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?! 🙂

[userU4moLSXqTw]

I hear what you're saying, but these screenshots are very representative of what I see, which is no color difference at all.

[usermzeJaY3BsM]

Then why not just upload 1 picture, and say that.  To prove to others, here are 2 pictures taken with the S22Ultra, in which the vivid mode is working perfectly:

 

The first image had Vivid mode turned on, the second one (that shows a screenshot notification) had Vivid mode turned off.  There is 0 difference between the images, but on the device, the image is way different.

I just want to add, I am not fanboying here, just illustrating that screenshots do not show this issue, and on my S24 Ultra I would agree that the differences are negligible, to non existent between Normal and Vivid.

 

[bondo008]

Really wish samsung would say something. I'm still in my return window.

[mrk33]

I really don't think Samsung will "say something". Maybe for legal reasons? They'll either come out with an update or they won't. The biggest and best statement you could make to them would be to send it back. If you're happy with your old phone maybe sending the 24 back might be best. My situation is that I was trading in the s22 which had a horrible battery from day one. After having the s24 for a week it was so nice to have a good battery. Yes my display is drabber on the 24 than the 22. I wanted to send the 24 back to make the statement. But I decided in my case the better battery outweighed the paler display. I'm hoping they will fix the Vivid display, but I decided the battery issue was bigger. As everyone's return date looms they have to make that decision.

[Galaxy Knight]

Finally a sensible and realistic comment. I've also been perplexed by everyone screaming that an announcement should be made about the colors of the screen. 

Since it seems like they tuned the colors this way purposely, why would they make an announcement about it?

And if people are familiar with Samsung or Android phones in general, companies don't make announcements about everything they change or fix in a firmware update. That's the purpose of changelogs. 

I also decided to not return my S24 Ultra. The performance and battery life are great. If they really do add the vividness slider, then great. 

[Ric221]

@bondo008 return it . People are whining and complaining about it but they seem to be Keeping their hands on their devices. If you are not happy with it just send it back.

[Naters69]

Why are you here? This forums topic is for how horrible the color is on our devices. If you have good color, good for you. You are a troll.

[userAsNMpEhLlk]

Compared to the S20U (aside from the terrible lack of color saturation,) the display is fuzzy, check out the edges of anything on the S24U display (like icons) to any other phone you have. Not sure if this is flaw with the display itself or the AR glass.

[usermzeJaY3BsM]

Please make sure you have the device set to it's maximum resolution, these devices come with the display set to FHD+ (2340 x 1080), and have to have the QHD+ (3120 x 1440) turned on, comparing devices with different resolutions could be causing your issue.  I have mine set to QHD+, and the icon edges are razor sharp.

[HRprofessional]

Samsung responded to me regarding the washed out color issue. They stated the ajustment to the Vivid option is an enhancement for viewing videos and images in the way there were intended. This isn't an enhancement to the typical Samsung quality we've always experienced. It's actually not taking pictures in their true colors. It removed details to a picture, not just color. Washing out facial color with various skintones and washing out true color in objects, nature, people etc... appears to look like a poor blurry filter. I compared my S22 and S24 side by side, and they are completely different. If you toggle from vivid to neutral in the S24, it doesn't change anything, but the S22 does and it's obvious. There are plenty of options to experience less glare, muted colors on previous versions, including the S24 to protect vision or decrease eye stress. You can go to Vision Enhancements to make viewing your screen/pics to your liking in both versions. However, the S24 has basically cheated the true color when taking a picture and viewing it based off of the actual color, not what a software company feels a person should see it as. I don't use filters, and the S24 looks like a poor filter has been applied over the pictures I take. It also changed the pictures I transferred from my S22 to the S24 to the same dull washed out color. It makes me feel like my eyes are weak and trying to pick up color which causes me to strain my eyes. As someone who accommodates individuals under the ADA, this was poorly thought out. Some need to see images brighter or in their true color, and that isn't an option now. It's a false advertisement to say this phone was an upgrade. It downgraded the actual real picture quality to view. It even blurs quality within the picture, so you can't see details. It's like looking through dirty or smudged glasses. I'm going to our carrier to have them move both of our S24's back to the S22's and retuning the S24's. We waited for these to come out, and it's the first disappointment we've experienced being Samsung customers. We travel and pictures are LIFE. I don't want to look at my pictures of a gorgeous sunset to see a bland sunset or dull Caribbean ocean. Poor choice in design, and I'm not paying for the new and improved version that appears to look like quality issues that iPhone had 10 years ago. Samsung has always been top-notch, and this is a major setback.