Samsung Droid Charge Blue Screen of Weird: First-hand experience
The Samsung Droid Charge is a high-end smartphone on Verizon's 3G and 4G network. However, high-end smartphones don't always perform the greatest, whether it's from a performance point of view or from one of hardware.
Since it is such a big device from Verizon and I'm absolutely addicted to my position here at Pocketables, I took it on my vacation this weekend to a hotel in a city about an hour away. While that doesn't really matter, it shows that bad things can happen anywhere you are. I was laying in the bed and checking my email on my iPhone. I decided to play Angry Birds on the Charge just to see the intense colors of the Super AMOLED Plus display.
Upon turning the screen on, I saw that ugly bluish tint. I freaked out and turned the screen back off. About five minutes later, I thought it would be a good idea to make sure I didn't wreck another phone. When I did that, the device was totally fine, and I proceeded to get back my green eggs and kill some ham.
Later that night, the same thing happened. A few locks and unlocks later, boom. And then it repeated itself once every two times I locked and unlocked device. It still does it, too. I have no idea why. I have used AMOLED displays in the past that didn't do anything even remotely close to this, so you can imagine my surprise when I saw it occur on the Charge.
Here's what it normally looks like so you don't think I'm pulling your leg. See? Totally fine and normal. I'm hoping to send an email out to a few contacts I've got to see if this is a very widespread issue or if maybe I'm just unlucky and get defective units and review devices. Either way, I thought it was worth a mention here.
Have you experienced anything like this on any of your devices with AMOLED displays? I sure haven't, and definitely haven't on any other display technologies, either.
Do any of you even have a Charge? Or is $300 on contract a little too much?
I don't want to ruin anything for my review, but I don't think any phone is worth that much on contract. That's why I stuck with an iPhone 4 instead of the Dell Streak a little less than a year ago.
I’ve had a Vibrant since it came out and no, I’ve never seen anything like that. Auto-brightness going crazy, perhaps? Some kind of problem in the code and/or hardware (not sure how they do it) that adjusts for color shifts as the display ages? Very strange, and makes me even more wary of the Droid Charge when added to the price and the other reviews/benchmarks I’ve seen comparing it to the other high end VZW devices.
I have no idea what it is. I’ve got a few emails sent out just to see what the heck is going on. I hope it’s not widespread because Samsung’s displays are usually top-notch. They’d better not be going downhill!
i have had my droid charge for 33 days and this same problem happend to me. it went blue green red and dark gray muliple times in one day…
i went to verzion and the only thing they can do is send me a referbished phone which i will not take a used phone when i just paid 300 bucks
Thanks! Forwarded to my Verizon rep. She’s doing the same thing, albeit with a brand new unit. Mine also suffers from some reception issues.
I think we may be on to something big here, to be honest.
I just had it happen for the first time here with a Charge. Had mine for about a month and a half and this is the first time. I just did a reboot and it appears to have gone away. Lets see if it comes back…
If this is your current email address, you may be contacted by my Verizon rep for more questions. We’re gonna get on top of this for Charge users because it is utter bologna for a $300 phone with a high-quality display to turn colors. They know that, too.
I’ve had my Charge since mid-May with no display issues. Now you’ve got me concerned. I’ll keep you posted.
It just started happening to me tonight and I got my Droid Charge yesterday. I did a search on Google and that’s how I found this posting. Really surprised about this given how much the phone cost! Has there been any resolution from the Verizon people? I want to take my phone back now… Grr!
Was it a brand new unit? I’m assuming so, but it makes me wonder why it happened to you within a day, while with previous commenters (and myself) it happened after about a month.
As far as I know it was brand new… It hasn’t happened to me today but I’m going to watch and probably take it back tomorrow. Did you get a new unit? If so, did you have the same issue? And what is Verizon’s take on all of it?
I’ve had mine charge for about two weeks and took a trip in which I turned it on to airplane mode for the first time and it started doing the blue/green color change. Is there really no explanation for this?
I was in at our local Verizon store yesterday. Of the three Charges on display, two had a uniform light blue tint to the screen. The third had a white screen. I came here to find out whether the light blue was normal. Apparently not. I’ll go back and ask the sales people what they think. Probably “Buy a different Droid!”
Just happened to me too.
Calob- can you have your rep contact me as well? Im being passed around in circles from verizon and they dont understand what i am saying.
Most definitely, David. Still haven’t heard anything back myself but I will keep you all posted. This is an issue and it will be resolved for everyone. To be honest, I’m pretty surprised this hasn’t been going through corporate quicker, but I’ll make sure she puts in a word with customer service for others who experience this. Frustrating, huh? I almost dread using the darn thing because of it… definitely factoring into my review, which will go up after this junk is dealt with.
I am having the same issue. I will keep watching this post to see if you figure anything out.
This started to happen on my phone today too. I’ve had the Droid Charge since April and today is the first time it had this problem. But it also had a pink or green tint in addition to blue at times. I’m thinking of going to a Verizon store, but it sounds as though they can’t deal with this problem as of yet.
I’ve had my droid charge, and the screen started the blue tint today. The battery was < 10% at the time, but it's been switching between normal/blue for the last hour charging now too.
I remember the screen auto-brightness not working just before the blue screen started happening too. Even manually adjusting the brightness didn’t work.
I’m suffering from the exact same issue, started last night :(
Same exact problem here…very disappointing to see this happen to such a great device. Hope I don’t have to get Refurbished version after shelling out the bucks for this one a month ago.
Mine stated doing the same thing after two weeks :(
Mine just started doing the same thing. First there was a time or two that the whites seemed so blown out that I thought maybe my contacts were clouding up. That cleared up with a lock/unlock. Now the phone sporadically has the blue tint problem. It’s not a subtle hue of blue–it’s dramatic!
My husband and I both have the Charge and his phone is starting with the blue screen. We got the phone the day after they came out after not liking our other new one. I may call tomorrow but not sure what to do because my husband is being deployed in less than a month, not sure if we should deal with it.
Same thing here! Blue tint just started! However, I purchased the phone like the week it came out. I HATE the charge. I was hearing so many good things about this phone, so I thought I’d give it a try. The first night I got it, verizon sent me on my way home with my new phone….only to find that the entire phone froze and would no longer unlock. So the girl that helped me said “It has to be the email address you used with it. Your email address ruined this phone.” UH, no!! My gmail account was set up on my incredible and that was fine! So they replaced it that night. But ever since then, it has been one problem after the next with this phone.
I just had this issue tonight. Ugh…what a piece. I will be taking my phone into Verizon and hopefull I dont get the run around.
I have had my phone since June and this just started happened about a week ago. It now happens 5-10 times a day.
it happens to me a lot now it happened before but then it stopped and now it is starting again. and everytime it happens i freak because it looks weird. can someone plz help i have no clue what it is and how to fix it
I just started to see this today . . . has anyone found anything new?
I’ve had my Charge since early July and it just started doing this about two days ago. It clears away when I turn the screen off and on, but it’s not fixing the root cause, of which, I don’t know. I am thinking it has something to do with the Brightness and Power Saving Mode settings so experimenting to see what happens.
I’ve cycled through a blue, purple, and an light orangey-red tint =/
Ive had my charge for over a year now and it just started doing it. i noticed it seems to happpen more frequently when on a charger or in heavier usage. im wondering if maybe a its a temperature thing. ,
Ive noticed it does it to my Droid Charge when my phone gets hot. After using it all day. Maybe thats the reason.
Another one for this issue. I’ve had the Charge since early July ’11. It randomly starts with green hue, blue hue, purplish hue, full brightness . . . it would be funny if I wasn’t concerned that the display is going to crap out any day!
I like it. I wanted to now how to keep it blue thats what bought me here