It looks like that full HD Super AMOLED screen on the Galaxy S4 may not be quite so super after all. Several users have shown off odd purple inversions along with scrolling blur and ghosting. While this first appeared to be an isolated incident, more and more people have came forward in the XDA forums complaining about their displays.
Most owners are hoping the issue is software related and will be fixed in the next update. Unfortunately several people have already shown the issues are still existent on various roms, although it is possible the botched code was used in the code base for mods as well. If this is indeed a hardware issue it would be a serious black eye for Samsung, a company already struggling with a reputation for shoddy build quality.
Already Samsung haters are circling overhead, waiting to pounce on the unsuspecting Samsung faithful. Before you try and stab your pitchforks deep into the depths of Samsung’s polycarbonate heart, slow down and examine the situation. The Galaxy S4 is using an AMOLED display with a higher PPI than anything else on the market. Unfortunately, issues with the first phones put through mass production will occur. I’m not saying that Samsung is undeserving of any responsibility or even a few build quality jokes for this. They do have extensive testing that probably should have caught this. Unfortunately they probably don’t do a whole lot of testing involving what ended up causing the “purple inversions,” sliding the auto-brightness bar back and forth. As worrying as this is, I expect Samsung will provide software fixes for some of the issues soon, and the hardware issues should be corrected for the next shipments of S4’s. But in the meantime, difficulties like this could really hurt the S4’s image.
The Galaxy S3 had some display issues as well, but they were largely ignored due to the lack of well known competitors, and the S3 broke all kinds of records. Unfortunately for Samsung, a lot of people are still trying to decide between the Galaxy and the HTC One, a phone that has been almost universally praised, with little to no build quality issues. Samsung will lose sales because of this, HTC may even get some of the positive marketing they desperately need to restore their brand. Do you guys believe this is a serious issue, or is it overblown? Let us know in the comments below.