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?! 🙂

[NTS]

Is very apparent throughout settings

[npmp]

Something like this? I've had this in my S9+

[Focr06]

Question is.. Who dropped the ball here? Who's getting fired.. Like.. I need to know the whole tea Cuz someone F*Ed bad here.. Sounds like they can't fix the problem

[Buckeyeman50]

I'm glad i don't have to try 'n keep up all of you, Mr. Jones's. Because every since getting the Android 14 - 6.1 update, I am blown away at what my A-54 through T-Mobile is capable of. Even the camera system is unbelievable. Especially while using the Galaxy Enhance app. I swear that this phone can do anything an S-23 can do except "maybe " get better photos. But i'm not a professional photographer, so this camera, and everything else that is still to this day shocking me. So all of you, Mr. & Mrs. Jones's out there keep trying to keep with each other while spending sometimes thousands almost by trying to keep up with each other, just to be disappointed. In the mean time I'll be over here waiting until next November wondering what else could they possibly do to improve my A-54 than what it already is. And I'll put my hard earned money into something more exciting than just buying a 2,000 dollar "phone " every year smh 😵 💫

[s24ultrauser30]

Was testing for any screen banding on my new S24 Ultra usiing testmyscreen.com, and the banding on gradient patterns are awful especially on grey and green gradients, even compared to my old A80 which barely has any noticeable banding.

The thing is, when I rotate my phone to landscape mode the bands also rotate, resulting in the same banding pattern as portrait. Another thing I tried was taking a screenshot of the gradient and zooming in/out while moving the image around. Apparently the bands also moved which shouldn't be the case if this were a hardware problem.

TLDR: I'm suspecting the gradient banding is a software issue not related to hardware defect, thus I created this post so Samsung team can be aware of this and fix it in the upcoming software update.

Screen banding explanation: on gradient color patterns, you may be able to spot "bands" (blocky lines) often with different color compared to the gradient itself. E.g. red and green bands on grey gradient. More info below.

https://lcdtech.info/en/tests/dynamic.range.banding.htm#:~:text=a%20properly%20configured%20monitor%...

[s24ultrauser30]

Another example https://imgur.com/a/vJrOx5l

Refer to the selfie camera for the position. The bands do not stay in place even after getting rotated, instead they moved to adjust for the 180 degrees rotation. What I'm saying is panel display is a fixed thing, and if it were the cause then the bands should also be fixed in the same spot no matter how the image is rotated / moved around.

https://streamable.com/hjcyxc Screen recording when rotating and saving the gradient image! You can clearly see the software tried to adjust the image right after clicking save button, and a brief intensified banding effect is shown.

[s24ultrauser30]

Left is mine, right is store's unit.

https://imgur.com/a/Gt26C2Z

Went to Samsung store today, and somehow their display unit has much much less severe gradient banding compared to mine, and their screen was much brighter too even though both have same display and brightness setting.

Now I have doubts this is only a software issue anymore 😞

[Konrad999]

That's a huge difference. Return your unit now that you can in the event that this doesn't get fix in the future

[s24ultrauser30]

Actually someone mentioned on Reddit that it is related to vivid option being very similar to natural, hence the bands. The bands getbetter if I set it to vivid with 0 RGB but become worse with maxed RGB or natural.

So I think essentially this depends on whether vivid issue will get fixed or not.

[Skallywaggz]

I'm also having this issue.  It's concerning. I love everything else about the phone. But this could be a deal breaker. Has Samsung made any official statement on this?