Samsung phones usually have excellent displays, but that doesn’t mean they’re perfect. Last year we learned about a spate of dying Galaxy S20 screens, where the phone would show a green tint and have visible lines running across it. We hoped that would have been the end of things, but now, less than a year later, another display problem seems to be affecting some unlucky Galaxy S20 phones.
Several users across Twitter (shrinu16, Thesourya2000, amla_sharouk), Reddit (u/bananabanana9876), and Samsung’s customer forums report pink or green lines streaking down the displays of their Galaxy S20 phones. Many of those running into the problem note that it happened within a few days of updating the phone’s software, but given that some of these cases date back to August 2021 and some are as recent as this week, it’s unclear if the defect is specifically being triggered by software updates or if something else entirely is behind it.
Seeing streaks of stuck pixels like this on an OLED display isn’t unheard of. Maybe when a new phone is first released, some defective units slip through quality control — or perhaps physical damage from a knock or drop is to blame. But neither of these seem that likely here, since we’re both so far into the phone’s life cycle and seeing such similar reports from multiple users.
One lucky S20 owner was able to get a free screen repair from Samsung last year, but most of the others are being left out in the cold now that their warranty has expired, facing an expensive bill for having the screen replaced.
While this feels like a distinct problem from the green screen of death we reported last year, it raises its own questions about the longevity of Samsung’s displays. It’s certainly worrying to see such reports, especially when you factor in all the phones from other OEMs that use Samsung screens. Hopefully, this won’t be something we hear about more often.
We have reached out to Samsung for a comment but haven’t heard back yet. We’ll update the story if there’s further development.
