The flagship phone from giants Samsung, that is touted for a release on the 21st of April in India, boasts of a new display technology as always. However, the first batch of consumers from Korea are already reporting glaring issues with the very same display which might not make it fully worth your buy.
Samsung smartphones have been the flagbearer for durable smartphones with a lot of integrity to its hardware that is worth the hike in price, compared to its contemporaries. It is not astronomically priced either and does offer post-purchase support, scope for upgrades among other perks. The customer support is none too shabby. Samsung’s display capabilities revolutionize the smartphone market every year with features that are a cut above the rest. However, the Samsung S8’s display might be its Achilles’ heel. Let us look at it in detail.
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The Samsung S8 employs the AMOLED display technology which it has in the application for the last few generations of devices launched under their banner. The Samsung S8 comes with an automatic brightness adjustment option; once turned on it can allow you brightness of up to 1020 units. This comes as no surprise given Samsung’s reputation for providing some of the best display solutions and brightness magnitudes of the highest quality. DisplayMate ran benchmark tests to discover that the Samsung S8 has the capability to provide the largest color gamut, at 113% of the DCI-P3, and 142% of the sRGB/REC. 709 standards that most of the currently published 1080p uses. However, this is where the problem lies. With the calibration of that very same color gamut. Not all Samsung S8’s tested wherever it has been launched so far have exhibited the same screen reflectance percentage.
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The Samsung S8 boasts of four different color gamuts. In layman’s terms, color gamuts are what maintain the color balance and retain the original color be it a still photograph, or a video or a game that is on the display. To this effect, the Samsung S8 offers Basic (sRGB), Photo (Adobe RGB), Cinema (DCI-P3, often used for 4K), and Adaptive (default, wide gamut). The Adaptive screen is aided in its task by a red OLED. To put it in simple terms, an LED is surpassed in its effectivity by an OLED because the electroluminescent coating on the light emission screen is an organic compound which offers better services than a regular LED. The Adaptive mode offers a deep, warm color and brightness level that did not exist in the predecessors. The warm tone assists the adaptive color gamut in transitioning colors. However, the first line of buyers have immediately taken to the media to complain about the permanent warm white balance that has taken hold of their screen. The symptom has not been detected in all Samsung S8 devices that have gone off the shelf though.
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Counterpoint Research analyst Neil Shah claimed that the problem could be stemming from a calibration issue across isolated Samsung S8’s that could be responsible for the natural whites which are retaining their consistency on other devices, turning a shade warmer on the Samsung S8. Samsung initially claimed that this is not a problem but a byproduct of the different screen mode’s available in the device, and can be altered from the settings. However, the consumers have since refuted the same since by stating that the issue is with the device’s display calibration and thus exists in all the color modes. The Infinity Display system which is the name for the collective visual mana that the Samsung S8 packs, has been much marketed ahead of the global launch of the device. This means, the pre-orders placed for the device, prior to the initial South Korean consumers raising the alarm, run a high risk of a potential calibration problem. Given the price range of the device which is already under scrutiny for the calibration issues, Samsung consumers are seeing red, no pun intended. With Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 seeing a global callback after reports of charging issues leading to exploding devices were found from the consumer base all over the planet, the early hardware challenge reports do not bode well for Samsung.
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The boast of 1 million pieces being pre-ordered might not end up being a boast after all. To add fuel to the fire, Samsung electronics de-facto head Jay Y Park is involved in a public scandal after he was caught bribing suspended South Korean President, Park Geun-hye. Nothing short of a miracle can rescue the oncoming storm that might hit Samsung’s market stakes, and truth be told miracles are far and few in the field of technology… it’s all science! Samsung has since then tried appeasing their consumers with the only option at hand that does not draw a parallel to the Samsung S7 Note fiasco of the previous year: by offering a software update that balances out the redness in the color balance, however, when this update shall be rolled out is still not revealed.
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