Help Low light = gradient banding?

BST · Dec 15, 2011

Hi there!

So I just picked up my Galaxy Nexus a couple of hours ago and was very excited to see how everything worked and looked.

I was especially looking forward to seeing this beautiful screen that everyone talks about.

Unfortunately I very quickly noticed some kind of pattern on the screen.

It is looks like small lines going all the way from the top to the bottom and others from side to side.
I guess you can say that the pattern looks like the one from the Burberry clothes.

The pattern stays the same no matter how you move around on the screen and where you are in the system.

It is very easy to see it. Just find a white background on the screen (a homepage etc.) and set the brightness to between 10-50%.

Another way to see it is, if you have a white background and then turn the brightness to 90-100%. Then pull down the notification bar.
The gray notification bar-area now clearly shows the pattern once again.

Can anyone please try the above and inform me if this is just my screen or if it is a common issue with this phone.

I would really appreciate your feed-back before I decide to return the phone.

trophynuts · Dec 15, 2011

I don't notice anything on mine.

Another member here had an issue with his screen too. Diff than yours but he took it back and they gladly swapped it out. His new one is fine. You may want to go to the sore and see if the demo unit does what your describing. If it doesn't definitely ask for a new one.

Mikey P · Dec 15, 2011

nothing on mine...i did return my first one because there was a piece of fuzz under the glass...i say take it back, you waited too long for it not to be perfect

cabraswell · Dec 15, 2011

Yeah. Sounds like a defect to me. I tried to duplicate but couldn't. You should have no problem swapping it out.

runamonk · Dec 15, 2011

No banding on mine. I would exchange it.

JustNexus · Dec 15, 2011

In low light settings with white backgrounds i notice kind of gradient banding. Is this normal?

Its not bad. And you can only really tell on the sms page or the internet when the screen brightness is down.

I just want to make sure the unit isnt defective.

dabomb224 · Dec 15, 2011

Pretty sure I've only seen it on grey. But yes, it's there.

JustNexus · Dec 15, 2011

Okay as long as this is normal with the phone, I can live with it. Gives it a newspaper effect.

I am not too fond with the way the system manages brightness in the autobrightness.

theineffablebob · Dec 15, 2011

Does Android still use 16-bit color?

For some reason Google downgraded Android to 16-bit color from 24-bit from Android 2.0 to 2.1. This results in banding and not as accurate color reproduction.

jimmypop13 · Dec 15, 2011

Had this on the first gnex I got this morning. It came with the red yellow green blue background. I took it back bc the earpiece made everyone's voice extremely fuzzy. Definitely not tolerable.
They immediately swapped it for a new one. The new one has no banding and the earpiece sounds great during calls. It came with the phase beam live wallpaper.
I'm trying to find out if there is a difference between batches. I exchanged mine at a different verizon than I bought it from

matt999000 · Dec 15, 2011

Yes, my gnex has it also, i thought i was going crazy at first. My fix was change the brightness to middle.

tpags · Dec 15, 2011

JustNexus said:
In low light settings with white backgrounds i notice kind of gradient banding. Is this normal?

Its not bad. And you can only really tell on the sms page or the internet when the screen brightness is down.

I just want to make sure the unit isnt defective.

I have it on mine as well. As you said, on low light I can tell in sms and browser. I'm glad it's not only me, I thought I got a lemon.

I seen this on a different forum for the galaxy s2:

If rooted, use the Voodoo Screen Tuning app, and turn to native mode instead of Samsung mode (use overlay to see background or whatever). This turns off the excessive image sharpening that samsung uses which essentially produces bands on colour transition points.

WalmartSecurity · Dec 15, 2011

Just got my galaxy nexus, and the first thing I noticed was that the auto-brightness is way too aggressive. However, even with the brightness cranked all the way up, it seems as though the screen isn't that bright.

When compared next to my droid x, the whites are almost blue/gray on the Nexus.

However, I did slap on a screen protector that came with the TPU Diztronic cases. Do you think it could be dimming the screen, or is the Nexus just like this?

lennydude · Dec 15, 2011

hmmmmmmmmmm

Try this................go to your browser and type into the "google search" window the word white. Choose images. Open up one of the white images and look at it while it is in partial screen. Now zoom that white image to full screen and watch it TURN GRAY !!

WOW..................this handset has a problem with displaying full screen white? Does anyone know why? Is it the Super AMOLED screen? :rolleyes:

El Presidente · Dec 15, 2011

It's discussed a little here: http://androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-nexus/464421-low-light-gradient-banding.html if you want to have a read through that.

oatmeals · Dec 15, 2011

I'm currently on an Iphone 3GS which I switch to the lowest brightness levels when I do some bedtime reading. I've read from a few posters here that banding occurs if you set the brightness to less than 50% for the GN.

What levels of brightness do you guys lower it to when you read in the dark as you're getting ready to sleep?

El Presidente · Dec 15, 2011

A few other users have reported the same thing and it's discussed a little here.

jbdan · Dec 15, 2011

I love the auto brightness it acts a lit like cyanogens when custom set how I like it. Very dim inside at night and 100% in sunlight. Amoled if you're not used to it is quite different than the older techs. And amoled varies between models/screens just as LCD does. A happy medium would be to use the power widget and adjust it on the fly how you'd like. Or set to 50% and enjoy. : )

Wolfedude88 · Dec 15, 2011

Merged threads together.

Manny212 · Dec 15, 2011

I get the same effect with low brightness. Was the first thing I noticed when I got home. I still keep it on auto brightness but manually adjusting the brightness does fix the problem. And the brightness seems good to me. Even at midway I find the screen pretty bright.

WalmartSecurity · Dec 16, 2011

I have no trouble with the brightness of the homescreen and such, but when I go to browser/SMS/Google books or anything with a lot of white pixels, the screen becomes very dim. It seems like the more whites, the dimmer they become...

Seems like it might be an AMOLED thing.

gapi · Dec 16, 2011

Mine is OK, perhaps you could give us the site you are looking at so we can see if its the site, and not the phone?

gapi · Dec 16, 2011

Mine is OK, perhaps you could give us the site you are looking at so we can see if its the site, and not the phone?

KhaOZ · Dec 16, 2011

When i'm on a dark screen I see lines going down the screen that are slightly darker. They're uneven and thick lines, like if you ran your fingernail down an old calculator or something. I don't see it at all when it's on brighter screens though.

FierceDeityLink1 · Dec 16, 2011

Noticed this as well. It's only apparent at lower brightness and darker colors.

Help Low light = gradient banding?

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