Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

Okay first post here, but I gotta find out wether or not I am alone on this one.

I bought a Nokia N9 last Friday (30th September) and when I bought it had a hardware related screen issue. Here is how to test whether or not you have it:

Go to a completely dark room. All dark. No light at all. Go into the camera app on Nokia N9.

If you got the issue you should see black spots on your screen where the brightness is different than the rest of the screen. I went over to the store today and got a replacement. But it also got this issue. Black spots that are clear on a grey background.

Furthermore my replacement phone had a new screen issue and somebody please test this out whether its only my phone or if its truly a hardware fault.

The second issue can be found this way:

Lower brightness below 50 %. Clear all browser cookies and private data. Go to your browser. Flip phone to land scape mode. Notice the white static flicker lines on the screen?

Don't know if I should just deal with these faults since they are minor and that the Nokia N9 is my dreamphone or if I should go request yet another replacement phone.

So anyone else got these troubles?

Oh also as a bonus question does anyone know how to turn off auto contrast/saturation/brightness? Its pissing me off :s

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

Hm, I wonder if these could be pentile matrix artifacts?

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

I don't know for sure :s

My replacement didn't have as many black spots (only 2, each one close to the upper corners) but some weird purple line/flicker appears when scrolling on a white website (like Engadget.com)

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

as far as i knew the screen in the N9 glued to the glass without leaving any gap! (and it has an curved glass) could this be the issue ? lot totally glued! not ready???

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

I have none of these issues.

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

Similar to weird0:

a) When scrolling (for example on a web page, but also on the events view), the letters seem to change color until it all comes to a halt again.

b) When I have black text on white background and the phone is in portrait mode, the white area to the left and right of the black text is slightly darker than the area above and below where there's no text at all throughout the screen.

I really don't know what to do. If it stays this way, I'd probably just keep it.... (Even if it's a bit odd for such an expensive device) It may even be difficult to explain to the people at the shop what exactly I find wrong with the display. My problem is that it may just be a first sign of worse things to come...

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

my screen seems fine, will do tests mentioned though. I hate the auto brightness function, it seems to work randomly.

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

i think what you're talking about is called dead pixels..
google it.. if thats the case, replace the phone..

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

did camera app test, my screens fine

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

I wonder if at least some of the issues described here and at
http://forum.meego.com/showthread.php?t=4730
are not hardware faults, but driver related? I may sound desperate (which I am...), but really: I don't want to bring back my shiny new device and wait for a repair/replacement. I want to keep it and play with it.

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

The browser itself seems to have some tiling issues in landscape. You can see lines and squares at some specific zoom levels, depending on the page of course. Together with amoled pentile matrix they seem to create effects that resemble moire in a straight line.

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

Finally I am not alone! I loved the N9 and as I said earlier it really is my dreamphone!

But I ended up going to the store and get a refund. Seriously the phone cost 5500 DKK in my country which translates into 1010.713 U.S. dollars. When I pay that much for a phone I at least expect it to have a proper screen :P

Also this is a very generic issue. I had the issue on all 3 phones the store gave me, I found in on 2 of the demo phones in the store (the store is called Three) and I even found the issue on 2 of the managers phones to prove my point to him.

This seems to a problem spread on all phones (at least all the one shipped to Denmark)

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

Don't know how to edit my post, but I found some of the pictures i snapped before I got a refund on the third model:

http://i.imgur.com/sB4YK.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/WejED.jpg

As you can see there is some purple vertical lines :(

The best way to see it is by going to Engadget.com and zoom on the first text as shown here:

http://i.imgur.com/WiHm3.png

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

Are these shots taken when the phone was in portrait mode or in landscape mode? I'm asking because this resembles the lines I'm seeing, only mine are horizontal - when the phone is in portrait mode, that is. Of course, turning it around to landscape makes it vertical lines just as in your image.

(It gets even worse when I open the keyboard. The high contrast between the dark keysboard and the bright background seems to create even more of these ghost lines.)

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

The second issue you mention is most likely not a screen issue. If I understand you correctly, there is flickering white lines at the window frame when you rotate the phone. This is especially apparent on black background, e.g. viewing photo in Facebook. If this is what you see, then it's a QML issue and I filed a bug report a while ago.

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

The effects you see may be due to the N9, unfortunately, using a PenTile matrix : http://blog.gsmarena.com/nokia-n9-fw...res-the-proof/

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

Precisely what I'd been thinking all along too...
I didn't want to obfuscate the debate with the dirty word 'pentile', as there's so may misconceptions around it.
I can't find the other good articles ATM, but as I recall this one wasn't too bad.
http://www.tested.com/news/pentile-v...ifferent/1868/
Should only be an issue when you look real closely, & particularly for small text up-close.

*edit*
Actually I re-read the original post, & your 1st issue sounds nothing like what one would get thanks to a Pentile AMOLED.
Those picture you posted more recently look kinda symptomatic of Pentile AMOLED, but you reckon you only get that as per outlined in your "2nd issue".

That second issue is just utterly weird...
So you can only reproduce it if you empty the browser's cache, delete it's cookies, & lower brightness to 50%?
Can you reproduce it by just flipping the ph to landscape, & not doing those 3x other things?

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

@benny1967

Yes the phone was in Landscape mode when these pic were taken

@sony123

The white flicker thing came out wrong. What I ment was those purple lines and you can see on the photos in post #13. They are not always purple (sometimes just dark/beige) and their size and placement differs when you scroll around

@jalyst

Actually it can be reproduced all the time (best by going to white website), but the reason I said empty the browser's cache, delete it's cookies, & lower brightness to 50% was that for the tests of N9 users to have the same Basis.

Also the reason i deleted cookies was that if you visit a site like Reddit.com enough times after a browser wipe, then "Reddit" will appear as a tag when you boot up the browser. Then its clear to see the purple "Aura" around the text.

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

yeh my phone is exact same..

i first noticed it when i was in my room at night, all lights were off.. and i was restarting the phone.. and noticed that the 'black' background had random black dots everywhere (so clearly the black background is slightly lighter)
and then even when turning the device back on and you have the nokia thing with ripples, you could clearly see that there were colour issues, heaps of random black dots everywhere...
and if you carefully look and take notice, even during the day you can see the not fully blended colours in this start up screen


ALSO! yes, i have those purple lines as well...

iv never thought about taking it in for a replacement though... maybe i should..
but iv done my music, contacts, calender and everything already.. i really cant be bothered doing it again on a new device (which might still have the same problem....)

but if this REALLY isnt meant to be like that.. then.. i guess its good to take in
i checked with my friend who works for a phone carrier... and she said wait a few months, its still under warranty and get replacement, that way there is most likely a slightly updated device that will have a few other bug fixes

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

It's not even the lines as such that are disturbing; it's that they become wider and narrower as text scrolls across the (landscape) display. It's a beautiful effect if you try to create it, but somewhat irritating when you just want to read a web page. (I refer to web pages as it needs a white background and black letters for this effect to become visible; the grey UI of the N9 does a good job in hiding it in most other applications.)

I will take the device to a Nokia care point next week and see what they have to say about it. I'd hate it if they'd come up with "this is normal on these displays". It's actually not acceptable on a €700-device.

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

I'm guessing all the owners not happy here...
Have never owned AMOLED/SAMOLED (not striped RBG) phones before?
This is what it's sounding most like.....

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

I'm not familiar with display technologies... but: Is AMOLED/SAMOLED known for not being able to display a white background evenly over the whole display? It's purple on the upper left and becomes greenish towards the lower right of the display.

Also, is it common with AMOLED/SAMOLED displays that black text on white background draws lines across the whole display? Lines that change width as you move the text along these lines?

I don't know. The only AMOLED I own is the Nokia C7, and it has no such problem. The issue with the lines reminds me of my Nokia 770 a few days before its display died.

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

The problem is, what you guys are describing keeps changing, it's not consistent at all.

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PenTile...ly#Controversy. Basically, if you assume you bought (854 × 480) 409920 each of red, green and blue pixels you are wrong.

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

It doesn't change much on my screen.

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

Each of RGB "sub-pixels" you mean.
Latest non-pentile (striped RGB) AMOLED sub-pixel config is:

RGB|RGB
RGB|RGB

Whereas the N9's is:

RG|BG
RG|BG

So 50% higher sub-pixel density, spread over a wider gamut of primary colours.
Having said that, at a pixel level the N9 still has 15% higher density than the SGSII for e.g.
And by all accounts it's brightness & contrast is better...
The way the panel's mounted so close to the glass, & the CBD tech also lend a hand.
Then again, marquee phones like the SGSII also implement similar things IIRC.

jakiman's comparo with the SGSII was pretty favorable overall
http://shootspeak.com/2011/10/08/scr...ung-galaxy-s2/
Seen several other anecdotal accounts which suggest it's better overall too.
Except for in some scenarios where pentile can be more noticeable.

I'm still not 100% sure that pentile alone, explains what's going on with your screens.
One of you has an E7, & it definitely shouldn't look better overall.

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

I tried to make a video of the display issues. My cam cannot really capture the fact that the display is more purple in the upper left and green in the lower right (when it should just be white), but it I could make a short clip that shows these "stripes" I'm talking about:

http://blip.tv/ossi1967/nokia-n9-display-issues-5657368

It's not as visible in the video as it is in reality, of course, but you may get the idea - better than from my words. :)

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

The N8s that Nokia kindly give out (with out asking) when one of our N900s die suffer from a purple screen issue at low brightness levels.
http://i038.radikal.ru/1103/f2/6f0bcc68f9cc.jpg
Try going here to test your N9s

With an N8:

• Gamma correction is all wrong, stripes blend at 1.2 not 2.2
• Gradient test shows the pruple screen issue then goes to dark maroon before black.
• Black level test the first square visible is #4, 4 - 14 are all amroon, 15 - 30 have a purple tinge, only squre 40 is grey.
• White saturation test seemed OK.
• Inversion (pixel walk) test compared to PC monitor the N8 looks rubbish.

Living in the UK means I don't have an N9 to do the tests with, but the N8 also has an amoled screen, I don't know if the screen is the same type as the N9.

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

Could you take high-res macro photos (at a level where individual subpixels are easily distinguishable)? From that it should be easy to determine whether what you see is due to the pentile matrix or not.

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

I'm also seeing the stripes. They show up in both portrait and landscape, but they are much easier to see in landscape. It looks like there is a "invisible line" that bleeds everything that's on the line through the screen (upwards when in landscape, in portrait it's to the right).
So there might be just white on the invisible line and there's no stripes on the screen. But when black text hits the line, the black bleeds through the whole screen.
Here's a oh, so wonderfull paint illustration... :D
http://bayimg.com/FaKLLaadj
It's really hard to get proper photos of it, because it's not that bad, and when trying to get photos you actually need to make them bit blurry or the lines disappear into the moire noise.
http://image.bayimg.com/fakllaadj.jpg

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

i'll try. don't think my cam will be able to do this.

otoh, what would such a high res image show? you might see that some areas are darker than others. we know that already. what we don't know is why the brightness (or even color) in this area are influenced by pixels that are somewhere else on the screen.

it's a bit like shadows and distortions you had with analog tv or vhs video tapes. :)

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

looks a lot like mine. did you see my video? does it look the same?

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

The purple line is more irritating than the black spots :/ The black spots are only visible on a gray background in dark surroundings.

The purple line can be seen in Benny1967's video and on these pics:

http://i.imgur.com/WejED.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/sB4YK.jpg

Someone need to contact Nokia and hear their stance on this issue (if its just how the product is/software bug?/an issue they will fix etc.).

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

From the images it's clear this problem is not related to pixel "density" on pentile matrix, because these purple lines are several hundredth pixels long, far away from the black characters. Don't know technical details of AMOLED displays, but it looks like black pixel quickly turned into white one doesn't get proper color.

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

Try to update software or flash basic empty firmware and do update after... I thinks gonna be software prob... have few bugs we testing it on n950 :)

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

I have seen the same purple stripes appearing on my SGS2 during scrolling except they are a lot thinner. (Refunded the phone due to serious side burn, yellow tinted and super low brightness issues).

Curious if these is a weakness of AMOLED screen or what...
I do notice on lowest brightness the screen looks yellowish?

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

My new N9 has these purple lines appearing on light backgrounds too. In this video I took, you can just barely see the lines, but they are much worse to the naked eye.

http://zerion7.pp.fi/n9/lines.mp4

I have a bad feeling this is a "feature" of the display technology used.

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

this is what I want to find out. I don't think so, though. A friend of mine got his n9 recently, and when I asked him he said he doesn't see any such lines. Also they're never mentioned in any reviews.

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

Well, I'm taking mine back to the store to ask about this tomorrow. They'll probably just want to send it somewhere and that'll take weeks before I'll hear anything...

Re: Nokia N9 Screen Troubles (someone help me out confirm this)
 

It's just pentile imo, dunno why people are so surprised, not owned ph's w/pentile screens before?
There's been no shortage of them on the market, past & present, many which are great ph's.
I'll see if I can get jakiman to confirm the same "issue" on his phone....