This is not a scientific research report and we don’t have any hard evidence so read this article with a pinch of salt. But if you spend some time on Internet discussion boards or user forums of different phone brands, you may notice, there is a flurry of user complaints related to phone display going bad (horizontal or vortical green or pink lines / full display green or washout) right after a major android update.
Phone Display
Issue seems to be effecting majority of BBK brands (Oppo, Vivo – RealMe/OnePlus/iQOO etc) with AMOLED screen, specifically devices made after 2020.
Right after update
If you may notice, this is happening to all these phones right after a major android update. Latest victim seems to be OnePlus 8 Series (OnePlus 8 / 8 Pro / 8T) device. They received their major android 12 update recently and their user forum (OnePlus community) is flooded with user complaints about display going bad.
Why is it happening?
Brands have kept a tight lip about this issue and Mainstream Media isn’t picking up the story either so we have no idea how widespread this issue actually is. So there are no official explanation about the reason of this issue. Since there are none, automatically we start to make our own observations and try to guess a logical answer.
Usually a display goes wrong like that when there is a hardware issue. Usually due to user fault, like drop, excessive pressure or water damage but here, so many users are blaming a software update since it happened to them right after an update.
If that is true, then the new & updated firmware is coming with some damaging code causing some serious overload in display related components to cause such hardware failure. This isn’t new, Android makers, specially the Chinese companies are notorious for issuing updates which intentionally slows down the phone or degrades the camera performance forcing users to look for newer models. Infact industry has a term for this malpractices, called “Planned Obsolesce”
As we wrote earlier, since mainstream media is refusing to cover this story and effected companies are not acknowledging the problem, we can’t confirm the cause, but intentional or not, every indication do point towards a faulty OTA firmware update.
What happens now?
Most of the effected devices are over 18 months old and usual warranty is for 12 months only so none of these devices are within warranty. If you are thinking about a software fix (like for ex. factory reset, ROM flashing etc), then no, devices are infact sustains hardware damage so the only way to fix it is to replace the display. But most are out of warranty and here is the surprise. Some users are getting lucky where service centers are accepting software fault for the issue and replacing the display Free of Charge but many users are left out where service centers are asking full charge for display replacement. There are no pattern or consistency in this display replacement process, it’s purely on user luck, mood of the service center and placement of the stars.
Further, after flurry of complaints, most of the effected phone models have received multiple incremental firmware patches. The problematic update is now berried deep under these lists of incremental updates and seems like the original problematic code is no longer there.
What can you do?
If you happen to own such a device, like from a BBK brand with Amoled display, post 2020 manufactured, avoid installing any new update immediately after it’s shown available in your device. Try to read about the update in your phone company’s specific user forums and wait a week or so before installing the update.
If your phone is not among the effected models, then don’t relax. Raise your awareness about this dangerous trend of companies intentionally pushing OTA updates to kill or degrade user devices and forcing users to buy new. If you don’t make noise, tomorrow it will be your phone.
