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?! 🙂

[Rhinotsoplots]

Here's the results. What a disappointment. I hope you guys don't have the same issue if you get a second device.

[Galaxy Knight]

How embarrassing. 

[Fauxpax]

@Rhinotsoplots I am planning to return my s24U this weekend and Samsung UK agreed to replace my device. Now, I am not sure if I will send it as I am thinking I will still get the same grainy screen or even worse.

They did offer me a £50 voucher in case I want to keep this device. But I can only use it in Samsung Online Shop and I don't need anything from them...

What do you think? Should I still return my device and get the replacement?

[Rhinotsoplots]

Well, I think there's a couple of things to consider. One big one is that the new update is about to be released. Word's already spread of the change log and the South Korea update. While I'm not optimistic, maybe wait for the update before sending it in to see if it actually fixes the grain. One youtuber who supposedly looked at the screen under a microscope said that pure colors (red, green, blue) had a white light leak through, meaning that a pure color like red on the screen also had some blue and green when it shouldn't. He attributed this to a driver issue. I think there may be some truth to this, and in reality, Samsung may have been saying this was "intentional" for viewing experience. (This doesn't make sense to me because they could have set that to the natural mode and vivid as the saturated mode.) If the screen issue was actually due to a driver issue, this could potentially explain the grainy appearance of the screen since colors, like grey, would not be displaying the correct RGB value. Mix this in with natural mura from all OLED displays when brightness levels are low, and maybe that mura could really be an exacerbation of a bad driver. This is just speculation, though. Personally, I would ask for the trade-in regardless of the update. You might get the update first with no resolution, but then you only wait a few more days for the new phone. Or maybe you get the phone first, but find out the screen is also faluty. Either way, you are safe. That way, in case the update gets here and it doesn't do anything, you still may have a chance at getting a better display. If your current phone is fixed by the update, then all you do is return the new/replacement phone and get your money back. Worst case scenario, the new/replacement phone is still faulty and the update doesn't do anything so you return both phones (if possible and you choose to) and tell Samsung how bad of a QA team they have. In the best case, the update fixes your phone, and the new phone screen has no grain, so you just return either one.

[user21pfomMnq7]

I'm having this issue too. Got my s24u last week. Anything grey or white. Pure black is fine.

[Members_53W3lMs]

So dissapointed.....

[K4ZT13L]

That's a perfect example of how mine looks and most people don't even notice

[betancd]

You might have got a bad model. I don't have that on mine

[BrüZZi]

Yep. It's defective unit

[Members_53W3lMs]

i think everyone's is like this. If you go to a dark room and look at this image (5% grey) at a mid to low brightness you will see the grains.  Not sure if Pixel's or iPhones do it as well