yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] trenzterra:
I have 2 S9+s at home (the other belongs to my sister) so I did the Display Tester test on her phone too.

At 30% and 100% brightness, square 7 and 4 are very visible on her phone respectively. Meanwhile, on mine, square 7 is barely visible at 30% and I cannot see square 4 at all, even at 100%. When I take a camera photo of my screen and bump the exposure and shadows, I can see a very slight shadow on Square 4. So yes, there is some element of variability in screens.

However, whatever applies to her screen applies to mine too--same black crushing and gradient banding issue.

I mentioned black crushing on a Netflix show, Friends From College, where there were black dots dancing and the entire sky was crushed in one scene. But I believe that those are due to compression artifacts, perhaps in HDR mode. I know this because I connected my phone up to my monitor through a Type C to HDMI cable, and saw the same dancing dots (though the blacks did not crush so badly). On other shows, I do not see any dancing dots.

In any case, the solution as of now is same as the Pixel 2 XL: Get the Screen Balance app. For me, only a minor adjustment is needed; in the Pro version (a $2 purchase), simply set R, G and B to 255, contrast and brightness to 100%, and set Strength to 2%. Black is still black (as far as I can tell), I can't discern any difference in normal situations, but black crushing is reduced.

I think if S9+ units are consistently showing black crushing more than the S9, an easy solution on Samsung's part would be to programme RGB strength +2% in a future software update.
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] coolguy949:
Hopefully Samsung patches this soon. It has really made for an unpleasant viewing experience in the dark for me. I like to watch Netflix, YouTube, etc for a bit before I go to bed. Even scrolling through Instagram I see it. I know some are saying this is a characteristic of OLED panels but I never noticed anything like this with my S7 Edge. My viewing habits haven't changed. Is the panel on the S9+ that different? Most reviewers seem to think it's the best on the market.
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Bedro89:
Nice to meet u buddy .. where did u get your mobile from ? And what do u think ? What can we do now ?
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] mikapharm:
From souq but in virgin megastores the told me it's invidual we couldn't replicate it in the ambient light and told me to go to the warranty or replace it by souq but i think it will make no difference ut seems all the units suffer from it so there is no point. I hope samsung will fix it bu software if not i think we should learn to deal with it
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Bedro89:
I got it from Mobileshop and I went yesterday but they could not notice the problem and Me too I found the issue disappeared and then I realised cause of brightness so that's why they could not notice it ... The problem that the device not cheap and it's making me confused ... I was choosing between iPhone 8 plus and S9 plus and now am sad that I did not chose the iPhone ? I hope samsung can get this fixed
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] trenzterra:
Netflix has some weird compression issue on certain HD videos that manifests on the s9 but not s7 edge. Verified this by hooking up my s9 to an LCD monitor. May have to do with 4K or HDR. Not sure.

To be honest, on YouTube and unaffected Netflix videos (such as stranger things or friends), I don't notice this at all.

Can you try downloading the screen balance app? This should resolve the issue. On the pro version, with RGB strength set to 2 percent, I can verify that true blacks are still black on my s9 edge, and on display tester I can see all the way to box 1. This seems to fix all black crushing issue provided the videos you are watching are not intentionally compressed.

Edit: can only see up to box 2.
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Flash701:
I took a screenshot of crushed blacks during the Black Panther trailer on my S9+ and I noticed it was visible in the screenshot too. I sent it to my friend who has an iPhone X and he confirmed that he could also see the crushing in my screenshot. This validates that it's a software issue which is good to know as Samsung can patch this in the future update - I just hope they do!

With regards to the Screen Balance app, does anyone know how much of an impact this has on battery? I'll be interested to try this to minimise the crush, but not at the expense of a lot of battery. It seems to be the only option we have right now.
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Toss3:
Yes contacted him about the issue on twitter and he confirmed to have it on his S9+ but not on his S9. Glad to finally see it come to light and get more exposure (hopefully getting some more attention from Samsung). At least he think it's a software issue, but sad to see that Apple have an upper hand in image quality even though Samsung builds the panels for both. :(
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Koga:
Tested this app it seems to work well thanks for the tip. I did have to push all the way to 5% to fix the infinity wallpaper though.
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Ericj09:
In addition to the black color crush issue, my US Unlocked S9+ has color gradient inconsistencies across the screen. Specifically the left bottom side appears lighter / more yellow and the right side seems darker / slightly more blurry. I apologize for the terrible pictures attached. This color gradient effect is subtle yet extremely annoying once noticed. I've tried all color mode options along with various brightness settings.

Is this normal?

https://i.imgur.com/2H58flc.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/e4TxR1u.jpg
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] ssking:
Great solution!

I've set the strength to 4% in order to fix the problem.
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Toss3:
Nope. Had that issue on my S7 and had to get it replaced.

---------- Post added at 12:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:01 PM ----------

Uploaded some new test images (sorry for the large size, but they need to be the exact resolution of the S9's screen).

As you can see from these images the panel has trouble displaying the shades between RGB (0,0,0 -> 15,15,15). The green channel seems to be the one causing the horrible clipping and awful colors at lower brightness settings (EDIT: Scratch that it is actually the RED one that is causing these issues so see below).

Based on these test images I've come to the conclusion that the red subpixels are somehow interfering with the green ones, and as such setting Red to 0 while keeping the B and G channels are 255 is the best solution right now (RGB strength set to 2% so that you don't lose your deep blacks).

[IMG="Screen Test One"]https://abload.de/img/screen_testz3sun.png[/IMG]

[IMG="Screen Test 2"]https://abload.de/img/screen_test_channelse0nsqx.png[/IMG]

[IMG="Screen Test 3"]https://abload.de/img/screen_test_channelsedgsap.png[/IMG]
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] madscientistdam:
This looks really awfull checkout the lockscreen blotches everywhere

[YOUTUBE]FAf6piJWVV8[/YOUTUBE]
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Chris_c81:
This is one and the same issue. His description is kinda accurate as it does look like ink, especially on the power button menu screen.
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] madscientistdam:
ink blotches

chris do u have the exact same ink looking blotches on your s9+?this is really bad it looks alot worse when looking at it with your eyes
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Chris_c81:
Yes, as I believe the issue he is describing is the same issue discussed in this thread.
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] madscientistdam:
black crush issue

ok chris thanks for the reply i hope samsung will fix this issue soon i too have the same problem and that guy is 100% correct it does look like purple ink especially on the lock screeen
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Chris_c81:
I think the ink effect is the poorly blended blacks and colours you get in low light environments made to look ink like through the background blur that occurs on the power button menu.
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] madscientistdam:
black crush issue

im bringing my s9 plus back to the shop tommorow im really dissapointed by this i just looked at my sisters s9 and hers doesnt have this issue i pre ordered mine im guessing it could be a bad batch
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Chris_c81:
As far as we know, it only affects the Plus. The regular S9 doesn't seem affected.
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] madscientistdam:
black crush issue

ok chris thx for the feed back bro
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Nine9•:
no, its not normal. my note8 had this problem. top half of display was yellowish, botthom half normal. i changed it in my 14days return policy. now, my s9+ us unlocked has black crush issue but not that color nonuniformity issue. there is two us unloked s9+. one is made in korea, another is made in china. take the made in korea version. it dosnt have that color nonuniformity
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Dojoman:
Yeah that video is the problem I had that night I posted. Oddly, it hasn't come back since. I will keep an eye on it. I'm convinced it's a software issue so should be fixable.
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] arnes_king:
Hi everyone,

When I first saw this topic, I checked by was not able to see that issue. A few minutes ago on the home screen, at once, it was very visible (brightness lower), after that I have read that it is only visible on low brightness. I tried setting the brightness ul and it got away, now also if I set it low again it is not there anymore.

At the end, is it software or hardware related? If it can be fixed by that app, then it is software and no need to worry?

Edit: oh by better look I can see very bad smudges whe the background is being blurred :( this was not the case until today, is this a defect and should I send it for fix?
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Toss3:
Just go into a dark room set brightness to auto and watch the black panther trailer on YouTube. After doing that watch it on another phone in the same setting. The difference should be obvious to anyone who isn't legally blind.

Pics would be helpful of the 'smudges'.
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] arnes_king:
[MENTION=980049]Toss3[/MENTION] it is the same issue like the one which was previusly described here by videos and pictures. The blacks do not bend good and if I pull out the edge panel the clock and icons get also bended really bad, also the same on the shutdown menu. On the home screen I have the standard bluisch background and I see the difference when I am going in the app drawer or back home :/

I read some pages back that it is easilly fixed by some app called screen balance, but when I downloaded it, it had some options which changed the way my screen looks but bo RGB slider like the people suggested to change...
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Chris_c81:
Samsung are definitely aware and are assuring me that a software fix is imminent:
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] th.android:
This is very good news.

On a different note, I'd like to share my experience with a Samsung Support Centre.

I went over the weekend and it was appalling. The employee at first struggled to even realize what the issue was and thought it was about the camera (which he offered to go through the settings with me).

After I patiently explained I was not talking about the camera but video playback, I showed him a photo with a direct comparison between my S9+ and my previous S8 clearly demonstrating the black crush in a dark scene of Blade Runner 2049. He was looking at the picture with an empty stare and then back to me like he was completely unconvinced that the problem was even there.

All of this time I was pointing out numerous times that the problem was only visible under low light conditions yet (ignoring me) he was trying to reproduce it by playing the video samples on the reception desk (where obviously there is tons of lights) and told me he couldn't see anything wrong.

He run some rudimentary software diagnostics which obviously didn't show anything related to the actual issue and gave me a robotic response that my device had a few crashed apps which was normal and the diagnostics turned fine.

In the end he took my device (presumably to the workshop) and I thought that finally he would put it under low light and be able to confirm. He returned 5 min later to tell me he played the video clips and still couldn't see any issues!!!

When I asked him about the photo evidence I showed him earlier (picturing the same video scene) his response changed to "the screen was designed this way" and if I wasn't happy with the quality, I should contact customer sales and request for a cancellation and return. He refused to do a screen replacement or any other sort of work.

I should mention that if you bought the device from Samsung's online shop, you are eligible for a swap with a new device

only once

(I already had swapped mine once). After that, it's the tech department road.

Has anybody else visited a Support Centre? I'm wondering if I was just unlucky with this guy or their Support Centres in general, refuse to recognize this particular problem.
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Chris_c81:
Yeah the local Samsung Experience store was where I went first. To be fair they were pretty good and took it out back to check themselves. Sure enough they could see the problem. They ran all the same checks as they did yours. But ultimately couldn't help me and I had to contact Samsung online shop for an exchange. They were terrible. Wanted me to first return my phone, they would then assess it, then send a replacement. Quoting two weeks turnaround. I argued with them and declined. Went down tech support route and am where I am now.
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Flash701:
Thanks, Chris. Hopefully we'll get confirmation of this soon.
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] trenzterra:
I'm not legally blind but honestly I don't spot any differences in the Blank Panther trailer between my s9 and s7edge. Not sure if two different phones will load up the video with varying types of compression?

My s7 edge has a slight black crush. But even then I find the output video acceptable.
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Flash701:
S9+ or S9?
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Toss3:
S9 isn't affected. This is also the S9+ forum hence why the thread is here. ;)
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] trenzterra:
Sorry for the lack of clarification. Mine is the S9+ (sorry, in my mind, the S9 doesn't even exist :)). I can notice the black crushing in the Display Tester app and gradient banding with the wallpapers but cannot meaningfully (to an obvious degree) notice the effect in my videos (yes, when doing an A to B comparison, it's there, but not something I would notice unless I was specifically looking out for it). At first I thought I could see some major differences when compared to the desktop version of the video (e.g. banding etc.), but I connected my phone using a Type-C to HDMI cable to my monitor and as far as I can tell, the output image is about the same at least for YouTube.

---------- Post added at 04:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:28 PM ----------

By the way, another point to contemplate:

I loaded up the gradient wallpaper on my Dell monitor to my phone using a Type C to HDMI cable.

I can see some clear gradient banding on the monitor:

Meanwhile, loading up the image on the monitor when it is connected to my PC shows little to no banding (implying the monitor is fine):

And some like to use the power screen as evidence for extreme banding. So I connected the phone up to the monitor once again and voila:

Thus, I believe the issue we are seeing here is a combination of two things: black crush caused by the AMOLED itself (which I barely notice on videos and is really only apparent in the gradient wallpaper at zero brightness), and gradient banding in shades lighter than the black crush threshold (which seems to be a display driver issue as it also happens when my phone is connected to a monitor using a Type C to HDMI cable)
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Edoardo001:
I've reported to samsung, if all of us report the problem we can have a chance to change the future of our device
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Chris_c81:
This might be just me, but I struggle with decrypting your comments. I'm still not sure if your S9+ is or isn't suffering with the problem, but given that 99.9% owners who've contributed to the thread are experiencing the issue, and looking at the images you've posted, I think its safe to say you're also affected by the issue. I'm not sure why you cannot see the issue in videos as it's pretty striking once you notice it but perhaps it's not bothering you as much as most.

There is a genuine issue with the S9+ display and Samsung have all but publicly acknowledged it to several of us.
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Netboi:
I find the videos get worse when you enable video enhancer, and the blacks get all blotchy. When you turn it off it's fine. I guess it's different for everyone. I do get slight banding issues like the poster above but that is if I pump the brightness over 40 percent in the dark. Overall it's not a huge issue as my last one I replaced. The last one really had the black blotches everywhere including swiping with the edge panel. Until Samsung gives us a correct response either return it or hope and deal with it until a proper fix gets implemented. We all would hope it is just a driver fix or else better get your pitchforks out haha.
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Rapier:
Here you're wrong. I have an S9 (not S9+) and it IS affected by the same issue. That app linked at the begining of the thread do work tho. Hope that Samsung will fix it via a software update
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] garret1976:
Maybe some are worse than others and yes I have the "issue" but in 99% it's not noticeable or annoying for me. Yes I can see it a in very low light (brightness less than 20% Edit: okay not entirely true) and completely black scenes but I think the screen it's self is excellent besides this issue. Most people won't even notice if they don't know.

Gradient banding is a OLED issue for some time. Only good dithering filter can hide this.

Don't get me wrong, I hope Samsung will fix this ASAP before it's escalates.

(Did some editing.)
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] New2thistec:
OK mine is affected. THis sucks. I want to try swapping it out but then I'm afraid of getting one with a problem that is worse.

Have any of the fixes worked?

oh, I'm in the US, I'm pretty sure it 's snapdragon. I did not preorder I got mine on the 21st.
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] trenzterra:
Yes I do believe I have the issue just that I struggle to see it the way it is. In any case I think this can be resolved via a software fix through the screen balance app.

But this thread also brings up another issue which has to with the banding of colours which is not resolved by the screen balance app. Based on my observations from hooking up the s9+ to a monitor, this is not (at least not purely) a screen issue.

Sorry if my comments are conflicting at times. But I have done extensive testing over the past few days with two sets of s9+. So what I initially thought ended up to be partially not true.

For example, in a particular Netflix show, I experienced severe black crush and dancing dots on the two s9+ that was not apparent on my other devices. After hooking up the phone to my monitor, I then realised that part of the issue had to do with the particular Netflix compression adopted for the s9+ (or the way the s9+ outputs vvideos) which for some reason is responsible for the dancing dots and darkening some greys beyond the black crush threshold. From then on, when I viewed any video, I would always hook it up to my monitor to confirm if it is black crush I am seeing or just a quality of the video the way it is output by the s9+ display driver, which most of the time it is the culprit.

If anyone has a type c to hdmi cable lying around or is willing to purchase one, feel free to test out my hypothesis.
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Toss3:
No it isn't. It suffers from black crush sure (every Samsung amoled screen does), but this isnt just about that. I'd gladly take black crush over the absolutely horrible lower end calibration the S9+ currently suffers from; it makes movies simply unwatchable at lower brightness levels.
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Rapier:
Oh... I read quickly and misunderstood. Yes, about "black crush" I was talking. Now after I read more I saw there's another issue that hount S9+ devices with lot of detail loss in dark area, like some are overexposed and have some gray paint over it. Yes, I don't have that

Sent from nowhere over the air...
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Riginos:
https://www.sammobile.com/news/samsung-has-rolled-out-a-new-firmware-update-for-the-galaxy-s9/

Could this have something to do with the issue we are experiencing?

If you check one of the fixes is " the quality of the wallpaper has been improved"

Additionally this update came only on the S9+ unlocked for the moment and not the regular S9
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Toss3:
I hope it means it's fixed, but pretty sure it would say 'fixed screen issues' if they had actually done something. We'll just have to wait and see.
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Steven13:
They mention: "The update has been released over-the-air in Germany only so far but it shouldn’t take long before it’s available in other markets as well."

I'm having both a Dutch (private) SIM and German (Company) SIM. Will check if I can install it using the German SIM.

ps. I'm still not experiencing the Black Crush as most of participants in this threat are having.
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Flash701:
The wording is strange as aside from the crush/banding, there isn't an issue with the wallpaper (at least that I've noticed). They haven't publicly acknowledged the issue so this might be one way to word it, but we'll have to wait and see I guess.
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Galaxo60:
I'm just afraid that they only improved the wallpapers quality and leave the real problem aside...

:(
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Toss3:
Downloading the ARCC firmware now. I'll report back once it's installed. :fingers-crossed:
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] renton82:
Where did you find it?
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Toss3:
Samfirm. Available for the DBT region. :good: Getting really slow download speeds (usually over 100mb/s but now closer to 1.1 :silly:).
[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] Lenkbron:
I installed the Update since i'm from Germany. The Wallpaper and also the Screen when you hold the Power Button longer for Restart and Shutdown seem to be fixed and looking much better, but i checked the Black Panther Trailer and it still looks really bad :(
[Galaxy Note 4 Themes and Apps] TheTAMAS:
Hi there, I am using Nameless rom and I've used Hard Rock rom in the past in My Samsung Galaxy Note 4 SM-N910G (Snapdragon).

Both these roms are stock rom based which means stability and better battery performance. It also means working fingerprint sensor. :o

I've used Note 3 and S5 in the past with Note 7 roms which means I've tasted Edge panel functionality.

So I was wondering if someone could provide Me with the required files and folder structure (or a Flashable zip) to have working Edge panel.

:fingers-crossed:

Thanks :)
[Galaxy Note 4 Themes and Apps] an-_-dro:
go here...

https://xdaforums.com/galaxy-s5/themes-apps/guide-how-to-add-apps-edge-contacts-t3530328
[Galaxy Note 4 Themes and Apps] TheTAMAS:
That's something that I'm not good at.. :(

Replace & change permission modding is OK with Me..

Flashable zip?