Display / Skin Tone issues with Note 20 Ultra

[spitshaw]

So I received my Note 20 Ultra and I'm confused about the display and hoping for some advice. Essentially, there seems to be a milky haze or a kind of 3% filter over the display that makes things look greenish/yellowish or grey depending on the content. It's mostly bothers me with skin tones and faces - people look pale or washed out with yellow/green or grey tones to their faces and skin. It's off putting as imakes people look sick haha.

I'm coming from a P20 Pro and own a Tab S7 Plus so I've compared images and videos across all 3 devices and side by side it makes the Note20Ultra look pretty bad. The P20 pro and Tab s7 plus screens seem to calibrated similarly, and I expected the Note20Ultra to be pretty much the same as the Tab S7 Plus seeing as they were released around the same time - I LOVE my Tab S7+ screen.

Can't tell whether I have a defective screen or Samsung have purposefully designed them this way? It is still a beautiful display, but in a different way I'm used to. It lacks saturation and sharpness and instead has an almost liquid-like quality to it and kind of feels "alive"? So it does look good in it's own way but it's the skin tones and washed out faces that are bothering me.

Is this normal for this phone? Is there a way to fix it? I like everything else about the phone and want to keep it but I can't get on with how it makes people look so ugly - especially as I use the phone for tv/movies and photos/social media. It's not even as if it's a hardly noticeable issue, it's incredibly jarring to me.

I've tried using dark mode, turning off "apply dark mode to wallpaper", toggled between all the display settings, refresh rates and white balance and nothing seems to make a difference.
Any advice or ideas? Appreciate the help!

[BandOfBrothers]

There are some existing threads in regards to taking pictures and the results on a N20 Ultra which may yield some help @spitshaw 

A Samsung Experience Store or Samsung Service Centre can take a look or if you think you've a defective unit then ask for it to be swapped out.

I think personally we all see things differently and as such my N20 Ultra Snapdragon version seems fine.

[MadalinK]

Maybe compare your screen to another Note 20 Ultra? See if the difference is still there.

Also don't forget that the phone comes with a preinstalled screen protector which is almost invisible unless you look closely around the front camera. I've kept mine because I like the "glassy" feeling it's got to it. 😀

[Diorty8]

I don't think it's a defective screen I think it's just a very badly calibrated screen on the UK exynos note 20 ultras!! I've done many tests and came to the conclusion the contrast of this panel is calibrated poorly. If you take a picture with a person and compare it side by side to a properly calibrated panel you'll see the note 20 ultra pictures has no shadows pop out on skin tones. it's just one blob of highlight. I'm hoping samsung fixes this in a software update. They need to increase brightness, turn up the contrast a little bit and also turn down the green levels a tad.

The best I can manage with the settings is put in in vivid, go 2 notches up warm. In advanced settings drag the green all the way down. This only fixes the white balance if the screen though it doesn't fix the contrast issue of the screen.

Here's another thing you should try. Watch a video on the Facebook app that someone has recorded on an iPhone. Some reason the note 20 ultra doesn't decode the video properly and it's like someone drag the brightness slider all the way up.

I just want them to fix these problems because the phone is beautiful!!!

[BandOfBrothers]

And I don't blame you @Diorty8 

I have the Snapdragon N20 Ultra but I sent the N20 Ultra Exynos version back to Samsung UK so I can't compare it.

Mine is set to normal and in Dark Mode as my preference.

Brightness is set to …

 

Maybe it's my old eyes 🙄

I also replaced the factory fitted screen protector with the Whitestone Dome Glass Screen Protector which may / may not help  !

[Diorty8]

Thank you for your reply. I've went to YouTube to check to see if anyone else had noticed this. So far unbox therapy when he compares note 20 vs note 20 ultra he does notice the note 20 ultra is a lot less bright than the normal note 20. Jerry rig everything also comments on how different the exynos and snapdragon note 20 ultras panels are very different. I do think the exynos version for some reason has a poorly calibrated screen. After researching this I'm sure it's a poorly calibrated panel on the UK version. I only noticed it because I do a lot of snapseed editing on my phones. When I edited a photo on the note 20 ultra and transferred the picture to my old oneplus 7 pro I could tell how much more contrast detail showed on the oneplus. Skin on pictures has no variations on tone it's just one highlighted area on the face. Come on Samsung please fix this for us. Just a gorgeous phone otherwise. The refresh rate and the s pen capabilities of this phone are amazing. Now we just need the UK version screen to be properly calibrated!!!

[AMRKHN]

so what was the outcome? how did you manage to fix it? it's haunting that all of these posts with display issues you never get a reply back from the official poster almost like they threw their phone in bin or something. I am having the exact same issue here.

[spitshaw]

I'm still here!  

I tried a bunch of fixes and spoke to Samsung Customer support a couple times and nothing helped. One of the Samsung tech people told me they're aware of this problem and have had many calls regarding it before. I wondered if there's some sort of panel lottery maybe so I agreed to a replacement and hoped that would be better. Had my phone picked up the next day and the day after that I was refunded in full 😐 It was supposed to be a replacement but they messed up on their end and now I don't know what's happening.  I got it on sale so I'm not paying full price to reorder it. Someone was supposed to get back to me in 48hours about it but its been 4 days and still nothing. Honestly I've kind of soured on the phone and Samsung now. I loved the phone otherwise, pretty sure it's the perfect phone - but the display was absolutely gross and I'd never be able to get used to it.

Not sure what to do now!

[AMRKHN]

Well that's the worst possible outcome.... wow... I have been chatting the the twitter page of Samsung and they kept telling me this is a software issue and will get sorted after an update.. so I do not know who to trust. I am past the 28 day refund/exchange period so Im lost.

[spitshaw]

Do you think Samsung are telling the truth there or just trying to string things a long? There's quite a few threads around the internet about the problem - but for how bad the screen was on my device, I honest can't believe there's not loads more - and I don't understand how none of the Youtube reviews really mention it either. I'd assume tech guys would have huge problems with the display calibration if they're all like mine was. The screen was so poor compared to my 3 year old P20 pro and even next to my Tab s7 plus - which came out 1 month before the Note 20 ultra (I'd assumed they'd be similar). Honestly - it was awful, colours were all washed out and greenish, white balance was impossible to get white and skin tones were blown out and yellow. It was just awful.

I REALLY loved the phone otherwise, it has everything I want in a phone and it's the best looking phone ever created imo. I'd be really happy with it if the screen had no problems. 

If they ever do send out a software update that fixes it, if you remember, would you be able to come back and update me? I would go out and buy another one right away then. Otherwise I might wait around for the Note 21 Ultra if there is one hopefully