yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] ml2514:
come on guys this is getting kinda out of hand... to see this problem you'd have to turn your brightness to zero... get into a dimly lit or dark room... and stare at a grey wallpaper....

Really?

Sent from my SGH-T989
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] fraz82:
i agree with you. i admit the issue is present, but i really am not concerned about it. Also i think the concept of class action lawsuits is misunderstood, in order to bring a class action you have to prove damages, this does not qualify as damages, since the screen is still great at normal brtness levels, and since it is a disadvantage of the manufacturing process of samoleds, it means ALL samoleds are like this, so there is no choice.

The only thing we can do is wait for a screen calibration fix that will improve the situation.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] demonwind:
I can see them at 100% brightness, in a well-lit environment, while playing games or watching videos (or just on the notification screen).

Doesn't matter, we just want to make Samsung suffer like how we are suffering from their ****ty screen.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] Chubby_Skunk:
on my Skyrocket, I can easily see it without messing with the settings. I'm just going to go with the regular AT&T GSII...
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] 01010001:
Ugh.. It won't let me insert a YouTube link because I don't have enough posts yet. If someone would be so kind as to search for "Common Galaxy S II screen defect, blobs and lines" and then post the link here for everyone. Thanks.

Also, take a look at this post: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1399158#14
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] hella356:
I can see it, but only under worst case scenarios, never under normal usage.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] ryan562:
hmm...i tried the screen test on both my sister's mytouch 4g and my Asus Transformer Prime....both have the grey blotches but not as pronounced as they are on my SGS2.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S II t989
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] demonwind:
Nicely done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcpbHor59gs
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] shnn2011:
Are there any good T989 phones out there?

There seems to be two types of T989 display; there is the lower color temp one and the higher color temp one.

The first T989 I got had a yellowish screen and the yellow mustard stain problem with what seemed like less vertical lines.

The second T989 I got had the higher color temp, no mustard looking stains, yet more pronounced vertical lines on the left.

I don't know if the first one (the lower color temp model) had it or not, but the one I have now has what I assume you guys are calling blobs?

I first noticed it when watching a movie. When the scene turned black the screen seemed to glow slightly, yet small spots were completely black. If you then focus on the picture a bit more carefully you can still see the dark spots over the picture but it is less noticeable.

This is not at all a small problem for me. As soon as the scene turned black I was like "What the heck is this!!!!!" It is really annoying for someone who watches movies . . . or reads in the dark.

I would much rather have older more stable technology than this B.S. on an otherwise awesome phone.

What really ticked me off is that my friend has the at&t version, not the skyrocket and he has a totally flawless display.

On top of all of this, regardless of what I was told at the time of purchase, now I am told that the T-Mobile version (the T989) does not use gorilla glass due to wanting to lower production cost (anyone have more info on this?). Did they lower production cost by using a cheap manufacturer as well for the OLED?

Of note, I don't think its a bug deal about the gorilla glass though, as the sales associate who thought and stated if was ran a key in front of my eyes over his display and not a single scratch.

The point is, if I would have knows about these issues, I would have waited for the Nexus, a 600 dollar phone should work like a 600 dollar phone, not like a 50 dollar overpriced cricket phone.

Is there any word that T-mobile will do anything for T989 owners?
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] demonwind:
This phone (and all variants) does use Gorilla Glass.

Skyrocket has this problem too, only the original Exynos non-LTE Galaxy S2 does not have the problem, see the first post.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] renegadefunk:
yeah and that three year old gpu on the nexus is really fantastic :rolleyes:

I know people with them and they are fairly laggy, they focused strictly on appearance and nothing on specs.

Anyhow, do you watch movies and read with the brightness at minimum? It seems as if people really want to complain about things.

I read and watch movies lots, just don't put the brightness as low as it'll go lol
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] demonwind:
I can see the lines at 100% brightness in a well-lit room. I wish I did not have to complain about this, I wish I had a perfect phone (or at least a normal screen).
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] shnn2011:
Renegadefunk -- thanks for the info regarding the Nexus. Forgive my lack of knowledge on the matter, but I thought that the GSM U.S. version was not released yet, and that the only ones available were through verizon? And could you please give me a little bit more info on how the GPUs stack up?

Honestly the lines don't bother me all that much, and they are visible to me during the day and in full brightness to some degree, that is on all the T989s that I have seen. What bothers me is when for instance when I am watching a movie in a dark room at night and the scene changes to black. Then I see all the little non uniform blobs/splotches . . . and yes it does look bad. The lines I can live with if someone could get rid of the blobs.

Demonwind -- thank you for that info. I sure hope it does use gorilla glass. I was hoping that I was wrong and that I would not need a screen protector. If you don't mind can you please tell me where you found the info because I found many conflicting sources including within T-mobile.

As an update I stepped into the T-mobile store today in the Galleria mall in Houston. For those who may not know, it is an extremely large mall, considered by some to be an "international mall". I figured that their T-Mobile store has seen thousands of T989s come through. The answer I got from them was that they are aware of the screen issues, and that not all the phones have the issue, only some. However, they also stated that the majority of phones that they have seen (T989s) have had some form of screen defect. They made it sound as though the ratio was somewhere like 1 to 3 or 1 to 4 of the stock had flawless screens.

Thank you guys for the info and the quick responses.

---------- Post added at 11:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:26 PM ----------

How much do the original and the T989 differ internally?

What is the same component wise?
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] demonwind:
http://www.userguidemanual.com/samsung-galaxy-s2-sii-manual-user-guide-sgh-t989-t-mobile-specs/

The differences can be found on Wikipedia
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] shnn2011:
Good info thanks. What I am confused on is if I were to get the international version would it be able to use T-mobile's / AT&T's HSPA? Is there anything different hardware wise or is that done in software?
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] demonwind:
I think the international version does not have LTE, that's all.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] shnn2011:
But is LTE not an I.T.U. Spec for true 4G?

Will it still work on T-Mobiles 42Mbps HSPA?
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] renegadefunk:
That is hardly all..

The screen size is different and the processor/gpu is completely different.

---------- Post added at 12:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:47 PM ----------

Ahh see mine is barely noticeable even at min brightness, I must just have a good one.

Yeah the gpu in the nexus sucks. Same as in the nexus s and other older phones. Why they didn't use the exynos chip is beyond me
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] bobbyphoenix:
They didn't use the Exynos simply for network speed reasons. They wanted to take advantage of the 42mbps. To me I would rather have a bit slower network than give up a better processor.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] xsteven77x:
I guess because it would be a galaxy S2 but without the name galaxy S2 on it.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] renegadefunk:
I'm fine with the chipset in our phone, I mean in the nexus.

Ours puts theres to shame, and the exynos runs circles around ours.

I'm just surprised such an expensive phone is so weak. The nexus is like 700 bucks
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] demonwind:
You're right, there are many differences between the phones. There are only teo main versions. One is 4.3" screen, Exynos, a different set of main buttons, no LTE, and no screen issues. This is referred to as the original Galaxy S2. If you go to the samsung galaxy s2 website you'll see this one.

Ours is the Qualcomm, 4.5" screen, and has the screen issues.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] shnn2011:
Yes you are absolutely right. My friends AT&T version has an absolutely flawless beautiful screen. I mean it puts LCD TVs to shame. black are truly black, there is no blobs/splotches . . . I also niticed that the color is slightly warmer.

I sold my previous phone the LG G2X and was hoping to move on because of quality control issues (lack of ability to calibrate sensors especially the accelerometer . . .) I would have gladly kept it and waited for the next revision of the galaxy phone had I known about the screen issues. My G2X had minimal light bleed, the battery life was good . . . and I had fixed the other issues in software. Furthermore, side by side the LCD held its own against the S2 and it is overclockable to 1.5Ghz.

The bottom line is the quality control. We purchased Samsung because we trusted the company for their quality control. It is hard to believe that both Samsung and T-Mobile missed a problem this big. It is more likely that at some executive meeting they said "Screw it the average idiot consumer won't complain; we will make our money regardless." Maybe the manufacturing plant even gave T-Mobile or whoever the customer was a discount which would explain their lack of action and continued production of a flawed product. That is why I truly agree with you guys that consumer awareness is important.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] audscott:
Gorilla-Glass

Verified on T-Mobiles site: http://g2.t-mobile.com/g2x#Specs

See the specs page
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] renegadefunk:
The g2x??

Different phone...

Yes though, our phone does have gorilla glass
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] demonwind:
Agreed, this would explain why this version costs so much less than he original GS2 despite supposedly being better.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] shnn2011:
That was the G2X spec sheet not the G2S its the T989 that has conflicting sources on the gorilla glass.

---------- Post added at 08:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:02 PM ----------

If anyone is interested I know someone involved in a Houston area hacker space who can put up a bounty on finding the problem in the g2s screen. They have many hardware hackers / engineers there and every diagnostic tool you can think of from P.C. board etching systems to data loggers, oscilloscopes, frequency / pattern generators to microscopes . . . It may be something as simple as lack of current.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] riddimreefer:
i think it might be due to the fact that leds are arranged in lines and thats why it can only be seen when dimmly lit backscreen. what ur seeing is the space between leds...maybe theyre to far spaced from each other. dont know really im just assuming here
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] shnn2011:
Yes could be, but that does not explain the blobs and black dots . . .

It may also have to do with the manufacturing process. I don't know a lot but I have read in IEEE Spectrum magazine that one manufacturing process for OLED screens is similar to an inkjet printer where the material is literally printed on. If this is so then what kind of artifacts do we see with a badly designed or dirty printer head?

Does anyone have any info on the manufacturing process of these screens?
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] Krzysiek_CK:
Mine looks like Sprint 1 in the second image in the first post.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] shnn2011:
Cheema -- Thank you for the info. In response to your original post. What do you mean by poor calibration? Is this something that can be done in software or hardware only or both?
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] demonwind:
Very good idea. This would explain why only the larger screen version has the problem, but if this is true then i doubt a software fix can make the LEDs closer.

Blobs are definitely caused by something like that.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] shnn2011:
In GSM arena they say that the T989 uses Gorilla glass, The store associate demonstrated his personal phone's durability by rubbing a key against it, another store associate said that the phone uses a tempered glass not gorilla glass screen, and t-mobile's box says nothing in the back regarding gorilla glass. Then several articles state that the original galaxy s2 uses gorilla glass, yet t-mobile requested that the T989 not have it.

Also, on the phones such as the LG G2X the phone proudly states on the box and specs that it uses gorilla glass, indicating that if the T989 used it it would follow the same trend. So as to what is what, I am confused. Does anyone have any solid sources on the matter?

Could this just be a matter of brand name vs generic like Pyrex and BoroSilicate?
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] renegadefunk:
Well I know the skyrocket does for sure, and since your phone is the same i'm assuming it does
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] shnn2011:
Yes you are right, they are very close, the processors also seem to be nearly the same too just slightly different snapdragon variants, the only thing really different is the rear speaker placement.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] renegadefunk:
The processors are exactly the same afaik
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] shnn2011:
Do you guys think that this is a problem within the electronics of the phones using the 1.5Ghz processors, or just due to a problem in the screen manufacturing process for the larger screens?
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] princeasi:
I think we've had enough of the bounties lol, what happened to "doing it for the love of it"?......plus supercurio and another has already touched up on the issue.

I'm just sayin!
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] jongie123:
Interesting that my white sg2 the screen is perfect. Perhaps they fix it in the white version.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] shnn2011:
Are they not software hackers only? I was talking about hardware only guys.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] princeasi:
I saw where someone had the same issue with a white version

I'm just sayin!
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] shnn2011:
Great to hear

Apparently some models suffer and some don't. It is not isolated to a particular color. Are you sure you followed Cheema's testing direction properly?

Are you talking about the vertical lines issue or blobs?

Did you use a grey background?

What is your phone production date?

---------- Post added at 04:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:32 PM ----------

The guys in the galleria mall T-mobile corporate store did say that there were some flawless displays in some models.

---------- Post added at 04:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:36 PM ----------

In some cases the white ones have been the worst.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] princeasi:
If the hardware guys want to do it without a bounty then i'm all for it, but raising a bounty just to find out if the problem is hardware or not doesn't make sense to me, especially when we have supercurio working on a workaround to the issues. Basically supercurio already stated that the lines and blobs are a hardware issue. Also there's another thread stating that the blobs are what you call "Mura" which is a hardware issue. The bounty for supercurio made sense because at least, he can possibly develop a software fix to mask the problem. Why should we give money to a group that will basically prove or tell us what's already been said?

I'm just sayin!
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] jongie123:
I only did the blobs test,and of course they are some blops and vertical lines like all Amoled screens,but the color reproduction is very good,and they are almost unnotice (yeah yeah forgot the word).I dont know the production date.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] shnn2011:
Thank you for that info. Can you post a link to the thread?

To answer your question:

The reason for the bounty is to provide incentive. These guys don't really do much for money; the money goes to the open source/open hardware community anyways. Most the hardware hacker type guys also don't care much for high end phones like we do. They are busy working on open designs for 3d printers, repairing x-ray machines for 3rd world countries, arduino projects . . .

Furthermore, if the issue is as simple as for instance replacing a resistor or voltage regulator then it is a fix most of us can benefit from. Most of us are either technically inclined enough to do some surface mount soldering / de-soldering or know someone who can. I have seen these guys do some amazing stuff.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] princeasi:
sure here ya go, this is about the Mura http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=19743691 supercurio thread, you should be able to find. If not, I'll post a link to that I'd needed.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] nexus14:
I have the T-mobile model, the T989.

This is what I did in an attempt to replicate the OP's situation:

1) Turn off auto brightness, set brightness to lowest setting

2) Downloaded this image onto my phone: http://cheema.com/blobs.jpg

3) Viewed it using "Gallery" app

4) When I look at it, it looks like phones #1 and #3 located here: http://cheema.com/TearsOfS2/BlobsTestHumanViewableLarge.jpg

I suppose I am lucky?

Or maybe I'm doing it wrong. For step 2), I opened the file on my desktop just to see what it looked like and it was just a small "black" rectangle, approx. half the size of an XDA avatar. Maybe the wrong file got uploaded?
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] shnn2011:
Maybe you are lucky. Did u purchase the phone recently?
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] nexus14:
Yes, it was a recent purchase, mid Dec 2011 from Best Buy actually. Upon looking at the original box, it has a date of Nov 2011
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] han-shinbi:
white one has same problems.

Hi folks, I bought the white version on 12/26/11 got it on 12/30/11 & didn't open it till today. Now I saw these lines & blobs at night. Even at 100% brightness! Most prominent line is on the right side of screen.

I got mines through customer care-I don't feel like paying to ship back to them. Plus i'm not sure if they will still honor the price. How do I get Samsung to fix/replace my handset? Do I have to pay?

Manufacture date on box says 12/14/11 made in China.

I found this thread after searching for Samsung galaxy 2 screen problems.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] hyl4me:
Read this thread if you have time. http://http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1300133

In short, you can contact Samsung support to send in for repair. Some sent in and got their display replaced and the draw of luck to have the new problem-free display. Currently stat for success is low. You can get more info by reading the thread.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] han-shinbi:
Do I have to go through T-mobile tech support first or can I contact them directly? Thanks for your reply.

Very frustrating- this might be the last time I order from customer care. If you have a problem with your phone in the grace period, you have to pay to ship it back and they do it as a refund, not exchange.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] hyl4me:
No, you don't have to contact T-mobile tech support first. You can contact Samsung directly, here is their phone #1-888-987-4357 from Samsung website. Some people contacted tmobile royalty department in the grace period and they sent the brand new replacement phone for them with no shipping fee. It also mentions in the thread above.

Don't forget to post your experience with tmobile or Samsung, so it could help other people.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] han-shinbi:
Thanks. I'm still reading that thread- really long lol!
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] han-shinbi:
Okay, I called samsung first. they said they can have it "fixed" but would rather I call tmobile to replace it since he believes it's a hardware problem. If they won't then call back and they'll fix it instead. he was nice.

So I called tmo retentions. They lady said okay and was very nice about it and waived the express shipping to me but says I need to send in the old one via ups or fedex.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] hyl4me:
keep us posted.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] han-shinbi:
Did anyone else have a successful replacement from samsung?
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] yomuppet:
Ugggggggh.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] willowbeehive:
Just picked up a SGSII this past Friday, date on the box says 11/29/11. I have the blob and vertical line issue too so it appears newer models aren't better quality. I'm still in the 14 day period so I'm going back to the store. Glad to find this thread and to know I'm not crazy.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] han-shinbi:
Lol, the irony. I hope you send it back in! I had the same problem with the lg optimus t (dead pixel), one that came back was worse. So I sent it in again and finally got a good one. That cost me $5 x2 for warranty replacement.

I wish I did my research before buying the white one lol. And thankfully, you're not crazy! Everyone's been telling I'm nuts for complaining about the lines- but maybe I'm or we're just very nitpicky?
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] darkphantom:
OP - THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

I have been trying to convey this to people since I've got this phone and have had the same issues with 3 black ones and 2 white ones!

Even the one I have right now has the issue (which I am going to return).

Love the phone but the screen is the deal breaker.

I will try my best to post this on every mobile site so they know of these issues (ofcourse with credit to you and links to this site :) )
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] princeasi:
Samsung sees nothing wrong with using these displays. That's why we continuously see these type of displays cropping up in this model of the sgs2

I'm just sayin!
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] demonwind:
They definitely know it's there, but don't want to fix it because it wouldn't be financially advisable to do so.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] 01010001:
On Twitter: http://bit.ly/zwpur7

Probably won't make any difference, but I suppose there's always that chance..
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] gr8cop:
Ran the test

I ran the test and I guess I am lucky because I don't have any issues. I don't see any blotches. I believe the Manufacturing date of my SGS is 9/30/11.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] 01010001:
Congratulations! You won the lottery!
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] demonwind:
They said the same thing on their official forums many months ago.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] djxcee:
I too have the blobs and lines. However it doesn't bother me all to much. Only see them on a few apps' loading screen.