Black Smudges and Marks on Dark Screens

[KTreu42]

So I realize that many people have noticed this issue with Galaxy S phones, and it seemingly has to do with AMOLED screens, but for those of you who haven't heard or noticed...

I was playing with some setting options late last night in bed, and realized some blacker-than-normal smears on the black settings menu pages. After some quick searching I found it was a common issue, and after taking a picture with my camera lens totally covered, and then looking at the picture, it was very clear that there are many long streaks and some dots as well where the screen has these much darker black spots burned into the screen.

Now it is certainly nothing I am worrying about that much, since you absolutely can not notice them besides on very dark screens in a very dark room... but my question is what causes this? Because at the very bottom of my screen there is a very large area that this blackness covers, along with some stray lines maybe 1+mm thick that look drawn, almost.

I don't expect anyone to have a solution, but I'm just looking for a cause so I can potentially avoid making any more of these marks. It may be purely uncontrollable and is just a problem with Amoled technology (which you would have hoped they would have fixed by now), but I wanted to mention it either way.

[Richardj]

Can't say I have ever noticed anything like your talking about on any of the galaxy S range of phones.

[hazi1964]

Me neither

Alison

[Goots]

Nope, never seen this, or even heard anything like it before.

So I realize that many people have noticed this issue with Galaxy S phones, and it seemingly has to do with AMOLED screens, but for those of you who haven't heard or noticed...

Where have you read this, and how many is "many people"? If it's less than a few thousand I'd put it down to maybe a faulty screen.

[Tufftoad]

Never heard of black smudges on a Samsung screen before.

Edit: I would take your phone back to Samsung, since the AMOLED displays handle Black colours well there's a possibility that you might have a "faulty" screen.

I've never heard of this problem before but it looks like other people have, must say it's not a common problem or the OLED manufacturing process would have to be redesigned.

GPForums.com - S3 Thread (Pictures posted of similar problems)

[KTreu42]

I looked around for the problem after it happened and found a number of forums and sites with people reporting the issue. Obviously if you've never noticed or had the problem you probably haven't heard about it...

[Tufftoad]

Either way it looks like the problem you have is hardware based, so the only solution is to get the product replaced.

[KTreu42]

I also mentioned in my initial post that the problem is not serious or detrimental to my everyday use in any way, and I wasn't looking for a solution; especially one requiring me to totally lose all my phone and app data etc. by replacing the device. I asked if anyone had input as to what the cause may be.

[Tufftoad]

If you post a problem, people will offer you a reason/solution anyway. I read the whole post and gave you everything you needed to know:
Reason - Manufacturing process
Solution - Replace handset

Replacing a handset is not a big drama, you backup what you can and then restore it on the new device.

[KTreu42]

The reason you gave is not necessarily accurate, I don't know if that is in fact where these marks came from since they do not appear to be sporadic or individual pressure points that I would imagine the manufacturing process may create. And "Replace handset" = "Don't know how to fix," which ultimately means no real solution at all, it's more like "try again with a new phone and cross your fingers."

Replacing a handset is not a huge drama if you don't mind spending hours backing up files - many of which you cannot save such as saved data on apps, losing saved dictionary words, saved username/passwords on dozens of sites, screen and setting customizations, etc. Interestingly enough though, I consider that to be a BIT of a hassle and a pain though, for what is, as stated, virtually a non-issue.