Galaxy S9+ Black Crush and Gradient Banding Issues

[Toss3]

Does anyone think this is a hardware issue?

I think it's a software one. For example, in the attached screenshot, you can clearly see the triangle crush in the top left corner. This was taken using the built-in screenshot feature.

If it wasn't software-related but hardware instead, you wouldn't be able to see the issue with the built in screenshot tool. You'd have to take a photo with an external camera, no?

Screenshot of the issue taken on the S9+ doesn't show up on my S7 (doesn't make it a hardware problem though).

 

[fanel891]

You have to zoom in the top left corner. I even see it on my laptop screen and external monitor.

 

[Toss3]

That is because the wallpaper itself is compressed; it's just a bad quality wallpaper. If you take a screenshot of a youtube clip on your S9+ showing the banding issue, odds are you are not going to see it on another display.

 

[fanel891]

You're right. I was trying to replicate the issue with YouTube videos and I couldn't. I also don't have the same banding issues with other wallpapers.

One other quick way of checking the banding is taking a picture of a light source (I.e. small lamp or the moon) in complete darkness. Viewing it afterwards in the gallery in the dark makes it look like it's a highly compressed gif.

Well... I still have another week to decide. It's a shame because otherwise, my S9+ is a dream to use and I haven't had any other issues (*knock on wood) and it's my first time on android (had windows phones before)

 

[Toss3]

More here.

All taken with a Pixel; focusing so dark is difficult.

Thank you for the pictures! Really helpful, but would you mind trying with a manual shutter speed of 1s or longer? Doesn't really matter if they get blurry as long as we can get an idea of how the grayscale at the bottom looks.

Does it look like there are different shades of gray ranging from black to light grey or do you see a sudden jump from complete blackness to light grey/green?

Here's how it appears on mine:

 

[Squarrow]

Well I still don't know what to do, I gave my phone back and I'm going get a new one in 2 or 3 days the thing is I'm pretty sure that it's going to have the same issue, and I still struggle a bit to replicate the problem and explaining on the store the problem, 1st time o went there he pretty much was saying the effects o was seeing in videos was normal, so I don't know how to proper explain this.

I guess I need to put 2 photos side by side, https://forums.androidcentral.com/s...us-black-crush-gradient-banding-issues-5.html the ones on this post and show to them? If I get this again I want my money back it's simply horrible quality

The core of your issue is Samsung's responsibility. Which they have taken zero ownership of. I stopped commenting on this issue a few weeks ago because Samsung flat out told me that they weren't honoring exchanges for the device and that I could return and repurchase at full retail and AFTER that REQUEST that the promos I took advantage of during pre-order be reapplied. Aka, not gonna happen. The customer service experience is up there in the pantheon of "radical horse****" alongside Note7 and the washing machines. However the problem is not. At least the S9+ didn't explode yet.

The reason I have on multiple occasions blown my top in the comments section of an AC podcast or other article is because every percieved ill involving mobile devices is, amongst those who don't understand the industry or business in general it would seem, always pointed at the carriers. Then folks who don't know any better and come here for advice read or listen to falsehoods about how the "carriers mishandled the Note7 fiasco," and assume the carrier is too blame, which is complete rubbish. It is rather implicitly stated in the terms and conditions of a smartphone purchase that you have a 14 day exchange window (which Samsung doesn't honor or even have apparently) with the carrier so long as you pay a restocking fee, because guess what, the carrier has to eat the cost of sending that device back. They don't get fully reimbursed by Samsung. Now, as a courtesy and in the effort to create a great customer experience, most well runned carrier owned stores (not the awful retailers) will exchange a device as DOA or as an out of box failure if there is something demonstrably wrong with the device within those same 14 days. Thing is, again, technically Samsungs job. Samsung made the damn thing, and the warranty is a MANUFACTURER'S warranty, not a distributor's warranty. Even then, the carrier will run a diagnosis and help get the ball rolling on a warranty claim through the manufacture (Samsung).

With the S9+, Samsung is just flat out refusing (or they were, I've gone back to my iPhone since) to honor any exchanges or warranties. "Return and repurchase," is not the same thing. Especially whenever promotions that "you can request compensation for" are involved.

The carrier's hands at some point are tied, because they aren't the ones that screwed the pooch in this scenario, that is what is at the core this frustrating circumstance. Of course AC won't call this issue out because they need to pay the bills and you don't bite the hand that feeds.

As a personal anecdote, when my 6s developed a small cluster of dead pixels 4 days after launch/purchase, I went to an Apple Store (wow, same day, no mailing involved) showed the pixels to a Genius and walked out 5 minutes later with my iCloud backup restoring to a brand new iPhone 6s. Simple as that. Samsung treated me like an inconvenience. Done with that 'ish.

 

[Sam Lambert]

View attachment 281094

View attachment 281095

View attachment 281096

OK. For users that want to try a direct like for like comparison with their devices, I attach a screenshot image and two photos showing how it's displayed between the two devices.

So, top image is the original screenshot, middle photo is S9+ screen and bottom is S8.

As for what to look for, pay close attention to the eggs in the photos and notice how they loose most colour detail on the S9+ screen compared to S8. I think it's pretty apparent.



Obviously if the image looks more like the bottom photo on your displays, you don't have the issue.

To the guys not having the issue please download this pic and take a picture with the brightness set to 0 (auto brightness off):
https://abload.de/img/screenshot_20180318-2nnrqi.jpg

I have an S9+ and do see an issue with the infinity wallpaper. The most noticeable one is the pink/purple one with an obvious problem on the top left corner of my display. However, the picture you posted above does not show any sign of banding when viewed on my device. Mine looks exactly like the bottom picture. I'm not sure what to think anymore...

Here's a picture taken with a Pixel 2XL of the photo at max brightness. It looks much better in person but the banding doesn't seem to be there. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

EDIT: While it isn't obvious on the particular picture, I saw some banding in other videos on youtube however, turning off video enhancer makes it look very similar to my iPhone X.

 

[Toss3]

Created a new test file that should illustrate the issue even more clearly:

You should see three lines of text that say: "THIS SHOULD BE DARK GRAY" and a gray gradient at the bottom.

Looks horrible on my S9+.

 

[DemonSoul]

Some one on XDA said to check this video on the s9+

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pBEnaBYwFI&feature=youtu.be

You tell me if it looks good LOL

When he wipes the blood from face, i dont have the phone can some one picture it? so i can see?

 

[andrew_ackley]

The core of your issue is Samsung's responsibility. Which they have taken zero ownership of. I stopped commenting on this issue a few weeks ago because Samsung flat out told me that they weren't honoring exchanges for the device and that I could return and repurchase at full retail and AFTER that REQUEST that the promos I took advantage of during pre-order be reapplied. Aka, not gonna happen. The customer service experience is up there in the pantheon of "radical horse****" alongside Note7 and the washing machines. However the problem is not. At least the S9+ didn't explode yet.

The reason I have on multiple occasions blown my top in the comments section of an AC podcast or other article is because every percieved ill involving mobile devices is, amongst those who don't understand the industry or business in general it would seem, always pointed at the carriers. Then folks who don't know any better and come here for advice read or listen to falsehoods about how the "carriers mishandled the Note7 fiasco," and assume the carrier is too blame, which is complete rubbish. It is rather implicitly stated in the terms and conditions of a smartphone purchase that you have a 14 day exchange window (which Samsung doesn't honor or even have apparently) with the carrier so long as you pay a restocking fee, because guess what, the carrier has to eat the cost of sending that device back. They don't get fully reimbursed by Samsung. Now, as a courtesy and in the effort to create a great customer experience, most well runned carrier owned stores (not the awful retailers) will exchange a device as DOA or as an out of box failure if there is something demonstrably wrong with the device within those same 14 days. Thing is, again, technically Samsungs job. Samsung made the damn thing, and the warranty is a MANUFACTURER'S warranty, not a distributor's warranty. Even then, the carrier will run a diagnosis and help get the ball rolling on a warranty claim through the manufacture (Samsung).

With the S9+, Samsung is just flat out refusing (or they were, I've gone back to my iPhone since) to honor any exchanges or warranties. "Return and repurchase," is not the same thing. Especially whenever promotions that "you can request compensation for" are involved.

The carrier's hands at some point are tied, because they aren't the ones that screwed the pooch in this scenario, that is what is at the core this frustrating circumstance. Of course AC won't call this issue out because they need to pay the bills and you don't bite the hand that feeds.

As a personal anecdote, when my 6s developed a small cluster of dead pixels 4 days after launch/purchase, I went to an Apple Store (wow, same day, no mailing involved) showed the pixels to a Genius and walked out 5 minutes later with my iCloud backup restoring to a brand new iPhone 6s. Simple as that. Samsung treated me like an inconvenience. Done with that 'ish.

If you look at my screenshot here in landscape you can see it clearly. This isn't THAT dark of a scene. It's pretty sad.

 

[mwboost]

I was thinking about going back to Samsung eventually after my Pixel 2 XL. As I hate the black crushing. I get by but I know it's there and I know it could look better. Like previous phones.
Then I see the S9 is crushing...... Great there goes a move to a black crush free phone lol. Hopefully Google and Samsung fix this in future phones. It's all in the software. Not a fan of covering it with an app.

 

[Patje29]

I was thinking about going back to Samsung eventually after my Pixel 2 XL. As I hate the black crushing. I get by but I know it's there and I know it could look better. Like previous phones.
Then I see the S9 is crushing...... Great there goes a move to a black crush free phone lol. Hopefully Google and Samsung fix this in future phones. It's all in the software. Not a fan of covering it with an app.

New may update fixes the problem.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s9-plus/help/colour-blending-blacks-problem-t3765385/page78

 

[Chris_c81]

New BRE5 update almost completely fixes the problem. Videos are much nicer to watch now in low light conditions.

Really pleased Samsung could address this via software update.

 

[UdiBerry]

I can also confirm that the latest update (BRE5) fixed the crushing and banding problems.

I had no doubt Samsung would fix it.

 

[jhimmel]

New may update fixes the problem.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s9-plus/help/colour-blending-blacks-problem-t3765385/page78

Good news.

 

[gazuga6176]

Just hope they release an update in the US. Like ever.

 

[mwboost]

So we received the update that apparently fixes or reduces the crushing and banding on our S9 + here in Aus.
To be honest after testing before and after with different lighting conditions and brightness levels , I can't notice much change. Maybe a little.
Even testing with the numbered squares it only just makes it to 8.
Looks like I'll stick with my 2XL. Has less noticeable crushing surprisingly.

 

[Thrillllls]

Bul pucky

No way piczel is not a good screen sorry

You all are useing low res video duh

And are you using adaptive display or what mode ...theres no way that pixel gets dimmer or brighter then s8 and above sorry not happening

You guys need to stop using compressed utube videos cant you download a real uncompressed movie for your test the sorce cant be flowed and you all are using yutube ...doolt

Thays a transition animation what scale is your animation scale ?

 

[Borg Queen1]

I have the oreo9.0 update but the black crush still there

 

[Leno Rajan Jacob]

Does anyone think this is a hardware issue?

I think it's a software one. For example, in the attached screenshot, you can clearly see the triangle crush in the top left corner. This was taken using the built-in screenshot feature.

If it wasn't software-related but hardware instead, you wouldn't be able to see the issue with the built in screenshot tool. You'd have to take a photo with an external camera, no?

I am also facing the same issue with my s9+. It started just after october security update. Samsung customer service people are saying its a hardware issue and lcd needs to be replaced which costs S$299.

screen balance app didn't help. i tried formatting the device, wiped cache and did almost everything and issue is still there. Hope this might get fixed in next update.

For time being I am using full brightness in my s9+ so that the effect of this black crush will be reduced to some extend.

samsung, please come up with a solution for this. plzzzzz