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Non-uniform intensity across screen at low-brightness settings?

Hi,
Has anyone notciced un-even brightness across the screen at low light levels (for darker colors)? I thought it was just the nature of these OLED screens, but I don't see this with Galaxy Phone with similar display type, so I'm wondering if I just have a defective unit with bad display.
To test it:
- Do this at night (when ambient light is fairly low).
- Lower brightness down to the lowest setting (turn off auto-brightness)
- Open Chrome browser, and close all tabs, so that you get a blank dark screen with just the "+" icon. This leaves a dark gray background, just enough to notice if there is any uneveness in brightness.
On my unit, I see about 3-4 inches of bands/streaks of darker areas at bottom half of the screen. If I rotate the tablet, the darker areas stay in their physical location (so these bands become vertical instead of horizontal), so I know it's not a software issue.
I have a couple of weeks left before I need to decide on whether to exchange the tab, so would appreciate if anyone can help me verify if this is normal thing with these screens.
Many thanks, Tony.

tonyc1 said:
Hi,
Has anyone notciced un-even brightness across the screen at low light levels (for darker colors)? I thought it was just the nature of these OLED screens, but I don't see this with Galaxy Phone with similar display type, so I'm wondering if I just have a defective unit with bad display.
To test it:
- Do this at night (when ambient light is fairly low).
- Lower brightness down to the lowest setting (turn off auto-brightness)
- Open Chrome browser, and close all tabs, so that you get a blank dark screen with just the "+" icon. This leaves a dark gray background, just enough to notice if there is any uneveness in brightness.
On my unit, I see about 3-4 inches of bands/streaks of darker areas at bottom half of the screen. If I rotate the tablet, the darker areas stay in their physical location (so these bands become vertical instead of horizontal), so I know it's not a software issue.
I have a couple of weeks left before I need to decide on whether to exchange the tab, so would appreciate if anyone can help me verify if this is normal thing with these screens.
Many thanks, Tony.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have notice a similar thing, mostly on gray - dark gray backgrounds, and not necessarily at lowest brightness (low enough though). I wanted to check about it on a couple of devices on display at retail stores but it's hard to test there.
Sent from my SM-T815 using Tapatalk

Hi tonyc1,
Having had 4 of these I can confirm that this unevenness is normal on the 9.7" screen but was not present on the 8" model.
I went through 4 to get one that was reasonably even, 2 of them were pretty awful to the point that the greyscale was all over the place.
The unit I settled on has a slightly darker band in the middle of the screen and a slight darkening at the very top.
I owned the original tab s 10.5 and have to say the screen on that was more even and detailed, I prefer the former factor and speed of this S2 but the screen is a step backwards.
Hope this info helps.
Cheers

Thanks for the notes and confirming this is a somewhat common issue. I guess I will live with it for now..

How to avoid the AMOLED flickering?

I've recently bought the 9.7" version of the Tab S2. I was aware of how unrealistic and oversaturated the AMOLED display is on default setting, but luckily this can be turned off, so it was the very first thing i did (though now the white balance is off, but at least it is not oversaturated).
Unfortunately i wasn't aware the fact that the display at below ~75% brigthtness flickers. The lower the brightness the more disturbing it is. And it drives me crazy. I hate the flickering cheap cr*p LED light bulbs, i hate that most notebook screens with LED backlight are non PWM free, and are flickering And after having this tablet for three days, i am hating it too. I frankly believe these products should be banned, because it hurts your eye, and your brain. I thought when we said good bye to CRT monitors, flickering screens will never be an issue again. Unfortunately they are :/
After googling the internet i found this article gs5.wonderhowto.com/how-to/eliminate-screen-flicker-lower-minimum-brightness-android-0157760 but the solution unfortunately requires a rooted device, wich would trip the knox and void the warranty, so it's a no no for me. Then I found several other apps on the play store which are doing the same without requiring root access: drawing a black overlay over the screen and you can set the transparency of it, so you can get a lower brightness without the flickering, because your screen brightness is around maximum, the lowered transparcy of the black overlay makes it less bright. Unfortunately none of these apps work like the one for the rooted devices, wich has a second slider at status bar, so instead of the brightness you can change the transparency at the notification screen. The non rooted apps i found do not work this way, they don't have the extra slider, you need to tap them, so you can get to where you can change the trasnparency and that's very uncomfortable. I tried so far Darker and three other Screen Filter apps, but none of them works with a second slider :/ Also using the Screen Filter apps when there is a smooth color transition on the dipslay (default background picture for example) gives ugly end result. Using a Screen filter app might reduce battery life so i might need to charge it more often (i don't care), but since the display is not flickering, it is always on, it might will burn in faster (i do care, i intend to use this tablet for 3+ years) So i am currently in debate wether i should return this product and get my money back or not. It is a really great device, but this terrible flickering of the AMOLED screen makes me super unhappy, wish it had an IPS display :/
If this is an issue for you too, and you found a Screen Filter app with a second slider at the notification area (without requiring root permissions) please let me know.

Is this just an s2 thing, nothing of the sort on my tab s?
Sent from my SM-T280 using XDA-Developers mobile app

It's not an S2 issue, I've seen several other phones and tablets in low light conditions set to a low brightness flickering like mine.. But you can test it, set a low brightness and start waving your finger in front of the screen like crazy. If you see ~10 seperate fingers -like in the picture attached- instead of one blurry (what you should see if there was a constant backlight), than yours is flickering too.

asdfh said:
It's not an S2 issue, I've seen several other phones and tablets in low light conditions set to a low brightness flickering like mine.. But you can test it, set a low brightness and start waving your finger in front of the screen like crazy. If you see ~10 seperate fingers -like in the picture attached- instead of one blurry (what you should see if there was a constant backlight), than yours is flickering too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see what you mean, but it doesn't bother me as there is no perceivable flickering at all and it only happens when the brightness is below a certain level.

If that certain level would be around 20% brightness i wouldn't care. I haven't tested out yet, but that certain level is somewhere below 70% So -for me- it would flicker all the time.

Eh, there is no screen flickering but your finger is flickering over a light source aka *screen*. It's an optical illusion you are referring to.

I am also very sensitive to pwm on displays, it takes me less than a minute to feel sick from the display having pwm.
Any further solutions to this? Thank you.

I'm using the the app 'Night Screen' it does the job on Android 7.0 on my LG G6 which uses pwm under 35% of brightness even though this is an ips screen. Hope it helps.

asdfh said:
I've recently bought the 9.7" version of the Tab S2. I was aware of how unrealistic and oversaturated the AMOLED display is on default setting, but luckily this can be turned off, so it was the very first thing i did (though now the white balance is off, but at least it is not oversaturated).
Unfortunately i wasn't aware the fact that the display at below ~75% brigthtness flickers. The lower the brightness the more disturbing it is. And it drives me crazy. I hate the flickering cheap cr*p LED light bulbs, i hate that most notebook screens with LED backlight are non PWM free, and are flickering And after having this tablet for three days, i am hating it too. I frankly believe these products should be banned, because it hurts your eye, and your brain. I thought when we said good bye to CRT monitors, flickering screens will never be an issue again. Unfortunately they are :/
After googling the internet i found this article gs5.****************/how-to/eliminate-screen-flicker-lower-minimum-brightness-android-0157760 but the solution unfortunately requires a rooted device, wich would trip the knox and void the warranty, so it's a no no for me. Then I found several other apps on the play store which are doing the same without requiring root access: drawing a black overlay over the screen and you can set the transparency of it, so you can get a lower brightness without the flickering, because your screen brightness is around maximum, the lowered transparcy of the black overlay makes it less bright. Unfortunately none of these apps work like the one for the rooted devices, wich has a second slider at status bar, so instead of the brightness you can change the transparency at the notification screen. The non rooted apps i found do not work this way, they don't have the extra slider, you need to tap them, so you can get to where you can change the trasnparency and that's very uncomfortable. I tried so far Darker and three other Screen Filter apps, but none of them works with a second slider :/ Also using the Screen Filter apps when there is a smooth color transition on the dipslay (default background picture for example) gives ugly end result. Using a Screen filter app might reduce battery life so i might need to charge it more often (i don't care), but since the display is not flickering, it is always on, it might will burn in faster (i do care, i intend to use this tablet for 3+ years) So i am currently in debate wether i should return this product and get my money back or not. It is a really great device, but this terrible flickering of the AMOLED screen makes me super unhappy, wish it had an IPS display :/
If this is an issue for you too, and you found a Screen Filter app with a second slider at the notification area (without requiring root permissions) please let me know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So here is the app( https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.js.oledsaver ) to avoid pwm & use the phone with low brightness.
App name is OLED SAVER
It's simple. You install it & follow the instructions & use it. Enjoy! ?
---------- Post added at 07:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:58 PM ----------
Babakkardan said:
I am also very sensitive to pwm on displays, it takes me less than a minute to feel sick from the display having pwm.
Any further solutions to this? Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.js.oledsaver

harigavara said:
So here is the app( https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.js.oledsaver ) to avoid pwm & use the phone with low brightness.
App name is OLED SAVER
It's simple. You install it & follow the instructions & use it. Enjoy!
---------- Post added at 07:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:58 PM ----------
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.js.oledsaver
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for answering this 3 years old post I used Darker in the last three years to eliminate the flckering and was happy with it. I checked OLED Saver now, but it's permissions says to me it's a big no no.
Unfortunately, since Android 8 apps cannot draw a an overlay over system areas (notification bar etc., thanks google! ), so i guess i'll never have an OLED screen phone/tablet again.

Black screen doesn't turn off pixels

Hi everyone, as you should know the Asus Zenwatch 3 has an AMOLED display. From my understanding this should mean when displaying the colour black, the pixels should be turned off completely (like on my S7 Edge).
I was looking at my watch in a pitch black room with an ambient watch face displaying a black background and it appeared slightly reddish. Compared with my LG G Watch R sporting the exact same watch face it was clear the LG had the black pixels turned off but not on my Zenwatch 3.
I've attached a couple of pictures taken with my phone of the Zenwatch 3 in a pitch black room, one with normal shutter speed and the other with a 2 second shutter speed. Evidently the 2 second shutter speed shows that the display is in fact not turning off the pixels. The pics were taken when the watch was charging and in ambient mode with a watch face set to true black only.
Can anyone else confirm that this is the case and maybe a reason why? I'm worried that battery life may be affected by this with always on display enabled.
Lastly on a side note, are the black lines that aren't illuminated something to worry about?

Mine is the same, including a similar set of dark lines. I've seen others on Reddit report identical concerns.

frelnik said:
Mine is the same, including a similar set of dark lines. I've seen others on Reddit report identical concerns.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Noticed this too, thought I was crazy lol...kinda waste of an AMOLED screen.

Hmmm ok at least I'm not the only one. Hopefully Asus is able to change it in a future update.

Yeah it is weird, black watch faces aren't truly black. I think they did it so watch faces can blend into the color scheme of the watch, if you notice the color overlay on the app launcher

That's because of auto Brightness. Turn it off. This impacts battery life. I observed this on very first day after the purchase. Using manual Brightness since then.

deathgame said:
That's because of auto Brightness. Turn it off. This impacts battery life. I observed this on very first day after the purchase. Using manual Brightness since then.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just tried disabling Auto Brightness but the red tinge of the black background still exists.

blackhand64 said:
I just tried disabling Auto Brightness but the red tinge of the black background still exists.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It doesn't happen with me. If I turn off auto Brightness the blacks go complete black. Do you have live display turned on your phones? If so try disabling it. May be this setting depends on your phone. All I can confirm is if I turned auto Brightness off amoled works perfectly.

deathgame said:
It doesn't happen with me. If I turn off auto Brightness the blacks go complete black. Do you have live display turned on your phones? If so try disabling it. May be this setting depends on your phone. All I can confirm is if I turned auto Brightness off amoled works perfectly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure what you mean by live display but I just have a stock S7 Edge. I prefer keeping the auto brightness on for my watch so I guess I'll have to live with it.

blackhand64 said:
Not sure what you mean by live display but I just have a stock S7 Edge. I prefer keeping the auto brightness on for my watch so I guess I'll have to live with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Live display is when some ROMs allow the screen to have a tint at night time so the blue light from the screen won't affect your eyes at night

Me too have similar display and black line like that.
Glad I'm not the only one with this condition.

I also have those black lines, was about to get a replacement but since I'm not the only one and it doesn't affect overall performance or aesthetics its fine.

Yeah I have also black lines and screen is not completely dark with totally black watch faces

Turning off the auto brightness is not a solution. Its a pain if you had to adjust the brightness all the time

Tint in k20 pro display

Hey guys, hope you are doing great.
I have noticed one peculiar thing, when i sit in pitch dark places with brightness at the end, i face this white issue over my display screen shot attached, it's Google chrome app which showing me these results,(there are many more also)for this to be noticed you must sit in a dark room.
I know it's typical led panel issue and i would like to know if i am the only one?

Do you seriously think we are able to see your display in a screenshot?

IoIam said:
Do you seriously think we are able to see your display in a screenshot?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are in a pitch dark room and see no anamoly then your's display is good. If not you will see a whitish tint over the top area
And btw you can check on your device itself, by just opening chrome(if it's black) and in dark room with brightness as low as possible.

kanteon said:
Hey guys, hope you are doing great.
I have noticed one peculiar thing, when i sit in pitch dark places with brightness at the end, i face this white issue over my display screen shot attached, it's Google chrome app which showing me these results,(there are many more also)for this to be noticed you must sit in a dark room.
I know it's typical led panel issue and i would like to know if i am the only one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Enable feature in display settings under anti flicker mode to on. and check again your screen in low light conditions.

Yup, that worked, it increase overall contrast for low brightness, is this condition(tint) is normal for amoled panel, or i am just unlucky.

kanteon said:
Yup, that worked, it increase overall contrast for low brightness, is this condition(tint) is normal for amoled panel, or i am just unlucky.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes that's normal for amoled panel.

Question Avoid keyboard burn-in

Hello all, my past 3 AMOLED phones have been facing burn-in where the keyboard is displayed as I tend to chat a lot! Can anyone give me an option to avoid it? Please don't troll and say use less keyboard!

Might help if you keep the brightness on the lower side, other than that seems like catch22

Also choose a darker theme for the keyboard.

Maddmatt said:
Also choose a darker theme for the keyboard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's why it kept happening for me... The I turn it to light mode and then the burn in goes away!

Dark mode will help reduce it, but I leave my phone set to auto switch light and dark mode based on sunrise and sunset, this way whatever app I'm using also switches, so the light and dark apps, flip button colours as well so anything white on a black screen also becomes black on a white screen so it helps reverse any burnin in that sense too.
For example, texting apps usually also have white icons at the top which can burn in with dark mode, so if you switch to light mode, the same icons are now black on a white screen, so the screen burns but the icons don't, so it all slowly burns in together and nothing becomes noticeable.
Been doing this after getting burnin on my S10+ using only darkmode and light icons left burnin. And then on my S20 Ultra I did the flipping light and dark mode and never had issues but I also had the full screen settings to hide the pinhole camera so it made the entire top black, and then One UI 3.0 came out and they removed that option so now you can't hide the pinhole camera and I had a burnin bar across the top from where it was black lol.
Now on my S21 Ultra I have the light and dark mode set to flip at sun rise and sun set, and I can't hide the pin hole so maybe third phone is the charm here and I won't have any burnin at all this time haha.
Hope this helps.

There is no burn in with AMOLEDs; they have a finite lifespan and get dimmer as they age before finally failing after many 10's of thousands hours.
Don't over drive them by using them at maximum or near maximum levels.
High energy blue pixels are the most susceptible to damage, red the least because of its longer wavelength.
Use manual brightness control. Avoid going much over 50%.
Using full brightness reduces pixel lifespan as probably does high temperatures ie direct sunlight.
Limit usage at full brightness by the second*.
Using manual control ensures you're aware of it and keeps the phone from auto jacking it up on you when not really needed.
Turn it down in low light; don't burn out your retina's as they aren't replaceable.
Use dark mode whenever possible. Use dark or black wallpaper. You Good Lock to get rid of the stutus bar icons; simply use the pull down notification screen.
My 10+ gets heavy usage every day with a lot of keyboard time. At 15+ months there is no discernible weakness or dead pixels of any color at any brightness level.
*this is especially important with static images

bANONYMOUS said:
Dark mode will help reduce it, but I leave my phone set to auto switch light and dark mode based on sunrise and sunset, this way whatever app I'm using also switches, so the light and dark apps, flip button colours as well so anything white on a black screen also becomes black on a white screen so it helps reverse any burnin in that sense too.
For example, texting apps usually also have white icons at the top which can burn in with dark mode, so if you switch to light mode, the same icons are now black on a white screen, so the screen burns but the icons don't, so it all slowly burns in together and nothing becomes noticeable.
Been doing this after getting burnin on my S10+ using only darkmode and light icons left burnin. And then on my S20 Ultra I did the flipping light and dark mode and never had issues but I also had the full screen settings to hide the pinhole camera so it made the entire top black, and then One UI 3.0 came out and they removed that option so now you can't hide the pinhole camera and I had a burnin bar across the top from where it was black lol.
Now on my S21 Ultra I have the light and dark mode set to flip at sun rise and sun set, and I can't hide the pin hole so maybe third phone is the charm here and I won't have any burnin at all this time haha.
Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you say you had burn in from keeping a black bar in the area where the pinhole was?
that doesnt make any sense. If it was black those pixels were off and there wouldnt be any burn in
ಠ_ಠ

Get Gboard, And change it to a dark skin, I've never had any problems

sesnut said:
If it was black those pixels were off and there wouldnt be any burn in
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Reverse burn in, the screen area being used has a yellowish tone to it from being worn in over time, no matter how long the display is on, it's always burning in and the colour always adjusts over time from the burn in, it's the image retention burn in that people talk about, but the entire screen is always burning the entire time it's used. So by never using the top area the pixels are fresh and have a cooler tone to them than the rest of the screen as a result of this.

VICosPhi said:
Might help if you keep the brightness on the lower side, other than that seems like catch22
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed. And to add, perhaps occasionally change from white to black keyboard to even things out.

This is a good one. Says something about fast charging and not showing this message again. Guess they forgot to check don’t show again.

No offence but:
Pay 1.2K for phone after you see super HDR, huge brightness etc. and then limit everything to minimum? Seriously?
If I see them, I will ask EE(my phone provider) to replace it. I had same issue with OP 7 Pro, screen burn ins, they have replaced phone.

joloxx9joloxx9 said:
No offence but:
Pay 1.2K for phone after you see super HDR, huge brightness etc. and then limit everything to minimum? Seriously?
If I see them, I will ask EE(my phone provider) to replace it. I had same issue with OP 7 Pro, screen burn ins, they have replaced phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some countries like the UK have better consumer laws than others.

Sukrith said:
Hello all, my past 3 AMOLED phones have been facing burn-in where the keyboard is displayed as I tend to chat a lot! Can anyone give me an option to avoid it? Please don't troll and say use less keyboard!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From normal use there will be no burnin. However, if you keep your display on showing the keboard all the time it will burn in. Also pixels start to burn in once they are on

kpwnApps said:
From normal use there will be no burnin. However, if you keep your display on showing the keboard all the time it will burn in. Also pixels start to burn in once they are on
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mate - I had burn ins on my screen from things like clock etc, you cannot get rid of them, and it is a design flown, as long there is nothing in instruction etc.

joloxx9joloxx9 said:
Mate - I had burn ins on my screen from things like clock etc, you cannot get rid of them, and it is a design flown, as long there is nothing in instruction etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Samsung shifts the AOD clock to help prevent this. However I use only tap on AOD now.
Perps know the deal, organic LEDs have a finite lifespan. Yeah you can drive your car as fast as it will go but you probably don't because you know it wouldn't last very long.
You wonder why the price tag keeps going up?
Freebies are never free.
Using in direct sunlight or at 80+% is just asking for it. In most cases completely avoidable. One can at least limit the time of use at full brightness and not have a homescreen that looks like a Vegas billboard.

blackhawk said:
Samsung shifts the AOD clock to help prevent this. However I use only tap on AOD now.
Perps know the deal, organic LEDs have a finite lifespan. Yeah you can drive your car as fast as it will go but you probably don't because you know it wouldn't last very long.
You wonder why the price tag keeps going up?
Freebies are never free.
Using in direct sunlight or at 80+% is just asking for it. In most cases completely avoidable. One can at least limit the time of use at full brightness and not have a homescreen that looks like a Vegas billboard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So they should not sell them in countries like Spain etc as there is too much sun

joloxx9joloxx9 said:
So they should not sell them in countries like Spain etc as there is too much sun
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I live in Texas desert, the sun here is intense.
It burns out LED traffic lights all the time; OLEDs are far less tolerant.
Simply use in the shade.
The individual pixels are microscopic. That they work at all is amazing let alone being capable of high lumen output with extremely excellent color/gamma rendering.
The AMOLED matrix has 10's of thousands of active solid state components not just the OLED pixels themselves. All are hest sensitive plus the fact the display is helping to dissipate mobo heat while producing heat of it's own. The most heat sensitive component, the OLED is smack on top of this glass heatsink*.
Direct sunlight in especially high ambient temperatures is a real bad plan. You can fry any display like this.
Know, understand and respect their limitations. You will be rewarded with a long lived gorgeous display.
*glass is a good thermal insulator. Do tempered glass protective screens increase the thermal burden? Most likely. If cool at first the added mass will be protective but once the device (or the sun) heats that mass up things will go down hill from there and the display temperature will rapidly climb.

joloxx9joloxx9 said:
So they should not sell them in countries like Spain etc as there is too much sun
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Common sense should prevail I guess. I live in a place hotter than Spain. If I were to use my device in the middle of the day in bright sun light it’ll cook after 15mins. Hence why I don’t. But then would any other device.

blackhawk said:
I live in Texas desert, the sun here is intense.
It burns out LED traffic lights all the time; OLEDs are far less tolerant.
Simply use in the shade.
The individual pixels are microscopic. That they work at all is amazing let alone being capable of high lumen output with extremely excellent color/gamma rendering.
The AMOLED matrix has 10's of thousands of active solid state components not just the OLED pixels themselves. All are hest sensitive plus the fact the display is helping to dissipate mobo heat while producing heat of it's own. The most heat sensitive component, the OLED is smack on top of this glass heatsink*.
Direct sunlight in especially high ambient temperatures is a real bad plan. You can fry any display like this.
Know, understand and respect their limitations. You will be rewarded with a long lived gorgeous display.
*glass is a good thermal insulator. Do tempered glass protective screens increase the thermal burden? Most likely. If cool at first the added mass will be protective but once the device (or the sun) heats that mass up things will go down hill from there and the display temperature will rapidly climb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And this was me think you lived in the Mojave desert.