is to run other colors to wear in the spot evenly as the top bar usually is only running black.
If you do some searching around in these threads you will read what others have done and what has worked.

Puck24 said:
Don't wanna open a new thread since this is a similar topic.
I've noticed a very faint light blue-ish stripe on my screen (where the notification bar is) while reading text on a white background (in fullscreen).
Is that burn-in? If so, is it covered under warranty?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have this too, but calling it burn-in is wrong I think. Those pixels are black (i.e. turned off) most of the time, so they couldn't possibly be "burned into" the screen. Rather, the issue seems to be that they are getting used too little, so they are not worn in as much as the rest of the screen. Since all screens of this type change slightly over time as they get used, there is a small but noticeable difference in how these different areas of the screen display certain colors.
[email protected] said:
People say it is not burn in but uneven wear of the pixels. I know if read about people running a white background I think it was overnight on high and it will start to remove the marks. The idea is to run other colors to wear in the spot evenly as the top bar usually is only running black.
If you do some searching around in these threads you will read what others have done and what has worked.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't tried this, but it certainly seems like it could work.

Thx. Will try that
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

The app "Display Tester" has a burn-in removal function that some people have found useful.
galaxy nexus (gsm) / cm9 / trinity @ 1.4GHz

How is the burn in factor any different than the great of the screens out there the gs3 epic vibrant you get the point aren't they all s amoled or amoled plus screens how would this phone differer with the burn in factor on the other devices
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Xparent ICS Tapatalk 2

GN got a nav bar present all the time, and it will get burned in, most people don't realize though they have it.
Same goes for notification bar.
They need to be semi transparent to fix the issue which we don't have.
Even the browser doesn't remove the nav bar.
Only YouTube and full screen movies will show you that issue.