Quality Issues with the V30's OLED Display?

[TrueBlueKew]

Have been looking real hard at the V30, combing through first impression reviews based on pre-production units.

Here's an article by Ron Amadeo about the V30 OLED display having uneven color, weird horizontal banding and uneven light levels (with hot spots) when the screen is set on low brightness in a dark room:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/09/lg-v30-hands-on-lgs-oled-displays-still-have-quality-issues/

Pre-production unit I know but... I'm a little surprised more people aren't raising this or at least mentioning it.

Photo Credit: Ron Amadeo (from the article)

 

[Mike Dee]

Have been looking real hard at the V30, combing through first impression reviews based on pre-production units.

Here's an article by Ron Amadeo about the V30 OLED display having uneven color, weird horizontal banding and uneven light levels (with hot spots) when the screen is set on low brightness in a dark room:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/09/lg-v30-hands-on-lgs-oled-displays-still-have-quality-issues/

Pre-production unit I know but... I'm a little surprised more people aren't raising this or at least mentioning it.

Photo Credit: Ron Amadeo (from the article)

It has been mentioned but I can't find the discussion. It doesn't seem to be a major concern at this time but time will tell.

 

[jeetu4444]

Lets wait for retail units before making comparisons

 

[fasnic]

Yeah, I've seen it in almost every review, comments about the low light view of the screen. I know the V30 vs Note8 video, it was mentioned.

 

[TrueBlueKew]

Yeah, I've seen it in almost every review, comments about the low light view of the screen. I know the V30 vs Note8 video, it was mentioned.

The V30 vs. Note 8 videos I've seen (including one by Alex Dobie of Android Central) mention the V30 crushing shadow details. However, I haven't seen anyone else mention all the issues discussed in the article I reference by Ron Amade concerning uneven color, weird horizontal banding and uneven lighting with hot spots.

 

[chriskwarren]

The V30 vs. Note 8 videos I've seen (including one by Alex Dobie of Android Central) mention the V30 crushing shadow details. However, I haven't seen anyone else mention all the issues discussed in the article I reference by Ron Amade concerning uneven color, weird horizontal banding and uneven lighting with hot spots.

Iv'e seen a mention on one of the reviews about the bands. I couldn't tell you were I read that, but the banding is on more than one device for sure.

 

[MA2GA28]

Sadly, this may sway me to wait for the Pixel 2... possibly the XL. I've had phones in the past with display issues, and for some reason I can never ignore them.

 

[Mike Dee]

Sadly, this may sway me to wait for the Pixel 2... possibly the XL. I've had phones in the past with display issues, and for some reason I can never ignore them.

The screen is made by LG in the 2xl but I wouldn't worry just yet

 

[MA2GA28]

The screen is made by LG in the 2xl but I wouldn't worry just yet

Definitely not jumping to conclusions just yet, as they have plenty of time to correct the issue (I think??). But it is still concerning that a common thread in reviews is questioning some aspect of the display.

 

[Mike Dee]

Definitely not jumping to conclusions just yet, as they have plenty of time to correct the issue (I think??). But it is still concerning that a common thread in reviews is questioning some aspect of the display.

Preproduction units with only hands on reviews that I've seen. Also the Pixel screen may be built to a different spec and tuned differently

 

[TrueBlueKew]

An article from Android Headlines on retail/production unit complaints in South Korea concerning the display.

Here's an excerpt:

"According to a recent report from South Korea, LG customers who have had the opportunity to purchase the LG V30 after its September 21 debut in the country have started raising complaints in regards to the quality of the display. Apparently, the issue lies in the P-OLED panel’s inability to distribute colors and brightness evenly across the entire surface, resulting in an undesirable effect similar to the so-called “light bleeding” usually exhibited by backlit LCD panels."

Full article here:

https://www.androidheadlines.com/20...screen-exhibiting-color-imbalance-issues.html

I'll keep an ear to the ground and good or bad will share what I hear.

 

[MA2GA28]

This is now at a very concerning level. Will definitely have to hit up a display and see if I can test this out before purchasing.

The fact that they are denying it's an issue is the worst part about it, as it means they don't plan to correct it. An OLED should not look like a watercolor painting.

 

[Mike Dee]

This is now at a very concerning level. Will definitely have to hit up a display and see if I can test this out before purchasing.

The fact that they are denying it's an issue is the worst part about it, as it means they don't plan to correct it. An OLED should not look like a watercolor painting.

What I want to know is it under normal circumstances or only with a blank screen?

 

[muckrakerX]

What I want to know is it under normal circumstances or only with a blank screen?

My V10 screen looks a little uneven when I use a screen test app, but in daily use it looks ok. Nevertheless, when paying big bucks for a new phone it would be a concern.

 

[irvine752]

What I want to know is it under normal circumstances or only with a blank screen?

It happens when you set the phone to low brightness in a dark room. Also to be clear, LG did acknowledge the issue. It should be out on Friday, I'd go & play with the floor models to verify this as well. It's the same photo that's been floating around for a while now & now it's been used in several articles as a source or proof.

The real source of the article in the previous post is:
http://www.businesskorea.co.kr/engl...30-users-complain-about-uneven-color-displays

And according to this article below, those side pictures with a Samsung were generated using a pre-production model:
https://www.oled-info.com/ars-technica-lg-latest-flexible-oleds-suffer-serious-quality-issues

 

[chriskwarren]

LG Electronics applied OLED panels which had been used for TVs to the V30 for the first time among its flagship smartphones. For this reason, analysts at securities firms also expressed concern about the yield of mobile OLED panels to be installed in the V30.

Source: Due to OLED Characteristics?: LG V30 Users Complain about Uneven Color on Displays | BusinessKorea

Interesting. I was worried about display yields and device availability, especially when I found out that the same display is being used for the Pixel 2 XL.

This could be a 'nothing burger' created by over-fussy folks who dislike OLEDs, or it could be something that bugs me constantly. The issue here in Canada is that we have terrible return policies at out carriers (I think its 30 mins of usage total, and/or 50mb). Not sure if I can get a good look at the display at the carrier store as they re usually bright locations, and the issue is apparent in low-light scenarios. By the time I get it home and try it for a few hours I might have exceeded the return window, if LG determines this as a normal artifact of OLED.

Disappointing if this is found to be a real issue, and not sure I want to risk it with our poor return policies. The V30 seems to be almost the perfect phone to me, but I won't put up with crappy quality in low-light as this is a scenario I would use it often.

 

[MA2GA28]

What I want to know is it under normal circumstances or only with a blank screen?

I'd think it would impact all circumstances, with varying degrees of noticeability (based on personal perception and how bad is the problem). If the panel can't take a dark screen and make it look uniform without hotspots, there's no way it can do it during 'normal circumstances.' This is especially a concern for a device that touts it's video capabilities as a top selling point.

 

[Mike Dee]

I'd think it would impact all circumstances, with varying degrees of noticeability (based on personal perception and how bad is the problem). If the panel can't take a dark screen and make it look uniform without hotspots, there's no way it can do it during 'normal circumstances.' This is especially a concern for a device that touts it's video capabilities as a top selling point.

I don't agree but that's ok....if anyone is hesitant they should make sure they can return.

 

[TrueBlueKew]

What I want to know is it under normal circumstances or only with a blank screen?

This is one of the key things I'd like to know as well.

Check out this guy's remark about the V30 screen from the 40 second mark, up to the one minute mark. He's looking at a wallpaper and not a blank screen and clearly not sitting in a dark room with brightness set low:

https://youtu.be/dh2dAOq4Yc0

Granted, it's a pre-production unit, but the way he notices and mentions it so casually and not from within any type of controlled settings (no dark room, not a blank screen etc.) seems a bit telling.

For me... If I have to be in a dark room with brightness at 25% and a solid 18% gray screen to ever see it, that's not critical to me. However, I do a lot of on location camera to phone file transfers for quick, on the fly photo editing on my phone (just for social media outlets and such), and it's usually at night in dark settings. I need the screen to be ~reasonably~ accurate so it doesn't appear there are blown out highlights when there aren't and vice-versa. I know about the crushed blacks at low light. But to contend with that *and* noticeable light level differences which LG seems to state is "normal" is a bit much for an $800.00 phone imo.

 

[chriskwarren]

Ugh. I'm picky about the screen...where there is smoke, there is fire, and there is some smoke surrounding the quality of this screen.

All I want is a no-bs big screen phone with water resistance and wireless charging. Right now, that is unbelievably the iPhone 8+ lol Samsung made too many compromises for me with the curved screen and fingerprint scanner. This V30 screen issue is starting to worry me as many reviewers have mentioned it.