S24 Display Quality & AOD Missing Options

[Locoblade]

Hi All

I've just got my S24+ today to upgrade my trusty but ageing S10+ having not strayed from Samsung for almost 10 years. Naturally I was hoping it would be an upgrade in all departments but although on the whole it is, there's several annoying and unexpected downgrades that are making me seriously question whether it's actually worth spending quite a bit of money to change.

Firstly, the screen although pin sharp is really washed out. Even in vivid mode the colours are dull and the blacks are significantly more grey than the S10 screen, and even look washed out when put alongside my wife's budget spec A52! I've played around with brightness and colour tone etc but I can't dial it out, and my cousin who's got an S24 Ultra said exactly the same when comparing it against the S22 it's replacing.

Then there's some bizarre features missing from OneUI 6.1, the ones I've noticed so far are specifically in the Always On Display settings.  I use AOD to display as a bedside clock,  with my S10 and also in OneUI 6.0 / Android 14 on the A52 you can rotate the AOD to landscape orientation and control the brightness, you could even do the latter from the AOD lock screen by tapping twice on the clock to access the brightness slider. In OneUI 6.1 unless I'm missing something it seems all that functionality is missing, the brightness of the AOD is linked to the main screen brightness setting which is far too bright for overnight use, and you can't set it to landscape mode which I'd prefer when on it's horizontal night stand next to the bed. Why this functionality would be omitted I have no idea, but it's really annoying! Please someone enlighten me to some hidden menu somewhere that fixes all these issues?! 🙂

[RBSLC]

My S24 Ultra screen made me feel the same way. Eyes hurt and headache. Had to stop using and the back to my S21 Ultra.

[Saadia]

Yeah it sucks. I think I was about to trigger a migraine lol. Thank fully i haven't yet sent in my trade in so able to use it. If they don't fix it I'll be sticking to s22ultra

[Orbitalsiner]

It seems if you crank brightness it helps but will likely hurt battery life. I read that the issue has been attributed to the antiglare filter on the screen if true software won't be able to fix the issue.😓

[Vitekus]

I decided to upgrade my S23 Ultra, which is a great phone, except for two things - the battery life has been poor since day one, even with minimal use, and I've had to use a battery saver constantly. Also, the screen has become non-responsive at times, which started about two months ago. I was sent by Samsung to Ubreakitifixit and was told that some apps were draining the battery and that the phone sensor felt moisture and did not respond on presses. I found this odd as I had done a factory reset a week prior (which didn't help) and I had only used the phone at home and in the office, with no water exposure. I also performed a clean reinstall without transferring any apps.

I received the S24 Ultra phone on January 27th, and my wife immediately noticed that the screen was washed out and dull. I checked with another S23 Ultra, and the issue persisted. I called Samsung Care+ to report the issue and was connected to regular support after spending 30 minutes on the phone. They sent me again to Ubreakitifixit for inspection, even though this is a well-known issue and support told me that it should be fixed with an update. However, since my phone is brand new, no updates are available.

I'm very disappointed with the whole situation and I'm considering sending my S23 Ultra to Samsung (as it is still under warranty) for a full check-up and keeping the fixed (or new) phone instead. So S24 Ultra most probably going back.

It's concerning that all the top reviewers missed the washed-out screen. Are they paid by Samsung?

[userUvicCdDR7b]

On the s24 plus to.i hate it

[MarkD44]

This cannot be a hardware screen issue! YouTube, Galary, Netflix etc. all look amazing on the screen - very bright, vivid and in glorious HDR. It's a software issue that will get fixed pretty quickly.

I've just compared my S24 Ultra against my Tab S8 Ultra watching a 4K HDR 120FPS Dolby Vision video on YouTube and to my eyes, the phone is showing the same colourful and bright image as the Tab (which is stunning).

[Evgeny90]

I noticed a difference in color saturation between the S23 ultra and S24 ultra.

I looked under a microscope at the red background on two devices, and for some reason on the S24 ultra, in addition to the red pixels, the green ones are dimly lit. The background was turned on in test mode, so all the eye comfort functions did not work. on a green background the situation was the opposite - in addition to the green pixels, the red ones were dimly lit. everything was ok on a blue background.

Hope everything will be fixed with an update.

[RBSLC]

Great work with the microscope images! 👏 Very interesting to see the green pixels still reminding on for the S24. Reds and Yellow are where it notice the dull colors most.

[Dane1]

I hate the new screen, carrying on with my s21fe. So disappointed.

[GalaxyHam]

Same here with the base S24. Looks like it's stuck in the "Natural" color profile. Hopefully a software update can correct this? Otherwise, I'll go ahead a process the return.