A controversy has developed in the Korean press about the performance of Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and S8+ smartphones as some customers are saying that the displays have a reddish tint.
Steve wrote about the detailed report that display quality maven, Ray Soneira, had made on the display on the phone. We got into a dialogue over the issue and Soneira told us that the article is ‘filled with speculation that is pure nonsense’. Soneira said that his tests had shown that when correctly set up, the displays did not show any red tinting, although by playing with the colour settings, he could reproduce the problem and he suspects that this is the cause of the problem.
Although there had been speculation that the use of a new ‘deep red’ OLED material or the particular configuration of the ‘pentile’ pixel configuration could have caused a problem, Soneira dismissed this idea as ‘nonsense’.
Analyst Comment
Samsung responded to this topic by saying that there would be a software update that will change how the colour settings are controlled. It also told those that were having trouble to visit a service centre.
In a discussion with Soneira, he summarised that there are a lot of variables in the S8/S8+ with four selectable screen modes, colour balance controls, a night mode and auto brightness, all of which can influence the colour. Although he acknowledged that there is always the possibility of some defective panels, some displays that were misadjusted at the factory or software bugs, he saw the controls as the most likely source of the problem.
As the British police are prone to say ‘nothing to see here… move along’.
At the same time, Samsung said that pre-orders for the S8 and S8+ had been over a million in the two weeks before the launch, many more than for previous versions. (BR)
