Would you have noticed any display problems if the media hadn't made an issue of it

[Almeuit]

Question for you all that don't understand what the fuss is all about: What would be the threshold angle that would cause you to mind it or be bothered by it?

Instant / even the slightest tilt. I have to lean pretty far off my normal viewing angle to see it. Do I deny the blue tint is there? Nope.. But from my normal usage (I use 100-150+ GB a month in mobile data media viewing) isn't seeing it then I am okay. I get some aren't in the same boat but I can't go off others and can only go off mine.

 

[Aquila]

Question for you all that don't understand what the fuss is all about: What would be the threshold angle that would cause you to mind it or be bothered by it?

If it was visible with normal usage, at all, I'd have returned mine. If my display were even 1/10 as bad as some of the one's I've heard about I'd have shipped it back immediately. The fact is, on mine at least, the blue tint only happens at angles that make using the phone very difficult or impossible and even then... I sorta have to be looking for it in order to notice it. If I was the type who spent all day shifting it back and forth between extreme angles, I'm sure I could find a way to let it bother me. But the way I use my phone and with the devices I have, it comes as close to not existing as makes all odds. Like I said earlier, I used it for over two months without knowing there was an issue and then, only after being told about it, started messing with the phone in a way to make it show up. It doesn't happen with normal usage at all, or if it does, the type of content on my display is not the type that makes it super obvious. It's really only obvious on a super light, super bright display content and at an extreme angle. I do realize that's not what everyone is reporting, which I why I think some are decent and some are bad. And none are great.

 

[bpsims]

How does this compare to yours?

 

[sulla1965]

How does this compare to yours?
https://youtu.be/qunc3PYjHYE

That video made me chuckle. Nobody looks at their phone like that. Screen is perfectly normal when looked on directly. Yeah it shifts blue when looked at off angle. If it bothers some that much, then spend your money elsewhere.

 

[e30ernest]

There seems to be variance between units. This video was from Reddit, and the user said he bought the two devices minutes apart:

https://youtu.be/hkW9Ab3QFJw

 

[anon(5506951)]

Agreed.

It boils down to this for me:

1. Google's QC is awful and they are manufacturing and distributing screens with widely varying display characteristics.

2. My previous phone (Nexus 6) has zero blue shift. It has no color shift at all. This is perhaps why it's so bothersome to me. 3yo OLED technology is better than what I'm looking at now.

3. Google's cavalier attitude about the whole thing. If we don't demand the best, we settle. And then blue shifting screens are accepted and then it becomes the norm. Gross.

Thank you, my thoughts exactly.

 

[e30ernest]

Also note that even the iPhone X is not immune to blue shifts off angle (video timestamped):

https://youtu.be/OzNNbR_2_FM?t=4m49s

It is also not immune to other display issues that was reported on the Pixel 2XL.

Personally, I think the issues do exist, but they are overblown. In a forum environment like this, more people with issues will post about their problems compared to people that do not have issues with the device at all.

I probably wouldn't have noticed the blacks crushing on my Pixel 2 had it not been for Reddit or this forum.

 

[anon(5506951)]

I'd say the very fact that some people have to dread whether or not the device that they're waiting a month or more for is going to have to go right back into the box is one big problem that I would be FURIOUS about if I were running product development on this. In fact I suspect the person in that role is experiencing that right now.

They better be. I was all excited to upgrade my Nexus 6P for the 2 XL, and for it to be anything less than perfect at that price is a joke. It stings even more, knowing that the HTC U11+ was supposed to be the 2 XL, but Google scrapped it in favor of LG. That phone is, to me, perfection in terms of specs. I also blame Google for not allowing HTC to sell that phone here in the US.

Why? Because they knew that they'd f'd up going with LG, and they knew that once people found out that the U11+ was meant to be the 2 XL, potential Pixel buyers would want it instead, which would have affected sales. So, in effect, Google screwed us over twice. And I've really soured on Google because of it.

Watch them try to rebrand the U11+ as the 3 XL next year, with the SD 845.

 

[AustinTech]

Yes. Heck yes. I noticed the issues pretty straight away. My eagle eyed wife immediately asked why the colors were all wrong. She was right, they are washed out, they are wrong. reds aren't red, yellows and blues are off. Ugh.

 

[ThrowinRocks]

They say it's software related but all of my old Samsung phones pretty much had that blue hue. Guess I should've sent them in for replacement. LOL

 

[bpsims]

They say it's software related but all of my old Samsung phones pretty much had that blue hue. Guess I should've sent them in for replacement. LOL

LOL! And since nobody complained or made an issue of it, guess what we get this year? More blue phones!

 

[ottscay]

Yes. Heck yes. I noticed the issues pretty straight away. My eagle eyed wife immediately asked why the colors were all wrong. She was right, they are washed out, they are wrong. reds aren't red, yellows and blues are off. Ugh.

I'm sorry, but as written this is simply wrong - the colors on the Pixel 2 XL are far closer to accurate than they are on almost all other default Android OLED screens. This was confirmed by the sites that actually measured them with spectrophotometers (even Vlad Savov's piece for The Verge admitted that their color calibration tech indicated they were accurate, Vlad just didn't like them).

Now, if you and your wife have an aesthetic preference for over-saturated colors that's totally fine - my wife does too in fact, and she'd be happier with the screen of her Pixel 1 for that reason. But the Pixel 2 XL colors are not "off", they are showing the colors as they were created originally on color calibrated screens in the first place.

In point of fact you can replicate the colors of the Pixel 2 XL screen very closely by switching to non-default settings in other phones, including the sRGB setting on the Nexus 6p or first gen Pixels (currently removed if you've installed the 8.1 beta), or use the "Basic" setting on Samsung phones, but for those products it was felt that many people prefer oversaturated screens, so they don't make accurate color the default setting (this is also true of TVs in showrooms - TVs are notorious for being overly bright and overly saturated on display, because people gravitate to them in side-by-side comparisons).

I'm not trying to criticize your preference - what you like is what you like, and that's fine. I think it makes sense for Google to offer more choices of screen color tuning (as they are now). But "accurate color" means something pretty specific to those who have to do color management, and you don't get to hijack the term just because you prefer inaccurate colors.

 

[ottscay]

There seems to be variance between units. This video was from Reddit, and the user said he bought the two devices minutes apart

I can confirm this (if you trust my eyes). I spent some extra time at a Best Buy this weekend that had three Black 2XL floor models (one in the Verizon phone section, and one each at their two Google endcaps). Two of the devices looked fine and I doubt anyone would have noticed the blue shift without it being made a huge issue on the interwebs, but the other one was pretty atrocious even at moderate angles, analogous to the worst videos I've seen posted.

Now that I've seen a bad one in person I'm going to be nervous for the next ten days or so until my Panda arrives!

 

[DoctorOctagon]

The blue deniers in here are nuts. I believe people that say their phones aren't bad. Why is it so hard to believe that there are a bunch of crap displays out in the wild?

 

[Almeuit]

The blue deniers in here are nuts. I believe people that say their phones aren't bad. Why is it so hard to believe that there are a bunch of crap displays out in the wild?

I never said I don't believe it. I just have been using mine for awhile and from my normal usage I am not bothered or see it unless I look / lean for it. Is that so hard to believe?

See? It goes both ways .

 

[DoctorOctagon]

I never said I don't believe it. I just have been using mine for awhile and from my normal usage I am not bothered or see it unless I look / lean for it. Is that hard to so believe?

See? It goes both ways .

See how in the post you quoted I already said I believe people who say their displays aren't bad?

 

[Almeuit]

See how in the post you quoted I already said I believe people who say their displays aren't bad?

And see how I said that I don't disagree that some have super bad displays?

Man... we both just agree with each other .

 

[firebirder]

Yes, because I went into a Verizon store and saw for myself, even before the reviews were out. I left the store feeling deflated. I couldn't in good conscience spend that much money on a phone with such issues.

It hurts even more knowing that the U11+ was slated to be the 2 XL, but that Google scrapped it. That phone is literally my dream phone, specs-wise, especially that near-4000 mAh battery and BoomSound audio, which to my ears is the best.

Google screwed people over twice with this launch, imo. First when they nixed what eventually became the U11+, and second, for not allowing HTC to sell it in the U.S., for fear of knowing without a doubt that it would outsell the current 2 XL with its myriad of issues and people finding out that the U11+ was meant to be a Pixel. I, for one, am supremely annoyed.

Sure, I could import the U11+ since I like it so much, but it would be a hassle, given that I'd have no warranty and that there's no guarantee I'd get LTE speeds, even though it supports band 4. Now I have to wait another year and hope Google learns from this fiasco and doesn't f-up the next time.

I wouldn't have noticed it. I'm sure they're are defective units out there that are worse, maybe that's the case with the display you saw.

To your other comment, I would have liked that HTC U11+ to have been a pixel, but only because I like HTC better than LG and would have liked the medium size. To me, though, the pixel "experience" outweighs the size issue.

All that being said, enjoying my 2 XL and very happy with it and my decision!

 

[revtech]

All the Strum und Drang in the media seems completely overblown. I'm looking at my 2Xl side by side with my 6P and I don't see any significant differences, if anything I like the 2XL slightly better. I never would have seen the blue shift if hadn't looked for it, nobody ever looks at their phone at a tilt and even when I deliberately tilt the phone the blue shift isn't unpleasant, it wouldn't have occurred to me that this was a problem.

Does anyone really think that the display is a problem?

In case you're interested, it's "sturm und drang", not "strum" . .

 

[revtech]

It's already well known that some displays are much worse than others. We can call that a QC issue or whatever you want, but they're not all terrible and they're not all decent.

This . . I'm not sure why we keep having these threads or why I keep reading through them . . Some have a problem, some don't; some like the srbg, some like saturated; some have more blue shift than others, some don't care or notice . . I'm not sure what we gain from this, I could have written the script just by reading the title