Google investigating reports of screen burn-in on Pixel 2 XL
Google is "actively investigating" accounts of OLED screen burn-in on its new top-end iPhone rival, the Pixel 2 XL, according to a spokerperson.
"We put all of our products through extensive quality testing before launch and in the manufacturing of every unit," the representative told The Verge. "We are actively investigating this report."
Some review units have begun showing faint ghosts of navigation buttons when a gray background is onscreen. Burn-in is an eventual problem with OLED panels, but it's rare for devices to begin displaying it so quickly.
The Pixel 2 XL uses a 2,880-by-1,440 pOLED display instead of the 1080p AMOLED found on the regular model, which could suggest the source of the defect. Modern pOLED, based on a plastic substrate, is extremely compact when compared with LCDs or glass-based OLED.
It's not certain how widespread the problem is, in large part because the Pixel 2 XL won't reach the public until Oct. 29. Review units are sometimes subject to defects missing in final hardware and software.
Google ran into a problem in preview hardware with the first batch of the Google Home Mini. Preview Google Home Mini hardware distributed at assorted release events had a serious flaw that caused the device to listen in on every noise generated in a house, which has since been pinned down to the now disabled touch-to-activate button.
Early opinions of the phone have been largely positive, despite it missing some features in comparison with the iPhone 8 Plus. The product is mostly just a 6-inch version of the standard 5-inch Pixel 2, which uses a Qualcomm 835 processor, 4 gigabytes of RAM, and 64 of 128 gigabytes of storage. Unusual sensor and software technology lets the phones achieve simulated bokeh -- as on the iPhone 8 Plus -- without a second camera lens.
"We put all of our products through extensive quality testing before launch and in the manufacturing of every unit," the representative told The Verge. "We are actively investigating this report."
Some review units have begun showing faint ghosts of navigation buttons when a gray background is onscreen. Burn-in is an eventual problem with OLED panels, but it's rare for devices to begin displaying it so quickly.
The Pixel 2 XL uses a 2,880-by-1,440 pOLED display instead of the 1080p AMOLED found on the regular model, which could suggest the source of the defect. Modern pOLED, based on a plastic substrate, is extremely compact when compared with LCDs or glass-based OLED.
It's not certain how widespread the problem is, in large part because the Pixel 2 XL won't reach the public until Oct. 29. Review units are sometimes subject to defects missing in final hardware and software.
Google ran into a problem in preview hardware with the first batch of the Google Home Mini. Preview Google Home Mini hardware distributed at assorted release events had a serious flaw that caused the device to listen in on every noise generated in a house, which has since been pinned down to the now disabled touch-to-activate button.
Early opinions of the phone have been largely positive, despite it missing some features in comparison with the iPhone 8 Plus. The product is mostly just a 6-inch version of the standard 5-inch Pixel 2, which uses a Qualcomm 835 processor, 4 gigabytes of RAM, and 64 of 128 gigabytes of storage. Unusual sensor and software technology lets the phones achieve simulated bokeh -- as on the iPhone 8 Plus -- without a second camera lens.
Comments
I was in Best Buy yesterday looking at an OLED TV. I almost bought it until I noticed a faint, LG logo "burned in" to the screen.
I expect Apple will be using Samsung's best (same generation as the infinity display on the S8) but as per Apple's standards they will be individually calibrated for better quality. It may take a little bit to ramp up production but I'm sure it will be a HUGE HIT. Stock may fall on model 8 sales but will spring back even higher with X sales.
http://iphone.appleinsider.com/articles/17/06/07/apple-may-use-micro-led-in-wearables-as-soon-as-2018
Unusual sensor and software technology lets the phones achieve simulated bokeh —as on the iPhone 8 Plus —without a second camera lens.
This feature is badly broken. Some of the pictures are horrible. Google should really have called this “beta”. It remains to be seen if they can really do it with just one camera.
(actually you can get good optical bokeh in macro type shots with single lens cameras, I take these all the time with an iPhone 6 with the camera focused on a small subject, such as a butterfly, 2.5-4 inches away.)
Samsung panels originally had a host of problems which the company eventually became to solve. In some ways, the early Samsung panels back in 2011 were still superior to the LG ones being manufactured today.
The small model Pixel 2 has a Samsung display. That display is quite nice. The larger model has the much poorer LG built display.
The real issue concerns Apple’s planned use of LG as a high volume OLED display supplier next year. I can guarantee that LG will be nowhere near the quality of Samsung built displays in another year. It’s taken Samsung 6 years to get to this stage. No amount of money is going to enable LG to catch Samsung in only a year. It’s ridiculous to think that LG can. Google is finding it out the hard way right now. Apple is going to in 2018 if Cook continues his insane plans.
Cook made a critical mistake. He should have approached LG about building OLED panels for phones at least three years ago when Samsung was rapidly improving and expanding their manufacturing expertise in such panels.
It is now too late. Samsung is going to utterly dominate high quality small panel OLED display manufacturing.
With that dominance, Samsung is going to take full control of the non iOS portion of the smart device market. Apple will be forced to continue to source OLED panels primarily from Samsung.
Think about it. How will the market react if the flagship iPhone X2 or whatever Apple decides to name it, comes with an inferior panel to the iPhone X. Apple is tied at the hip to Samsung. There’s very little that can be done about it now
because Google does not really test as they claim they do. Hardware Test engineers are a completely different beast then software test people. Google testing is giving hardware to their software engineers and telling them to test it and tell them what they think. They probably never bother to do burn in tests.
You really do not understand how this works, just because Samsung has been working on this for so long does not mean LG or anyone else will not catch up quickly. Here the thing, Apple is not using an off the self Samsung display, Apple worked with Samsung to delivery Apple a display to Apple set of standards which work with Apple's video drivers and software. Apple also put in a huge capital investment into LG in the way of manufacturing equipment, Apple most likely share everything they learned about OLED so LG can make a display which meets their specs.
LG will catch up, as they all catch up over time especially when you have Apple financing the R&D.
http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2017/09/advances-in-micro-led-displays-are-being-made-and-apples-luxvue-owns-a-key-patent-to-advance-production.html