yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] AUHHZUMA:
There might be a handful of people with the same issue, under the same circumstance but, all in all, there's diffidently an manufacturer defect.

I wouldn't waste my time here if I knowingly caused the damage to my phone. It was working fine and the next time I looked at it, it wasn't.

HERE'S MY ORIGINAL POST (09/14/2013):

I drove to work this morning (09/11/2013), my phone was fine. I placed my phone on my desk, my phone was fine. I check my phone 5 minutes later and this is what it looked like.

img.photobucket.com/albums/v650/sig753/IMG_3743_zps82c86b41.jpg

img.photobucket.com/albums/v650/sig753/IMG_3751_zps6b7c30a4.jpg

I went to a local ATT repair shop and the guy said the phone had a hairline crack in it, which I didn't notice.

I've never dropped my phone and the hairline crack is UNDER the glass, which is not cracked.

The repair guy said it was from pressure on the screen. I'm not sure what to think.

This is a strange place on the touch screen for this to happen.

I've looked around and found that it's the AMOLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode) that has the crack in it, not the glass.

The questions I have are, how is this possible, is this a S4 defect and/or just my bad luck?

It's a cell "mobile" phone. If the warranty said, "Make sure you wrap your "mobile phone" in bubble wrap, place it in a safe, only use it in an emergency, and DO NOT PLACE PHONE IN POCKET NOR ON A STATIONARY DESK... I would have never bought this phone.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] muamers:
well, the screen protector didn't work obviously :laugh:
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] AUHHZUMA:
The "screen protector" was designed to prevent scratches on the glass not, AMOLED defects.:mad:
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] windozeanti:
If LG G2 doesn't have this issue, I am sure it is Samsung fault. Samsung really ruin the S4..
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Hendrickson:
I never knew my thread would become so big and this happen to so many others out there. Its a shame that Samsung have an extremely weak samoled screen in there S4. Samsung Spain would not fix my screen, told me its my fault so if they fix it would be at my cost. Horrible customer service. So I had to sell my phone off cheap. Never brought another S4. Now I have a Note 3 and worried the same could happen.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Hendrickson:
I have a G2 too and it lives in my pockets with no such issue. The G2's screen can handle a pocket unlike the S4.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] cerealcable:
Guess I'm unfortunately joining those who have had their amoled break. Was on my way to pass out after a long drive and it fell as I was getting off my couch. Screen ruined, glass perfectly fine. Even had a case and screen protector (which is something I usually go without). My Nexus Galaxy S withstood waaaay more torture than this phone did. I bought it only 2 weeks ago even.

Any suggestions on where to get a decent deal on a new screen?
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] GreenLanternX:
I would contact Samsung, they were the cheapest I found to do the repair. Call the number listed in my previous post.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] renanterzi:
Man, the screen of my S4 was equal to your screen, but I left my phone down and burned LCD I think.

I took the technical assistance and said he was carrying and making several downlods and when I went to see the LCD screen did not care and was burned.

I managed to fix by the Samsung and got zero!
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] clonednull:
Mate you are worried about samsungs build quality and how they implement the screens into their devices.

Now you buy a BIGGER screen device from them?

You must be a faithfull person :angel:
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] e30user:
I have to admit, this thread has made me paranoid about getting this phone. Even if it's just a small handful of reported cases out of millions, I'd say the possibility of over 10 legitimate cases from just this community is concerning. So far, my understanding is that there hasn't been any sort of pattern found, such as cases used, time of ownership, production date ranges, or even color. Is that still the case? I'm only focusing on the cases where the amoled cracked on the phones that never received any notable physical impacts throughout its life like the original post. I may still take my chances, but this has definitely been interesting as more cases are reported.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] dratsablive:
You probably have the same chances of getting struck by lightning than experiencing this so call defect.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] GreenLanternX:
I wouldn't call this a defect in design, given the number of units sold and the number of instances based on the small population here on XDA, it's more likely they have a QA or a lot problem...possibly a brief lapse in manufacturing quality control.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Super2020:
I had same problem, same broken shape and screen location. No shock noticed, just sitting and standing up...
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] a67q:
This is the most retarded topic ever, not just on this forum but allover.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] AUHHZUMA:
...and why is that? Try adding something constructive.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] iridaki:
My S4 was given to me by my boyfriend and when I got it, it was already 4 months old. Every day for 4 months, it has been carried in a pocket in his jeans, no case, no screen protector. The phone to this day is in mint condition.

The S4 is not very weak as the title of this thread suggests. It may not be as sturdy as some people expected it to be, but in my experience, it does pretty well.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] msavic6:
People like to generalize the whole S4 population of devices as weak just because a miniscule amount experienced this issue. My S4 has lived in my front jeans pocket through 18 hour car rides and 10 hour flights as well as daily use for the past 4 months and I have not experienced any issues.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Persianhawkes:
I unfortunately dropped my S4 about 6 inches with UAG case on it and cracked the lcd not the glass. Sent it to Samsung and wanted $200 to repair it. I was hung up on twice in the process of calling them. After explaining being hung up they dropped the repair cost to $70.36. A lot cheaper than the screens on ebay and avoided a claim on insurance. Hopefully this helps other people out. Make sure when you call them that you want to speak to Level 2. Guess they have the power lol.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] findme:
Please feel free to join us on FB. Like and share to help spread out the word

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Samsung-galaxy-S4-damaged-OLED-panels/186280021554057
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] AUHHZUMA:
As some may or may not know, I sent my S4 to the Samsung Plano TX facility to have the AMOLED defect fixed. The Samsung ASC Service Repair Statement

said under the Repair Summary...."Symptom: PARTICLES BETWEEN LENS AND LCD." How did particles get between the lens and lcd?

They were going to charge me $200 to have it fixed but, eventually sent the phone back to me for no-payment.

This is what it looked like when I got it back. Guess Samsung decided to play rugby with it. :mad:
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] HC4Life:
What a f**k??? This is very wrong. Samsung will not get satisfaction from the buyers acting that way. I saw many people unsatisfied lately.

What is happening? Sorry bro for what happened to u. :(
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] AndyFox2011:
That is pretty shocking :( I buy samsung cause of HTCs lack of sd card slot but now after seeing all this stuff about samsungs customer service and how it treats it's customers I may end up back with HTC

I'm very sorry for you to receive your phone back in such a state, after the screen cracking for no apparent reason :(
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Anhilator00:
Mine is always in pocked.

No problems so far
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] richiex2:
I keep it in the soft (fake) leather pouch to prevent scratches... oh, and my pockets are always deep and comfy :D
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] streetw1se:
Just came across this thread so thought i'd share my experience with my S4 as well. I upgraded from my awesome S2 to the S4 in May as soon as it released here in India, and ordered an Otterbox Commuter Case right away to protect the expensive phone. Everything was well and good till around mid June, when suddenly one evening, a vertical pink line showed up almost in the middle of the screen (a bit to the right). I was so disappointed and shocked as i hadn't dropped or bumped my phone anywhere!

Now the good stuff. I went to the Samsung Service Center the very next day in the morning, spoke to one of the guys there and he checked my phone for any kinda physical damage but was shocked not to find any. He then spoke to someone else inside, came back out and told me that usually they charge around 120$ for a screen replacement but since it doesn't look like any damage has been caused by me they'd replace it for free! It took them around 4-5 hours and i got my phone looking brand new again! Not had any kinda issue ever since; no overheating, random reboots, etc. Guess i've been lucky! :)
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Takedaz:
wow that was nice from Samsung, for free. gratz :D
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] narse:
Had seen this thread for ages and never really read it, but surprised that it seemed to be updated fequently. Initially I thought it was just going to be a flame war between people who didn't own S4s slagging off Samsung's build quality; and people who did own them defending them.

Then one morning I pressed the power button to wake up my phone and there was what looks like corrupted pixels at the top of the screen. Hadn't dropped the phone, it hadn't got hot, the screen just broke. I have since found that the glass screen is intact, but the screen underneath has some cracks starting from around the camera.

I am now glad that this thread has been there for the past couple of months as otherwise I would be worried it was my fault somehow. I am taking my phone back to the shop tomorrow and will refer to this thread and that other people are having the same problem. I will post how I get on.

My phone was rooted and had a custom Touchwiz rom installed. I managed to put the phone into "download mode" and installed one of the original stock rom images from DjeMBeY's thread through Odin. I just hope that they fix the screen for free; don't complain that the phone had been rooted; and don't upgrade the Rom to a Knox version. Let's see how I get on.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] valentinrascu:
Bumper aluminium frame help very much for this problem.

tapatalked with s4
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] AUHHZUMA:
PLEASE POST A PIC! If it's not to late.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rl421403:
Actually, in India Samsung sold S4 with 1 time free screen replacement warranty.

Check offers at bottom of the page on this link.

https://www.samsungindiamarketing.com/galaxys4/home.aspx

Also in terms
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] narse:
Sorry too late. It looked almost identical to the first picture in the first post of this thread. The crack is in the top right and the first few lines of pixels just showed rubbish from the left to the crack and then black for the rest of the screen.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] maniaknl:
Wow, is there anyway to protect the phone from these kind of damages? Would hate to see mine brake aswell. However i have it for a few month's now and it seems to be fine.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] streetw1se:
Yep, but I bought my phone before Samsung came out with that offer, so it was just a good gesture on the part of that service center guy (didn't even charge me Rs.500 for handling) I was sorta disappointed that i couldn't avail the offer though since i didn't get the free s-view cover and stuff lol, but oh well!
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] shaneveeg:
BBB Complaint Filed and Responded to

Last week after getting my phone back from Samsung unrepaired, I filed a complaint with the BBB. Essentially it said the phone is broken internally. I didn't abuse it. Samsung won't repair it under warranty.

I asked to be able to return the broken phone for a full refund of what I paid, and to be able to use the credit to get a different phone instead as if I never had this S4.

BBB sent the complaint to Verizon as they seem to put all mobile phone complaints to the service provider instead of the manufacturer.

Verizon had a rep call me and she took 15 minutes to essentially explain to me that it's not in their list of "Known Issues" and if Samsung says it's non-covered damage, then that is Verizon's conclusion as well. She offered absolutely nothing other than an explanation of how phones can be broken by pressure and she always uses a case on her phone.

It seemed that her job was to make sure the Verizon reps earlier followed procedure and if so, just to calm down the BBB complainer and try to get them to take what they were offered.

I took some video and good pictures of the damage now that I got the phone back. I'll post those later tonight.

Not sure what the next step will be. It's not the $175 repair cost at this point. I don't want this phone anymore. More than that I don't want to give in to unfair treatment. Just being stubborn I suppose.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Ruxton:
My phone did the exact same thing. Front right pocket all on it's own (I don't wear tight jeans!!), glass facing in, stepped into a car, *CRAAACK*. It's been at the carrier for 4 weeks while we do the "it's your fault, the screen is broken" dance.

It's now sitting at the shop, unfixed and the carrier is telling me I can:

A) Pay the 49.50 for the warranty assesment, pick it up and take it to Samsung

B) Pay the $75 insurance excess and it'll be repaired in a few days.

The problem with A? If Samsung deny it, I'm liable for another $49.50 warranty assessment fee. It's a ****ty situation when it's easier and cheaper to enact an insurance plan to fix something that's seemingly an issue with the phone itself. (We're 98 pages deep with "Me too").e
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ohraii:
I've replied when this thread was new, but just recently I've met someone whose phone broke in his pocket! I was out with some friends and noticed everyone had had an iPhone5, so I commented I was the odd one out. A guy I met that night brought up that he had an S4 before, but the internal amoled screen broke in his pocket when he was out one day with his family. I automatically thought of this thread and mentioned it! Haha. He had no idea what I was talking about, just said he went in the next time to get an iPhone.

Still sucks to hear it happens. I hope everyone with the problem somehow fixes it out!
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] henrik.dk:
Continue man. ...
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] xykosomatik:
hmmm... had my s4 for 5 months now. within 1 week of getting the unit i bought an imitation Otterbox Defender since the official store still doesn't have its s4 stocks, and i thought better some protection than no protection at all. Guess what, i'm still using that fake Defender, and so far i average a fall at a minimum of hip level per day. the screen is still intact. but almost all complaints here seems to stem from their screens breaking when the s4 is inside the pocket, so maybe it is the flexing or twisting of the phone which causes the screen to break. probably since the phone is too thin and made of plastic for the frame to have enough rigidity to prevent the screen from being flexed beyond its limit.

so the solution? get any case with a plastic/rigid frame. just my .02
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] cordell12:
Just want to chime in with my exp with Sprints GS4 version, SPH-L720KASPR.

I have had the device since May, a screen protector has been on from day one as well. Two days ago I went to swap my screen protector out, it was getting a bit grungy. As soon as I removed the screen protector I got a call and had to leave right away, no time to put the new protector on. The very next day I went to work, phone was naked in my front pocket, still havent put the new protector on. Once at work I pulled the phone out to check for notifications and what not when I noticed - CRACK! The crack starts at the top, left of the speaker, and runs all the way down to the "home button" :(

I havent called sammy, did some Ebay searches to find glass only (digitizer is fine) but the process looks scary. I will surely have bubbles or trash when glueing the new glass...
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] henrik.dk:
For those who might be interested. Samsung has to admit product defect after media reported it.

Also in China, broken galaxy note 3 screen will be replaced free of charge during the first 3 month.

This might indicate Samsung screen defect. To me, it could be the below two reason samsung provide

such service:

Chinese may not buy due to screen cracking problem as it is a huge expense compared to their income.

Samsung will get more heated discussion when Chinese caught by self-cracking screen. They will fight

so long as they think it is not their fault.

I believe some of the guys in this thread were paid by samsung.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/24/taiwan-fines-samsung-for-astroturfing-internet-comments/

Samsung extends warranties of failing Galaxy devices after Chinese TV report Mobile

By Jamie Rigg posted Oct 24th, 2013 at 6:39 AM 0

Samsung extends warranties of failing Galaxy devices after Chinese TV

Chinese state media is becoming quite the consumer advocate. Earlier this week, a bit on national TV berated Samsung over certain Galaxy S3 and Note II handsets afflicted with the "sudden death" bug, as it has been called. While a firmware fix promised to cure some devices, the root cause appeared to be due to a dodgy flash memory module, leaving some models without hope of a true elixir. In response to the public scolding, Samsung has issued a statement thanking the broadcaster for its report, also noting that its repair and refund policies are in full compliance with Chinese laws. The company offers anyone that's paid for a repair while under warranty to hit them up for a refund, and has now extended the warranty of any potentially affected device made before November 30th 2012 for an extra 12 months.

Earlier this year, Apple ended up massaging its warranty practices after the People's Daily proposed local coverage wasn't as robust as elsewhere. While Samsung was under scrutiny this time, it's clear both companies are keen on managing public perception. After all, attractive hardware ain't the only thing that'll make you successful in the world's biggest smartphone market.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Maesedroid:
What a shame!, I really don't get how you trusted in flip cases for protection I don't wear it due it non protection profile :confused:

Also tested many times in my jeans my phones over the years and nothing happened
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] BarryH_GEG:
The "I dropped my 'X' phone before and it never happened" isn't really a viable argument. I've dropped my phones plenty of times over the years and (knock on wood) have never experienced a cracked display. Some drops were pretty severe and the display probably should have cracked. But I chalk it up to luck, not design. How a device fairs when dropped all depends on how it lands, what part of the phone takes the impact energy hit, and how that energy is dissipated.

The SGS4's thinner, lighter, and has a larger display with less bezel. Even without this thread I'd have expected it to be more fragile than the SGS3. This is a pure guess on my part but GG3 may be too tough which might be what's causing the underlying display to crack. If the phone flexes, and GG3 because of its hardness doesn't, it would make sense that the panel beneath it which isn't as strong could be vulnerable. But iFixit said this - "the display and front glass are fused, with a layer of optical adhesive. The glass is then adhered to the plastic display frame, making a single assembly." Using optical adhesive to bond the glass and panel to each other would logically mean GG3's hardness should carry over and protect the panel from flex (not impact). Unless there's some sort of issue with how the two are bonded together on some phones. Since there's no real pattern of how phones are cracking and not a lot of volume of reports it could just be some display assembly's (glass, panel, frame) are defective. For reference, in consumer electronics an overall defect rate of 2-5% is considered "good." These aren't ballistic missile launchers built to zero fault tolerances they are mass produced consumer electronics devices. So out of 10MM SGS4's on the road between 200K and 500K likely have a defect. Kind of sucks for those that draw the short straw but that's just the way life goes.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jdashford:
Barry the world need people like you to keep the price of consumer goods down, thank you. The rest of us will continue to use the power of the law to ourv advantage. I'm enjoying typing this on my new free S4 .
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gemini002:
No they will do it for the next 3 mths I'm sure they fixed this issue already hence 3 mths for the few early ones that got away imo
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] BarryH_GEG:
I'm glad your situation worked out. But it's nothing precedent setting. Spamming the CEO, in your case the CEO of your wireless company, and getting a positive result is a crap shoot. And no one knows how their individual case will turn out so it’s not something that can be counted on. I'm not so self-righteous that if people are able to make the system work for them I look down on that. But people that disavow any personal responsibility for things that befall their devices based on some totally unrealistic expectation don't get a lot of sympathy from me.

The stupid part of this debate is that the starting point is we all agree the SGS4's display will crack when mishandled. And that's perfectly OK because all device displays will crack if mishandled. So we've spent 8 pages talking about what's "reasonable" with about a dozen people all claiming their device shouldn't have cracked along with their story of why they believe that's true. Like I said earlier, no one on XDA sharing a cracked display story has ever thought it was their fault. So there's quite a divide between "all device displays crack if mishandled" and "mine cracked and I think it shouldn't have." And just like every other display cracking thread on XDA this one will meander along with those that are aghast their screen cracked and those that are a bit skeptical all contributing. That's just the way it goes.

What do you guys make of this?

The thread is 9 pages in the One forum. Does that mean it's weaker than the SGS4? Or does it mean all phone displays can crack and that when they do it's never the fault of the user. ;)
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] fernando sor:
In all fairness you're not representing this correctly. There are 9 pages talking about one persons screen that cracked while in his front pocket. Not one other person has also had this issue in the thread.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gemini002:
This is true one person but look at his screen he hit something obviously...S4 is a different issue no damage on screen or hairline crack ...