Purple Screen at low brightness?

[benrk]

Hi!

I just got a Moto X 2014 in the mail and I love everything about it besides the size and the screen.

When I turn the brightness down, especially when looking at gray tones, the screen takes on a dark purple color. This really bugs me.

So, is this normal or should I return the phone?

Thank you!

 

[natehoy]

I can't say I've ever noticed any purplish tint to the screen, and at night I run a "screen filter" app that darkens the screen considerably beyond the normal range available. Is this color something you can capture with another camera? It doesn't sound normal to me, but maybe my colors are shifting and I'm just not noticing it.

 

[raptir]

AMOLED screens naturally turn a little pink at lower brightness. This is due to red LEDs needing less power to run than green or blue.

 

[benrk]

Yeah! I'll post a pic tonight. Its very noticeable.

Do you also notice a kind of 'screen door' effect with the screen when you are looking at a white screen? Any pure color looks kind of messy, with each pixel looking different to each other.

Looks like I'll be returning it, for a refund or replacement I'm not sure.

Thank you!

 

[benrk]

So has anybody else had this problem? It gets very purpely, I wish I had a picture to show. It isn't minor, its pretty major when the brightness is in the bottom 15%.

 

[natehoy]

I just put a white sheet of paper on one side of my phone and a black nylon bag on the other, turned the screen intensity down to minimum, then turned on my screen filter which cut the brightness by half. Then I ran "screen test" to show the screen in what should have been pure white (which in this case was a very dark grey).

I could detect a very, very faint tinge of color. It was barely noticeable, and if I wasn't specifically looking for it, I'm sure I would not have noticed it. It's not obvious to me in any way. I only have the camera on my phone, so I can't take a picture, but it was a pretty "clean" grey with maybe a little bit of red/purple influence. But this is also running the screen at half the manually-set minimum brightness under fluorescent light.


I also cranked the brightness up to 100% and ran the same "screen test" to attempt to burn out my retinas with a bright white screen (followed with each of the primary colors). All screens were perfectly uniform, retina-searingly bright, and no sign of color inconsistency.

I am severely nearsighted so without my glasses I see at about 3x magnification up close. I put my eyes a half inch from the screen and all I could see at any color was perfect uniformity. I did see a little inconsistency, then realized that there were very faint fingerprint smudges that I cleaned off carefully with a microfiber cloth and all inconsistencies went away.

Either your eyes are MUCH better than mine, or you got a bad one.

 

[ccates]

Lollipop let's you go darker than you could with KitKat. Natehoy was right about the amoled panels. Other manufacturers (Sammy) will limit the low end dim to a certain level so the end user never sees the color distortion amoled panels emit when at very low levels.

material yolo?

 

[benrk]

Thank you Natehoy, your input is so valuable. Also ccates, thank you, that really helps. Are you running Lollipop, natehoy?

I'm young and I have good eyes. The 'screen door effect' I described, where the pixels look all different and inconsistent in white and other solid colors, I remember seeing in my brothers Galaxy nexus, but I expected AMOLED to mature.

I see the purple slightly in bright rooms with low brightness, especially on the Action Bar when I hit the home button or multitasking (the gray button press effect) But when I do into a dark room and turn it way down with lollipop, it because almost enveloped in purple in the dark/gray areas of the screen.

Don't AMOLED panels also degrade over time?

Thank you guys so much, this is awesome!

 

[ccates]

Thank you Natehoy, your input is so valuable. Also ccates, thank you, that really helps. Are you running Lollipop, natehoy?

I'm young and I have good eyes. The 'screen door effect' I described, where the pixels look all different and inconsistent in white and other solid colors, I remember seeing in my brothers Galaxy nexus, but I expected AMOLED to mature.

I see the purple slightly in bright rooms with low brightness, especially on the Action Bar when I hit the home button or multitasking (the gray button press effect) But when I do into a dark room and turn it way down with lollipop, it because almost enveloped in purple in the dark/gray areas of the screen.

Don't AMOLED panels also degrade over time?

Thank you guys so much, this is awesome!

Don't know about degrading, My Samsung captivate still looks good For amoled panels, however, there is blue screen burn in. Over time static images will be faintly and permanently visible on the screen. Happened to my GS3. I could see the keyboard and the messaging action bar very very slightly when all white was displayed. Showed after 18 months.

material yolo?

 

[mrjspeed]

So has anybody else had this problem? It gets very purpely, I wish I had a picture to show. It isn't minor, its pretty major when the brightness is in the bottom 15%.

Yes, I'm experiencing the exact same thing. I figured it was because L lets me darken the screen below what KK did, and this display doesn't like to handle such a low setting. Right around the 15 - 20% as you mentioned. It doesn't bother me. I only do that when I'm using the phone late at night and don't want to disturb others around me. If color accuracy is needed I just bump it up to 15% and whites look...... dark white? again instead of purpleish.

I just tried it right now at work and I can't notice it, but if I try it at home at night in a super dark room, the effect is clear. This is probably because the ambient light sensor is further taking the edge off in a dark environment, tipping the display intensity below its "comfort zone" so to speak.

I wouldn't be surprised is Motorola later decides to update the software and prevent this effect from occurring.

 

[benrk]

Yes, I'm experiencing the exact same thing. I figured it was because L lets me darken the screen below what KK did, and this display doesn't like to handle such a low setting. Right around the 15 - 20% as you mentioned. It doesn't bother me. I only do that when I'm using the phone late at night and don't want to disturb others around me. If color accuracy is needed I just bump it up to 15% and whites look...... dark white? again instead of purpleish.

I just tried it right now at work and I can't notice it, but if I try it at home at night in a super dark room, the effect is clear. This is probably because the ambient light sensor is further taking the edge off in a dark environment, tipping the display intensity below its "comfort zone" so to speak.

I wouldn't be surprised is Motorola later decides to update the software and prevent this effect from occurring.

Thank you for your input! That makes sense. Do you have the 'screen door' effect on your screen where the pixels look all sparkly (not sparkling, but each one is different) and each one is different when you look at a pure white screen or a solid color?

Natehoy, are you on Lollipop?

Thank you guys.

 

[natehoy]

Thank you Natehoy, your input is so valuable. Also ccates, thank you, that really helps. Are you running Lollipop, natehoy?

No, still on 4.4.4 here. That's why I turned the filter on - I know that Lollipop allows the screen to get darker. Admittedly, Lollipop may use a different technique than the filter I use, so your mileage will probably vary.

Don't AMOLED panels also degrade over time?

They do.

There's another thread around here somewhere where I posted a close-in photo of the notification bar area of my Moto X 2013 running the same white screen test I used for this test. In it, you can clearly (but faintly) see slightly dimmer areas where the battery, signal, and other icons have been lit whenever the screen was on. I've used the phone heavily for ten months, and the degradation is completely unnoticeable in daily use and hard to see even when running an artificial test, but the fact is that it is there.

If you use your phone very heavily and expect it to last more than, say, 3 years and still be brightly visible in full daylight, AMOLED may not be your best bet. In the case of the Moto X, several of the features like Active Notifications were built around the concept of having an AMOLED screen. And there are trade-offs involved in that decision, one of which is that the screen will degrade over time.

 

[mrjspeed]

Thank you for your input! That makes sense. Do you have the 'screen door' effect on your screen where the pixels look all sparkly (not sparkling, but each one is different) and each one is different when you look at a pure white screen or a solid color?

I didn't notice this before, but now I do. Thanks a lot benrk. :-\

Nah actually it really only becomes apparent when I look close. I don't know if it's the display itself or the adhesion/lamination to the glass or touch sensor. I have a google cardboard headset at home, I'm gonna try looking at the display under magnification to check it out.

Edit: Ok so even a magnifying glass didn't help. Stuff is just too small. I compare the white screen to a white screen on my S4 and the S4 does look "cleaner", but it is still so minute on my X.

 

[raqball]

Mine had very bad pink tinting even at high brightness. I never notice purple but my pink was bad. I sent it back yesterday for a refund. Awesome phone with a sub-par screen.

 

[benrk]

Hi again!

The first picture is a whole new problem I found. Do you see the vertical lines? There are two of them along with a weird curved line on the side.

Does anybody else have anything like this? The diagonal lines are the camera, but the vertical lines are stuck in the screen. I also found random artifacts of the home button and stuff in the middle of the screen.

The second picture is what my phone looks with the brightness turned almost down to zero. Its horrendous at low brightness, as you see, but in everyday use it's barely noticeable.

Thank you for all the input!

 

[raptir]

Hi again!

The first picture is a whole new problem I found. Do you see the vertical lines? There are two of them along with a weird curved line on the side.

Does anybody else have anything like this? The diagonal lines are the camera, but the vertical lines are stuck in the screen. I also found random artifacts of the home button and stuff in the middle of the screen.

The second picture is what my phone looks with the brightness turned almost down to zero. Its horrendous at low brightness, as you see, but in everyday use it's barely noticeable.

Thank you for all the input!

I'm able to see lines like that on a large block of one color as well. It's been the same on every AMOLED screen I've seen. What I find interesting is that if you zoom in and out on a pure color image (so it is filling or not filling the screen) the lines move. So it's not actually a defect in the screen but an artifact of the way the screen displays large blocks of one color.

 

[benrk]

I'm able to see lines like that on a large block of one color as well. It's been the same on every AMOLED screen I've seen. What I find interesting is that if you zoom in and out on a pure color image (so it is filling or not filling the screen) the lines move. So it's not actually a defect in the screen but an artifact of the way the screen displays large blocks of one color.

That's fascinating, thank you! I will investigate that on my phone.

Would that effect also explain the control (back, home, and multitask) artifacts displaying on the middle of the screen?

I also noticed this small curvy line on the right side of the screen, and it's noticeable on any background, but only at minimal brightness. Do you think that is a defect?

Thank you raptir.

 

[benrk]

Does everyone's screens look grainy? It looks like every pixel has a slightly different color.

I'm just wondering if mine is normal in this regard.

Thanks!

 

[Latrell567]

On my Droid Maxx, I do notice it. I've got my 2nd replacement now (due to other issues) and I see a very visible purplish color and on my previous replacement and original phone I bought, I saw purple on both. It bugs me a little bit so I guess it's safe to say it's normal when it shouldn't be :-\ but it's ok

 

[Slantize]

i noticed this on my original moto x, and among all the few little gripes i had about it, the screen was what bothered me most - to the point i got rid of it and went back to my iphone 5. i have a galaxy note 4 and for what it's worth, i've had no issues with seeing purple at low brightness on grays. it's unfortunate the '14 moto x has this same problem