Some owners of the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus recently took online to report a problem with the Infinity Display panels of Samsung’s latest Android devices, claiming that their phablets are having issues with displaying blacks. According to a limited number of accounts, select Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus units are crushing their blacks which is particularly obvious when viewing images and video clips that are largely dark. A number of users are also claiming their phablets are having issues with displaying an accurate color gradient consisting of shades of black, resulting in a somewhat pixelated image which doesn’t smoothly transition between different degrees of the color. The phenomenon known as color banding has never been a widespread issue with Samsung’s devices but is often associated with faulty OLED panels.
The extent of the newly reported issues remains unclear, with accounts of such problems originally emerging in mid-March, shortly after Samsung officially released its latest Android-powered flagships. The majority of users complaining about troublesome displays own the Galaxy S9 Plus and not its smaller counterpart, whereas the color banding phenomenon so far hasn’t been observed and reported on any 5.8-inch Galaxy S9 unit at all. The South Korean original equipment manufacturer hasn’t responded to the complaints in a public capacity, though numerous users who returned their devices in the United Kingdom and the United States claim the company acknowledged they were faulty and agreed to replace them. As the initial reports on the matter emerged nearly a month ago and elicited no public communication on Samsung’s part, the issue is presumed to only be affecting a small number of users.
The Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus are understood to be selling worse than their predecessors and are also believed to have underperformed in terms of pre-orders compared to the Galaxy S8 lineup. Samsung is reportedly considering launching the Galaxy Note 9 prior to its traditional late August debut window due to that state of affairs as the firm wants to avoid a scenario in which its ultra-premium offerings are losing momentum in the run-up to the unveiling of Apple’s new iPhone models this fall. The Galaxy S9 family is still expected to be the best-selling Android handset series of the year but its chances of outselling the previous line which found its way to more than 37 million consumers globally are becoming slimmer by the day, as per recent accounts from industry insiders.
