Database Users

screen flickering

got this phone about a month now and its amazing...but there is one thing that i just keep bugging me....its like that i can see screens refresh rate! mostly noticeable on gray area of the pic/anything else, weather screen for example, where goes from lighter to darker scale. cant describe it preciselly, it hard to notice if u dont look carefully, its like that brightness is shaking, waving or whatever. i didnt notice it before(maybe i didnt pay atention) but since i did its just iritating....and im starting to worry seriously. help pls

Im looking at mine and i gotta say i dont see the same. Is it possible you have auto brightness on? (settings, sound display, brightness) Under certain lighting conditions (fluorescent) ive noticed it rapidly change from one brightness level to another and back.

nah, it has nothing to do with brightness settings...its just like refresh rate

samsung vibrant pixel marks

There seems to be an issue with the super amoled screen. Its not a biggy as of yet. It seems if you have something on the screen for long periods of time it will wear the pixels out. My example....if you go on a white screen in landscape, the look where the status bar usually is (where it says samssamsun) you can see a fainted image of the status bar and a collage of times, battery and signal (i assume from always changing). U cant really see it and sometimes i wish i couldnt. Small flaws like this upset me. My phone isnt rooted (no screen shots) if you have a vibrant or galaxy s. Could you text and see if this is a product wide issue. Thank you for reading please leave comments.

Don't see that on my phone?

uhh, a screen shot wouldnt show burned out or worn out pixels dude.

So I ran the flashlight application, held up the screen, tried looking at different angles, and couldn't find one anomaly.

You should trade it in for a new one.

did the same thing with the flashlight app, nothing shows up. this dude is on crack.

turbosix said:
did the same thing with the flashlight app, nothing shows up. this dude is on crack.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe he just has a lemon?

I can attest to this. I see it after just booting up and going from the lock screen to the desktop. I can see the faint outline of the white numbers from the time on the lockscreen on my GenieWidget on my desktop at the top of my homescreen(widget has grey background). It seems to dissappear though.

I have some when using color flashlight I see marks where the time is. It is very light but I see it. Tmobile is replacing it now. Lol
Sent from my Samsung Vibrant

Call button images burned into the the screen?

Hi
not sure if anyone else has noticed this but it seems that the call end button, the button to view the dial pad and the button to view speaker options are burned into my screen!!! viewing in most apps it is not noticable but if you open internet explorer and go to a new page without loading a website the images of the buttons and very visiable in a brownish color I have had my focus since it was released in the US, I have also checked my wifes focus and it also has this burned into her screen.. Has anyone else noticed this?

Yes, I have the call tile, message tile, and the little circle/arrow burned into my screen. As you said, it's only visible on light colored screens, but it is visible. Unfortunately, unlike the temporary burn-in on new plasma tvs, this burn-in will not go away.
If you want to see something really bad, go up to the at&t store and check out the Focus that's on display. The Focus at my local at&t store looks horrible. I can't imagine anyone wanting to buy that phone if they saw that display model...
edit: by the way I love your weather app, I have had a few problems with it over the time i've used it, and you have always been fantastic with your support. Thanks!

Are you using blue tiles? I heard Blue OLEDs burn out faster than other colors and changed my tiles to green.

I have been using the brown almost exclusively; occasionally I'll go with blue, green, or lime, but the brown just looks the best to me.

jmerrey said:
Yes, I have the call tile, message tile, and the little circle/arrow burned into my screen. As you said, it's only visible on light colored screens, but it is visible. Unfortunately, unlike the temporary burn-in on new plasma tvs, this burn-in will not go away.
If you want to see something really bad, go up to the at&t store and check out the Focus that's on display. The Focus at my local at&t store looks horrible. I can't imagine anyone wanting to buy that phone if they saw that display model...
edit: by the way I love your weather app, I have had a few problems with it over the time i've used it, and you have always been fantastic with your support. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for the comment. on to your screen you have the actuall tiles burned into your screen? wow i only have the call end and function buttons burned i think its related to having my display on bright i took it off the automatic.

It's actually not the tile, it's the icon inside the tile that is burned in, but it's only visible on white screens. It's still quite annoying. As soon as the hd7s is out I'm going to compare screens, if the slcd is close to the samoled then i'm jumping ship I think...
and yeah my screen is on bright (not automatic) also. I think my problem is that I have the time out set to 5 minutes, and I never locked it myself

jmerrey said:
It's actually not the tile, it's the icon inside the tile that is burned in, but it's only visible on white screens. It's still quite annoying. As soon as the hd7s is out I'm going to compare screens, if the slcd is close to the samoled then i'm jumping ship I think...
and yeah my screen is on bright (not automatic) also. I think my problem is that I have the time out set to 5 minutes, and I never locked it myself
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Based on HTC's latest track record with the Desire HD and Inspire 4G, make sure you analyze the viewing angle of the HD7-S. HTC has said it will have a Super LCD but, according to an answer they gave to a customer complaining it wasn't true S-LCD tech, the display will likely be what HTC is calling "Super" LCD...meaning it is their name for the super-sized display...and having nothing to do with true S-LCD tech.
If the viewing angle isn't as good as the iPhone 4 or Focus...or other SAMOLED/AMOLED equipped devices...then it isn't the higher-tech display but just an ordinary non-TFT LCD.

Super AMOLED is a great screen. But the pixel life span is still way short. The Blue pixels are the shortest. The old stats are 2000 to 4000 hours. New information point it around 10000 to 14000 hours. But Samsung didn't release any spec on this.
You should always keep the screen dim and keep it on as short as possible. Reportedly use a red theme will not only preserve blue pixels but also prolong battery life.

No burn in here. I have the phone set to turn off screen within 30 seconds, and have always used Lime colour tiles since it matches the Xbox Live tile.

Just a follow up on this issue, and possible a "what not to do" post. The burn in on my screen is getting worse. On a white screen, I can now see the phone icon, message icon, small circle/arrow, the word calender, and my google mail icon. I have the screen set to time out after 30 seconds, and I have the brightness set to high (not auto).

Should I Switch My S4 for Another One?

I got my S4 last week and it's great. This one doesn't have any lag, or at least not anything that concerns me. However, it does have screen issues, especially with the light adjustment. Sometimes the screen will randomly go full brightness for a second and then go back to normal, I notice this when accessing messaging sometimes. I know it also does this for Instagram, but it is suppose to do that.
Now, sometimes it seems like it does a colorshift. the screen will appear less blue and more yellow. It did this when I was accessing the facebook messenger app once and maybe another one. I might be making this up, but it just seems like the color changes ever so slightly. Also, once in a blue moon when it is adjusting screen brightness, all these vertical black lines appear for a microsecond on certain parts of the screen, it seems like an even distribution of lines. Reminds me of something old game boys might do.
I am very happy with the phone though, and I don't want to switch it if I don't have too. However, if another version might not have these issues, I want to switch ASAP, I only have a week left to swap for a new one. After that, my 14 days are up and they said they would only give me refurbs. :[

Do it.
I'm stuck with a defective screen 16GB because the 32GB did not come in on launch day which was my last day to return.
My only option at this point is to get another 16GB that's refurbished from warranty.
The irony in all this is that I manage the kiosk where I purchased the phone on my personal account.
My employees' phones and demo don't have the same screen issues I have.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda premium

There is a setting in accessibility that called color adjusment mess with that and see if that helps it
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda app-developers app

I will check out the settings. The events that this glitches happen are rare, but it has only been a week and they have happened numerous times. The auto lighting adjustment sucks, times when it should be bright it's not. Plus the black line stuff that happens sometimes. If all of them experience this I dont want to trade in for another one. I don't want to risk trading my working phone for one that won't work so well.

DuffmasterFresh said:
I will check out the settings. The events that this glitches happen are rare, but it has only been a week and they have happened numerous times. The auto lighting adjustment sucks, times when it should be bright it's not. Plus the black line stuff that happens sometimes. If all of them experience this I dont want to trade in for another one. I don't want to risk trading my working phone for one that won't work so well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would swap it if I were you.. I came from the HTC one because of repeated problems and switched to the s4... I've only had it a few days now but have only experienced some lag (fixed by tweaking settings) and the auto brightness is a little slow to adjust sometimes (I've always though this about all my Samsung devices).. But no color changing or bars appearing.. Just my 2 cents..
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda app-developers app

that is partially due to the type of color meter and ambient light sensor type (should be a 40-something segment black and white unless my info on the sensor specs are off. i believe apple has designed a proprietary multisegment rgb meter for theirs). b/w meters get lumens correct, but not perceived brightness (human eye is not the same as a sensor).
the color changing issue you are having may be due to the display mode being set on auto (start, settings, display mode) and under lighting that the sensor cannot correctly meter for (fluorescent lights flicker at the same hertz as your AC current, and are actually pretty dim and WAY off for color balance, so that SHOULD throw the sensors off continuously, which would lead to auto brightness hunting and inaccurate selection of the 'correct' color mode).
try turning auto brightness off and color mode to professional photo or movie (i use move as its very flat and closer to real colors). there ought to be a way to trick the ambient brightness sensor to sample and average at a faster rate, and ramp up/down more smoothly, but i cant code for android otherwise i would have been working on one.
i work in tv/film industry on the sensor/lighting side btw. if the issue goes away, turn on auto brightness and check it out under NON FLUORESCENT lighting. if its gone, it was probably the display mode changing along with auto brightness.

Please read forum rules before posting
Questions and help issues go in Q&A
Thread moved
Thank you for your cooperation
Friendly Neighborhood Moderator

Slade8525 said:
that is partially due to the type of color meter and ambient light sensor type (should be a 40-something segment black and white unless my info on the sensor specs are off. i believe apple has designed a proprietary multisegment rgb meter for theirs). b/w meters get lumens correct, but not perceived brightness (human eye is not the same as a sensor).
the color changing issue you are having may be due to the display mode being set on auto (start, settings, display mode) and under lighting that the sensor cannot correctly meter for (fluorescent lights flicker at the same hertz as your AC current, and are actually pretty dim and WAY off for color balance, so that SHOULD throw the sensors off continuously, which would lead to auto brightness hunting and inaccurate selection of the 'correct' color mode).
try turning auto brightness off and color mode to professional photo or movie (i use move as its very flat and closer to real colors). there ought to be a way to trick the ambient brightness sensor to sample and average at a faster rate, and ramp up/down more smoothly, but i cant code for android otherwise i would have been working on one.
i work in tv/film industry on the sensor/lighting side btw. if the issue goes away, turn on auto brightness and check it out under NON FLUORESCENT lighting. if its gone, it was probably the display mode changing along with auto brightness.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had no idea the S4 had these options. I guess I am used to my Atrix which didnt do much. I went in and adjusted the settings. The auto screen brightness never really did a good job, I feel that it is way too dim in situations where it should be brighter. I will text your advice the next week and see what happens. If I still get issues, I will return it as I have one week left of my 14 days. Thank you very much for the excellent advice!

DuffmasterFresh said:
I had no idea the S4 had these options. I guess I am used to my Atrix which didnt do much. I went in and adjusted the settings. The auto screen brightness never really did a good job, I feel that it is way too dim in situations where it should be brighter. I will text your advice the next week and see what happens. If I still get issues, I will return it as I have one week left of my 14 days. Thank you very much for the excellent advice!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no problem; the auto brightness on the GS4 is only slightly better than the Atrix 4G (had one too), and same as the GS3. The color mode thing (which is awesome; closer to real life colors versus waaaay oversaturated screens on most phones. also check power saving settings.
also see this thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=41616076#post41616076

Well, I have not seen those black lines since I turned off auto brightness and turned off the screen automatically doing it's own color adjustments. I will turn these back on to see if I can duplicate the issue. I do feel that I have more lag now, but I could just be paranoid.

OK, when I am using my Facebook Messenger App, sometimes these black lines appear horizontally across the screen on low brightness. However, sometimes they dont. I dont want to call them black lines, but maybe I should say they are ghostly tv lines that are barely noticeable. Ideas?

Could someone explain the defective screen issue?, mine looks great...

The phone works great most of the time and is totally useable, the only issue is that sometimes it does these weird things as I have explained. Tomorrow is the 14 day mark, so I am having a hard time deciding if I should switch for another one just in case, or assume all of this is normal and hope the phone lasts me 2 years.

DuffmasterFresh said:
The phone works great most of the time and is totally useable, the only issue is that sometimes it does these weird things as I have explained. Tomorrow is the 14 day mark, so I am having a hard time deciding if I should switch for another one just in case, or assume all of this is normal and hope the phone lasts me 2 years.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could possibly be a GPU issue. Have you had any problems playing heavy duty 3d games?
Sent from my GT-N7100

No problems playing the Iron Man 3 game, everything seems fine.
It seems like any time the keyboard is pulled up, the screen shifts color to something more yellow. all of the keys go from a nice grey to a off grey yellow tint color. During this transition, I can literally see the screen transition as weird lines appear for a fraction of a second, like switching channels on an old TV. I tried recording this on my DSLR 1080P camera but it could not pick up the color change visibly. I might try again. It does this on Google Chrome, Facebook Messenger, Snap Chat even. sometimes it color shifts even when the keyboard is not involved. I have the auto adjustments on the screen off and the color set to Standard Mode.
The ATT store said I am a day out of my 14 day limit and there is nothing they can do. They said I have to talk to warranty and see if they will be nice enough to send me a new one. I dont want a refurb, last time that happened, I went through 4 of them. I talked to ATT support and they said they would extend my 14 days another 3 days but the ATT store said I was out of luck for an exchange for a new phone.

So no one elses screen color shifts to yellow when the keyboard pops up? Mine does this now all the time, mainly in low light. It might do it in all light situations but in sunlight I prolly just can't see it. It's incredibly annoying because the screen itself wacks out every time it does it.

Screen brightness settings?

I came from a Nexus 5 and had to always leave my screen brightness on about 1/3 in order to preserve battery. After playing with my 6P for over a month, I feel like the battery can handle a brighter setting (with my usage). But, I have concerns about burn-in if I put the setting too high since this is an AMOLED panel.
What brightness settings are you using and have you had any issues with burn-in?

I will get this started. I first started by activating the Adaptive Brightness under the display settings.
It makes the screen dimmer - to my eyes even though it sets the overall brightness to exactly half way.
I thought my whites looked somewhat grey at that setting so I turned it off and put my screen back down to 1/3 (LOL) and I am pleased with the results - especially at night as the whites look whiter.
anything past half at night burns in my retinas much less the screen.
I have not noticed any less Screen on time. I still get about 4.5 - 5 hours until it hits 15%. This is with location turned on and email push. I don't use twitter, facebook or any of those social apps the young people are using these days.

Is there an easy way to dim the screen to the point where you can't see the picture? I stream the phone in my car, which means it will get hot with charging, screen on, and high usage simultaneously. Since it is an AMOLED screen, it would not allow for screen off like other devices. Seems like without this, burn in would be a big problem for me.

I would think that you could just do the 2 finger swipe to bring it to the default menu. Then set the slider down as low as possible until you can barely see anything. I took a 5 hour drive today with my Nexus 6P with the girlfriend and had it plugged in for at least 2 hours at a time. My phone did not get really warm while either plugged or when running on battery.
Also I have enabled the System UI Tuner and now my phone screen only stays on when plugged into the power source if I select "stay on when plugged in"

mhughes1966 said:
I would think that you could just do the 2 finger swipe to bring it to the default menu. Then set the slider down as low as possible until you can barely see anything. I took a 5 hour drive today with my Nexus 6P with the girlfriend and had it plugged in for at least 2 hours at a time. My phone did not get really warm while either plugged or when running on battery.
Also I have enabled the System UI Tuner and now my phone screen only stays on when plugged into the power source if I select "stay on when plugged in"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No burn in issues? I would think there is a way to reduce brightness beyond stock but I don't know enough to do that at this point. Perhaps through Xposed it something.

Travillion said:
I came from a Nexus 5 and had to always leave my screen brightness on about 1/3 in order to preserve battery. After playing with my 6P for over a month, I feel like the battery can handle a brighter setting (with my usage). But, I have concerns about burn-in if I put the setting too high since this is an AMOLED panel.
What brightness settings are you using and have you had any issues with burn-in?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had a gnex that I kept on low brightness and refused to get another nexus until battery was straightened out. On my dmaxx, I kept the brightness high and no burn in on the amoled. The 6p isn't as good at battery, despite being huge, but it's good enough. I keep it on 60-100 brightness, using lux to adjust it as needed. No burn in so far