S9 suddenly washed out colors, black crush

[xtexistenz]

Hi, I've bought this phone in 2018 with a pre-order before it even came out, I was really happy with this phone until now (I still think it's one of the best looking phones right now, no stupid punch hole, just a perfect design). It seems that there may be a problem with the display, the colors suddenly changed a bit right when I was using the phone, they were washed out and the display is somewhat brighter now at the same brightness setting, it looks like there's less contrast and the greys look very bad right now, they look a bit greenish and as I mentioned, brighter.

There also seems to be a problem with black crush now when the screen is at like 30% brightness or lower, it looks kind of pixelated and the gradients look very bad (gradient banding). I really loved this phone for the beautiful display but right now everything looks pretty bad.

I've never dropped the phone or anything like that, just used it normally. I don't believe that OLED screens only last for 2 years and I've always used it on low brightness (I don't even understand why a lot of people keep their phones at full or almost full brightness).

I'm actually not sure if this is a hardware problem or a software problem? It seems to be hardware because I didn't change anything software wise.

Is this a known problem and is there anything I can do to fix it or is the display toasted?

Thanks

[primalwound]

Green screen with white flashes is now happening to my phone. I planned to have the phone for another year maybe two, before upgrading.  Obviously Samsung has other ideas to make us upgrade.  Either that or Samsung is only making their products last 3 years.  I like Samsung and don't want to change to another phone but am seriously considering it.

[TheVos]

Hey PrimalWound, I'm having a similar problem. I think it started Saturday or Sunday. Do the horizontal green streaks go away when you adjust the brightness on the phone?

I've set my phone to 100% brightness and turned off adaptive brightness as I search for a solution. I think I read it's a sign that our battery needs to be replaced? 

[Ripara]

SOLUTION : CHANGE BATTERY

[xtexistenz]

How would that fix the problem with the display and motherboard..?

[rajub]

Would be very interesting if battery is the problem. I can't see how this is the case though. It coincided with last year's updates, then was fixed in a future update, then subsequently broken again with the Oct update. Has not been fixed since. Installing the Feb update and crossing fingers and toes.

[xtexistenz]

I am willing to bet that will not change anything, my battery is still almost like new as I didn't use my phone too much. You're just going to waste your money replacing your battery on a defective phone. But do please let us know if you decide to do that!

My recommendation is that Samsung is not to be trusted anymore, they are desperate making more money.

[rajub]

Yup, as expected. No change. Uninstalled OLED Saver, hoping for a miracle, but no luck. Reinstalled it right after the reboot. So poor from Samsung...

[Cristina]

since the last update in Jan 2021 my S9 has gone backwards . There was the issue of not being able to pay for items in ebay via PayPal which samsung fixed. since the last update this has raises its ugly head again and I'm back at not being able to pay for anything. the othe issue is not being able to open attachments in email. is anyone else having the same issues and been able to fix. Samsung told me to do a reset but it didn't work.

[CairnsByTheSea]

I had this issue today.

Going into accessibility settings=> visibility enhancements ==> colour adjustments

turn on

then off

Seems to have made a difference. hopefully it will stay OK

[CairnsByTheSea]

Well, that didn't stay fixed.

phone backed-up==>factory reset==>phone restore

Looking OK so far