The Galaxy S8 is commercially available in four markets, which means hundreds of thousands of customers will receive their Galaxy S8 preorders on Friday, while others will be able to purchase the handsets from various shops. That also means that more people will unbox and start using the phone, and that’s great news for anyone worried by the already reported red tint issue of that gorgeous Infinity display. You know, the problem that Samsung said wasn’t a problem. With the phones in the handsets of more users, we’ll be able to determine how widespread the problem is, or if it only affects a limited number of owners. Whatever the case, Samsung has already confirmed that it has fixes in place for affected customers, but it’s not all good news.
According to a pair of reports from The Investor, Samsung has confirmed that a software update should fix the red tint issue. Samsung first instructed affected users to fix the issue themselves by going into the display section of the Settings app, but that didn’t eliminate the problem for everyone affected.
“To keep the red screen issue from getting out of control, Samsung has made the decision to release the software solution as soon as possible to optimize the color balance of the screen,” an industry source said. “The company has already notified its nationwide customer service centers that it will release the software for fine-tuning the color balance.” Samsung has already confirmed the reports. “We can’t release a specific date yet, but the update will occur next week at the latest,” Samsung told The Investor. The company said it’ll replace the phones with new handsets if the issue persists.
Some people think the software issue might fix the problem, as Samsung may be looking to control the excessive electrical signals for the red pixels of the displays.
“Samsung probably tried the conventional methods to balance white tones for the latest smartphones,” a professor explained. “So I doubt software update can be a silver bullet to the problem. However, some experts I talked to believe a software update would be enough to balance out the reddish display to the extent that consumers are satisfied.”
An industry source with access to Samsung’s display manufacturing process said the software fix isn’t sufficient to address the problem.
“It would be difficult to correct the problem with a software update because it is likely to be related to chronic manufacturing problems involving the uneven appliance of pixels,” a plant employee told The Investor. “This has been a thorny issue for a while now, and unless this is solved, an update will only be a stopgap measure.”
