November 22, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Tech giant Samsung Electronics will roll out a software update next week to address complaints that some screens of the latest Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus have a reddish tint.

“We can’t release a specific date yet, but the update will occur next week at the latest,” a Samsung official told The Investor. 

Related:
Here’s why your Samsung Galaxy S8 looks red



Customers in Korea who received their preordered S8 and S8 Plus on April 18 have been complaining over an unusually reddish screen. Samsung had suggested fixing the problem by adjusting the white tone of the screen, claiming that the discoloration is not a defect. This has failed to satisfy them and the complaints have grown.

“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,” the official said.

Samsung has officially confirmed the reports

If the screen continues to retain a reddish tint despite the new software, Samsung said it would replace the phones with new handsets.

The red tint of the display has been garnering a great deal of attention from not only the media but also industry insiders and academia.

One industry source with access to Samsung’s display manufacturing process told The Investor that a software update may be “insufficient” for adjusting the reddish tint. The discoloration of the screen -- either LCD or OLED -- has been a nagging problem for display manufacturers, and one that won’t be fixed so easily, he said.

Some academic experts, however, said the red tint can be fixed to some extent by controlling the excessive electrical signals -- a probable cause of the reddish screen -- for the red pixels with a new software program.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)