Google Might Need To Recall the Pixel 2 XL Because of Defective Screens (mashable.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: You might want to hold off on buying a Pixel 2 XL until Google addresses its screen issues. Now that Google's new flagship Android phone is officially out and in people's hands, reports have come out that call into question the quality of its display. Pixel 2 XL owners took to social media to voice their complaints about discoloration and screen burn-in. The first issue Pixel 2 XL owners started noticing was the screen's inconsistent color temperature, most noticeable when viewing anything with a white background. From a dead-on vantage point, the screen has a warm color temperature. But shift your position off-angle just a bit, and you'll notice the color temperature changes to a bluish tint. Mashable has confirmed the color shifting on our Pixel 2 XL review unit. While there are some real advantages to OLED displays over traditional LCDs -- they're thinner, more power efficient, brighter, and display more vibrant colors and deeper blacks -- they're also prone to defects like screen burn-in. Even Samsung, the world's largest manufacturer of OLED displays, hasn't figured out how to perfect them. The Super AMOLED displays used in its Galaxy S8 and Note 8 phones are rated as the brightest screens for mobile devices by DisplayMate's Dr. Raymond Soneira, but they're still susceptible to burn-in. To prevent burn-in from the screen's virtual home button, Samsung's programmed it to move by a few pixels every few seconds. It's not a perfect solution, but it does the trick.

Comments

Apple is looking at techniques to minimize burnin

[captaindomon]

Apple is looking at mitigation techniques as well: https://9to5mac.com/2017/09/11...

I'm worried about this myself, but already ordered

[WilliamGeorge]

So I reached out to Google last week, to make sure that I could return the Pixel 2 XL for a full refund should I not be satisfied with the screen. They confirmed (via live chat) that there is a 15-day 'buyers regret' window for a full refund, so I am trusting them on that. My phone should arrive later this week, and I am hoping that the issues people have raised are overblown... but if not, I'll send it right back and get something else instead.

I really want to like it, though, because aside from the screen quality the specs are as close to my ideal setup as anything else that exists right now:

- OLED (I prefer Samsung's AMOLED, personally, but I absolutely hate normal LCD / IPS panels on phones because of my need for perfectly black backgrounds when reading at low light levels)

- 6" screen (I'd settle for 5.5 in a pinch, but I watch a lot of videos and find a large screen very pleasant)

- 4GB RAM (more would be fine too)

- Dual front-facing speakers (again, related to watching a lot of video content without headphones)

- Stock (or near-stock) Android

- Good cameras

- Support for Sprint (my carrier)

- Good battery life

It is missing wireless charging, which I would like, but I can live without it. I also don't care about the missing headphone jack, which a lot of people are upset over, since the only headphones I bother to use are Bluetooth (and I rarely use them anyway).

Pro Tip

[sootman]

> You might want to hold off on buying a Pixel 2 XL
> until Google addresses its screen issues.

"You might want to hold off on buying rev 1 hardware, ever, unless you have a really serious need."

FTFY.

Seriously. Give it a fucking month or two. You won't die.