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Galaxy S20 screens are failing, and no one seems to know why

Published Jul 14th, 2021 4:39PM EDT
Galaxy S20 screens
Image: Framesira/Shutterstock

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Recent rumors suggest that we’re less than a month out from Samsung’s next big smartphone reveal event. Prolific leaker Evan Blass recently shared renders of the Galaxy Z Fold 3, Galaxy Z Flip 3, and the Galaxy Watch 4, all of which will be unveiled on August 11th. Unfortunately, the company might have a major problem on its hands ahead of the event. As reported by Android Police, Galaxy S20 owners are complaining about their screens failing out of nowhere.

One of the earliest complaints came back in May, when one Galaxy S20 owner uploaded the following video on YouTube. The user began seeing scan lines on his Galaxy S20 Ultra about a year after buying the phone. The display eventually started to flicker, and before long, the entire screen was white with a green tint. The user reached out to Samsung, but never found a solution.


Galaxy S20 screens are failing — is there a solution?

As Android Police reports, many other Galaxy S20 owners have seen their screens fail in the weeks and months since. Just days after the video was published, a user took to the Samsung Community forums to complain. They noticed flickering lines on their Galaxy S20 while playing a game. The user explains that the screen eventually turned white and green, as in the video above.

A moderator responded moments after the thread was posted with the following suggestion:

Are you able to share a screenshot or a video of this here? Can you try your phone in Safe Mode? Using Safe Mode on a Samsung phone or tablet allows you to force the device to run the essential operating system, and disable most 3rd party applications. It’s designed as a diagnostic tool to help solve issues with connectivity, battery life, apps, and more. To do this press and hold the Power button until you see Power Off, Restart and Emergency. Press and hold the Power Off icon until it shows a Shield, tap the Shield and the device will restart in Safe Mode. Once done, monitor the device for two hours to see if the issue persists.

This didn’t seem to make any difference. In fact, based on the responses, the only real solution is to have the screen replaced altogether. It isn’t clear just how widespread this issue is, but it’s troubling nonetheless. The Galaxy S20 series of devices launched in March 2020, which means early adopters have had their phones for over a year now. If this is a problem for a significant number of Galaxy S20 devices, we’ll continue to see similar reports in the days ahead.

Jacob Siegal
Jacob Siegal Associate Editor

Jacob Siegal is Associate Editor at BGR, having joined the news team in 2013. He has over a decade of professional writing and editing experience, and helps to lead our technology and entertainment product launch and movie release coverage.