yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] DanteSSS333:
The same method that fixes the smearing also grealty improves/fixes this issue, I tested it on my S4.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] _Variable:
Yo guys, Just lurking around here...

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Sent from a dark and unknown place

Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 P3100
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] maggot_ff:
So, i have tested my phone now, and the only issue i can get is the smearing, but only on <50% brightness. More than that and i can hardly notice it (though it's still there, but nothing that bothers me). at 90-100% it's pretty much non-existing. A screen filter pretty much fixes it completely though, and the black levels are still better than on my S3, so it's good enough.

No clipping, no tints and no changing hue. And i have tested it A LOT, as i am pretty OCD about stuff like this. Then again, unless Samsung fixes this smearing issue (fixing it with filters isn't good enough for me), I might have to go for another phone.

Having to mend my new products like this just feels wrong.

Every new phone, it's the same thing.. always these little things that spoils some of the fun for me. :p

This time it's the smearing on the S4 and the horrid gaps on the One.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] trinisentra:
I have the same issues when my screen is turn down low with my international I9500
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bala_gamer:
Now I'm back to smearing, the software update I received resolved the red pixel glowing issue and I'm back to ground 1.

Guys I'm pretty sure it's due to the contrast level Samsung is using. Had a small comparison with s2 and s3 here in the service center, in zero dark conditions s4 goes completely dark which causes the issue, once we use screen adjuster the issue vanishes and the blacks are same as s3. So it's like either Samsung gonna increase the contrast a bit or we have to use screen adjuster till that
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Rmansh:
maybe the korea variants or vietnam would be different... did u check this ?
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] san21429:
Display issue solved

Jst got an software update........after update it has been solved its around 52mb.......samsung india thank u
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] renton82:
Which version of firmware is?
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Rmansh:
really? everyone please update and tell your results...

how did u update? from the phone itself?
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bala_gamer:
Buddy, the mdk update fixes the red pixel issue but not the smearing issue
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] voodoochild2008:
Hi. Did you get the other update before this one, it was 74m. If you did then this one you just got could well be a fix for tbe screen.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] skivnit:
stil no update here :) and i'm not really bothered by the smearing. more bothered by the implementation of the big.lilltle architecture as mentioned before :)
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] maximusl:
Both mine and my systers galaxy s4 (both Octa 9500) have screen smearing issue as well as when Air view is enabled screen on white background begins to have greish ripples :(
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] voodoochild2008:
Got another reply off Samsung after I sent links to a few sites all talking of this issue.

Again can I please ask you all who have the issue to email Samsung, and also email the store you bought the phone, ask them to speak to Samsung.

We will get more answers/a fix sooner if Samsung see that it is a bigger problem than what they make it out to be.

The other thing is the more we make them listen, the more sure I am they will not make this mistake again lol and dont get me wrong I love the Galaxy phones, but only when they work :)

Dear Mark

Thank you for contacting Samsung Customer Support.

Please be advised that our engineers are currently investigating the issue you have described. If they find it to be a genuine fault then a firmware update to fix the issue will be rolled out as soon as possible. Due to the nature of our investigations we are unable to advise on a timescale for any possible update.

If there is anything else we can help with, please let us know.

Our Customer Support Team love feedback! Share your thoughts on this response by completing the survey at the bottom of this page.

Kind regards

Gareth

Online Support Team

SAMSUNG Customer Support Centre
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] MopHeadGeek:
What Samsung email address can't find it
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] voodoochild2008:
For the UK use this link, just scroll down a little on the left, says E-mail Samsung in blue writing

http://www.samsung.com/uk/info/contactus.html

I have been sending them to public relations
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ritch15:
after two mails from samsung, telling me to go to my dealer to get a repair, I visited the live chat.

And ofc. he was trying to tell me the same. I told him this is a global problem but he didn't hear anything about it yet.

And if Samsung would see this is a global problem they would take further actions.

He told me he would send this problem to his manager so he could take a look at it.

so please.. contact Samsung and/or any news sites !! preferably via samsung live chat.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] yonoshiro:
It is a software problem

Good Day

I would just like to confirm that the smearing issue is indeed a software issue that can be remedied by a an update. My reason for making such a claim is as follows:

1) I did not have the screen smearing on my Galaxy S 4 before ( i repeatedly checked on all manual brightness settings in complete darkness, constantly scrolling through the settings and watching the text like hawk).

2) However, i did have black clipping issues ( failed gamma gradient test) and the red tint issue where black was concerned.

3) I received a 46 mb update last night that fixed both my black clipping issues and the red tint issue. Blacks are now truly black on the screen and the grey to black gradient is smooth.

4) After updating, and strictly out of curiosity, i re-tested the smearing issue under the same conditions aforesaid. I now had the smearing issue, clear as day.

So it is *probably* a software issue. i believe samsung is tweaking their gamma settings and response curves, etc to find the sweetspot. That being said.. i much prefer the smearing issue to the red tint and clipping.. the smearing only shows in a dark room with low brightness. But that red tine made the screen look washed out and was hideous when looking at dark images..

I hope this brings some relief to my fellow GS4 owners who were worried that this may be a hardware issue.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] marder:
For the time being, we have observed that some settings show no smears and other settings show no red hues. But this does not imply however that the hardware is able to display both no smears and no red hues.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ilabs:
After following this issue for the past few days, I feel its a hardware issue. I say this coz it seems software tweaking fixes one issue while messing up the other. Software tweaking seems to essentially find a trade-off between the tint, black clipping and the smearing. If the hardware was perfect, software tweaks wouldn't sacrifice one thing like the contrast for the smearing. The only way such a trade-off is needed is when the hardware just doesn't meet all the criteria or qualities.

Then again, it could be fixed by higher refresh rates but that would also drain battery, perhaps heat up the screen and cause thermal throttling. This is just my analysis, but it still basically looks like the hardware is somewhat lacking.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] chippyuk:
Well not really! With your initial issue (point 2 above) your black pixels were not tunred off completely hence you were seeing the red tint.... What they have done in the update is make the pixels turn off but this has introduced the smearing.

The whole point is that we want the pixels turned off (saves power) but do not want the smearing and this looks like it will never happen due to the hardware iteself. Yes they will get the balance right at some stage.

On to the facts, I did not really follow any marketing for the S4 so cannot comment but did Samsung even advertise the phone as having true blacks (pixel off) if not then there really is no issue here at all as we have not been given anything that can be concidered as broken. They just, as you mention "need to find the sweet spot" something we can do wiht the fixes anyway. However if they did market the screen as having "pixel off" then yes we have been sold somehting which does not really function correctly......

Either way I am not fussed at all about any of the smearing as even my S3 had slight smearing in the System menu. :)
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] DanteSSS333:
Hes right, the only way to get rid of both problems is to set all the subpixels on a low level (e.g. 5), so they are permanently on, preventing the smearing. This has been done by Samsung on all pentile AMOLED displays (e.g. Galaxy S3), but they seem to have forgotten to do it for the S4 xD

I use screen adjuster to set the basic RGB to 5/5/5 and I got rid of smearing and all the other issues. Samsung will probably do sth very similar via softare update.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] voodoochild2008:
Hi

Is it the first update you have had, we all seemed to get one the other day but it did not fix the issue (fixed other things) is this your 1st update or second? if its your 2nd then maybe it is a fix.

I would think there is no fix as yet, Samsung have not said there is an issue yet just "we are looking into it"
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] yonoshiro:
yeah.. this is my first update

.. from I9500 UBUAMDE

..to I9500 UBUAMDK
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] voodoochild2008:
Ah, its the update we all got, it fixed some stuff but not the smear issue.

We are all kind of waiting for someone to say if its software=wait for update hardware=take the phone back asap
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] yonoshiro:
points taken

Points taken gentlemen.. maybe you could forgive me for jumping the gun in my current mental state of extreme relief at having the red pixel issue and black clipping gone..lol

I concur with all that was said.

And you are right..i believe my S3 pixels were always one, because a black screen glowed in the dark ( unlike my s4 now) enough for me to see the "inkspots" ..lol

However, I dont think the hardware is defective per se.. rather it has a new type of display with certain limitations which samsung will have to work around with software.... i dont mind that.. what would piss me off is if samsung releases a batch of galaxy s 4's later on with improved screen hardware.. at that point a river for profanities may escape me!..lol
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] chippyuk:
Guys, I really doubt there is a fix here!!!

It is simply a question of Samsung releasing an update which prevents the pixels turning off completely or as mentioned doing something with the refresh rate but that will probably kill the battery. I hope I am wrong but from my understandign this is pretty normal in this type of screen. The smearing you see is the pixels going from a completely off state to an on state as the image changes. Cannot see software fixing this apart from keeping the pixels on all the time.

But as I said, I do not believe the screen was ever marketed as such and so in reality there really is nothing wrong with our screens apart from Samsung sorting out the settings or just using Screen Adjuster yourself in the mean time.

EDIT: What I mean is that there is no fix to keep the pixels turned off and stop the smearing. The fix is to not turn the pixels off completley....
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] voodoochild2008:
Yeah thats my thing, I would be happy to wait a few weeks for a fix IF Samsung would just let us know that there is an issue in the software and they are able to fix with an update, the longer they leave this the more I am wanting to refund the phone.

I have more praise for a company if they admit an error but they are working on it, I hate it when all know of the error but they leave you in the dark, people start to have all kinds of ideas.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bala_gamer:
the pixel never went off completely in the past too.. but still it had the best black levels
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] DanteSSS333:
Imo, this finding is also important for everyone making custom roms for the S4, since they can tune the basic screen brightness to prevent such issues. For the moment, I will just use screen adjuster, it works like a charm and doesnt even drain the battery significantly, since I dont spend all the time looking at black pictures on my S4 xD.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Rmansh:
one question... what problem did this device have when you just bought it and no updates where installed?
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Nickslife89:
Sorry to say it guys but Sammy isn't going to fix this. They want those pixles off. It makes the phone look great on display. The galaxy note 10.1 also suffered from the same this and never one saw a fix. I can't stand it I had to take my s4 back and get the one. It just looked to cheap and messy on that nice s4
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] dkeny_5:
yes im also facing the same issue
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] mattlovell90:
Thought you guys may be interested to see the response I got from Samsung.

"Dear Matthew

Thank you for contacting Samsung Customer Support.

We are very sorry for this issue you are having with the resolution on your handset. We understand how frustrating this would be, especially as the handset is so new.

So we can have a better idea of what you are seeing, would it be possible for you to send us some screen grabs of the handset when the resolution is in this state?

If there is anything else we can help with, please let us know.

Our Customer Support Team love feedback! Share your thoughts on this response by completing the survey at the bottom of this page.

Kind regards

Gareth

Online Support Team

SAMSUNG Customer Support Centre"

Have replied linking to the video posted in here of the smearing. Seems he got the wrong end of the stick slightly, but at least they seem a little interested in solving it...
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] akrontomaz:
YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

I WAS ONE OF THE GUYS, that received the device Friday 26, build MDF no screen smearing no nothing, now after the last KIES update to build MDM I have the screen issue and is very bad, OH MY F** GOD is so awful.

I am about to kill myself really, no one deserves this Samsung :mad::mad::mad::mad:

---------- Post added at 07:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:35 PM ----------

Man I'm about to flash back to MDF build, I'm going to kill somebody today really :mad::mad:
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] D.O.C:
Good.^^^ mattlovell90

To be perfectly honest, and take into consideration that this is just my opinion, I will gladly bear with the "smear" anytime in order to keep pixels turned off and have perfect black. I find it more annoying to have deep gray instead of black like other displays. But again thats just me, and I am pretty happy with the display. :)

Obviously, not to have the smear and keep pixels off would be the cherry on top of the pie!
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] voodoochild2008:
I know what you mean but if you pay that kind of money should it not work 100% out of the box, I know people say its new tech and you get issues to start with (long as they fix them life not so bad) but why do we seem to feel its ok to have these little issues, why bring it out if its not fully tested.

Those guys get paid lots of money to think up these things and have some really smart people working for them, so why is it after days we have guys on XDA who find faults, ok if its a hand full out of millions but things like this that seem to be world wide is shocking.

Might seem OTT to some but when does it go from "oh its ok I can live with it" to "WTF this needs sorted" I mean if you bought a car and its brakes failed I am sure you would not like to hear "well me make loads, and well at first some might have issues, but hey you lived" and fair enough thats a bit of a leap car/phone but my point been if you build something your put your name to it, you put the business name to it and as such you should stand by the product and the company standards, and if there is an issue you at least let the consumer know you are on the case, I find it hard to believe that no one at Samsung knew of this (though at time I do think they use XDA as a test site lol)

Also annoying that there are people on here that seem to know more about the product and how it works, they should hire new staff from here.

Ok rant over :)
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] sam2c:
I think what samsung is doing is getting all the screens on the same level (ie. black, but smeaing) before they do the smearing fix. They are aware of the smearing, im sure, regardless of what the tech teams says. They have to pretend that its not a common problem, for publicity sake. I called them regarding the red tint and they said they are not aware of it, so I should go deal with carrier

If something as trivial as Screen Adjustor could fix the smearing issue, I'm sure Samsung can as well.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] voodoochild2008:
Fingers crossed they do and soon, htc came very close to beating them this year, keeping the public happy with a device is more important than ever. .....if they get to high and mighty they will become Apple lol
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] yonoshiro:
Amen to that!

I don't mind the ghosting/smearing so much.. the red tint and clipping was killing me!..but if I had to choose between a pure black screen and no smearing I would take the pure black screen.. I mean.. it only happens when your screen brightness is on pretty low, plus i love the jet black of amoled.. Samsung didnt specifically advertize this..but it is generally understood to be a defining point of amoled technology.. hell.. even Nokia takes full advantage of this feature of amoleds in the 808 pureview and nokia n8 among other amoled screen symbian devices by offering an "always on clock" screensaver that moves around.. it basically takes no energy because the entire screen is off save and except for the part currently displaying the clock.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] mattlovell90:
Yeah I totally agree that a 'fix' that requires having pixels on instead of the obviously preferable true black is not really a fix at all. If this is the only way around it I would like to think Samsung would be smart enough to implement an option instead of just changing it, else we will surely see another of these threads just for the grey blacks! Even so, at least the response is more positive than some people have had!
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] MopHeadGeek:
I just made a more in depth video of the issue for people to pass around

Or send to samsung

Warning I wouldn't watch this on your galaxy S4 as it looks horrible the screen does not process the blacks properly

I use different brightness and different apps to show this issue then apply the

Temporary fix

http://youtu.be/DOQ91ujRFxU
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] whittssg:
Is anyone having these issues on the UAMDC build? I tested in complete darkness and the screen did not look red and I cant see any smeering - but that could be my eyes
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Nickslife89:
I had to switch to the HTC one. Could not stand it. LCD looks far superior and sharper
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] manangadaria:
same in octa core version and even more problems

Hey guys... I've got the octa core version of s4. The black mist and having same issues.

I don't know whether you have noticed it or not but the screen gets a slight green tint while using keyboard..... Just try that on your browser. Screen appears green tint as the keyboard pops up.

And even my s4 heats too.you can feel that under camera flash.and Even my battery life is bad. Though I used iPhone before so I don't have idea Android battery life. But it drains to 75% after using it for 1:40 hours. And 45 min of stand by.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] inolvidable:
That is not normal at all. There are a few apps (like https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.asksven.betterbatterystats) that can help you to identify the draining program/process. You can easily find a few tutorials about how to deal with huge battery drain by checking with the oracle (Search bar in XDA or Google XD)..
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] voodoochild2008:
Yeah, like to know this myself, no one said anything yet about this one fixing screen smearing.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] syedimty:
I am from India. I have the same problem

GT-I9500

AP : I9500XXUAMDK

CP : I9500DDUAMDK

CSC : 19500ODDAMDK

RF CAL: 2013.4.19

HW REV: MP 0.800

JDQ39.19500XXUAMDK
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] voodoochild2008:
Its all over the world, all seem to have issues, best thing to do is email Samsung in India http://www.samsung.com/in/info/contactus.html tell them of the issue, also email place you bought the phone, ask them to tell Samsung.

Samsung need to keep hearing of the issue to speed them along in either fixing it by way of an update, or let us know to return the phones due to hardware issue.....but if this goes on much longer without them even saying anything I will return mine.

We put a man on the moon in the 60s and yet in this day a huge firm cannot inform people they know of an issue and they are working to fix it lol
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] syedimty:
Sending an email , right away!!

Lets together make this big, I am really waiting for an official response from Samsung regarding this issue.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] voodoochild2008:
Its very big, its all over, main problem is many dont even know they have a problem, regular users will not know until its too late.

Also many complain on here but dont do anything about it, Samsung will not be in a rush to fix this unless they get hit with emails and bad press.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Rmansh:
guys did u try any launchers? maybe this could be a fix...
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ZaZu90:
Happens with me too. UK sim-free device.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] voodoochild2008:
Sorry it does not change anything. The whole thing comes down to software or hardware, software can be updated and fixed.....needs to be soon though, but if its hardware then phones need to go back to shop for swap or refund.

Lot just waiting to see which it is and go from there.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Rmansh:
here in sammobile one of the Administrators -DannyD- says Samsung will solve this problem soon as possible..

http://www.sammobile.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11482

so they are working on it... don't worry ;)
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] squshy 7:
It's times and pedantry issues like this that I'm thankful for being colorblind.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] DanteSSS333:
An easy way to test this would be to watch a video with a truly black background and a white dot moving around. Anyone here who can make such a vid?

Edit: I found a good one to test it: footage.shutterstock.com/clip-1419802-stock-footage-floating-grey-dots-against-black.html

It really seems to be a screen issue. We have to contact Samsung and ask them if this will ever be fixed or if it is due to a cheap screen. My SGS2 doesnt have that issue.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Markz88:
I hope that it is a software issue... and that it will be fixed soon with and upgrade :cyclops: