[Galaxy Note 4 General] TML1504:
As some of the Note3 members may remember, I made a big thread in Note3 General Forum in regard to the display quality of the Note3,

you can find it here: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2463786

Also, I made similar ones on note2 and generally about AMOLED development over time.

So, as I got my new Note4 (Snapdragon) yesterday (from Amazon Germany), it's time to take a closer look on the AMOLED of this brand

new device.

My first impressions are:

The display is overall way better in terms of color shift when tilting the screen, but:

At least on my first device there is a noticable shift in brightness on the right side of the screen, especially on the lower half of the screen.

On dark grey backgrounds (as for example the XDA app with the dark theme has) you can see a contrast or brightness loss on the lower

right corner.

But my unit has an other, more dramatic flaw: On the left side of the screen, just where the lower end of the volume rocker is located, there

is a 0,5mm area of the screen, where it seems like there is something between the screen and the glass, but there is nothing! on light backgrounds

the spot gets darker, on dark backgrounds the spot gets brighter > very annoying!!

But I guess this is a non common flaw, which is really bad luck and has nothing to do with the uneveness mentioned above.

The funny thing is, this time I really thought I wouldn't have to switch devices, because the screen is otherwise really fine, but the spot-flaw

ruins it for me...

So I ordered a replacement today at amazon, as soon as I have this second device I can compare the two in regard to the AMOLED quality,

and then I will update this post!

What are your first experiences with the screen?

Regards,

Markus

Update 19.10.2014

Got my second device on Friday, and I've seen a third device from a friend:

My second device has a better screen in regard to uniformity (no darker right side of the screen), but: it is darker and has a slightly red tint when

viewed from the center. Also, the color shift is worse when tilting the device.

When I lay my three devices (note3, 2xnote4) side by side, enter *#0*# and compare the screens (walking around, looking from different angles),

then my hand-selected note3 has FAR the best performance in terms of neutral white, and tilting color shift is much less then on both note4.

the device from my friend has a worser red tint when looking straight on, but again tilting performance is better then my second device (although

not as good as on my note3)

conclusio so far:

.) note4 has worser tilting performance (color shift when tilting the device) as note3 (maybe due to higher PPI)

.) again, there are huge differences between different devices >> display lottery is back once again! ;)

Update 02.11.2014:

After seeing a lot more of Note4 devices I'm now finally sure that on Note4 the displays vary a lot. "Perfect screens" are very rare, the best one

I've seen so far was on display in a "MediaMarkt" Store in VIenna. It was a display unit (without radio module), but the screen was a lot better then

on my current Note4. White was much more stable when tilting the device...

Today I had the idea of writing to "DisplayMate", because they tested a lot of Samsung AMOLED devices and their reviews always praise this screens

very much. Would be interesting what they would say to our issues:

Here is the mail I wrote them:

Von: TML1504

Gesendet: Sonntag, 02. November 2014 22:25

An: 'info.dm@displaymate.com'

Betreff: Samsung Note4 Display Quality (XDA)

Wichtigkeit: Hoch

Dear ladies and gentlemen,

I’m writing to you because you compare and evaluate display devices and rate their screens.

I know your evaluations since years, and I like your scientific approach.

Let me give you a short description of myself:

I’m a consumer electronics freak with a plethora of devices, mostly from Samsung (I do not like

Apples overestimated marketing crap) and I’m especially a freak when it comes to displays. I

owned several AMOLED devices so far (Galaxy S1, S2, S3, Note1-4, Tab7-7, Tab-S(both)) and with

ALL of them I have to exchange them 2-8 (!) times to get one with a decent screen. Trust me, the

devices you get are cherry-picked from Samsung, or if you bought them randomly you must have

been VERY lucky!

I’ve a MSc in engineering and I hold product development lectures at university, so I know what

I’m talking about tech und manufacturing. Believe me, Samsung has big issues when it comes to

display quality. Their luck is that most people do not compare identical devices, therefore most

people would think their screen is ok and not bother.

So, what is the problem:

As you can see here on XDA developers:

http://xdaforums.com/note-4/help/2-white-tones-screen-t2926527

http://xdaforums.com/note-4/general/colour-tint-screen-t2909552

There are some threads in regard to this problem, as well as pictures.

I for myself created one huge thread for Note4:http://xdaforums.com/note-4/general/note4-amoled-screen-quality-t2906365

And for Note3 as well: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2463786

If you search you would find a lot of other threads in regard to Samsung’s AMOLED screens.

In short: The displays of otherwise identical units differ A LOT in terms of display quality. If you

buy 10 Note4 devices you will get perhaps 1-2 with a perfect screen, all other devices would

suffer from bad viewing angles (HUGE discoloration when tilting), uneven brightness distribution

(yellow corners, especially right side of the screen and lower half), or very different white tone

when straight viewing on. I did this since note2 this way: Purchase a few devices, select the one

with the best screen and return the others.

I think this has mainly two manufacturing reasons:

1)	The panels are cut out of a wafer. Screens from the center of the wafer are perfect, screens

from the side regions suffer from uneven color and/or brightness distribution depending from

where of the wafer they have been cut

2)	Uneven or otherwise not proper coating of the screen. A too thick layer perhaps could cause color

problems.

Nevertheless, what bothers me a little bit is that you do not mention any of this in your reviews, and

people think they have a perfect screen. It would be nice if you response to this issues and at least tell

us what your opinion about the reason for such huge quality issues is.

I will post this mail also on XDA, if you want to you can reply directly there.

Thank you for your otherwise brilliant work!

Best regards,

Markus

Update 11.11.2014: Reply from displaymate

Von: DisplayMate Support <support@displaymate.com>

Gesendet: Montag, 10. November 2014 16:25

An: Markus

Betreff: Re: Samsung Note4 Display Quality (XDA)

Thanks for your Email. Feel free to post this.

We get many Emails like yours with every display review article that we publish, with readers sending in comments and sometimes screen shots of their display, or even multiple displays side-by-side to accentuate the differences.

For our public article series we publish the results that we obtain. There is no question that there are always some defective units, substandard calibrations, variations between production lots and within production lots, variations in display performance, variations between displays from multiple suppliers and manufactured in different factories. We have no way to evaluate the scale, frequency, and validity of these issues based on reader Emails so we don't discuss them. All products, from displays to cars, have quality control and variation issues - consumers know this. We simply tell people that if the display is unsatisfactory then return it for exchange or refund.

For LCDs, a well known issue is the variation in the White LEDs used in the backlight - their color, brightness, and power efficiency all vary significantly. Manufacturers pay varying premiums to have the White LEDs pre-sorted into similar performance classes for their products.

We get many more Emails from unhappy iPhone and iPad customers than any other manufacturer. One possible source is that Apple uses many different suppliers for their displays. However, over a one year product cycle we may test a dozen iPhone and iPad units that are sent to us from multiple sources (including Apple competitors), and over many years we have never found any significant variations in display performance in our lab tests. I don't doubt that there are always some quality control and performance variations, but we have never seen any in the large number of Apple products that we have tested.

We don't get many Emails regarding Samsung OLED displays. Most seem to be the result of the sender leaving it in one of the default Vivid modes instead of the accurate (Cinema, Movie or Basic) mode that we use in our tests. Samsung is a single source manufacturer so that is not an issue. We also test many Samsung OLED devices (including many supplied by Samsung competitors) and have never seen any significant display performance variations within a given model. Again, I don't doubt that there are always some quality control and performance variations, but we have never seen any in the large number of Samsung OLED products that we have tested.

In any case, for our public article series we publish the display results that we obtain in our lab.

While it is difficult to get an objective statistical measure of the frequency and size of display performance variations, I highly encourage you to publicize this issue, perhaps via a youtube channel that can act as a central clearing house for this display issue.

Raymond Soneira

President of DisplayMate Technologies Corporation

Tel: 603-672-8500 Web: http://www.displaymate.com