Is the Galaxy S24 Ultra the best Android phone money can buy right now? Our full review of Samsung's latest crown jewel certainly seems to suggest so, but while many early adopters have taken to social media to express their satisfaction with the camera capabilities, overall performance and new tricks AI of the 6.8-inch super-flagship, a significant number of users seem to have a big problem with the handset's display.
Make it two, three, or even four different problems, because depending on your luck and how closely you tend to inspect each individual pixel on your smartphone screen, you'll probably notice one or more strange behaviors (let's call it -THE). this) widely reported over the past two weeks.
What seems to be the problem this time?
To begin with, we are going to call this controversy “grainygate” in order to easily distinguish it from hardware malfunctions and (non)bugs which we have already talked about at length since the
Galaxy S24S24 Plus and S24 Ultra made their commercial debut on January 31.
In a word, it seems that
quite a few units from the S24 series purchased around the world show themselves in low light, having great difficulty displaying clear and uniform images especially on a gray or dark background. Most people who have noticed this describe the screen as having
a grainy quality or grainy texturewhile others say there appears to be a “layer of still static on top of the darker colors”.
The best and most complete explanation
comes from a Redditor who claims to be a scientist with over a decade of experience in the OLED panel industry, but hundreds of “everyday” users without (presumably) any PhD in this field are clearly bothered by the exact same thing.
Apparently known in the industry as “mura”, the problem is usually “minimized” in a phone's pre-production process to a “degree where human eyes can barely tell”. For whatever reason, Samsung may not have done this (or at least not succeeded), shipping at least an early batch of S24
series devices with what “erodeloeht” on Reddit calls “displays. really bad quality”.
Are these units defective? Not exactly. Is there anything you can do to fix the problem once you notice it? Probably not, as this is likely due to poorly tested and optimized hardware rather than faulty software. Should you return your S24, S24+ or S24 Ultra? This is certainly your choice and your choice only and may also depend on a number of other factors.
How many problems are too many problems?
This, my friends, is the key question you need to ask yourself before deciding whether or not to keep your Galaxy S24 standard device or not. And while grainygate (or mura) might not seem like a big deal to some people, it only really becomes noticeable at very low light levels during a few users of a few units, the previously reported issues have definitely affected more users to a greater extent.
A much bigger problem were those green lines that appeared on some screens after just a few days of use and without any abuse, and in such extreme (but rare) cases you should obviously return your phone to its manufacturer as soon as possible.
On a somewhat unrelated but still related note, some
camera issues were also reported at one point, although they didn't spread like wildfire, along with all those display malfunctions. Overall, while it may seem like Samsung's quality assurance dropped the ball on the Galaxy S24, S24 Plus, and S24 Ultra, the truth is that new smartphones often have issues. Some are bigger, some are smaller, some are announced as features rather than bugs, and for some you have to decide for yourself whether they're game-breaking or not.
If you ask us, these phones are still some of the best phones on the market, and you should definitely consider buying the model that best suits your preferences and budget… while keeping an eye out for any issues potential.
