[Samsung Galaxy S9+ Questions & Answers] g.buyukliev:
So I'm at my sixth S9+ right now... yes, the sixth. I have never believed that such a small device can drive me so crazy. The funny thing is that I haven't seen anyone talking about the issues that I have been facing. So I might be crazy after all.

Ever since the original Samsung Galaxy S I9000 released I've been using Samsung phones with AMOLED screens. The I9000 was followed by an S4. After that I bought myself an S7 Edge. Up to this point I've always been super happy with my devices. Most of all I enjoyed the displays. I swore on AMOLED and would never look back and use an IPS.

AMOLED has always had two donwsides for me, though - low brigthness and warmer whites compared to an IPS. Over the years I learned to live with both of those. If I put my S7 Edge next to an IPS screen I'd immediately notice the warmer whites and the dimmer display but if there was nothing to compare it to my eyes callibrated and the whites and the brigthness were perfect - at least to my own perception.

So I saw those S9+ advertisements. They were advertising a brighter screen than the S8 which was already brighter than my S7 Edge (actually turned out that the S9+ in manual mode is dimmer than not only the S8 and the S7 Edge but even the S4 but that's a different topic). The whites on this phone also appeared to be much more cooler and IPS-like compared to my S7 Edge. This combined with the camera, the taller screen, virtual buttons and all the other cool features was an instant sell for me. I preordered on day one.

First phone: I had purchased it directly from my carrier. Had to resign my contract for another 24 months with them but when I finally got the phone it felt like it was totally worth it. Until I finally set it up and actually placed it horizontally on the bed - I could see nothing. The viewing angles were worse than they were on my TN panel monitor years ago. Everything was blue. I quickly googled it and learned it was called "blue shift" and was really common with the initial batches of the Pixel 2 XL. Well... in comparison to all those Pixel phones I saw on various photos and videos - mine was worse than all of them. I quickly snapped some photos of the display and returned to the store. It was a tough process because my carrier doesn't usually accept returns so I had to contact Samsung for help directly. They eventually sent me a new one.

Second phone : Checked it in the store to see how it looked at an angle and it shifted only ever so slightly blue. Compared it to the various demo devices there and realized that was actually the norm. It didn't bother me at all this time so I accepted it. When I got away from the bright lights in the store and sat on my bed late in the evening with no lamps on I noticed that the pure whites I had bought this phone for are now warmer than on my old S7 Edge - everything appeared yellowish. My eyes started to get used to the yellow tint and I started to finally perceive the whites as proper whites until I realized that every single small tilt of the device (as small as 10-20 degrees) resulted in a red shift before the slight blue one. For some weird reason, this red hue decalibrated my eyes and when I returned the device to its original position I saw the whites yellowish all over again. And due to it happening at such small angles it basically happened every 10 seconds or so, especially when using the phone with one hand. It was absolutely unbearable and I went back to the store and literally begged them to give me my first device back. Apparently this was not posssible and they also refused to aknowledge this as an issue eligible for a return. Samsung, on the other hand, refused to cooperate a second time. I was forced to sell it, fortunately at not that big of a loss.

Third phone: Now this one was bought from an online retailer so I could have a 14-day return window if I got a screen like my last one. The phone finally arrived and the screen was perfect - no yellow tint, no red shift, no extreme blue shift. Joke's on me, though - they had sent me the wrong phone - I had ordered the dual sim variant and they mistakenly sent me a single sim one. So I sent it back.

Fourth phone: Got my next one - this time a proper DUOS. Funny thing, though - it was just like my second one - the one I sold. Whites were a bit less yellow this time but the constant red shifts at really small angles totally decalibrated my eyes and I couldn't perceive white as actual white for 5 seconds straight. That drove me nuts. I made use of the 14-day return period and asked them to send me another one.

Fifth phone: Oh god, this phone was perfect. Even better than the third one. Perfect whites, no stupid red shift, blue shift was at extreme angles only and even then it was very light - I've never been more satisfied with a display. I used it for 4 days straight - it was a pleasure, really. Until I noticed that there was a dead pixel right in the middle of the damn screen. Only one... out of millions. But once I saw it I could literally not unsee it... ever. I sent it back, they acknowledged the defect, and because it was brand new they sent me yet another one.

Sixth phone: So my current phone, the sixth one, is basically like the fourth and the second ones. I'm now literally where I started. After about $50 lost from the sale of my second phone, after another $50 spent on transport fees and after 2 months without a phone, I got literally the same goddamn phone. Maybe it's not as yellow as the second one but the goddamn red shift makes it appear yellow to me each and every single time I tilt the device ever so slightly. And by the time I finally start getting accustomed to the white colour temperature I accidentally tilt it again.

As I was browsing around the forums yesterday to find out whether someone else experienced similar issues I bumped into the Black Crush thread and when I checked for it it turns out I have it too and it makes not only whites unbearable to look at but apparently different shades of black next to each other as well. After going through so many phones I'm not even sure whether any of them had it as well or it's just that one. In the meantime, while checking for Black Crush in a dark room I noticed that my light from the screen is reflecting in the curved glass and leaking from all sides and the phone basically looks like a Christmas tree in a dark environment. I'm not sure whether any of the previous devices exhibited that either. My S7 Edge aso had a curved screen, even more so, and was definitely not like that. After reading about this, however, it turns out that 80% of the people have it as well. To be honest, the light leak and the black crush are bothering me not nearly as much as the yellow tint and the red shift.

Yes, I'm using Adaptive Mode and no, I'm not using Blue Light filter, nor do I use a 3rd party app that's triggering the in-built in Android Night Light filter. Tweaking with the software calibration is also out of the question because 80% of my phone usage is actually watching YouTube and I can't do it without the Video Enhancer on. And the Video Enhancer overrides all display settings turning the whites into their facotry-callibrated variant.

If anyone is wondering why the hell did I wrote this huge wall of text. Well... there are two reasons. First and foremost, I just wanted to complain about Samsung's absolutely ridiculous QA this year - displays on near $1000 phones shouldn't have such issues nor should they vary as much. Second of all, I wanted to just get this out of my system as I'm not sure what to do anymore. I might be able to get the retailer to return my money after all as I think I might still have another 14 days to do that after the last device but the problem is that, as I was really sick of dealing with this BS and bothering them with it, when the device arrived I told them over the phone that this time it was perfect and everything was fine. Now I've been using it for almost a week, I've taken all of the wraps off and they've reissued all the documents already. I'd hate to be the douche that returns yet another phone, even after already confirming that it's perfect. And finally, I wanted to ask if any of you has observed at least one of those issues or I'm just bat**** crazy. Thank you for reading!