Here is a quick update to Samsung Galaxy SII screen issues story. I’ve been doing some (non-scientific) research by comparing several different devices and found that there is a huge variation in display quality between devices. Generally the older ones bought right after launch tend to have one of the better performing devices. I became aware of the issues when the screen in my SGS2 broke and had to be replaced with a new one.
The issues with the Super Amoled+ displays used in these phones are many. A good screen is very bright while maintaining excellent performance in darker areas – meaning it can separate the dark grays from the blacks even down to the darkest levels. A bad screen just shows mainly solid black where there should be a whole scale of incrementally darkening grays. In real life this means that all your movies with darker scenes are mostly black. Also with the auto-brightness enabled the screen drops way too dark when in a dark room. It’s not an issue with the light sensor but with the screen itself. Also when examining the many of the screens closely it turns out that a lot of the screens look grainy – especially when displaying different solid grays. This does not happen in a ‘normal’ quality screen.
The reason I’m trying make a noise about this is that the screen is one of the main selling points with this device. This is an issue that is hard to explain to the Samsung service people – especially if they compare your device with an ‘identical’ device and this other device is one with a faulty screen.
Personally I just want my phone to be as good as it was when I first got. I just fear that if our RMA demand goes through with Samsung they’ll just send me a brand new device with a screen that’s even darker the current one.
More info and example photos in the previous post
The image used to test the black levels can be found here: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/black.php
I just posted another example photo of the issue in a new post.
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I’ve been a pretty happy owner of a Samsung Galaxy SII since April. I’ve especially been pleased with the excellent display that is able to deliver true blacks while being one of the brightest screens out there.
Imagine my horror then when the display broke. It looked like something was leaking inside it. It started as a minor pink hue in the edge of the screen and in a couple days had turned into a bruise covering one fourth of the screen. All the pixels seemed to work but there was a shadow with distinct edges clouding the picture.
The issue
Luckily the warranty covered this and the service point returned my phone with a note: “Display module replaced“. Little did I know that not all Super Amoled+ screens are created equal. After a minute of using the serviced device I noticed that the screen was somehow dark – noticeably darker than before. I checked all the settings – everything was set up the way it had been before with the auto-brightness set on. It just wasn’t the screen I had come to know. We have two units of the SGS2 at home and so I compared the serviced one with the other original unit. The display in the original (reference) unit was noticeably brighter than mine. The difference was even more apparent in the dark shades – where the reference display separated several different shades of dark grays mine only displayed black. The original screen on the reference device delivered the same quality as my ‘pre-serviced’ unit. Then I turned off the auto-brightness on both devices and cranked up the brightness to the max. Again the serviced unit was visibly dim compared to the reference unit. Even the color space between the devices are different – the original quite natural and a tad warm and the serviced one distinctly cool with whites tilted towards blue.
Next I borrowed a couple of other S2′s from colleagues at the office and it turned out their devices were just as dim as my serviced one – one even dimmer! I guess this explains why some reviewers and users have judged the display on the SGS2 to be too dark – something that I always thought to be a silly complaint. It seems that the display quality between devices varies greatly. I’m currently expecting a reply from my service point as to what I should do with my ‘faulty’ screen – I’ll let you know how this pans out.
I tried taking photos with the reference unit and the serviced unit side-by-side. If you think the differences are small and to complain is silly you should know that the real life effect is that taking photos and watching videos is now a pain because every shadow is just a solid black area and when you go into a dark room the auto-brightness drops the brightness way too low. So if you own a Samsung Galaxy s2 with a dark screen – you are one of the unlucky ones.
Below are the comparison shots. If you suspect you have one of the dark screens feel free to leave a comment below.
Color bars. In the overlay I’ve split each bar in two – right half of each color is the serviced unit.
Contrast and gamma. For better comparison I’ve copied parts of the other screen over the other.
Difference in brightness. Both screens are showing the same color.
I’ve been following the development of Khweeteur closely and I’ve been happily surprised. Allthough still in it’s early stages Khweeteur is already working very nicely. It aims to be a straight forward client with only the basic function but as such it’s already enough for most users needs. Most recent versions introduced themes allowing a measure of customization and it looks pretty good.
Currently you can find it from the Maemo Extras-devel repository. More info at the makers website at Khertan.net.
I’ve been made aware that the DeviceInfo app is having some problems with the latest firmware version on various devices. Users are getting an error message: “script alert: system service object cannot be found”. This is apparently due to some changes Nokia has made in the WRT API. Unfortunately I haven’t had the time to see to this issue and can’t even promise to do so anytime soon.
Another source of grief is the IMDb Widget (which I believe is currently the only IMDb client for Symbian atm.). The app itself is working fine but the data source is sending out corrupt data that contains HTML code and such. This has it’s roots in the way the IMDb data is collected (see here). Whenever the HTML structure changes at IMDb.com it affects the data collecting (a.k.a. scraping) process. Unfortunately the maker of the scraping system is a busy guy and doesn’t have enough time to plug all the wholes. And he is not making any money with it (just like I’m not making any money from my apps) so it’s pretty hard to make any demands. You can always pay a visit to his site at http://blog.thumnet.com/imdb-rest-webservice-update/129/ and ask nicely (or offer bribes) 
If only there were more hours in day.
UPDATE: Note that this application is unsigned meaning that it has not gone through any kind of official quality control. Use it at your own risk!!!
ThinkChange has just released a new FourSquare app for Symbian and is looking for beta testers. They are inviting 1000 beta testers to experience the exciting foursquare services on your Symbian devices. Testers will be chosen randomly from all users submitted their info. However, If you have purchased symbian apps from ThinkChange, you will be invited directly.
Best of all – the app is FREE! Checkout the screenshots and video below.
Read the rest of this entry »
Just letting you know that I’ve just released the IMDb Widget for Symbian 5th Edition. IMDb Widget allows you to quickly search for people or movie titles right on your phone and launch an extended search in services like Google, Youtube and so on.
More info and download: IMDb Widget by Moubail.com
Good news to all IMDb fans with a Symbian 5th Edition phones! Thanks to the amazing service provided by Jeffrey Tummers (blog.thumnet.com) I was finally able to create an IMDB application for phones such as Nokia 5800, N97 (mini), X6 and so on. The application is currently in final testing and will be released soon. Here is a little sneak peak on what’s coming.
Continue reading for more info and screenshots…
