Faulty screen? Vertical smearing on my new Galaxy Nexus

[Guest spaldini]

Just purchased a new Galaxy Nexus a few hours ago from my local O2 shop. (last one in stock, still sealed - i.e. not a return)

I've immediately noticed vertical grey smearing that shows up most at low -> medium high brightnesses and most prominently on white and grey backgrounds.

It's so bad at low brightness that it reminds me of cheap newspaper ink transferring to another page...

Has anyone else seen this with their GN?

Is it like phone launches of the past - some kind of manufacturing-related discolorations that quickly disappear after the first few hours/days?

Having come from the cheap and loveable streak-free amoled San Francisco to a next-gen *premium* screen, seeing such visible artifacts is very unsettling!

[*Update*] Thanks for all the replies, guys. Spoke to O2 in-store today, they'd run out of stock to compare it with, even their demo unit was bust - but I nipped round to my local 3 store, checked their demo handset, and the whites at low brightness looked completely blemish free, so I'll be popping to another O2 that still has stock tomorrow to exchange within my 14 days.

Edited December 10, 2011 by spaldini

[Guest Mklass]

I have the same issue.

[Guest MrPaveL]

I can't comment on design of HW displays, as I'm not educated, however It's probably feature, not an issue. As matter a fact I had same vertical lines on SGS2 and my GN has it as well.

[Guest fa2k]

i have the same lines on the display

[Guest johnboyw]

Yes its called banding. If you turn the brightness right down its more noticible. If you turn up the brightness it goes away. Its supposedly an AMOLED thing. Its how they all are i`m told.

Anyway I wasnt happy with mine so I took it back and exchanged for one that looked better.

[Guest johnboyw]

Oh and by the way i`ve just looked at your photo and thats a really bad one. Mine was slightly better..

[Guest Chris Jenx]

Yeah i have 1 noticeable line, I had to take my device back over a dead pixel. Its just a new large high res display... I image they wont be perfect for a few generations yet. But yeah yours is worst that i have seen. I can only see mine white very low brightness.

[Guest gpou]

Yeah i have 1 noticeable line, I had to take my device back over a dead pixel. Its just a new large high res display... I image they wont be perfect for a few generations yet. But yeah yours is worst that i have seen. I can only see mine white very low brightness.

Same here. Vertical lines are noticeable indoors where automatic backlight is very low. In white backgrounds it;s worst and looks very bad. But i think thats how monitor works. We have to live with this...

[Guest]

same here but it's no issue of the screen itself, its pentile, it is clear that it looks in that way when the backlight is to dark.

U can check by yourself at wich backlight value the stripes will be no more visible.

[Guest spaldini]

Thanks for all of your replies.

I'm going to take it to the shop I bought it from and ask them about the behaviour and possibility of exchange, and maybe check live demo handsets in a few other mobile phone shops if I can find any.

I've contacted Samsung via their website but not expecting much there.

To clarify:

- That photo above was of my worst case white background at minimum brightness

- Streaks on *white* are gone by about 40%-50% brightness

- However, ANY shade of grey is affected - even dark to medium grey when the phone's set to MAX brightnesss.

- Also, if it was intrinsic to AMOLED, why is my cheap AMOLED Orange San Francisco completely blemish free for every grey and white at every brightness? :)

Further investigating with free "Advanced Test Card" app from the android market, looks like the streaks come from the green sub-pixels, green backgrounds are also streaked, red and blue blemish free. So it could be a problem with the new high-res of the screen, as on pentile screens, the green subpixel amoleds are twice as closely packed than red and blue.

[Guest columbo]

I have the same issue. It's NOT all phones. I compared mine to one owned by a member of staff in a local Three store and their's did not have the lines. We checked using the same apps on the same brightness setting. I'm guessing it's due to poor quality control. It was easy to get it replaced.

To anyone else with this problem, I would strongly urge that you report it immediately, preferably within 28 days of having bought the phone. I speak from bitter past experience. :P

[Guest crisdo98]

How good of a screen is available... mine is terrible but I kept trying to tell myself that I'm just being fussy (that was until I found this thread)... have spoken to T-mobs and Carphone Warehouse and they will happily exchange the phone for a new one.

Can someone upload the free Advanced Task Manager so I can install it at the shop on their demo.. preferably shorten to goo.gl or similar.

[Guest Firasco]

I have the same issue. It's NOT all phones. I compared mine to one owned by a member of staff in a local Three store and their's did not have the lines. We checked using the same apps on the same brightness setting. I'm guessing it's due to poor quality control. It was easy to get it replaced.

To anyone else with this problem, I would strongly urge that you report it immediately, preferably within 28 days of having bought the phone. I speak from bitter past experience. :P

Same issue on both our Galaxy Nexus phone. I think 1 is worse than the other.

But if I swap it for another one.. I will probably just gt another one with the same issue... maybe more or maybe less.

What do u think??

[Guest Picarden]

I have the same issue with mine. My friend got one yesterday. His was ok. No banding at all.

I´ve e-mailed Samsung support with pictures. Waiting for their response.

Response came just after i posted this.

Image Link

(Translation of answer: "That´s how it is with that type of screen, but we have forwarded your opinion")

/Picarden

Edited December 16, 2011 by Picarden

[Guest Drawde40599]

I called samsung cause my phone having this issue also, they said it's not normal and should be no such noticeable lines at any light settings,they sent me shipping label s for warrenty to fix.

Edited December 16, 2011 by Drawde40599