Google explains display issues on Pixel 2 XL, Promises a software fix & Assure users with Extended Warranty

Google Pixel 2 XL which was launched earlier this month is topic of high interest today. Not only because its pre-orders started in India this week but that screen ‘burn-in’ issue is actually real. Reviewers across the domain have started noticing the screen burn-in issue which raises questions about Google’s QA process. Google earlier had issued a statement accepting the problems and asking for some time to get back on this with its thorough investigation.

Today, Google released a series of forum posts with answers to all the criticism involved. According to them they haven’t found any malfunctions with the display or any hardware issues on Pixel 2 XL. This is not exactly the screen-burn which we all expected it to be. It is a characteristic property of the pOLED arrangement which is comparable to other OLED panels used on premium smartphones.

We’ve received some feedback about the Pixel 2 XL displays not appearing as saturated as other phones. We attribute this perception to our choice to calibrate the Pixel 2 XL for delivering natural, accurate colors, taking advantage of the new color management support in Android 8.0 Oreo. Based on the feedback we’ve received since announcing Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, we learned that some users do want even more vibrant colors. So, through a software update to Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, we will soon be adding a new “saturated” color mode.

Explaining more in detail, the VP of Engineering, Seang Chau writes that Android Oreo 8.0 has been designed to make use of the wider color gamut offered by this OLED panel. This wasn’t present there until now on any Android handset since Android OS never made use of it. So basically we were used to sRGB color space and getting a blue tint when viewed from a sharp angle seemed like an improper calibration to us.

We’ve received reports of Pixel 2 XL devices exhibiting image retention on the screen and have been actively investigating them. Extensive testing of the Pixel 2 XL display shows that its decay characteristics are comparable to OLED panels used in other premium smartphones.

As a result of this finding after the concerns raised by reviewers and early bird buyers in the United States, there is a software update rolling out soon. The software update will introduce a new ‘saturated’ color calibration mode which shall make the adjustments to fix the issue. The greying of screen seems to be something related to image retention and will be addressed in the upcoming update as well. To assure its users that there’s nothing faulty here, Google is extending the warranty for Pixel 2 devices from the one year to two years internationally.

As far as the clicking sound issue is concerned, it has been tracked because of an NFC software bug. This too will be fixed in the upcoming update but in the meantime users can simply disable the NFC if its not in use.