yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] CounterCulture:
Broken Amoled

Just registered to this forum cause i just experienced the same issued with the broken AMOLED screen. I've had the phone for only 12 hours! i experienced a random crack on the top left screen with no actualy damage to the glass itself. Definitely pissing me off. I purchased an upgrade at Costco and plan to bring it back first thing in the morning. Definitely a flaw in the design of the S4. For all you doubters, i NEVER dropped my phone. I've had it in a case since i got it from the store. Costco sells the S4 with a case and car charger so its been protected since the second ive had it in my hands. I didnt even have it in my pocket when it stopped working. It was in my hands working and next thing you know it stopped. If they refuse to give me a new phone, i'll make sure theres a settlement case for this issue considering how often this issue occurs. After googling the issue, I was honestly surprised it happened this often.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] evivbulgroz:
Could you check if the glass is flush with borders and/or if there is any other defect like slightly raised glass or something like that?
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gargam:
[MENTION=2453194]evivbulgroz[/MENTION] :

I believe every cracked screen have somehow a specific point from which the crack spreads (like it would with cracked glass, even if it's not).

Mine is precisely behind right top corner of the battery location.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] BarryH_GEG:
The grass isn't any greener. For reference, this thread's 71 pages.

HTC One (M7) Cracked screen. HTC says not to keep in pocket. (19 pages)

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2295276

Cracked Camera Glass. Another build quality issue? (91 pages)

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2247754

HTC One tiny gap between casing (93 pages)

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2197732

You think 70-some devices over three months out of 20+MM constitutes "often?" You found XDA via Google searching the problem and registered to post in this thread. If this issue impacted a large volume of devices I'd guess others would follow in your footsteps. The problem's a lot more severe to the 70-some that have experienced it. There are plenty of stories of pretty significant drops, falls, and abuse in this thread that didn't damage people's phones. Whatever happened to the 70-some doesn't appear widespread and it’s the honor system that has everyone here believing that the displays on affected phones cracked without any outside influence. I personally beat up four SGS4 display models in Best Buy pretty good when the store was empty and I’m hard pressed to call the SGS4 “weak.”
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] nick101181:
Add me to the list of those with a bad screen. I had no cracks at all, it just went black. I eventually found the cause. About half an inch on the screen under the G in Samsung, light pressing on the screen (an icon or app etc) caused my phone to flicker and go black. It finally went black for good. Took it back to carrier and they tried to send me to the samsung repair center right away. I told them the policy was exchange within 14 days and they start saying 30 mins of use. Luckily I only made 2 quick calls and maybe a handful of texts with the phone. Screen was showing flickering and black out symptoms before the 30 hour mark. The first day I had it in my pocket but was extremely gentle with it. I had a cover on it . I didn't press into anything or rub up against anything. I also had loose fitting jeans. I honestly haven't had the phone long enough to even customize it or download that many apps. I have to wait for the manager of the location to inspect the phone for damages before giving me another one. Hope he doesn't claim I did it and tries to scam me out of some money. :crying:
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] evivbulgroz:
I still think that it's a bad gluing that causes the problem.The amoled is "torn" from the inside like a sticker you unstick.If the amoled is not completely glued a simple pressure on the glass bends and breaks it because the amoled is not flexible like the GG3 glass.The metal plate prevents that when the screen assembly is correctly glued.As for how widespread is this issue I didn't see too much threads outside XDA.On Millions on devices produced,you only need 5000 to 10000 screens assemblies that are affected to have a 70 pages topic on XDA.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] nick101181:
I posted a message on their official facebook page asking if they would acknowledge the issue with bad S4 screens and it got deleted right away.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jamm513:
Ok guys,this is my experience:

One Month ago to buy the S4 Galaxy i9500, I've always taken great care of blows or falls, but this day my son just a year old, take it and throw it on the table (1.20 meters high) and fell back the floor, you know what happened? absolutely NOTHING, is in perfect condition, no any scratch or hit suffered far nothing happened display and NOT Screen cracked.

So, i'm very happy whit my SGS4. :D
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] evivbulgroz:
of course, it's to be expected that non defective phone to be fine, but you were also very lucky it didn't break.I warmly suggest that you don't ever left you phone to the reach of you son until he's 18.at least.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] pepsimaxmjs:
Cracks by itself...

Ladies & Gents - if your phone 'mysteriously cracks' like mine did, I suggest the following ... first call your supplier (mine was Vodafone). They'll tell you this is not covered by the warranty (i.e. your fault). Then they'll give you a Samsung number. Ring this, get told the same, but ruder. Go to Samsung UK website - find the Email the CEO button. Send him a detailed message explaining what happened. Explain this is obviously unlucky, but you're not prepared to pay £190 for the privilege of their manufacturing problems. Hopefully you'll get a response (mine was fast). they asked to check the phone. Take pictures before you ship it - they supply the shipping kit. It better look like new, you better have the manufacturer ROM. Keep communicating with them politely, but make it clear that high end products that break in such a way are not Fit for Purpose as per Sale of Goods Act. If they find your phone would be hard to explain to a consumer show (like Watchdog), they'll decide you are a worthy case... then you get the thing repaired for free.

So, what's the plot. The phone should not break so easily, and there is potentially a very low yield fault. What does this mean? basically a very small number of phones (usual production tolerance) have some problem. Given the volume shipped you cannot assume the phone is fragile. If yours breaks for no reason (like mine) you'll be mad. Take the time to complain firmly and with clarity (don't be rude, do be precise) then Samsung are fairly likely to help you. Having had to go back to another Android phone, I have to say I miss my S4. Battery life was great, and the thing is damn fast. Lovely display, and that UI really grows on you after a while. Looking forward to being re-united with mine in the next few days....

pepsimaxmjs
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Glotttis:
i'm beginning to think that most people are at fault for screen cracks and they use this thread for scapegoating.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] scottyf79:
Thus far my S4 has been fine - however i have to say after reading around i am more careful with it than i really should have to be.

If there is a defect in some of the phones or just bad design then samsung should fess up and deal with the customers with the faulty handsets promptly and either fix the handsets or replace them f.o.c.

Its a MOBILE phone at the end of the day, it should be designed robustly enough to be transported as it is meant to be MOBILE.

If my screen goes with a custom rom on it then il just have to go through home insurance, thats my bad luck. Even if the screen cracks for no reason regardless of it being rooted etc i'll be mega pissed off and knowing what Samsungs customer care is like id probably never buy another Samsung again.......heres hoping thats not the case. Touch wood.

Frickin awesome phone otherwise!
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] BarryH_GEG:
That's a bit harsh but I'm beginning to think that something may be happening to certain phones beyond just a defect that's causing their AMOLEDs to crack as easily as people are saying. If it's a specific manufacturing or assembly defect common to all the reported broken displays you'd expect to see more of them than that they'd be cracking more frequently. People are reporting "it was fine, I put it in my shirt pocket, and when I took it out it wasn't." Movement from being in a shirt pocket, unless said shirt was being worn in a Zumba class, shouldn't create enough torsional flex or even movement to crack an AMOLED panel. I'm prone to believe that something happened to the damaged phones prior that involved stress or flex that then weakened them so that even minor jostling in a pocket could be the final death knell that could do a previously weakened AMOLED panel in. I have nothing to support this theory and it's 100% speculative on my part so feel free to disagree.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] msavic6:
But then how would you explain the devices that were less than 12 hours old and still managed too crack? The phone shouldn't experience any torsion or flex while inside it's box and even out of the box, most people will baby their device for the first couple days.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ranger4740:
Ive had mine about 4 weeks now and I still baby it :p

It was out of it's protective case for a short time and my misses was holding it while checking out my new mobo and I wasn't happy cause of her greasy dirty finger prints were all over it lol
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] hapticc:
here in india we have one time display replacement for s4 at 500bucks thats about 9-10 $ so no worries here
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] flavaflash:
My i9505 cracked in my front pocket I was wearing jeans 4 weeks old never been dropped. It cracked on a 45D angle starting where the front camera is located. I have seen many pictures on the web with the exactly same crack. Defiantly a design fault

Sent from my GT-I9000 because well it just keeps working
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] exs4user:
the same problem

I have exactly the same problem. the break is in the same place even has the same scratch, I put it in my front pocket as you and this was broken out of nothing
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] exs4user:
It id true

It is true, i had exactly the same problem
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Glotttis:
are you talking to yourself? :rolleyes:
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] wiswis:
I want to buy an s4 but after reading all of this I'm a little spectacle. What is the best thing I can buy to protect the screen?
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Tinderbox (UK):
You need a case or bumber that stops the phone from flexing, the gorilia glass can flex to an certain extent but the amoled panel it`s glued too does not so it cracks.

So you really need an aluminum case or bumper, or other very stiff material.

Also one of the new impact resistant screen protectors, like rhino shield there are a few different brands.

John.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] msavic6:
You don't need any of these if your device isn't affected by the defect. When you first get your device, flex your device and see if it is affected. People have reported screens cracking even in rigid cases.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Technoidse:
If I remember correctly it was a spigen slim armor case...

The rigid hard plastic part of that case does not cover the whole inner tpu case, leaving both the top and the bottom of the phone to be pressed on.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] 1tondiesel:
Go get an iPhone much much stronger
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] CrashTestDroid:
I've had mine in front pocket 8 hours per day, every day, for past 2 months. No problems at all. I even flexed it quite a bit just to see what would happen and it's fine. Something tells me OP sat on his phone.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] kof200440:
Buy Spigen galaxy s4 slim armour view case & u r good to go...
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jumjumski:
Hi people,

Another broken screen here after 11 days of usage,gorilla glass is untouched,the phone was in my front pocket.The phone doesnt have a single scratch.Before that i was using HTC legend for couple of years,after a couple of hard fallings the phone is still working.So sad that the mobile operator i take the phone wont change the screen for free :(
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rl421403:
Nearly a month ago, I dropped my phone from ~2 feet when I was picking up my kid daughter. My phone was in my shirt top pocket and I did not had any case or cover on it, although I had a screen protector. Phone fell off on screen flat on ground (not on corners), and there was a loud sound when it hit the floor. I was completely sure, the screen is gone because I was following this topic. But to my surprise, nothing happened. No crack or scratches on screen or on phone. Although the fall made some tiny holes in screen protector. Apart from that it was OK.

So the phone is pretty tough but there are some cases where screen was broken easily and that could be caused by faulty units.

So my advice is always buy one time screen replacement service along with phone. It's nearly $10 here, or get a insurance (at least for first year) which typically will cost same but cover lot more then just screen damage.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] BarryH_GEG:
Not picking on you, but people post things like the above a lot. Are you implying that out of millions sold the HTC Legend has a lower percentage of broken displays than other devices (including the SGS4)? Every device I've ever followed has a "I broke my display and it shouldn't have broken" thread. Surprisingly, the SGS4 doesn't have the typical "my screen cracked" thread which is usually started by people that have dropped them and the glass panel's cracked. There's been less than a dozen damage from drop reports in this thread. So with 70-some cracked AMOLEDs without sign the pace of reports is picking up materially and less than a dozen displays done in from drops I'd say with 20+MM in sales the SGS4's doing quite well from a durability perspective.

As bezels get smaller (check out the LG G2) more displays are going to break because there's little to shield the glass display or underlying panel. Look how much trim is surrounding the Legend's 3.2" display. Different stats quote between 25-50% of smartphones suffer broken displays. It happens even to people who didn't crack the displays of previous phones they might have owned.

And the HTC One has its owned cracked screen thread. As do all other fairly recent phones. The

only

thing that makes this issue unique is its relatively low volume and that owners claim nothing external caused the AMOLED to crack. Regardless, the number of reports is infinitesimal compared to the number sold.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2295276
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Miguel_Exe:
2 days ago i buy my samsung S4, i put it in my front pocket, i go to the class, i will check the hour... DISPLAY CRACKED. This is ridiculous! -.- Samsung can do anything??
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] scottyf79:
its still a bloody mobile device that shouldnt be bloody having these issues. cant stress it enough - its a MOBILE - its meant to be carried around. Whether thats in a pocket or other, it shouldnt be breaking so easilly.

throwing sales figures around is bull****.....would you still say the same if they were exploding in peoples hands for no reason?

Sadly any type of screen damage is blamed on the user - but Samsung need to realise that they have ****ed it up and their customers deserve better from them, and a bloody expensive Mobile!
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] BarryH_GEG:
You're right; it's a mobile device. It's neither a ballistic missile control panel nor a piece of life support equipment in a hospital. 70-some seem to have a defect based on what's been shared by their owners. The only reason at all this is remotely news worthy is that the repair isn't covered under warranty because if it is a defect it can't be told apart from owner induced damage.

Would you say 70-some plane crashes belong in the same category as 70-some stuck lavatory doors?
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Zaron DarkStar:
Good news! Phone replaced!

I have an update on my situation. I took my phone in to T-Mobile, and the guy there couldn't even see the crack. Indeed, I only knew it was there because I looked at my phone with a bright light with a magnifying glass. They sent it back to Samsung as a DEFECTIVE device. The reason they could send it back as a defective device is because there was no obvious external user damage. I got charged $5 for handling. That's it. I got my new phone and set it up and it's working fine. The moral of my story; use a shell, and HAVE INSURANCE! It's worth $11 more a month to not have to pay through the nose to replace a phone!
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] msavic6:
I think you misunderstood what was said regarding the post count of people who experienced this issue.

Whoever searches "S4 cracking" on Google finds this xda thread as the first result, which opens up this thread to a broader audience than just xda forum members. Anybody from the general public who experienced the cracking will now sign up and post too xda, hence the low post count of the majority on the list.

This has nothing too do with your amount of knowledge or the validity of your opinion, it is simply factual information based on an observation.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ranger4740:
Here's a question? How many screens in the world are cracking?

What's that you say, 70, wow only 70 screens.

How do you know there's only 70?

Because it was reported on xda developers.

I don't think so, just because I'm here and your here doesn't mean the whole world is here. What is on here is only a small sample of the real world, not everyone cares about rooting, developing and modding.

Not every one is going to jump on the Internet and goto xda developers to let the whole world know my screen broke.

After all this is not Facebook or Twitter or any other " social network".

I'd suggest The official numbers will be much larger. Ok I know I don't have any statistics to back me up but the law of probability would be a good place to start.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] msavic6:
Of course the number is much larger, but even if there was let says 5000 devices affected, in the grand scheme of things, that is still a miniscule percentage out of the 20 million+ devices sold. If this issue was as widespread as people make it out too be then all the tech sites would be gladly taking a dump on Samsung for this issue.

In my opinion, this sort of thing shouldn't happen at all too mobile devices but manufacturing defects are one of the downsides of mass production and simply can't be avoided in consumer devices.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Soldier 2.0:
My screen has not cracked yet, but the comments above made me laugh out loud. :D
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] henrik.dk:
you are too serious. This geg guy must be from samsung.

you could expect whatever from him to twist the reality.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Zaron DarkStar:
What I don't understand is why does it matter? So what even if people are joining just for this thread? Actually, I would think it's a good thing. If a lot of people decide to use this thread to talk about their AMOLEDs cracking, then a centralized place for this topic is established, and XDA gets a lot of new blood in the process. Maybe some of those people will look around and decide to get into the community and root/mod their phones. What's not to like?
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] chalid:
Who said anything about liking or disliking it?
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] flavaflash:
I would like to point out every picture I have seen of a cracked LCD panel on the S4 cracked in the exactly same place as mine coincidental I don't think so definitely a design fault

Sent from my GT-I9000 because it still works
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Zaron DarkStar:
Ok....., then my original question still stands. Why the list? What is the point? If the purpose wasn't to make a statement about the integrity of the people in the list, and it wasn't to express like or dislike, what then? A list for the sake of making a list? Pointing out all the new people joining this thread simply for the sake of pointing out all the new people joining this thread is pointless.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] chalid:
The list is there to keep track of how widespread the issue is. Since numbers aren't exploding, even though this thread is number one on google, it does seem to be an issue with ony a small amount of phones. That's all everybody has been saying.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Zaron DarkStar:
Ok, somehow I think the focus of this thread has been twisted and shifted away from what the OP was trying to say. People keep using words like "not catastrophic" and throwing around statistics trying to show this isn't a major problem. But the only thing the OP said that indicated this might become widespread was:

Now, what is "a lot"? That depends on one's point of view. Its a bit like; how many people are there in the world? Ok, now how many of them commit murder? Statisticly speaking, not that many, but even 1 is too many.

So, how many GS4s are out there? Quite a few. How many of them have their insides break apparently for no reason while the GG3 armor remains undamaged? Not that many. But even 1 is too much. This should not be happening at all. So I think that the number of people complaining here are enough to call it "a lot."

I am going to pull some numbers out of my ass and toss them around and see what people think. Say this thread gets up to 100 people with a complaint. Now, not everyone is going to search on the internet about this problem, and not everyone will use the same search term or use Google. Not everyone will come to this thread, and not everyone is going to post. So let's multiply the people by 100. So, we have about 10,000 phones that have an actual problem. Now let's multiply that number by 3 for the phones with the potential for this problem that hasn't manifested yet.

My guess is about 30,000 people will/are getting screwed with defective devices they have to pay to repair. Since even 1 is too many, that is a ton.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] msavic6:
This is a mobile phone for the masses not a commercial airliner or a military device with a zero fault tolerance. I personally think it is ludacris too expect no manufacturing defects with a consumer device.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Zaron DarkStar:
I agree, there should be fault tolerance and expected defects! But when those defects happen, the manufacturer should acknowledge them as such and repair them, and not pass it off as user damage. Consumers should not have to bite the bullet for a manufacturing defect.

---------- Post added at 02:18 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:40 AM ----------

Let me expand on my previous post a bit more. It is difficult to verify everyone's claims, but we know that some/most of them are genuine. Should Samsung be allowed to be lazy and pass off genuine claims as user damage just because its "too difficult" to tell the difference? No, I don't think so. Either they should put the effort in to verify each claim, or they should design a device that makes it obvious when the screen is damaged from a defect. As it stands, I still say its pretty obvious when it is a defect if the AMOLED cracked and there is no external damage.