Related
These are the first impressions of a power user after a week with the Diamond - I hope they might help others to decide whether to get one.
EDIT: Things have moved on since this post, you might want to look at post #39 too (page 4)
Background
I'm a power user but also a heavy day-to-day user as well. I use my phone for calling people, basic PDA functions, OTA google sync, web access, IMAP mail, GPS and also .NET software development. (I'm the author of 'Touch Settings') I used to have an HTC Touch. Before that, an HTC Prophet. Before that, an HTC MDA Compact.. ..you get the idea. I like HTC devices. I've stuck with them all, put up with their frustrations and watched them steadily improve. But this phone felt like the most exciting release yet. A massive leap forward in terms of specs. I was calling up Orange for about a month to find out the ETA. I actually RAN to the Orange Shop in Oxford Street and managed to get their last one in stock at the weekend!
So, one week in, here we go...
Great things
THE SCREEN
My favourite thing is the VGA screen. I cannot believe the difference it makes to the look of the phone, seriously. I could never go back to QVGA again now, this is a major improvement. Just reading the operator name in a slim, Arial-Narrow type font at the top of the screen and not being able to see the individual pixels, this is a true step forward. Everything, repeat, EVERYTHING looks better.
THE CAMERA
The auto-focus camera is nothing short of brilliant. Still rubbish in low-light levels, still no flash, but this is light-years ahead of the last one! I still get a little smirk of delight on my face when I hear it whirring as it focuses ahead of taking a picture!
A FASTER PROCESSOR
Hooray! FINALLY!... 528MHz ...4 times faster than my HTC Touch!...in theory. See below.
THE NEW ADD-ONS
Having GPS, FM radio, a tilt switch, a light sensor and more is fantastic. Teeter, the game, is awesome and will impress every person you know at a party.
THE SIZE
The Diamond is slightly smaller than the HTC Touch as well - easier to fit in a pocket. And it really does look gorgeous. Well done HTC.
Enough praise. Because then there's all this:
The Not-so-great things:
THE SPEED
Pop Quiz. Take your Windows Mobile phone. Tap the start button. Then tap 'Programs'. Does the window flash onto your screen immediately? No. There's a delay, isn't there? And sometimes you can even see it drawing every individual icon, top-to-bottom. On my HTC Touch, after a day of use, this took about 2 seconds.
On the Diamond, with TouchFlo 3D running, it's worse.
Skip this paragraph if you don't want a rant. Seriously, when are Windows Mobile phones actually going to get responsive enough to be useable? Delays when you press buttons, delays when you bring up menus, switch applications, etc, etc. What the hell is this operating system DOING with those 537 mega cycles per second??? Having patiently waited through my last THREE sloooow devices, I was thrilled at the thought of a phone that actually whizzed along... ...but it's a bit like going from XP on a slow computer to Vista on a fast computer - no noticable increase in speed at all. Such a crushing disappointment. My old Nokia could re-draw a screen faster 3 years ago. In this day and age, and with a processor doing a belting 500+ MHz, this should NOT be happening. Things should appear INSTANTLY and react the VERY MOMENT you touch them. I am running out of patience. The iPhone is looking more attactive every day.
TFL3D - INTERFACE
Fantastic to look at, but surprisngly sluggish to use. The more days that pass, the more it's becoming apparent that this interface is more about form and less about function. It's also often lacking in visual feedback; sometimes a button will move when you drag it (main nav bar at the bottom), sometimes not! You just have to swipe and see! Visual feedback is a very important part of user interface design.
COMMON ACTIONS, E.G. CALLING PEOPLE
I feel that, action-wise, some things have (incredibly) got HARDER since my HTC Touch. For example, I used to be able to call my favourite contacts with a swipe and a tap.. ..now it's a swipe, a complicated side-swipey thing, a painstaking wait for the piccies to flip around, and finally a tap. Er, hello? This is the MAIN THING I USE THE PHONE FOR - CALLING PEOPLE! I can't even position my favourite contacts in memorable places; again, a big factor in user interface design, hence why you remember where your icons are on your PC's desktop.
HOME SCREEN (TFL3D again really)
I can't add any custom home screen items! What the hell happened to being able to view my list of things to do? (tasks) Seriously, this is a shockingly bad step back. I know there are some apps to work around this, but I'm doing a review of the stock phone and software here.
THE JOYPAD
This should be renamed the joy-less pad. It's virtually impossible to click the Left and Right buttons without frequently mis-tapping and hitting the 'Back' or 'Hang Up' keys instead. There are no markings, you just sort of have to 'guess' where abouts on the flat screen to tap. The actual target area isn't big enough and I'm getting sick of quitting out of screens when I just want to move right or left. I've got fairly big hands but I'm no elephant.
The ipod-style 'whiz-around' wheel seems promising but when you try it, it's under-responsive and jerky in its movements. I would suggest that's why they've limited the applications that support it by default.
NO MINI SD CARD SLOT
Another step back - from 8Gb storage on my HTC Touch (with a mini SD card) to a paltry 4Gb now. Not enough to put all my music on the phone plus nav software, and no slot for more storage.
GROSS GREASINESS
As other forum users have pointed out, all that swiping on this shiny black device - it looks like the back of a transit van after a minute or so of use.
CONCLUSION
Owning an HTC Diamond is without doubt a step forward from an HTC Touch, but it's a smaller step than you might think. Be prepared for a mixed bag of emotions. Joy at the look of the thing, disappointment when you realise it's slower than you hoped, shouts of happiness when you first play 'Teeter', cries of frustration when the screen turns off randomly during calls or you miss-hit the joypad button or you can't swipe the tiny bit of the screen you're meant to.
After all that, I might surprise you by saying this. I would still say this phone is the best option on the market for the day-to-day user who wants an ultra-portable device that packs enough power to do that bit more than just making calls.
Just 24 hours into owning the phone I did my first ROM flash, from 1.37...1 to 1.37...3 - and this helped the speed somewhat and fixed a memory leak. I also tweaked the registry as much as I could. This has helped too, but the above problems are all still too evident, nothing has really improved enough to make me retract any of them. Keep watching these forums, though, because future ROM updates have the power to make this device much, much better.
That's about it, I hope these comments have helped, or given you something to debate in the space below. I'm going to stick with the Diamond for now. But I wouldn't mind betting I'll have completely disabled TouchFlo 3D before the week is out...
Carlos
I too wonder how long I will last with TF3D. However, the joypad is no problem. Simply use the centre button as a reference point. If you rest part of your thumb in there and press any side of it, then it is easy to navigate. At least I find it easy anyway. Hope that might help you.
carlosp_uk said:
I was calling up Orange for about a month to find out the ETA. I actually RAN to the Orange Shop in Oxford Street and managed to get their last one in stock at the weekend!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you were really a fan you would have made sure you were the first, and didn't have to run
mcwtrekkie said:
If you were really a fan you would have made sure you were the first, and didn't have to run
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I may well have been Orange's first online order! Could not wait.
evilskanker said:
I think I may well have been Orange's first online order! Could not wait.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the spirit!
Has anyone managed to add a UK city to the weather forecast page ? I found it almost impossible to scroll down to the last page, it keeps selecting wrong countries, the only way I see - scroll one-by-one using hardware buttons ....
Yes, I added 3. Scroll with finger, well, more of a flick.
evilskanker said:
Yes, I added 3. Scroll with finger, well, more of a flick.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I've tried about 20 different ways of scrolling with a finger, always end up with a list of south american cities ... (
Comparing to my old Orbit, I would say I have to press harder for screen to react ..
hertc said:
I think I've tried about 20 different ways of scrolling with a finger, always end up with a list of south american cities ... (
Comparing to my old Orbit, I would say I have to press harder for screen to react ..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's at times like these that it would be good to be able to use the wheel for scrolling down.
evilskanker said:
It's at times like these that it would be good to be able to use the wheel for scrolling down.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agree, still remember Sony J7 I had long time ago, all these things were so easy with a wheel ..
hertc said:
Comparing to my old Orbit, I would say I have to press harder for screen to react ..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apparently the Diamond is the first PocketPC device to have a tempered glass screen to make it extra tough. This makes it require a little more pressure than other devices.
But much more resilient to damage, and also nicer on the eye.
wasn't to amazed with the stock rom,
but after some days of usage and flashing the first cooked rom,
i am getting more and more into my new mobile..
Totally agree, using my Diamond for a week after three years on I-mate's.
carlosp_uk said:
CALLING PEOPLE
I feel that, action-wise, some things have (incredibly) got HARDER since my HTC Touch. For example, I used to be able to call my favourite contacts with a swipe and a tap.. ..now it's a swipe, a complicated side-swipey thing, a painstaking wait for the piccies to flip around, and finally a tap. Er, hello? This is the MAIN THING I USE THE PHONE FOR - CALLING PEOPLE! I can't even position my favourite contacts in memorable places;
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just a suggestion -
Speed Dialing.
you can place at least SOME off your favorites in the positions you want.. and then it will just be one long press.. and it will dial.
Phone - menu - Speed Dial.
and of course.. there is always voice dialing.
Turn off TF3D. Ive heard is does HUGE things for the interface speed, and you'll get your tasks back (first thing Im going to do when I get a sprint diamond on this side of the pond)
I agree on almost every point
Not having used touch before, I really can't say anything bad about the navigation. To me it's a revolution, but it's not quite there yet.
The biggest flaw is the biggest asset. Let me explain.
The biggest asset to this device is the screen. I have never liked the screen on any of the QVGA devices I have used (Wizard and Hermes). The VGA screen on the Diamond is fantastic! Crisp and easy to read, even in direct sunlight. The words by HTC "Not too big, not too small" really sums up my feelings about it. However. Screen size is relative to what you display on it. I'm sure a lot of research, testing and effort went in to decide the size of the elements on the TF3D interface. Personally I would have designed it differently.
The main professional reason I choose to use a WiMo is Active Sync OTA (Over-The-Air). Having direct push of Mail, Calendar and Contacts to my device is critical in my profession. This HAS to work, it has to be easy to use, and easy to read. On the Diamond it works fantastically. Lots better than on the Hermes. It takes some getting used to, when you have never used touchflo before.
The touch interface has to be finger friendly, demanding finger sized icons and buttons. Having a small screen required HTC to use the entire screen. That makes you wish for a larger screen, yet a larger screen would require a larger device and I dont want that. Dilemma.
Like you said, the TF3D interface lacks in visual feedback. This could be replaced by tactile feedback. The same technology used in the game TEETER could be used to give me feedback on my actions.
Being a WiMo certified pro I know that the main obstacle for HTC is WiMo itself, or rather the Windows CE it is built upon. Win CE 5 is nowhere near a realtime OS and the switch to Win CE 6 (afaik it will be the foundation for WiMo 7) will be a major leap. CE6 is not a RTOS either, but it has the means to enable truly great applications. I look forward to what Developers will create for WiMo7.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Embedded_CE_6.0)
The only thing I really dislike on my Diamond is the scrollwheel. I clearly does not work like you would expect it to. Unintuitive. And the Up/Down/Left/Right navigation around it is near unusable. Using the touch screen works though so it is not a showstopper for me.
Speed of the interface is good once you have used the cache size tweaks. Not great but good.
I fully agree on the speed comment, 527mhz... but it seems it's different mhz compared to my HTC Herald (P4350).
On my Herald I also have WM6.1, a 200mhz cpu (o'ced to 240 mhz) and everything starts faster!
I've got the 1.37.xxx.3 rom on my Diamond, TF3D disabled and still it's slower.
Very strange indeed.
guys i suggest you all to flash duttythroy's diamond project v2 rom. it increased the usability amazingly.
guys i suggest you all to flash duttythroy's diamond project v2 rom. it increased the usability amazingly. and c'mon guys, our shiny precioussssssss is out some weeks. look what they've done with the kaiser within one year... stay patient and keep being excited for that genius piece of hardware.
carlosp_uk said:
These are the first impressions of a power user after a week with the Diamond - I hope they might help others to decide whether to get one.
Background
I'm a power user but also a heavy day-to-day user as well. I use my phone for calling people, basic PDA functions, OTA google sync, web access, IMAP mail, GPS and also .NET software development. (I'm the author of 'Touch Settings') I used to have an HTC Touch. Before that, an HTC Prophet. Before that, an HTC MDA Compact.. ..you get the idea. I like HTC devices. I've stuck with them all, put up with their frustrations and watched them steadily improve. But this phone felt like the most exciting release yet. A massive leap forward in terms of specs. I was calling up Orange for about a month to find out the ETA. I actually RAN to the Orange Shop in Oxford Street and managed to get their last one in stock at the weekend!
So, one week in, here we go...
Great things
THE SCREEN
My favourite thing is the VGA screen. I cannot believe the difference it makes to the look of the phone, seriously. I could never go back to QVGA again now, this is a major improvement. Just reading the operator name in a slim, Arial-Narrow type font at the top of the screen and not being able to see the individual pixels, this is a true step forward. Everything, repeat, EVERYTHING looks better.
THE CAMERA
The auto-focus camera is nothing short of brilliant. Still rubbish in low-light levels, still no flash, but this is light-years ahead of the last one! I still get a little smirk of delight on my face when I hear it whirring as it focuses ahead of taking a picture!
A FASTER PROCESSOR
Hooray! FINALLY!... 528MHz ...4 times faster than my HTC Touch!...in theory. See below.
THE NEW ADD-ONS
Having GPS, FM radio, a tilt switch, a light sensor and more is fantastic. Teeter, the game, is awesome and will impress every person you know at a party.
THE SIZE
The Diamond is slightly smaller than the HTC Touch as well - easier to fit in a pocket. And it really does look gorgeous. Well done HTC.
Enough praise. Because then there's all this:
The Not-so-great things:
THE SPEED
Pop Quiz. Take your Windows Mobile phone. Tap the start button. Then tap 'Programs'. Does the window flash onto your screen immediately? No. There's a delay, isn't there? And sometimes you can even see it drawing every individual icon, top-to-bottom. On my HTC Touch, after a day of use, this took about 2 seconds.
On the Diamond, with TouchFlo 3D running, it's worse.
Skip this paragraph if you don't want a rant. Seriously, when are Windows Mobile phones actually going to get responsive enough to be useable? Delays when you press buttons, delays when you bring up menus, switch applications, etc, etc. What the hell is this operating system DOING with those 537 mega cycles per second??? Having patiently waited through my last THREE sloooow devices, I was thrilled at the thought of a phone that actually whizzed along... ...but it's a bit like going from XP on a slow computer to Vista on a fast computer - no noticable increase in speed at all. Such a crushing disappointment. My old Nokia could re-draw a screen faster 3 years ago. In this day and age, and with a processor doing a belting 500+ MHz, this should NOT be happening. Things should appear INSTANTLY and react the VERY MOMENT you touch them. I am running out of patience. The iPhone is looking more attactive every day.
TFL3D - INTERFACE
Fantastic to look at, but surprisngly sluggish to use. The more days that pass, the more it's becoming apparent that this interface is more about form and less about function. It's also often lacking in visual feedback; sometimes a button will move when you drag it (main nav bar at the bottom), sometimes not! You just have to swipe and see! Visual feedback is a very important part of user interface design.
COMMON ACTIONS, E.G. CALLING PEOPLE
I feel that, action-wise, some things have (incredibly) got HARDER since my HTC Touch. For example, I used to be able to call my favourite contacts with a swipe and a tap.. ..now it's a swipe, a complicated side-swipey thing, a painstaking wait for the piccies to flip around, and finally a tap. Er, hello? This is the MAIN THING I USE THE PHONE FOR - CALLING PEOPLE! I can't even position my favourite contacts in memorable places; again, a big factor in user interface design, hence why you remember where your icons are on your PC's desktop.
HOME SCREEN (TFL3D again really)
I can't add any custom home screen items! What the hell happened to being able to view my list of things to do? (tasks) Seriously, this is a shockingly bad step back. I know there are some apps to work around this, but I'm doing a review of the stock phone and software here.
THE JOYPAD
This should be renamed the joy-less pad. It's virtually impossible to click the Left and Right buttons without frequently mis-tapping and hitting the 'Back' or 'Hang Up' keys instead. There are no markings, you just sort of have to 'guess' where abouts on the flat screen to tap. The actual target area isn't big enough and I'm getting sick of quitting out of screens when I just want to move right or left. I've got fairly big hands but I'm no elephant.
The ipod-style 'whiz-around' wheel seems promising but when you try it, it's under-responsive and jerky in its movements. I would suggest that's why they've limited the applications that support it by default.
NO MINI SD CARD SLOT
Another step back - from 8Gb storage on my HTC Touch (with a mini SD card) to a paltry 4Gb now. Not enough to put all my music on the phone plus nav software, and no slot for more storage.
GROSS GREASINESS
As other forum users have pointed out, all that swiping on this shiny black device - it looks like the back of a transit van after a minute or so of use.
CONCLUSION
Owning an HTC Diamond is without doubt a step forward from an HTC Touch, but it's a smaller step than you might think. Be prepared for a mixed bag of emotions. Joy at the look of the thing, disappointment when you realise it's slower than you hoped, shouts of happiness when you first play 'Teeter', cries of frustration when the screen turns off randomly during calls or you miss-hit the joypad button or you can't swipe the tiny bit of the screen you're meant to.
After all that, I might surprise you by saying this. I would still say this phone is the best option on the market for the day-to-day user who wants an ultra-portable device that packs enough power to do that bit more than just making calls.
Just 24 hours into owning the phone I did my first ROM flash, from 1.37...1 to 1.37...3 - and this helped the speed somewhat and fixed a memory leak. I also tweaked the registry as much as I could. This has helped too, but the above problems are all still too evident, nothing has really improved enough to make me retract any of them. Keep watching these forums, though, because future ROM updates have the power to make this device much, much better.
That's about it, I hope these comments have helped, or given you something to debate in the space below. I'm going to stick with the Diamond for now. But I wouldn't mind betting I'll have completely disabled TouchFlo 3D before the week is out...
Carlos
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what a crap...
THE SPEED
Put one of the new ROMs on it (Dutty, Walshieau), runs like hell. No delay here!
TFL3D - INTERFACE
Simply switch TF3D off if you don't like it.
And use an existing tool for your today (SPB Mobile Shell ect.).
COMMON ACTIONS, E.G. CALLING PEOPLE
Disable the Diamond dialer, you get your traditional dialer back.
HOME SCREEN (TFL3D again really)
Simply switch TF3D off.
Use an existing tool for today (SPB Mobile Shell ect.).
THE JOYPAD
Get used to it, it works perfect after a few weeks.
NO MINI SD CARD SLOT
Ok, maybe you got a point...
On the other hand: do you really need ALL your music all the time. A sync now and then for other music isn't that hard.
GROSS GREASINESS
Ok, the shiny cover gets greasy. But is't so beautiful,,,
Hey guys and girls,
I got my brand new X1i on an O2 contract today, ordered through the internet.
However, when switching it on, the first thing that stands out is the screen isn't all black. The upper right hand corner fades to like a dull greeny tinge as if its under pressure or something.
After fiddling around with it, it seems to be the backlight as in bright light, the colours all look fine and black is black. This is also the cause if the backlight is put at it's dullest, but it's most noticable when its at it's brightest.
Is this a issue with all Xperias or just mine?
And is this serious and worth contacting O2 about or will it be okay?
BUMP.
Could anyone tell me simply if this is a common problem, if not, I'll ring O2 now.
A quick reply would be nice
I haven't seen it before and I haven't seen it reported before. If you think it looks out of the ordinary, too much to leave it be, you should indeed phone O2.
Cheers, I shall call now
Post a picture so we can compare and lets us know how it turned out, mkay? =]
Heres the best photos I can snap.
The first two don't really show it well, but the third is the best.
Trust me, when you first switch it on and the Sony Ericsson logo appears, the whole screen is black and that corner fades to that dull green colour. It stands out quite a bit, it's also noticable on the Panels screen.
If you have a dark photo showing, it can affect the colours on that too.
For such a pricey phone, I expect it to be flush black across the screen.
(They're big, so I left them as links. I left them big to show the detail)
Photo 1
Photo 2
Photo 3
I just got off the phone to O2, they get the phone from a third-party so I am expecting an email from them. The woman on the other end said, most likely they will swap it for a new handset at the door, or take it for repairs....but it will say in the email.
Ah, classic case of backlight bleeding. Send it back and you'll get a new one.
Well, hopefully, before next week is out I shall. Just waiting for that elusive email, they said I should have received it by Monday.
Thank you for you're help, I appreciate it
There was a thread on this, some have it too.
I have it as well, black light bleeding. I dont really mind it much since I rarely notice it.
Ive decided to leave it alone since my X1 is unlocked and it'd be a massive hassle to send it away to SE.
I'm pretty sure its common. Even high end LCD TVs have the problem sometimes.
I had it on my first x1 (which I dropped and got a new through insurance), and I've also got it on my new x1.
However, I barely notice it, so I'm okay with it
I wouldn't mind so much if it was white but its a green colour, thats more annoying.
It's gonna get sorted anyway, most likely, they'll swap it at the door for a new one.
I was looking for information about the SPB mobile shell and found this thread.
I also have this issue with the top right corner of the screen, especially when I switch the phone on (on the black startup screen with "experia" written in white).
After startup, I don't really notice the issue since this area of the screen is almost never black (except when switching panels and sometimes when watching videos, but it's hardly noticeable). I'm now wondering if I should return it or not, I got the phone on tuesday and already had to do a hard reset (and reinstall everything I had just installed before) because I couldn't send or receive text messages! I really hope this won't get any worse...
(My phone is a french version, and my carrier is SFR)
Ive had the same issue w/ one...i just returned to BestBuy yesterday and now the replacement is also doing this as well...1 day later
Me too, bugging me like crazy, but seems to be quite common.
- Anthony
Mine has it too but its really not a big deal. I've only noticed it on bootup.
Yeah, don't mind it on startup - who watches it start up?
But I notice it when using the camera (in the black border) and
when switching panels, that's where it's annoying.
- Anthony
yeaa, i got the same problem too. Went over to the sony ericsson centre and they don't have a clue what it was. They said they'll look into it, and thats it. No replacement.
Not happy
i live in indonesia by the way..
Mine too has the issue. Both upper corners are bleeding greenish. It's obvious when the screen is black, not only on start-up, all the time. For example, look at it when playing a movie trailer with really black scenes, it's there.
It has to do with the pixels, not the back-lighting, from what I understand of TFT functionality.
Remember the dead pixels issue on TFT screens? Well, the dead pixel means the transistor of at least one color out of the 3 (RGB) is dead, either locked closed or locked open (anyway, not being able to modulate the light intensity of the subpixel color), so the color is either missing or present at a fixed value, the overall color of the pixel not being the required one. In this case is an issue of mismatch of transistor parameters.
The GREEN pixels do not close completely to block the light. Being a progressive issue from one area to another, it's clear that the thin film transistors are progressively mismatched by the process errors. This is process error in the TFT technology (I work in microelectronics). The process masks can get errors (not the case here), or the masks are ok but the etching process is not properly adjusted. In my Xperia the bleeding gets progressive towards the corner, having a starting point like a center from where it spreads. That is because the etching involves chemicals and liquid flow to spread and cleanse those chemicals. My opinion is that the flow in the case of this particular TFT screen model is from the bottom to the upper side, where the upper corners are the bleeding areas for the chemicals and the effectiveness of cleansing is lower, combined with surface tension of the liquids. The transistors get progressively mismatched in parameters (beta factor) and since they all get driven with the same signal, they block the light less than the good ones. Nothing to do about it. Theoretically it might be possible to map out those pixels and provide a corrected voltage for the mismatched transistors (correction table in the GPU DAC ROM), but this is like tooth extraction through the ass hole (or replacing the spark plugs through the exhaust pipe). It's simpler to just get the ****ing screen right. Sorry guys, we are out of luck here. It seems the 800x480 3inch TFT's are not yet top quality, or at least the ones used by SE. I'm really frustrated that the manufacturer used a cheaper screen in a 600-800$ product. This is how a company can loose customers and get the image crumpled.
Hello all. So I LOVE my Samsung Focus S that I purchased shortly after Thanksgiving Day...all except for one problem. My phone seems to dim permanently out of no where and nothing I do will correct it back to it's normal brightness except for restarting the phone. Automatic Brightness is off and the "Auto Display Intensity" in the Extra Settings category is off. Now I don't know if this is something that specific to Windows Phone or Samsung Focus S particularly? I'm going to take a guess and say it's on the Samsung Focus S that exhibits this behavior. I also can't figure out if it's a hardware failure or a software failure. I'm beginning to think it's a specific update that is used to update your "Extra Settings". I don't know at this point. I just want to know if others have this problem.
The 2nd issue is not so much a problem now but a concern. My first Focus S had a VERY HEAVY greenish tint to it that was immediately noticeable at the lightest of viewing angles. To give you an example of how bad it was, my buddy was looking at a picture of oranges he took with his iPhone4, I thought they were lemons from the side. I went to an ATT store near me and noticed the Galaxy S II exhibited this behavior as well but the Focus S on display did not. I quickly concluded it was a defective screen as it was REALLY noticeable. My buddy gave me a call and told me he was at an ATT store across town and noticed it on another Galaxy S II as well. I made the employee take out two brand new Focus S' and chose the best looking one. They both looked identical, although the one on display had an edge over all of them. Thing is, ALL of the ones I've seen have a very slight green/blue tint to them. Is this normal with Super AMOLED Plus? Is this the Gorilla Glass Coating? I love the colors and contrast on this phone but to be honest the brightness and viewing angle leave something to be desired, more-so the viewing angle. Sorry for the long post!
I just looked at some pictures of oranges to test this. They look nice and orange do me. at an angle the entire screen starts to lose its pop. But I would not call it green more so just dimmer. Can't complain with the blacks...if only more sites background was black lol.
at an angle the entire screen starts to lose its pop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would you mind doing me a favor and looking at different viewing angles on a predominantly white screen? Every phone loses it's composure a bit as the viewing angle is more and more off but I've never seen them turn a different hue. Dim a bit like you said? Yes. I looked online to see if anyone else notices this bluish/greenish tint and many do but more notice it on the AMOLED screen though a few did complain about the Super AMOLED Plus. Thank you!
interresting
Ive been running the focus s since it came out and never noticed this "tint" issue...till today. a simple image of pure white, when viewed from above is fine, but as you change the view angle so does the white begin fade into the bluish haze.
now youre all probably going to hate me but i have a titan too. when i pull the exact same image, it does not fade into blue haze. my suspicion is one of two thoughts: a) the super amoled screen samsung uses has this side effect. b) the glass samsung uses creates this effect.
personally its not a deal breaker for me as i really enjoy the clarity of images and color the samgsung has to offer. that said, the titans inability to go true black are more noticable than a slightly bluish white. but thats purely personal prefence.
FWIW, ive tested red, green, and blue matching images. the only difference i see between the two is a decreased viewing angle on the thc in all aspects. screen display differences is the likely cause.
I can see the blue/green from those angles on white screens
kinda ugly actually
still a few days left to return and get the titan....
now youre all probably going to hate me but i have a titan too. when i pull the exact same image, it does not fade into blue haze. my suspicion is one of two thoughts: a) the super amoled screen samsung uses has this side effect. b) the glass samsung uses creates this effect.
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Click to collapse
It's good to see you have a Titan. The Titan is a pretty nice phone. Viewing angles seem quite good and the whites are SUPER bright. It's just the colors and blacks that suffer. Nice to know you can compare them though.
I can see the blue/green from those angles on white screens
kinda ugly actually
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Click to collapse
Hey Alright, I'm not crazy. Heh. I'm going to run to a couple of more ATT stores and see what their display units look like. My buddy just got a GSII and he says he doesn't see it, so I'm going to investigate it as well.
BTW, I spoke to someone at Samsung online and he seemed to think it was "normal" and was caused by a Super AMOLED Plus characteristic. Unfortunately I didn't believe a lick he was telling me.
I'm off to find the perfect display! Wish me luck.
i went back to the store
they want to charge me $35 to restock what I have ^^ - and cant seemed to be talked out of it....
the display Focus S had the same exact issues
as does the GSII/SkyRocket from what I could tell
the Titan's whites make the Focus S whites looks blue - but the Focus S blacks look the Titans blacks look grey
and the color palettes are so radically different - for themes the green on the Titan looks like the lime on the Focus S, and the Titan has nothing that can compare to the green on the Focus S - its ridiculous the difference in the saturation and vividness - I can see what people say about the Titan producing more realistic images - but at the end of the day for most things the Focus S is just better looking, who cares if its accurate?
i imagine using the Titan for a while you would get used to it, but side by side it looks paltry in comparison
to be honest the iPhone display looked pretty good! - just too damned small after using a 4"+ sized display - I could never use something that small after using what I have
So I went to ABT Electronics today and looked at their Focus S. It's funny, all of these places, including the Apple store choose the most PERFECT displays they can find in their inventory to show to the public, when in reality your results can vary greatly. For example, the Focus S at ABT had a whiter/bluer screen than mine in terms of whites. It wasn't a huge difference but it was noticeable. Now I want a new whiter screen. My screen seemed buttery compared to the one I saw. We'll see how successful I am. I know I may sound picky but if I'm going to keep this phone for the next 2 years, I want it to look the way I want it.
I also checked out others with the same 4.3" Super AMOLED Plus and I didn't really see much of a green tint to them. In fact one looked yellowish directly and turned whitish on the side. Weird.
OLEd is still a newer technology, compared to LCD - guess there are still some kinks to work out
Yeah, a problem with AMOLED is a slight bluish hint but I don't believe the screen is a PenTile one.
The dimming has been a bit aggressive, I just usually cover the proximity sensor with my hand and let it work again.
Has anyone noticed a flicker (then on) when you unlock the Focus S screen? Sometimes the screen instantly brings up the lock screen sometimes a second after the flicker.
Alright guys. Back to one of the original topics of the Focus S randomly dimming? I think I figured it out. My phone is over heating and the phone is dimming to try and cool it down. No error messages of overheating or anything. I noticed it today when I was playing games on my phone while charging. My phone was pretty warm. Now up until this point, my phone had not dimmed randomly for a week or so, but this morning? BOOM. Dimmed on me. So it hit me. Screen Dimming + Warm Phone = Overheating. I put the phone down on the cold floor to cool down for 10 minutes. Turn the screen back on and guess what? Original Brightness is back.
Either I exchange my phone again or return it all together. I'm in a bind because I can't get the HTC Titan for the same price I got the Focus S for (Free with No Activation).
Has anyone noticed a flicker (then on) when you unlock the Focus S screen? Sometimes the screen instantly brings up the lock screen sometimes a second after the flicker.
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Click to collapse
I have not noticed this at all.
i am in the same boat
almost potentially worthwhile holding out for a Nokia set (perhaps the 900/850)
i actually think I will keep the Focus S to be honest with you
in a year or a year and a half, call up Att and see what they will work for me if I really want to - I have heard lots of success stories about calling them up and getting very discounted phones deals
after revisiting the store - the titan screen looks like **** (IMO except for the whites) compared to the Focus S - and its just too damned big - the Focus S IMO is the perfect size
and all the Android GUI overlays suck ass - so no way I get a droid - and I will certainly not pay $100 for a year old iPhone.
**this fixed mine** random dimming and tinting
Don't throw anything because I just skimmed over the thread before I am responding. I have the Focus S and had that problem. I corrected it by going to "settings>extra settings" and turning off the "Auto Display Intensity" to make it stop adjusting. Unfortunately, that setting defaults to "On" every time the device is restarted. So you have to remember to turn it off. Maybe everybody thought of this, already, and your device does this, anyway, but mine is perfect with this setting off. So, I hope this helps!
matt
livejazz said:
Don't throw anything because I just skimmed over the thread before I am responding. I have the Focus S and had that problem. I corrected it by going to "settings>extra settings" and turning off the "Auto Display Intensity" to make it stop adjusting. Unfortunately, that setting defaults to "On" every time the device is restarted. So you have to remember to turn it off. Maybe everybody thought of this, already, and your device does this, anyway, but mine is perfect with this setting off. So, I hope this helps!
matt
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Click to collapse
I had to use the option in the "Brightness" page under Settings. The option on the Extra Settings page applies only when it is set to a white background.
Hopefully a future update will address this and improve the auto dimming. For now, though, it's set to bright all the time.
U only need to press the power button to let the phone go to sleep, then press power button again and almost immediately the custom brightness u set will be back.
Sent from my SGH-i937 using Board Express
Well the dimming issue hasn't happened to me in quite a while now. I decided to keep the phone. The fact that the display wasn't perfect wasn't enough to make me want to return the phone, especially since I got it for free with no activation fee on a 2 year contract. In the meanwhile, I'm just enjoying it. Funny though, Now that I've got a 4.3" screen, I want MORE. Bring on the 4.7"!
Jibberish18 said:
Well the dimming issue hasn't happened to me in quite a while now. I decided to keep the phone. The fact that the display wasn't perfect wasn't enough to make me want to return the phone, especially since I got it for free with no activation fee on a 2 year contract. In the meanwhile, I'm just enjoying it. Funny though, Now that I've got a 4.3" screen, I want MORE. Bring on the 4.7"!
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Click to collapse
After an Inspire and Focus S, I find the 4.7" display of my Titan too large to easily type in.
jeremyshaw said:
After an Inspire and Focus S, I find the 4.7" display of my Titan too large to easily type in.
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Click to collapse
I honestly only find it more difficult in landscape mode. Portrait mode is awesome though. I can't stop hitting the "a" button when trying to turn on caps lock. It's really annoying.
Jibberish18 said:
Well the dimming issue hasn't happened to me in quite a while now. I decided to keep the phone. The fact that the display wasn't perfect wasn't enough to make me want to return the phone, especially since I got it for free with no activation fee on a 2 year contract. In the meanwhile, I'm just enjoying it. Funny though, Now that I've got a 4.3" screen, I want MORE. Bring on the 4.7"!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Having had 3 Samsung Amoled phones (Galaxy S2, Skyrocket, Focus S) and a SAMOLED (Galaxy Note) I will say that Samsung doesn't display true whites, it's always blueish. As far as the dimming, Go to "Settings" > Exta Settings > Use Auto Display (Turn it off, however; it seems to enable itself after changing the theme from light to dark or vice versa, as well as after a reboot.)
tahpics said:
Having had 3 Samsung Amoled phones (Galaxy S2, Skyrocket, Focus S) and a SAMOLED (Galaxy Note) I will say that Samsung doesn't display true whites, it's always blueish. As far as the dimming, Go to "Settings" > Exta Settings > Use Auto Display (Turn it off, however; it seems to enable itself after changing the theme from light to dark or vice versa, as well as after a reboot.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe all the phones you had, had a SAMOLED + display no? Also, I checked to see if changing the theme from light to dark turns the Auto Display feature back on and for me it does not. As for my dimming issue, it only seems to happen when the phone is plugged in and the battery is a bit warm.
Overall, I like this phone but I also don't. The display is quite delicious really. I've had it on half brightness for a few days now just to see how it looks to me and today I finally put it back to full brightness and the colors really are gorgeous. It's not perfect but I've learned to look past it I guess. Thank you for the reply.
I have the Galaxy S6 ATT with 128 mb. Running stock, rooted, lollipop5.02. Have had it less than two weeks.
Two issues are becoming major. First, the HEAT. This phone gets hotter than any phone I have every had. Sometimes, almost to the point that it is untouchable. I have tried to discern what apps, if any, might be causing this behavior, but without success. The heat seems to come and go relatively randomly; that is, if I set it down for 15 minutes, it will have cooled off and I might not experience the same thing until tomorrow.
Second, and this is equally bothersome. Sometimes when the phone has been on for awhile, and especially if it has gotten warm as described above, the Edge just goes crazy. Pages opening and closing, sliding in and out, keyboard is taken over and types random latters, frequently sending them out in texts. (I've sent many texts that are quite lucid at the beginning, and look like I'm plastered at the end.) Again, a look at 3C Toolbox doesn't show any particular app overutilizing the CPU or anything else that would be apparent to a relative novice like me.
Anyone else experienced this? It's one of those things that is going to be difficult to demonstrate unless it happens when I am right near an ATT store. Any advice will be so much appreciated.
Robert
I've had one of these too on my ATT S6 edge. It's often called "touchscreen ghosting" across different devices that have it. I used to have the OnePlus One which was plagued with these touchscreen ghosting problems. It's exacerbated in high heat environment. You'll find that putting it in the fridge for some time resolves the symptoms immediately. I'd hold out 'til winter and hope they subside on their own.
i was having similar issues. removing my tempered glass helped. im starting to hate this phone. My battery was 66% an hour and a half after i left house today with a full charge. MY gps doesnt ever connect correctly. When using navigation it jumps around and re-routes me constantly. I can't wait to get a nexus 5x and get rid of this junk.
I'm dropping this phone for the Nexus 5x also. I learned my lesson dealing with these phones.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/att-galaxy-s6-edge/help/screen-bright-spot-t3209518
Every amoled screen I had was burned after some time. Mostly on the status bar. Once it was WhatsApp.
This time I want to prevent or delay it as long as possible. What recommendations do you have?
Never understood how people managed with burn ins. Well, stop watching a static picture with 100% brightness for 5hrs in a row is a good start.
i have owned more than a dozen samsung products with amoled screens, never had burn in on one of them. I always keep the screen very bright because my eyesight isnt that great. the one lg amoled phone i owned had terrible screen burn
The factors involved are: heat (ext), brightness (curr), uneven degradation rate of each color (rgb), persistent elements, and age (of panel). If half a screen is black and the other is blue, at max brightness, the blue subpixels are under the most stress. Their decay rate will overshadow the resting blue lights - plus that of green and red.
5yrs from now you're going to look at an all white image. Half of it will look awful.
Thanks guys, but not really helping, are you?
Fall asleep once with your phone under your face and you'll have a burn in your amoled screen. Probably many other ways.
This is a common issue that most people don't even notice.
I get how it happens. I'm looking for ways to prevent it.
Setting a screen timeout is helpful
Had every Samsung for years and never had this, so I've no idea.
Maybe some people don't have a screen timeout and fall asleep sometimes dunno
Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk
Do i remember wrong, but didint Samsung add pixel shifting at least for their launcher elements which stay at same of screen all the time?
ivicask said:
Do i remember wrong, but didint Samsung add pixel shifting at least for their launcher elements which stay at same of screen all the time?
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I don't remember that. I know they had it on their Plasma TVs. I thought the Pixel phones with OLED screens also had it but don't know about Samsung phones. I do think that 99.9% of people that use a phone normally will never experience burn-in for the time they own the phone.
Use full immersive mode to hide the status bar and the top and bottom. Turn off auto brightness because if you leave it on and go in sun the brightness get high.
Screen time out to 15 seconds
Leave the brightness slider 50 percent or less
If you use aod make sure to flip the phone so it turns off when not using it
Use youtube in full screen if you use it a lot
These are my tips as I've had my screen changed 4 times due to burn in on my note 8.now using these methods my screen so far has no burn in
For me it's always was the top status bar that would burn in
But now I should never experience burn in ever again now I've actively tried to avoid it
Everyone I know that swears blind they don't have burn and have never had that issue on any device I immediately grab there phone and look closely on a complety grey background and 100 percent of them have status bar burn in at the top at the very least
No way am I turning stuff off to avoid something I've never seen
900 quid to have to suffer immersive mode utter lols, if I have to did that I'll sell it
Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk
I also honestly don't know what you're talking about. I've had s3, s5, s7, s9 and now to s10. Never had anything of the sort and since s7 I've been using AOD. Nothing happend. For the love of me I can't imagine how you may have had anything wrong with the display....
haircut123 said:
Use full immersive mode to hide the status bar and the top and bottom. Turn off auto brightness because if you leave it on and go in sun the brightness get high.
Screen time out to 15 seconds
Leave the brightness slider 50 percent or less
If you use aod make sure to flip the phone so it turns off when not using it
Use youtube in full screen if you use it a lot
These are my tips as I've had my screen changed 4 times due to burn in on my note 8.now using these methods my screen so far has no burn in
For me it's always was the top status bar that would burn in
But now I should never experience burn in ever again now I've actively tried to avoid it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly, it's always the status bar. I think there is no immersive mode on s10+ yet, but I removed all the icons.
haircut123 said:
Everyone I know that swears blind they don't have burn and have never had that issue on any device I immediately grab there phone and look closely on a complety grey background and 100 percent of them have status bar burn in at the top at the very least
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THANK YOU
I'm pretty sure many think they never had a burn in on their precious amoled screen, but they actually had.
Well they probably aren't looking for it that closely
Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk
lumiden said:
Every amoled screen I had was burned after some time. Mostly on the status bar. Once it was WhatsApp.
This time I want to prevent or delay it as long as possible. What recommendations do you have?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol, sorry to see everyone busting you up on this....because you know, it's always more helpful to give someone a bad time to ensure a post count increment, than to be useful and offer up some insight.
Well, I have had screen burn in occur on 3 different galaxy phones. Not from falling asleep, not from being clueless...but from using my phone with games. 2 were mine and 1 on My wife's..hers occurred from youtube.
I used to play clash of clans tons, got burn in from the smaller stats numbers at the top- over time...But replaced the phone no sweat. Verizon insurance took the phone as a defect, noted as screen image ghosting, no charge. I just didn't realize that it was an issue playing, but it was over time. I think it was an s6. The reps in the store were as surprised as I was that it had occurred.
Different device & model, S7 , but same thing occurred, not in the same game either...This time with clash royale- the towers and little cloud icon burned in from too much playing and too often, apparently. I thought I had been a bit more careful, but i think it was the frequency in which I was playing versus overall time.
This time I simply contacted support in the chat about the ghosting, they replaced it again as a defect, no charge.
My wife's occurred on the s7, hers was the top bar because of YouTube, too much & too often. So, did the same for my wife's phone through Verizon insurance, they replaced as a screen ghosting defect.
After I noted what was going on, she made adjustments, didn't happen again to either of us.
Both of us are on the 10s now and very aware this can occur. So, you just need to make sure you're not on those static images or bars or icons for either long periods or frequent shorter periods...it takes time, but it happens, despite popular misconception.
It is only really noticable on a white background, like when looking at mostly blank new tab in chrome.
On the last device, the S7, I made sure to cut the amount of time spent on static images, especially the games. I still kept the brightness always max during the day, nights it was at the lowest setting.
And yes, I kept my settings the same after the replacement, just made adjustments to my gaming approach. I didn't want to baby the phone screen settings, shouldn't have to. No issues on that one after adjusting my approach.
So, it's certainly possible to avoid and I bet there's many out there that use certain apps for long periods and frequently just do not really notice it may have occurred, even if slightly.. and I'm taking heavy users.
A note app with a clean page or white blank background reveals it, most of the time you're not using that, so ignorance is bliss...and makes It's easier for folks to bust on someone else for asking about screen burn in because they themselves are simply clueless it even remotely occured with them.
Heavy user naysayers, check your old phones, just for the heck of it... and then keep the findings to yourself because no one actually cares about you being right or wrong.
Anyway, it was an inconvenient lesson at the time,for me but good to know and learn from. Didn't cost me much but time, as it just took up time set up the phones again.
I know Samsung isn't too concerned about it or they wouldn't have preinstalled games on the phone (ie. solataire).
Just do your best to adjust your screen settings, like those that mentioned, if you're into that. Or simply adjust your apps/usage habits.
Don't overlook the Digital Wellbeing settings on the S10...that may also help you target certain apps with a timer also. Might be something useful for you.
Hope that helps some.
Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk
sainthooligan said:
Lol, sorry to see everyone busting you up on this....because you know, it's always more helpful to give someone a bad time to ensure a post count increment, than to be useful and offer up some insight.
Well, I have had screen burn in occur on 3 different galaxy phones. Not from falling asleep, not from being clueless...but from using my phone with games. 2 were mine and 1 on My wife's..hers occurred from youtube.
I used to play clash of clans tons, got burn in from the smaller stats numbers at the top- over time...But replaced the phone no sweat. Verizon insurance took the phone as a defect, noted as screen image ghosting, no charge. I just didn't realize that it was an issue playing, but it was over time. I think it was an s6. The reps in the store were as surprised as I was that it had occurred.
Different device & model, S7 , but same thing occurred, not in the same game either...This time with clash royale- the towers and little cloud icon burned in from too much playing and too often, apparently. I thought I had been a bit more careful, but i think it was the frequency in which I was playing versus overall time.
This time I simply contacted support in the chat about the ghosting, they replaced it again as a defect, no charge.
My wife's occurred on the s7, hers was the top bar because of YouTube, too much & too often. So, did the same for my wife's phone through Verizon insurance, they replaced as a screen ghosting defect.
After I noted what was going on, she made adjustments, didn't happen again to either of us.
Both of us are on the 10s now and very aware this can occur. So, you just need to make sure you're not on those static images or bars or icons for either long periods or frequent shorter periods...it takes time, but it happens, despite popular misconception.
It is only really noticable on a white background, like when looking at mostly blank new tab in chrome.
On the last device, the S7, I made sure to cut the amount of time spent on static images, especially the games. I still kept the brightness always max during the day, nights it was at the lowest setting.
And yes, I kept my settings the same after the replacement, just made adjustments to my gaming approach. I didn't want to baby the phone screen settings, shouldn't have to. No issues on that one after adjusting my approach.
So, it's certainly possible to avoid and I bet there's many out there that use certain apps for long periods and frequently just do not really notice it may have occurred, even if slightly.. and I'm taking heavy users.
A note app with a clean page or white blank background reveals it, most of the time you're not using that, so ignorance is bliss...and makes It's easier for folks to bust on someone else for asking about screen burn in because they themselves are simply clueless it even remotely occured with them.
Heavy user naysayers, check your old phones, just for the heck of it... and then keep the findings to yourself because no one actually cares about you being right or wrong.
Anyway, it was an inconvenient lesson at the time,for me but good to know and learn from. Didn't cost me much but time, as it just took up time set up the phones again.
I know Samsung isn't too concerned about it or they wouldn't have preinstalled games on the phone (ie. solataire).
Just do your best to adjust your screen settings, like those that mentioned, if you're into that. Or simply adjust your apps/usage habits.
Don't overlook the Digital Wellbeing settings on the S10...that may also help you target certain apps with a timer also. Might be something useful for you.
Hope that helps some.
Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your insight. I wouldn't be able to return it if it happens.
I'm also worry the AOD can cause burn in. I never used it before because I had a notification led...
I know it moves around, but is that enough? I also turn it off 8hs a day.
lumiden said:
Thank you for your insight. I wouldn't be able to return it if it happens.
I'm also worry the AOD can cause burn in. I never used it before because I had a notification led...
I know it moves around, but is that enough? I also turn it off 8hs a day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can set the schedule for the time for the AOD is active and either use the AOD auto brightness option or set the brightness lower, if that helps you feel more confident with it. The movement should help avoid issues.
FWIW, I used AOD with my previous phone without any issue and I anticipate the same with this one.
My burn in issue was only with the games & YouTube as noted.
Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk
This is my main issue with AMOLED screens. They look nice but they wear out. The nature of Android means they will wear out unevenly which is why people see burn in. The wearing out of your screen is cumulative. Meaning that it isn't like an old CRT TV where it would take weeks of a static image to burn in but just showing the same image over time day in and day out. The only way to prevent it is to use the entire screen with moving images, like full screen movies, so that the panel wears evenly.
The status bar and navigation bar tend to be on the screen all the time those images will burn in first. Dark mode can also cause issues because if the area is dark it isn't being used and if it isn't being used it will look brighter than other areas that were used more frequently. The s10 has a full screen mode option for some apps. Some apps like Netflix will show the full screen movie even around the camera cutout and that is ideal. Youtube will also allow you to zoom in and show the video around the camera. cutout Chrome and the Samsung browser keep the status bar but it will change colors based on the site and if the bar is white it will invert the status icons which will help keep the panel wearing evenly. I have the dolphin browser which runs in full screen but the top portion of the panel is not used so that is less than ideal.
Auto brightness can be used but in the bright sun that panel is wearing much faster. The screen time out should be set to 15 seconds. These panels are designed to look great but not be super durable and in many cases that's what Samsung wants. They benefit when you have to buy a new device. It's sad to say but its business.