Washed Out Screen Color? - AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note 4

I'm writing to see if anyone here might have the same issue I'm having with my Note 4.
When it's bright outside, sometimes, the screen not only amps up the brightness, but for some reason all the colors on the screen appear really washed out. Facebook's logo is now neon blue, Evernote is like a pale lime, etc. All the colors are horribly ugly. If I open an app, or the drawer, the screen goes back to normal color, still bright though.
This ONLY happens (thus far) when I've turned the phone on while being in direct sunlight.
If I manually turn my brightness level ALL the way up, the colors still appear fine, I can't make the screen wash the colors out like that manually (not with brightness levels or adaptive display modes).
This also doesn't happen every time I wake the phone up while in direct sunlight, but about 50% of the time.
So, anyone else have this problem? Is it normal, or should I try to get a replacement? Course, since I can't replicate it on demand that will be a PITA.
Thanks

Happens to me as well. I even went to far as to disable the "dynamic screen adjustment" or whatever it is, and it still happens. Just like you said, only in direct sunlight.

It's too make the screen more viewable in direct sunlight.

washing out the colors is normal in order for the phone to be bright enough to see in direct sunlight. I, for one, love that they did this because i can see the screen perfectly in bright sunlight.

nyydynasty said:
washing out the colors is normal in order for the phone to be bright enough to see in direct sunlight. I, for one, love that they did this because i can see the screen perfectly in bright sunlight.
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Click to collapse
I'm with you on this one, I think it's an awesome function. Heck when I found out it did I was showing everyone lol I have noticed that it's only sunlight cuz I tried using my note 3 flash light to do the same thing but to no avail.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using XDA Free mobile app

589
Yes if you have your note 4 set to auto brightness, in direct sunlight the phones backlight will push the brightness all the way up to 750nits of brightness. It will wash out the colors, but it makes the screen very visible in direct sunlight. I personally love the feature, no need to cover your hand over your phone to see a text message or something else anymore. If you don't like, like myself, I manual adjust brightness myself. Half brightness is plenty bright for any other time of the day.

This happened to me yesterday and I thought my phone was going bad. It was a wtf moment for sure. Glad to know it's a feature and not an issue with the screen. I turned the screen off then on and it went away (might have been walking indoors).

I had this happen in the day time while I was in the car multiple times, so I just turned off the automatic brightness, solved my issue.

This is the first phone that has ever been bright enough for me to read books with in the noon day sun. So I'm loving this feature bigtime. I think the automatic feature could use some fine tuning because indoors it dims the brightness too much for me but otherwise... loving it.

Freaked me out the first time it did that to me outside, but quickly realized it was on purpose to make it more viewable since it was so bright outside. Love that feature tho

nyydynasty said:
washing out the colors is normal in order for the phone to be bright enough to see in direct sunlight. I, for one, love that they did this because i can see the screen perfectly in bright sunlight.
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Click to collapse
I love that they did this. 1st phone I've had that I can easily see the screen in direct bright sunlight. Good job Samsung.

I was shocked when I first saw it this morning... then did a google which led me here... thank God it aint faulty...

I was shocked when I first saw it this morning... then did a google which led me here... thank God it aint faulty...

I think I have this issue but idk. Dark pictures on my screen show horrible and like blocky when there's blacks. The Samsung boot screen has a yellowish greenish tint to it. My colors look washed but it isn't horrible just the dark colors and blacks get to me

NexusS4gFreak said:
I think I have this issue but idk. Dark pictures on my screen show horrible and like blocky when there's blacks. The Samsung boot screen has a yellowish greenish tint to it. My colors look washed but it isn't horrible just the dark colors and blacks get to me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For example this is how my blacks show

Related

[Q] How to read the screen in daylight?

I'm new to this phone and new to smartphones.
The reviews of the SGS2 rave about the bright, readable screen - even outdoors. But, I can't even tell if it is turned on without ducking back inside! The screen appears black to me.
I'm panicking because I invested in the SGS2 (full purchase price!) largely as a navigation aid for bicycle touring. I need to be able pick out fine detail on a Google Earth image. It's beautiful stuff indoors, but under the sun...
So, please assume nothing and give me all your tips, settings and strategies - basic and otherwise - on using the phone in bright sunlight. Thanks,
Stan
what is your screen brightness at? I've had mine set at auto brightness and the phone does a pretty good job of adjusting the brightness up when i move into sunlight so that the screen is still readable.
if you're having a hard time seeing the screen outside, try turning the brightness up. you might have it set too low
It definitely should not look completely black when outdoors. Either there is something wrong with the screen or with your eyes. Try setting it to max brightness and see if there is any difference.
if you have it in auto, it would automatically adjust to match the lighting conditions
SMAOLED screens are super good in directly sunlight you can still read bright and crisp even when the sun is cooking your head at 35c outdoors in a hellish summer shine

weird problem

I don't know if this is some kind of new thing to make the screen easier to see in sunlight, but every time my phone is exposed to full sunlight the screen goes super high contrast, now I know the back light goes full brightness to help viewing the screen in full sunlight, but this is totally different, it only happens when the sensor is exposed to the sun, anyone else noticed this, or do I have a faulty auto brightness sensor, super high contrast, turns my fb messenger blue color a light blue etc etc.
yep it's normal. does it to make it easier to see. only works on auto brightness mode.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 4 using Tapatalk.
Nevermind, it's normal lol found a review mentioning it! Moderator delete this thread!

Considering a return because of the ambient screen :(

It's a shame really, since I love EVERYTHING else about this watch - good price, snappy processor, GPS, WiFi (not even sure what that will bring eventually), NFC.
But with this thing serving primarily as a watch on my wrist, I just can't stand the ambient screen. From pretty much any angle it is a low-contrast, mustard-y yellow.
I'm looking at the LG R watch now. It's $50 more, and is missing a bunch of features, but the screen is GREAT. :'-(
I really wanted to like this watch! Please XDA, talk me into keeping it!!
** Delete **
loneBoat said:
It's a shame really, since I love EVERYTHING else about this watch - good price, snappy processor, GPS, WiFi (not even sure what that will bring eventually), NFC.
But with this thing serving primarily as a watch on my wrist, I just can't stand the ambient screen. From pretty much any angle it is a low-contrast, mustard-y yellow.
I'm looking at the LG R watch now. It's $50 more, and is missing a bunch of features, but the screen is GREAT. :'-(
I really wanted to like this watch! Please XDA, talk me into keeping it!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The LG P-OLED screen can burn in... Otherwise I possibly had bought it aswell.
I love the sw3 and especially the ambient mode screen and GPS. Its looks like a compromise between a e-ink and LCD..
But maybe it's a kind of different tastes.
Send with Tapatalk on Sony Z2
djgodlike said:
The LG P-OLED screen can burn in... Otherwise I possibly had bought it aswell
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good point about the burn-in. I just searched over on the LG R watch forums and there's some horror stories of burn-in after just a week. :-o That may be a deal-breaker for me.
Hah! You may have talked me into staying on SW3 just as I requested - thanks! :highfive:
It's a garbage screen on a first-gen looking product. I returned mine for the same reason.
foxfire235 said:
It's a garbage screen on a first-gen looking product. I returned mine for the same reason.
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Click to collapse
I haven't gotten mine yet but have played with it in store. I wouldn't say it's garbage. Is it on par with other android wear devices? Probably not. However, just as another user stated above, its sort of a mix between e ink and color. It seems to be helping to deliver great battery life with it too. Also, with the update it seems you guys can turn off the feature of activating the screen arm movement. So with this screen you can leave it on always on mode and still be able to see the screen without killing battery. All the android wear devices are first gen tech, but the Sony SW 3 still offers so much more than any of the other watches. For that, I can certainly deal with the screen negatives. Even though it does offer positives so its not completely bad, therefore back to my point that I wouldn't call it garbage.
I like the screen...in my office or while outdoor, I can look at it at any time and almost any angle and can see the time w/o artifiially tilting my arm, or pressing a button. The screen is always on and I get easly 2 days...that is worth a lot to me. My 2 cents....
No matter how you look at it the pro's outweigh the con's.And if you can't live with then just return it and I'll keep mine.
techrider6262 said:
No matter how you look at it the pro's outweigh the con's.And if you can't live with then just return it and I'll keep mine.
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Click to collapse
+1 :good:
---------- Post added at 10:13 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:30 AM ----------
djgodlike said:
The LG P-OLED screen can burn in... Otherwise I possibly had bought it aswell.
I love the sw3 and especially the ambient mode screen and GPS. Its looks like a compromise between a e-ink and LCD..
But maybe it's a kind of different tastes.
Send with Tapatalk on Sony Z2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good point. It's a major flaw of OLED screen. SW3's transflective screen is the perfect choice for ambient mode. It's more readable in bright sunlight. Honestly, transflective LCD is born for outside activities.
I got my first SW3. The screen is too yellow with a small dark spot at the bottom of the screen. I returned it immediately and now the 2nd one is really good.
I disagree. Try taking your smartphone and let the sun shine on the screen (or a bright lamp) and lower the brightness. The whites and blacks will be very similar in color to the SW3's screen. I'm currently using the Odyssey watchface and sometimes it takes a while for the full watchface to turn on so I get the opportunity to seen the ambient screen with the backlight on. Whites are white on it. What I would like is for the ambient light sensor to turn on the backlight at minimal brightness in low light conditions.
my device is very white. It is of course no OLED screen that are over saturated mostly but i definetly see no yellow tint there on white (maybe a really tiny bit more yellowish but really nothing i notice at all in normal use).
And having the watch always on is such a huge + in my opinion. Yes you can't see the screen in low light situations. But honestly.
People are never happy. When the backlight would be always on some people would complain that the watch is always making light in the dark.
(which would annoy me probably more)
If you want correctly displayed colors you would need to calibrate your screens.
Who does that for home usage here?
It's definitely not first gen. I had first gen smartwatch from Sony, this one is ten times better
I would like the option for a low backlight on low light (current low backlight settings are too bright to begin with). I suppose that's what custom ROMs/root apps are for.
I like it on mine. The default faces are pretty bad on it in ambient mode, but I built ones for it on Facer that make it really easy to read.
vitaminxero said:
I would like the option for a low backlight on low light (current low backlight settings are too bright to begin with). I suppose that's what custom ROMs/root apps are for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure if you had something like this in mind ( http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=57615301 ) ...but I'm using this app and it lets me lower the brightness down to where it's much more comfortable for using my watch in bed at night. The developer is letting us try it out for free until 12/21... but I went ahead and bought it for a buck from the Play Store.
Grown to love ambient mode, except for complete darkness I can read the watch fine.
I have a Gear Live, try to go out in the sun and read the time, this watch no problem.
I purchased Facer, made myself a digital watch face with huge numbers that makes the watch even more visible in direct sun
vitaminxero said:
I disagree. Try taking your smartphone and let the sun shine on the screen (or a bright lamp) and lower the brightness. The whites and blacks will be very similar in color to the SW3's screen. I'm currently using the Odyssey watchface and sometimes it takes a while for the full watchface to turn on so I get the opportunity to seen the ambient screen with the backlight on. Whites are white on it. What I would like is for the ambient light sensor to turn on the backlight at minimal brightness in low light conditions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed! I live in Florida (the sunshine state) and spend lots of time outdoors. Our days are long, it's almost always sunny, and the sun is INTENSE! I got this watch specifically because of this display. Try reading an OLED display outdoors in Florida sun. Even my Note4 with its high-brightness outdoor mode is barely readable. Yet my SW3 is clear as day, with or without the backlight. Yes, it definitely doesn't look as pretty indoors as the OLED screens, but for my use its perfect. Not like I'm watching movies on it or anything. I'm glad Sony decided to carry over the transflective tech from the SW2...it was a bold move but it's one of the things that sets this product apart. If you don't like it, there are plenty of competing products on the market.
I just wish there was a way to disable the backlight under any ambient light conditions, like my SW2. One of the firmware updates for the SW2 introduced a smarter backlight that stayed off, even when in use, when there was enough ambient light, like outdoors. While it makes no difference in appearance, it helps conserve battery.
Calvin Gross said:
+1 :good:
---------- Post added at 10:13 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:30 AM ----------
Good point. It's a major flaw of OLED screen. SW3's transflective screen is the perfect choice for ambient mode. It's more readable in bright sunlight. Honestly, transflective LCD is born for outside activities.
I got my first SW3. The screen is too yellow with a small dark spot at the bottom of the screen. I returned it immediately and now the 2nd one is really good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Transflective screens are also installed on all Garmin outdoor standalone GPS: if you want a well readable screen on EVERY situation you need a transfective.... NOT a AMOLED.
Amoled is much contrasted and wonderful on artificial light or on low natural light, but is a pain during summer outdoor activity (and need maximum power consumption to be barely readable)
heavyhms said:
Transflective screens are also installed on all Garmin outdoor standalone GPS: if you want a well readable screen on EVERY situation you need a transfective.... NOT a AMOLED.
Amoled is much contrasted and wonderful on artificial light or on low natural light, but is a pain during summer outdoor activity (and need maximum power consumption to be barely readable)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The transflective display is one of the big selling points of this watch if you ask me. It's visible in pretty much any light except very low. I don't have to turn the backlight on to see it (saves battery) and it's viewable in direct sunlight. This is a huge plus for anyone taking this thing out for runs or bike rides. I'm a long distance runner and use this watch exclusively for tracking and music, it works great!
The screen on the Sony Smartwatch 3 is the best, hands the fak down!! Always on and viewable, just as watch suppose to be.
Its comical sporting a watch thats turned off until you put it up in front of your grill to turn ON...gayness to the fullest.

How's everyones screen color/brightness uniformity ?

I had ordered OP3 on the day of launch and got it the next day. After using the phone for about 5 days, I noticed that the top part of the phone had a bad pink tint which was clearly noticeable on White and Grey backgrounds at any brightness. I sent the phone back for replacement and got a new one few days back. The phone looked almost perfect and have been using it for around a week now. Yesterday I bumped on another thread in a forum when I saw a peculiar screen uniformity issue in only one particular shade of Grey.
Steps to reproduce the issue
1) Open the below link in Chrome in a dark room.
http://www.nullabletype.co.uk/static/styles/blah2.html
2) Reduce the brightness to just above the minimum brightness (5-10%) with adaptive brightness turned off.
3) Go to Display settings --- Turn on Night mode --- Increase the slider below to the maximum.
4) Scroll to the 3rd image (the one after Black)
5) Mine has uneven brightness. Some part of the screen is darker than others.
6) Increase the brightness to say 25-30%. Everything looks uniform.
7) Scroll to other images (other shades of grey) and no screen uniformity issues at any brightness.
Now, I am not sure if I should send this back again. I don't use such brightness levels even in night and I don't see any screen uniformity issues in any other brightness levels or shades. I also searched in internet and found similar issues being reported in Nexus 6P, S6, S7, etc in Reddit, xda, etc. There are people who have RMA'd their devices 5-6 times without much luck. From what I have understood till now, AMOLED's are not really perfect in displaying Grey at extremely low brightness. Or may be, its due to the current software targeting the NTSC Gamut ? Anandtech recently said that sRGB update (coming in 3.1.4) has made considerable improvements in Greyscale accuracy.
Before I even think of sending the phone for 2nd replacement, I would like to know how's the screen uniformity with others here.
I did the screen test the moment I got the phone everything turned out good, I was really worried after reading the reviews on the net about the screen. But it seems like only handful of people are facing the problem.
Can you please let me know how you tested it ? I too had tested it on Day-1 since this is the second OP3, using "Screen Test" app and everything looked good. Only one particular shade of gray at low brightness creates this problem.
Not exactly 'real life' usage?? Haha
Looks fine on mine. Uniform grey across the whole screen.
Yeah I definitely have the same uneven brightness on the dark grey on the right side, it's even visible on the notification drop down. Like you, I'm wondering if it's something that can be fixed, or something I should bother RMAing, am I just gonna have the same thing again? It's strange, it looks like uneven backlight but there is no backlight.

Green tint on dark background low brightness

Man I hate OLED lottery.
Does anyone else have this issue? It's something similar to this:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-7t/help/green-tint-issue-oneplus-7t-t3986231
I'm debating if I should exchange it or just keep it, it's only noticeable at low brightness
vwite said:
Man I hate OLED lottery.
Does anyone else have this issue? It's something similar to this:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-7t/help/green-tint-issue-oneplus-7t-t3986231
I'm debating if I should exchange it or just keep it, it's only noticeable at leow brightness
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same effect in original Youtube app. It is just a bad background gradient in the application. Don´t blame the phone....
When I open Messenger with black background and grey status bar at the top of the app in the same brightness level, there is no greenish effect.
I am also having uniformity issues. Very noticeable, unfortunately. As there are no 512GB Ultras available anyway ATM, O will just have to live with it for the moment. Maybe I get used to it...
buddy66 said:
I have the same effect in original Youtube app. It is just a bad background gradient in the application. Don´t blame the phone....
When I open Messenger with black background and grey status bar at the top of the app in the same brightness level, there is no greenish effect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mm weird, I see it in every single app with dark grey background, even in settings (w/Dark mode on), the bleeding is a lot bigger from the top right corner.
EDIT: Just checked the messenger app (FB messenger) and background is completely black so most pixels are off except for the letters and gray search bar but bleeding wouldn't be noticeable.
vwite said:
mm weird, I see it in every single app with dark grey background, even in settings (w/Dark mode on), the bleeding is a lot bigger from the top right corner.
EDIT: Just checked the messenger app (FB messenger) and background is completely black so most pixels are off except for the letters and gray search bar but bleeding wouldn't be noticeable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've just checked it with Gmail since it is also a Google application and you can notice the bleed when the lights in the room are turned on and I try to cover the top of the phone to see it. After turning the lights off, whole app is equally gray so in my opinion it is just an optical illusion. If I recall well the AMOLED displays use some kind of dimming (tinkering with the frequency) in order to reach a lower point of the brightness that is not noticeable for human eye. Probably this can be seen when covering a gray part of Google apps in a room that has another not so bright light source.
buddy66 said:
I've just checked it with Gmail since it is also a Google application and you can notice the bleed when the lights in the room are turned on and I try to cover the top of the phone to see it. After turning the lights off, whole app is equally gray so in my opinion it is just an optical illusion. If I recall well the AMOLED displays use some kind of dimming (tinkering with the frequency) in order to reach a lower point of the brightness that is not noticeable for human eye. Probably this can be seen when covering a gray part of Google apps in a room that has another not so bright light source.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I made a picture. It is showing a 5% gray test pic and supposed to be uniform. It is easy to see and I was kind of shocked when instantly noticing it the first time I was using it in the dark. Settings and many parts of the dark one UI are using grays in that range.
Anybody else? If it is rare, it will be worth pushing for an exchange.
corwin_amber said:
I made a picture. It is showing a 5% gray test pic and supposed to be uniform. It is easy to see and I was kind of shocked when instantly noticing it the first time I was using it in the dark. Settings and many parts of the dark one UI are using grays in that range.
Anybody else? If it is rare, it will be worth pushing for an exchange.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did the same test, I'm attaching a picture of my Note 10+ and the S20 Ultra side by side. Uniformity seems a lot better on the note 10+, however on white background the Note 10+ turns more red when I slightly tilt it while the S20 Ultra seems to shift colors a lot less and still white overall.
Still not sure if it's worth the hassle to return.
Ok, the fact, that it looks very much like mine can be good and bad ?
Could you please check, if is different at 60Hz? For me, it is clearly different.
corwin_amber said:
Ok, the fact, that it looks very much like mine can be good and bad
Could you please check, if is different at 60Hz? For me, it is clearly different.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh wow, you're right! I set it to 60 hz and QHD+ and uniformity on the gray test got noticeable better, still some green on top right corner and around the punch hole but noticeable less. I love reaaally 120 hz during normal use though.
Thanks for confirming, same here. I wonder, if this is something, that can be fixed in software... And if the rumoured 'dynamic refresh raze' update might change things.
Could please note people check their Ultras displays?
Same here with my s20 more visible at 12hz refresh rate with dark theme
Damn it, ok, then I really hope that it is fixable... Weird.
I am using smiled displays since Symbian Nokias, never had one, where I noticed it so much.
I remember all the Mate 20 Pros with LG screen had this issue buy way worse in some cases
https://www.google.com/search?q=mat...JtXpfSDsL9sQXomrbgDQ&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS731US731
In some cases they were normal during the first days but the problem evolved until the display was unsusable in low light conditions, hope the same won't happen to our phone during the next weeks.
yeah I don`t have this issue I did the screen test in Gmail and download the app that does all the different colors including gray, at the lowest brightness and at other levels of brightness at 120hz its all uniform.
2003vstrom said:
yeah I don`t have this issue I did the screen test in Gmail and download the app that does all the different colors including gray, at the lowest brightness and at other levels of brightness at 120hz its all uniform.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine is most noticeable at around 35-40% brightness and with 120 hz but still noticeable with 60 hz while on the note 10+ I can't see any green at all at any level of brightness. I think it's a quality issue and variation of OLED screens but not sure if it would count as "defective". Samsung doesn't do exchanges so it would be a pain to return everything and recorder without the promotions and reservation/pre-order credits. Ugh not sure what to do yet.
EDIT: Btw I tested with gmail and didn't notice the green in the app since it's light gray but as soon as I drop down the notification panel (w/dark mode on) the green is immediately noticeable. It's only with very dark gray that lookd almost black which is what Samsung use for all their apps (settings, calculator, messages, etc.) when dark mode is on. I wish they used true black so pixels were completely off like with facebook messenger.
I am also unsure what to do. I have to say, however, that this is the device that gives me the most uncertainty ever. For this opportunity price I want a good to perfect display. @vwite Don't you think that the dark grays are too bright as well? It wouldn't be so visible otherwhise. I also sent my picture to the 'write the CEO' address and a pledge to be aware of the issue:
https://www.samsung.com/uk/info/contactus/email-the-ceo/ (example: UK)
I will try checking in a store, which will be totally hard because of the light there. Maybe I will just order another one... Or a plus ?
Made another picture 'for the CEO' :silly: and will also attach the source image I showed on screen. To replicate:
- 25% brightness
- Show 5% picture in a dark room
- made picture with an S10+ on full auto
corwin_amber said:
Made another picture 'for the CEO' :silly: and will also attach the source image I showed on screen. To replicate:
- 25% brightness
- Show 5% picture in a dark room
- made picture with an S10+ on full auto
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! Please let me know what they say.
Actually I ordered an S20+ now and will most likely just give the Ultra back in the first 2 weeks. Yes, it is a pain, but I really can not stand the screen as is. I am even putting it in its box before I have the plus and using my S10+ in the meantime - the green tint is driving me a little nuts.
I am having a hard time justifying the thickness and weight for a feature I hardly use (amazing zoom) while having an inferior main camera at the same time (focus issues).
i noticed this issue too on my 20+
it seems to be worse some days less bad other days
it also is very dependable on how much ambient light is around - eg is much more noticeable in dark rooms
and yes is an issue with Samsung dark mode that isn't true black but some dark greyish
other then this - all other colours look amazing = so not sure if the screen itself is defective
I do hope there will be a software update that will fix this or make it less visible

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