Help Help with Pink Screen Issue

[bunjy]

I just got my Droid Incredible and was browsing the forums for hints, tips, etc. I stumbled upon the threads that mentioned the "pink screen" issue and I started to get worried about my unit. I read that this phenomenon is most visible with the brightness turned down, so I did some testing and took some pictures that I would like to share (I apologize if the pics aren't of the best quality).

Here's the screen brightness at 0%:







Here's the brightness at 25%:







Finally, the brightness at 50%:







I didn't bother with the higher brightness levels as the pinkish look seems to go away. Also, please disregard the big circle in the middle of the pictures. This is the reflection of my camera lens (the darn screen is quite reflective, isn't it?) The questions I have are:

Is the hue at the 0% and 25% level normal? (I don't have anything to compare it to).

If it is not normal, is it considered bad and should I try to replace with a new phone.

I'm no expert at this, so this is why I'm asking you guys. Thanks for the help!

 

[jbdan]

I had 2 incredibles. My original I got on launch day has the pink hue below 25% brightness. I asked for a refurb (because I was having a lot of random reboots) and it did not have the pink hue at any brightness level....BUT it wasn't as bright at 100% as my original Inc. So I kept the original and sent the refurb back. My random reboots have stopped. It's your choice, but how often do you use your phone at 25% or below? I would say the pink hue at 25% and below is normal for a lot of phones, but not all. ISSUE = would be up to you

 

[bunjy]

I had 2 incredibles. My original I got on launch day has the pink hue below 25% brightness. I asked for a refurb (because I was having a lot of random reboots) and it did not have the pink hue at any brightness level....BUT it wasn't as bright at 100% as my original Inc. So I kept the original and sent the refurb back. My random reboots have stopped. It's your choice, but how often do you use your phone at 25% or below? I would say the pink hue at 25% and below is normal for a lot of phones, but not all. ISSUE = would be up to you

Thanks for the thoughts. I probably wouldn't have noticed if it weren't for 2 things:

1. I turned the brightness down (to around 40%) to save on battery.

2. Reading the forums (yes, a blessing and a curse).

I did the test and posted to see if mine was a "normal" experience, or something I should be worried about.

 

[jayochs]

yeah, i'm pretty sure a lot of people have this. i noticed it too when it's on like 0% brightness, it's got the pink hue...but my startup screen is a nice bright white. the hue does go away with the brightness turned up; mine was manufactured july 20th

my buddies, a pre-launch day unit, also has the same thing

 

[jbdan]

Thanks for the thoughts. I probably wouldn't have noticed if it weren't for 2 things:

1. I turned the brightness down (to around 40%) to save on battery.

2. Reading the forums (yes, a blessing and a curse).

I did the test and posted to see if mine was a "normal" experience, or something I should be worried about.

Pretty normal I would say. You don't have to live with it though. You could get a new unit and might get one without the pink. Are you within your 30 days? It's a gamble though you might get another one with pink. Or worse, get one with issues especially if yours is working well.

Just fyi the AMOLED screen on this phone uses very little battery juice imo. It's always low guy on the totem pole when checking battery stats and what is using your battery. I leave mine at 100% retina burning brightness all day until I'm hone inside at night. If you had a LCD I would say turning brightness to 40% is a good battery saver (it is on my wifes Eris), but not with this phone. There are better steps you can take to save more battery on the Inc.... #1 imo is polling apps. So my take is crank that screen up enjoy the AMOLED goodness within!

Welcome to the forum btw

 

[bunjy]

I went into the Verizon store to see how my phone compared to other Incredibles. Interestingly, the display model did not have the pink hue, but looked a bit "green". Still, not the same as my phone.

I showed my phone to a tech and he couldn't quite follow. I asked if one of the other reps. had an Incredible to compare with and we found one. Sure enough, when set on auto brightness, my grays started to warm up a bit compared with the rep's Incredible. The Verizon guys agreed that this wasn't normal, however, they had no Incredibles in stock. Since mine is on a corporate account, they will have to ship one out to me.

Needless to say, I'm nervous that the other phone won't be any better, but I will take both phones into the Verizon store and compare them side by side with one of the techs. Just keeping my fingers crossed!

 

[jayochs]

i don't get why everybody is freaking out about this pinkish hue....i'm pretty sure i have it, but i NEVER notice it because i don't go around going "oh hey lemmie see your phone, i want to compare my display to yours for no apparent reason!"

like, it's only pinkish if you use 0% brightness...like who the hell uses that? i have mine set at 40% brightness 247, and i NEVER even notice it. everything looks fine.

it's not like a big deal really people haha, it's NOT worth sending your phone in to get a new one! it's as if everybody on this forum sees the tiniest, smallest problem with their phone and automatically sends it back to VZW over nothing, even when the phone they get in return will probably have a similar problem.

 

[bunjy]

Normally I'd agree with you if not for the fact that I saw two other phones that did not have this problem. I have also read others that report that they don't have a hint of this issue. If this was just a fact of life for this phone and every phone was affected, I'd definitely agree with you. If the replacement that they send me has the similar issue, I'll keep my original phone and send them the unused phone back; no harm to Verizon.

Personally, I think that people have a right to be a bit picky about these types of phones. You pay $200 for them out the door, plus an extra $360/year (on a two year contract for most I might add) on top of your voice plan for them. I think that justifies you making sure you're completely satisfied with the phone. If someone is satisfied with some minor defects in the phone, then fine. If not, it's worth the time to make it right.

 

[jayochs]

i see what you're saying, but it all just reminds me of when i had an eris......every. single. person. was sending back their eris due to the ridiculous silent bug, then would get a refurbished...however, factory resetting the eris didn't cure anything like verizon thought, so now the entire pool of refurbished eris's HAD the silent bug, every single one, to the point where vzw finally got smart and said NO we're not letting you trade a phone in anymore because they all have the problem.

 

[bunjy]

At that point, in your example, Verizon should let a customer switch to a different phone altogether if alll phones have the same defect.

 

[jayochs]

haha they started to! but, it took SO much bullshit to argue with them, and you had to have been on like your 3rd refurb'ed eris before they'd say "okay, we'll give you a moto droid."

they'd also gladly let you pay 200 and get a droid X. it began to get ridiculous, ugh

 

[ramcharger1979]

I am on my 4th Incredible(this one is new) and it has the pink screen issue but not as bad as the 3rd referb. I wish I had never seen a good screen I would have never noticed the difference.

 

[bunjy]

I am on my 4th Incredible(this one is new) and it has the pink screen issue but not as bad as the 3rd referb. I wish I had never seen a good screen I would have never noticed the difference.

I know what you mean. I noticed a bit of difference in the screen when I got the phone, but I picked up on the problem by reading the forums.

 

[ramcharger1979]

At this point the new phone is faster. I am going to live with it on high brightness.

 

[bunjy]

At this point the new phone is faster. I am going to live with it on high brightness.

Just out of curiosity, why have you gone through so many Incredibles?

 

[ramcharger1979]

Just out of curiosity, why have you gone through so many Incredibles?

First one had pink screen and blown speaker
Second one blown speaker
Third one worst pink screen I have ever seen
Fourth one has pink screen and is brand new but is very fast.

 

[bunjy]

Sorry to hear that you've had so many problems (I'm channeling my inner Verizon CS rep). This phone really is great (I'm coming from BlackBerry), but these issues are annoying. If the replacement phone is not any better, I'm sticking with the original phone.

 

[ramcharger1979]

Sorry to hear that you've had so many problems (I'm channeling my inner Verizon CS rep). This phone really is great (I'm coming from BlackBerry), but these issues are annoying. If the replacement phone is not any better, I'm sticking with the original phone.

Yeah I love this phone but I may switch to Samsung if it is out in the next 30 days.

 

[bunjy]

Yeah I love this phone but I may switch to Samsung if it is out in the next 30 days.

That might be a good idea. This is the only Android phone approved for use on my corporate network, so I don't have that option. Just make sure you can live with the Samsung UI.

 

[bunjy]

Well, I took some pictures of my replacement phone next to my new one.

Screen at 25% Brightness (Replacement on Left):



Screen at 50% Brightness:



Screen at 100% Brightness:



These pictures aren't the greatest so I'm not sure if you can pick up any differences. If you saw the phones in person, you would notice that the new phone is brighter at the same settings, however, It shows a stronger pink tint than the old phone. The brighter screen also tends to wash out the blacks a little bit, so the older phone has better contrast.

Also, the new phone seems to be not as prone to the grounding effect than the the old phone.

Another interesting observation is that the new phone seems bigger than the old one. I know this sounds weird, but you can feel and see the difference in person. It's crazy.

The date of manufacture on the old phone is 7/22/10. The date of manufacture on the new phone is 7/28/10.

Now the question is, which phone to keep?

New: Brighter Screen, less contrast, less grounding effect, more pink.

Old: Dimmer Screen, more contrast, more grounding effect, less pink.

Or ---keep trying with another replacement. I can't believe how inconsistent the manufacturing is with these phones. I thought my BlackBerry was bad, but this is somewhat ridiculous.

 

[jayochs]

ugh, see man haha this is what i was talking about. no matter what, you're probably not gonna be satisfied with the new phone you get...hence why like 50% of this board keeps sending back incredibles that are fine, but they're just super anal about their pink screen issue.

i'd just keep the old one man...

 

[bunjy]

Yeah, I hear ya. Frustrating.

 

[jayochs]

like i said, i'm pretty sure i've got a pinkish hue to mine when it's below like 40% too.....but even when I compared the screen to my brothers droid X, i still liked how much better my screen looked and didn't even think it looked pink!

look at the phone head on, you'll see the pink hue...now, tilt it up, then down a bit....notice when you tilt it, the color gets "cooler," or more of a blueish hue? but headon it's warmer, more of a pinkish hue?

maybe that's just how AMOLED is? i don't know, i'm not an expert...but i think this screen looks amazing

 

[bunjy]

The new one definitely has the pink screen, even at the highest brightness. That being said, the screen is brighter overall than my old one. And it doesn't have the grounding issue. Just weird how different these phones are from phone to phone.

 

[ramcharger1979]

From what I have seen some are worse than others also.

After I turned my brightness to 100 and put the other phone away I can not tell a difference now.