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Kellen

It’s not often that you get to merge personal passions into a professional life, but that’s what Kellen did when he launched Droid Life in 2009. After working years of unsatisfying jobs in the medical and property management fields, he took a risk to try and create an online community while playing with the coolest gadgets on the planet each day, a risk that has turned out to be incredibly rewarding. Outside of Droid Life, Kellen is your typical Portlander who drinks way too much good beer, complains often about the Trail Blazers, and can be found out on the streets for a run, rain or shine.

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  • I just received my Pixel 2 XL yesterday… I do see a slight blueish tint when looking at an angle, I wouldn’t have even noticed if not for the complaints. As for the other issues, I have none. Smooth icons and colors, no burning in or image retention. I think the screen looks absolutely beautiful!

    • The longer you see the blue tint, the worse it’ll get. At first I thought I could live with it, but after 6 days I already see some burn-in and the blue tint is annoying me. I’m getting the Note 8 at Best Buy and returning XL2. Sad cause I love the camera and software, but not worth the price.

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  • I have WEEKS before mine even ships, so I’ll be watching this story and Google’s response closely. I’ve played with the phone twice already in stores, and both times I was satisfied with the screen. Now I plan to go back and check for this issue specifically. I’m hoping things somehow get better. Interestingly, Tnkgrl posted a very good review of the 2 devices on YouTube, and the blue tint is not even visible on hers in the video review.

  • The Verge just pulled it’s review score and recommendation of buy for the 2 XL. I know, I know. iVerge, blah blah blah but for a big online tech publication like that to pull their score and flat out not recommend one of Google’s flagship devices is pretty brutal.

  • This is unacceptable! Outrageous! Droid-Life should keep posting things like this so everyone can cancel their pixel 2 xl orders….specifically the panda 64gb!

    My ship date is November 20th and maybe that will make mine arrive sooner :3

  • Mine shipped this morning. Now I’m concerned with the temp/perm screen burn-in issue. Now, what do I do? Return it and stick with my aging ’15 Moto XPE? That means I’ll have to get it serviced. The screen is failing and the battery capacity is diminishing very noticeably. Already had to replace the charging port. I don’t know…

    • I’m considering returning my XL2 and getting Essential….. that camera tho…. ugh

      • The Essential gets a lot of crap, and deservedly so for the launch and the camera. However, after the updates, it appears to be close to the device that everyone hoped it would be. I’ve messed around with it a few times, and it is really a nice device. The camera app was a dumpster fire, for sure, but it’s improved a lot. Besides, I always use the Google camera anyway, so Essential’s camera app isn’t a big deal to me. The sluggish performance was a big concern, but the updates appear to have gone a long way to ameliorate those. The build materials are top notch. The biggest knock for me, strangely enough, was the size – even though it’s cutting edge with almost no bezel, this makes it feel almost too small in my hand… Now that the price has dropped to under 500, I would give it serious consideration as an alternate if I end up returning the 2XL.

        • I’m going to return my 2XL, but I think I’ll get the Note8. It’s $250 off at Best Buy which makes it ~650.

    • Take a deep breath. Get it, use it, and see what happens. No one is talking about permanent burn in (or at least they shouldn’t be after only a couple days). It appears to me, from reading about this all day, is that the general consensus is that what we’re seeing, after only a couple days off use, is image retention, not burn in. Image retention is extremely common for OLED screens. If you read through all the comments, you will see that almost every OLED device, from any OEM, has image retention – and most people have never noticed it. I’ve had my 6P for 2 years and I never noticed any – but sure enough, once I read about this issue I started looking and found it on my 6P.

      Ideally, and particularly at this price point, it shouldn’t be an issue. But, if all this attention hadn’t been given, would people really have noticed?! The unknown here, and which no one (including the people who have had the device for a few days) can say is whether this image retention will become permanent burn in. This happens with every flagship device at launch, especially the ones preceded by a lot of hype – an issue arises, the internet loses its mind, people start screaming for product recalls and condemning an entire corporation, etc, etc. And then when people get it in their hands, it turns out that it was all just a tempest in a teapot.

      I’m not saying that’s the case here – it may turn out that this device has problems that people can’t overlook….but then again, it all may be just fine. Personally, I’m going to take a deep breath, wait for my device, use it for a while and see what’s what. I know the issues to look for, and I’ll judge for myself how significant they are and not rely on the opinions of people who have cancelled their pre-orders without ever using the device.

    • Check out MKBHD’s review (https://youtu.be/KvNis_A6UaI) and then watch the latest DL Show and read the DL review. The upshot is that the screen color and image retention issues are largely non-issues. Again, I’m going to see for myself – but those guys are all pretty objective and savvy, imo, and their message seemingly counsels against doing something rash like cancelling a pre-order for what they describe as, overall, an amazing device.

  • I was honestly really wanting a Pixel 2 xl, but i’m glad i went with my Korean Note 8 exynos for 725$

  • LG should’ve kept the g flex series as a experimental device for their OLED and perfect it from there, so it can then be used for the V and maybe the G series.

  • Seriously, what a letdown of a flagship phone straight from Google. Aside from the fact they can’t maintain software support and security patches after 3 years, to think they’re charging a premium for something like this is a joke. If I was going to spend about $700-$800 for a premium flagship device, I’d expect it to last much longer than 4-5 years. This display problem just adds insult to injury.

    • Basically any time there’s a gray to white image as well as blue. Not sure if the dialer is the same on the Pixel as my 6P but call someone and look at the bottom of the screen. The blue will be slightly different in the navigation bar and you can see the buttons.

    • Very good question. Only when viewing 18:9 content. On my pixel 2 xl when u go full screen it drops the nav keys and hides them but there isn’t any content playing there unless I watch an 18:9 video on YouTube or do something in virtual reality that is 18:9. Maybe someone else knows some more sources.

    • When it gets really bad it’s very noticeable, the screen on my Moto is so bad it’s very clear watching videos even.

    • When you download an all grey screen image from The Verge sight and stare at it, fullscreen all day….duh.

  • Anyone surprised by this?

    Also, I went to a couple of verizon stores on saturday and both had the pixel xl 2 powered off.
    Also the excuse was coincidentally similar too- Oh the charger for them is not working.

    I think its a bigger issue with the displays than they are letting on.

    • I think you’re reading a little into it. When I went to Verizon (before the actual release) they only had a Just Black XL and the squeeze function didn’t work and they “did not know why.”

  • My gen1 Pixel XL has always had this, from day one. I always just assumed it was part of the design to have a ghosted image of the menu bar so it could be called back more quickly.

  • I just played a YouTube video of just a gray screen and instantly noticed the screen burn in. It’s not really bad but it’s still there. I’ve only had my XL2 since last Thursday. All this negative press about the screen is very discouraging.

      • Yeah, I’m starting to feel a little uneasy after all this negative press. It’s a damn shame because this phone is otherwise amazing.

    • Damn! And I spend HOURS each day watching videos of just a gray screen on YouTube! What am I gonna’ do?

      Clearly, I’m poking fun, but seriously, I’d love to hear your continued feedback. And I’m more concerned with your actual experiences with it, in real situations, just doing what you do on your phone. All these staring at grey screens, and tilting to a 45 degree angle, and looking at white backgrounds at 2% brightness nonsense I could care less about. What interests me is how does it hold up in real every day usage.

      • Obviously, I only did the gray video thing to see if my phone was being affected by the burn in. I can’t see it at any other time while using the phone. I’m just concerned about it getting worse.

  • My take on this (because I’m totally someone important and knowledgeable lol). OLED displays degrade faster than LCDs. Burn in WILL happen on an OLED no matter what based on Android’s setup (black navigation bar). My Nexus 6P took about 4-5 months to develop it. It’s not burn in as much as the ghosting is “fresher” for lack of better term. When viewing a pure white, it will display brighter because it’s simply less used due to the black navigation. The status bar would do the same back in the 4x days because that was always black. Once burn in is there, it’s there, there’s no fixing it. Period.

    Another issue is the aspect ratio. Using the 6P as an example, it’s 16×9. When watching any media, the entire screen will be used. The 2XL is 18×9, thus you have black bars at either side. This doesn’t give the bottom any time to be used, this it will speed up what we call ghosting.

    Is there a software fix? Possibly, but not all of us would like it. Google can probably change the black to another color other than black. This way the entire screen degrades at close to the same level. Until that happens, we need safe apps that allow us to change the navigation background to another color. Also, simply making the black bar white and the buttons black won’t fix anything. The problem is black.

    Again, just my take on this, I could very well be wrong. My 2XL is supposed to ship today and I’m already concerned. Once you see burn in, you don’t un-see it, and it’s not even too bad on my 6P… yet. Now my MotoX 2014, whole different story!

    • You make a point. With 18:9 it will burn in as mine already has but unless you are watching 18:9 content like say a 1080p video that isn’t….it simply keeps the navbar black the 16:9 video doesn’t stretch that far. I had to find a 2880×1080 video in 18×9 to even fill the space in that everyone is so worried about. And that’s just me owning one saying I’m keeping it because under few instances will I ever see it if ever but it is visible if you have 18:9 content.

  • just checked my pixel xl and it has screen burn in. I’m actually not worried now because the only way i could even get it to show up was with an app for screen burn in with my buttons disappeared. I’ve had my pixel for a year and never knew it or noticed it before. I will also not notice it because i don’t use that app. I’m trading in for a new 2XL this week, but honestly wouldn’t even bother with replacing it if i was keeping it

  • If the image fades or goes away after leaving the solid color slide up for an extended period, then it’s not “burn-in”, it’s image retention. Same “issue” with plasma TV’s – the content needs to be varied to minimize image retention. There’s no way this is actual “burn-in” after on a week or so. But image retention isn’t as alarmist as “burn-in” and doesn’t increase page views as much.

    OLED is subject to image retention. I see it faintly on my OG Pixel XL when putting solid color slides on the screen. If you really had a screen with burn-in, then Google would replace it under warranty.

  • I’m almost to the point of returning my XL once I get it in a week. I didn’t mind the color distortion issue but screen burn-in after a couple of weeks is unacceptable.

    • They need an alternative to Samsung in the market and so went with LG. The problem is that they obviously didn’t do enough quality control or testing here.

  • I’ve only had my 2 XL since Thursday. Just checked for burn in using a grey image and it’s there. It probably has less than 6 hours of actual screen on time. Not sure if this is burn in or retention, but it is worrisome. Luckily I still have my Galaxy S8 to go back to if things keep going downhill.

    • Dang. That’s horrible. You gonna keep it or return it? Canceled my order yesterday that was suppose to ship today. Couldn’t do it anymore.

      • Not 100% yet. The removal of the headphone jack annoyed me and now this screen issue. I may wait to see what Google finds in their investigation. Or I may return it and get a Note 8. You probably made the right decision in cancelling. I probably would have done the same if I hadn’t already received it.

  • Not Pixel 2 related other than similar screen. But after having my LG V30 for about 3 days I returned it and picked up a Note 8.

    I liked the V30 however after getting the Note 8 I quickly realized it was the superior phone.

    I was having a few glitches with the V30. Seeing burn in reports so early on the Pixel 2 xl I’m even more glad I returned it.

    • Again, site specific glitches….. also please post a pic of said burn-in/image retention on V30. After all this crazy talk on here, I think I am just going to leave a pure gray screen with soft keys up and leave it like that for 8 hours straight! I suspect all will be just fine!

  • I just did a quick grey photo test on my Pixel XL (OG) and holy crap, it clearly has the same issue. I’ve had it for an entire year and haven’t noticed! With an XL 2 on the way, I’m not sure this will be an issue for me, considering I’ve never noticed before. Weird.

    • So this is actually something. Now that it has been pointed out, we’re all seeing it. But you and others in this thread have suggested similar on your older phones and never noticed. Probably because, like sideways blue panels, who goes looking for nav button burn-in on a grey screen? You didn’t notice it in an entire year. Maybe some will never notice this either?

      • @kellex:disqus That is exactly what is happening imo. My Pixel 2 XL arrives tomorrow so I ran to a VZW store to play with one as I heard of all the issues. I thought it was awesome until I loaded an all white screen, full screened it and saw the “burn in”/retention issues. I was almost ready to cancel my order and keep my pixel XL 1st gen until i loaded up an all white screen and noticed it has the exact same thing. I am also reading samsung phones have the same issue. Is the android community so paranoid they are hunting for issues on an otherwise awesome phone? I can safely say I would not have noticed this retention issue if I hadn’t read an article on it as my current phone does the same thing. The blue tint maybe I would have noticed but i don’t look at my phone from acute angles so its pretty non issue. I think this pixel 2 hysteria will blow over soon.

    • I’ve had the original non-XL Pixel for almost a year and I just pulled up a grey screen video full screen and I can see the launcher button burn-in. I have never noticed it before and probably never would, I do not see it as an issue at all. My Pixel 2 XL shipped today and this is as a non-issue for me. I have no plans to cancel or return.

  • Why would anyone buy this? The Pixel 2 seems so much better, but unfortunately, it’s pretty ugly.

  • Concerned? Yes. Garbage Phone? Absolutely not. Deal breaker? No. Because Google will either fix it through software, or if a physical problem, they might change QC standards. Or you can return it and get a different phone.

  • No issue with my Pixel 2 Mini. Everyone should just go for the mini. I’m in love again.

      • Lol it’s crazy how people all of a sudden people are terrified of bezels. It doesn’t bother me at all. The phone feels so well built, and it’s a great one handed device.

        I’ll always say, buy it and try it, if you hate it, send it back. I love having all the same power and camera as the bigger device. And with great battery life despite the smaller battery.

  • I’ve had my original Pixel XL since May and i have the same burn in. I chalked it up to them choosing bright white as the buttons.

  • I don’t know enough about screen tech to know the answer to this, but since the issue is appearing after only a few days instead of months, does this make it more likely that it’s image retention and not true “burn in”??

    • Yes. Also considering it goes away if you leave a fullscreen app on for a minute. Samsung displays also do this.

      • Thanks, that was kinda my thinking. I’m going to take a deep breath and not do anything knee-jerky. My preorder ships in 2 days. I’m not going to cancel it and see how the phone looks. It could end up being an issue for me, but it’s sounding more and more like this image retention issue isn’t overly noticeable except in conditions that I never have my phone in. It seems like this always happens with flagship releases, especially for devices with a ton of hype – an issue pops up, the internet goes crazy, and then it turns out to not be a big deal. We’ll see, but I’m going to proceed ahead with the device and test it out. It’s not like I’m “missing out” on something else – if I end up returning it, there are still other flagship devices that aren’t sold out or unavailable….

        • My thinking too. Burn in is considered a defect and it is confirmed that we can return under warranty for up to 1 year. I’ll wait, consider the 2 “mini”, and hope they change something about the manufacturing process. Even if they don’t, you’ll notice a ton of replies here of OG Pixel owners noticing their burn in for the first time, so take that into consideration too.

          On one hand “this shouldn’t happen”, but on the other “would you have noticed if we didn’t tell you”? Eh.

          • “On one hand ‘this shouldn’t happen’, but on the other ‘would you have noticed if we didn’t tell you’? Eh.”

            Exactly.

  • I wish these sites would stop using the term burn in. It’s image retention and there are ways to get rid of it through refreshing of colors. I’ve only had mine since Thursday so nothing yet. I feel like reviewers are using it so often during their testing/reviewing (as they should) that it’s causing the IR issue.

  • This is definitely not good but as long as they make it right, I’ll be happy with my purchase

  • Since Google doesn’t seem to get the top choice of LED screens would it be better to use high-end LCD display from HTC? It won’t be VR compatible but the Pixel XL 2 wouldn’t be having these issues. Another down side would be the notification system wouldn’t be as good.

  • I don’t think I would have ever noticed the way I use my phone. Unless you use a video that is 18:9 a regular 16:9 doesn’t fill out the navigation area. I had to find an 18:9 video to see it but both status bar up top and bottom nav keys are doing it on mine.

  • I was only able to see the “burn in” when using a specific gray background image (from 9 to 5 google). Any other color and I see nothing. It’s really odd, so I’m thinking it’s retention vs burn in.

  • Pixel 2 XL owner since Friday here. Being an obsessive sort, I immediately downloaded a variety of grey screens to test out as soon as I saw these reports. I don’t see any signs of burn in or retention around the navigation bar. However, I do see signs of another issue. If I have an all grey screen, and if the screen brightness is all the way turned down, and if the screen is on night light mode, and if I’m in a totally dark room, *then* I can see a very faint hazy glowy smear across a segment in the upper section of the screen where the always on display hovers. Now, that’s a lot of “ifs” which need to all be true at the same time. If all that is true except I’m not on night light mode, for example, then I can’t see it at all. I have to really go out of my way to see it, and only by setting up a series of circumstances which will never occur when I actually use the phone. Still, the nature of burn-in is for the problem to get cumulatively worse over time. So, I’m taking this phone back to the Verizon store to exchange for the smaller Pixel 2.

    • Google actually implemented a design to avoid burn in for the always on display – the image shifts down one pixel every minute (when the time changes), so every minute one pixel is turned off and another pixel is turned on. Since it’s only one pixel, it’s hardly noticeable to the naked eye, but it should prevent burn in. If you’re still noticing it, then that’s worrisome and encouraging at the same time. Encouraging in the sense that this may indicate that there may just be a bad batch of screens and the problems won’t show up on others. Worrisome in the sense that if it still happens on other batches, then it’s indicative of problems with the LG screens as a whole.

      Hopefully Google will implement similar pixel shifting with the nav bar to further prevent this. If Google had the foresight to implement this pixel shifting for the display, it’s curious why it didn’t go the same thing for the nav buttons….

      • That actually matches what I see in a way. I’m not seeing the retention of a specific time on the display. It’s more of a very vaguely glowing smear, but it’s even fainter towards the edges of the screen and slightly more pronounced in the middle. Even with the AOD shifting pixel by pixel, it still hovers back and forth over a relatively fixed area, so the pixels in the middle will still be lit up more often than the pixels on the edges.

    • This is why the screen burn in issue isn’t a big concern for me. If it gets agressively worse over the course of a few months, it will be replaced. That would be inconvenient.

      • Yep, I understand what you’re saying. I mean, the issue I described is incredibly minor. If I asked someone else to check my phone for any kind of screen retention or burn in, they wouldn’t see anything at all unless they also decided to test night light mode with a particular grey screen on minimum brightness and in total darkness. And it’s entirely possible that it’s simply temporary retention that will disappear on its own. I’m just a nitpicker at heart – a normal person would never have noticed this issue in the first place and wouldn’t care anyway because outside that specific set of circumstances it’s totally invisible. But well…I’m not always normal 🙂

  • Anyone with a VZW Pixel 2 XL… how’s VZW support handling this for warranty replacements?

    • That’s funny, because I saw another Android site saying NOT to get any “burn in tools/apps”. Go figure.

  • I guess the people that have their ship dates in mid to late Nov are probably the happiest right now. For me that just notice it shipped today.. guess I have to go though the return process. Wonder if there is someway to keep the free google home mini as compensation for this mess

  • Anyone really OCD about this can try the AMOLED Burn-in Fixer app on the Play Store. It’s really simple and straightforward as it uses the accessibility option of inverting colors to help reduce burn-in. It then just gives you a blank screen to leave on to help wear in the unused pixels. If the XL 2 display is especially susceptible to this problem, you might want to run it over night while charging.

  • Man, Google really screwed the pooch with this phone.

    Kellen/Tim, are you finally ready to admit that this is an enormous disappointment and definitely not worth $1000+?

  • Garbage phone.

    No one should be going through this with only a week after moderate use. What an embarrassment for Google. LG is garbage.

  • I have NEVER noticed burn-in my on OG Pixel XL until I just tested the screen with a gray background. The buttons were pretty noticeable. Yet, I have never noticed this in day to day usage across a variety of apps.

    So, like the bezels and like the blue tint at less than optimal angles…this seems to be just another thing people are freaking out about/nit picking to the max about.

    Will wait another week or two before I choose whether to cancel my pre-order and what Google says.

    • Same here but OG Pixel Mini. Never noticed it for a year but was definitely there when I went to look for it.

      I haven’t bothered to see if it’s temporary image retention or if it’s permanent burn-in. I really wish we could get more educated information on the temp image retention (ghosting) versus actual permanent burn-in. WAY too many people ignorantly call both things “burn-in” but that’s really confusing the actual state of things. I’ll have a Pixel 2 XL tomorrow so hopefully I can see for myself soon enough.

    • Never noticing is not the point. It shouldn’t happen. Google needs to get their acts together. People don’t want to spend almost $1000 on a phone with glaring issues. Guarantee the iPhone X will be flawless in similar regards.

  • Do people realize there is a warranty on this phone. Just utilize warranty. Not hard. The good thing about Google is protection.

  • So over the weekend I decided to have my Pixel 2 replaced because I perceived the audio to be uneven as far as output goes (top sounded louder). The replacement performed the same way (a slight disappointment since the iPhone 8 sounded even despite the bottom-firing setup), but then I noticed that the bottom portion of the screen didn’t seem to look the same as the top. There was a blue-ish-green tint even though I was holding normally.

    I honestly stared at that screen so long I felt like I was going crazy. It wasn’t until I compared it to the floor model on display and the old one I had returned that the difference was pretty evident. There was an obvious blue-green shift towards the bottom. The display simply didn’t have the same even tone across the screen, and it shifted into blue almost immediately whereas my old one (and the floor model) did not.

    After all that, I decided to put the Pixel 2 out to pasture until its issues get dealt with. I mean, I really don’t mind a shift in color at angles, but when viewing it head-on there should not be any obvious tinge to any part of the display. Part of me wishes I wasn’t so eagle-eyed when it comes to stuff like the display, but part of me also really wished Google would have given LG time to perfect their display technology because as it stands it’s clear LG was just not ready.

    In the end, I went back to the iPhone 8, and now with this latest report I am not second-guessing that decision at all. The Pixel 2 just feels compromised in a way that the original didn’t. Yeah, its design was a little boring, but it still felt sturdy, premium, and complete. I won’t fault anyone if they decide to stay with theirs because the battery life, camera, and performance are NUTS, but for someone like me who’s platform-agnostic, it’s hard to justify staying when others are bringing their A-game across the board, not just in pieces.

    • If you had a pixel 2 and not pixel 2 xl… The panel in the phone was a amoled screen I am sure is produced by samsung.

  • So a week from my delivery date…..should I cancel it and see what happens?

    The other issues (the tint and unsaturated colors) weren’t really issues to me, but this, if it is burn-in, doesn’t seem like an issue they can fix. You can’t hide the Notification Panel and the Nav Bar the entire time.

    • I’d say you already ordered it, get it in. Play with it and enjoy it, if there’s a problem warranty it out or get a refund and go for the baby Pixel. I’m praying it’s just a bad batch but time will tell.

  • Ok Google. Refund my money and I’ll keep the phone and no one gets hurt. Or give me a warranty replacement every month. Choice is yours.

      • Yeah. Just silly all this money for a less then perfect phone. If Google wants to charge a premium price the phone better be damn perfect.

        • I’m not judging your decision to return – that’s just fine. But no phone is perfect. That thing does not exist. If you expected the Pixel 2 XL to be perfect, then you were setting yourself up for disappointment.

          Every phone is still a box of compromises, this one included.

          • Screens are expected to be perfect on a $950 device. Quit making stupid excuses for Google. ????

          • Please point out a $950 phone that has a screen that has a perfect screen. Or any phone that has a perfect screen.

            Secondly, what excuse did I make for Google? I made absolutely no excuse for Google. I also made absolutely no incorrect statements in my post – it was absolutely correct.

          • While I agree no phone is perfect (that just doesn’t exist), the problem here is that 9 out of 10 phones in this price DO have exceptional displays that are as close to perfect as you can get, especially because of the new bezel-less trend. So if you’re on that bandwagon, you better make sure your display about as on par with the rest as possible as far as color accuracy, viewing angles, quality, etc. goes.

            S8, G6, Note 8, heck even the Essential Phone, by and large every one of those has had fantastic screens *en masse*. I’m not saying those devices have been impervious to screen issues because, come on, every mass-produced product is bound to have some clunkers here and there, but to have so many devices from not only your regular Joe Schmo’s on Twitter, but also from the people who actually review these things for a living and that people go to for advice and research with these problems? So soon after launch? It’s just not a good look. At all.

          • I addressed all of this in my comment here (if you’re not sure which post it is b’c of LD’s weird comment hiding feature, it’s the one that’s way too long!):
            https://www.dev.droid-life.com/2017/10/23/pixel-2-xl-screen-burn-in-retention/#comment-3580902718

            And yeah, agreed, all mass market phones have clunkers. The bands of dead pixels that a couple have reported obviously fall into this category. I’m pretty much ignoring that – those phones just need to be replaced under warranty.

          • My $550 phone doesnt have banding, light “bleed” on a freaking OLED (how does that happen) color distortion and blueing. Its a DEFECT, not a compromise.

          • Pixel 2 XL Phones with banding and “light bleed” are defective – you’re right. They should be replaced by Google. I assure you that some devices of whatever $550 phone you have were also defective even if you didn’t have one.

            I also assure you that your $550 phone *does* have color and brightness distortion at angles if it has an OLED. Even the Galaxy Note 8, which has about the best screen on the planet, has this. For the Note 8, I believe it’s a greenish hue instead of blue. It also has its brightness drop by ~30% at a 30 degree angle.

          • Yeah, my OG Pixel (got it at $550 during a back to school sale) does have a color shift at really steep angles ( gotta go way past 45 for it to be noticable, not a realistic use case). But certainly doesnt have whatever is causing the “light bleed.” Not even sure what to call it since its OLED. Its not light bleed but it seems that LG cant figure out how to consistently turn off pixels to make a true black screen. But on my OG Pixel black means black.

            And it must not have been as bad since there wasnt a screengate when the first pixels game out, just bluetooth issues IIRC.

          • Color Shift: My OG Pixel (mini) definitely has very minor color shift at about 15 degrees and more substantial color shift and brightness drop at about 30 degrees. It goes extreme after 45 degrees. Looking at it right now. I’m not really sure what color the color shift is (as I have Deuteranopia, such subtle color shifts are hard to identify the color of correctly for me). Not complaining – I’ve been very happy with the screen for the year I’ve had the phone – probably the best I’ve ever had on a phone (previously N6P, Moto X 2, 1, and Nexus 5). If the Pixel 2XL screen is comparable to that, I’m good with the color shift for myself. And given that I have Deuteranopia, color shifts are especially annoying for me. But any time my phone is at an angle to my face, I don’t care about colors. A slightly blue clock still tells me the time.

            Light Bleed: As I said before, this sounds like a defective panel. OLED shouldn’t do this. However, I need to see this more to really judge what is going on. As you said, this shouldn’t be possible for an OLED. I don’t think this is a widespread issue though – just some isolated issues with phones that need to be RMA’d. That’s pretty normal for the first batch of phones. Sadly, QA these days is nothing like what it used to be for any company. 🙁

            Bluetooth: Oh yeah, I definitely felt these. I actually worked with some betas for a few different (non-phone) device manufacturers who had to deal with custom firmware tweaks specifically for BLE communication with Pixel devices. That’s an area that Google has struggled with for years, and last year was especially bad! Glad to hear these new Pixels are FINALLY fairly “normal” (you’ll always have people with wonky car bluetooth systems that they blame on the phone instead, no matter the phone).

          • Easy: Galaxy Note 8. Check out Display Mate’s review. It gets darker than any other screen. Brighter than any other screen. Perfect Blacks. Perfect off axis viewing. etc etc etc. And it was “only” $930 so I saved you $20 lol (j/k it was only $505 for us Note 7 owners 🙂

          • I’m not so sure of this logic. Maybe it’s what we have been conditioned to believe, but it’s not right. It would be different if the problem was only on some devices -that’s why warranties exist. However this a fundamental problem with every single device. I truly believe the one thing that should be perfect on smartphone is the screen – since you know, that’s how you interact with the device. I think there will be personal preferences with saturation and the like, but those are not real problems. Many phones have perfect screens for most people, but the Pixel screen is wrong for every person as it is fundamentally broken.

          • I’m an engineer who builds things and am speaking from experience. However, let’s forget that and play out your argument that the screen should be perfect.

            Let’s start out with this question: What does perfect mean? Be clear to define these things:
            1. Color accuracy (Should colors be perfectly accurate or not?)
            1.a. What objective mechanism are you using to define “accurate” here? sRGB? Adobe RGB? DCI-P3? Something else?
            2. Contrast ratios
            2.a. Be sure to include Pixel-to-pixel contrast ratios (What happens if you have a black pixel next to a white pixel? Should they be perfectly black/white or is it okay if one or both are kinda gray?)
            3. Brightness Levels (How bright should the screen be able to get?)
            3.a. Be sure to also combine this with preferences for power consumption as well as risk levels for image retention since pretty much all screens on phones that “don’t get bright enough” could go brighter but those are the two things they’re up against.
            3.b. Be sure to also provide a color accuracy spec per brightness level since when calibrating the screen/settings, one goes hand-in-hand with the other at the extremes (not so much in the middles).
            4. Screen Latency
            5. Screen Technology (OLED? LCD? Other?)

            I can go on and on but I’d like to see a definition of what a “perfect screen” even is just based on these criteria. I suspect two things will happen with your definition:
            1. You and I will disagree with what “perfect” is.
            2. There is no screen technology that can accomplish what you request.

            —

            As for “Pixel screen is wrong for every person” – I get where you’re going here and appreciate it. You’re trying to be real, take out the crazy over-hyped stuff (because we both seem to agree that’s what much of it is). So separate of my question above, I want to respond to this line of thinking.

            So let’s tackle the issues that have been reported with the screen one-by-one:
            1. “Dull Colors” – I think you and I both agree that this is a preference thing and not a real problem. If anything, the problem is poor communication by Google as well as the absence of some settings that will probably be there soon. And this problem may simply go away soon as more software supports Oreo’s color APIs. Some, arguably, prefer the “dull colors” since they’re more accurate based on an sRGB scale. But this isn’t a bad/defective panel for this reason and I think we agree here – but preferences can come into play for some (at least until Google gives us a couple dropdowns to control this – I’m still amazed they have not done this).
            2. “Blue Tint” – This is something phone displays have had for ages in some form or another. Some are far worse than others. However, I’m not sure any screen is 100% immune from this. At least I’ve not seen one. From what I’ve seen, the Pixel 2 XL is not the best of the best in this category but frankly, for me and my preferences, I’m absolutely perfectly fine living with what I’ve seen so far without it ever being a problem. If I’m using my phone, it’s straight-on 95% of the time. If it’s at an angle, it’s usually just to check something real quick and I don’t really care if the numbers on the clock are white or ever-so-slightly blue. It’s just not a problem for me, and I suspect many many other people. Is it a problem for you? I don’t know. And I wouldn’t judge you for saying yes. That’s fine. However, one more thing to point out is that this screen has circular polarizers. This means I can see the screen at any orientation with polarized sun glasses. I suspect this is a major contributing factor to this blue tint. And personally, if I had to choose between the two, I would opt to have the blue tint every single day given those compromising options. And by the way, my OG Pixel (mini) does this as well although it might be more of a greenish gray tint than a blue tint.
            3. “Grainy at low brightness” – I’ve seen photos of this but it seems to always be at very low brightness levels (~20% or so). If this is a primary use case for you, then I can understand how this is a problem. However, my phone lives between 40-60% brightness every day (I manually adjust it daily – dimmer at night and in dark rooms, brighter when I wake up and become acclimated to lights). The 2 hours my phone has been at ~20% or lower brightness in the past year isn’t something that will make me care about this. Low brightness screen quality has always suffered and I’ve lived with it for my whole life. Nothing changed this year. But this could be a problem for astronomers who work in a near-perfect dark environment, and some others. Just not me.
            4. “Burn-in” – This is the first issue that is potentially a real problem. However, the key issue is whether this is permanent burn-in or if it’s just temporary image retention. Although this article on DL points out this question, they didn’t take it far enough to answer the question. They hinted that it might just be temporary image retention (also called “Ghosting”) but they didn’t provide a concrete answer. If it’s just image retention, pretty much every other phone in existence has this issue. LCDs image retention tends to be much more severe but only last a very brief period of time whereas OLEDs tend to be much less obvious but can take much longer to clear up. However, if it’s true permanent burn-in, then I will concede to your point that permanent burn-in showing up this quickly and for so many people is a real problem for everybody.

            So moral of the story, based on everything that’s hit the media thus far, this “burn-in” issue is a candidate to be a real problem but I’m not yet convinced. Everybody is calling it “burn-in” but I think there’s a lot of ignorance and misinformation going with those claims since nobody substantiates what they mean nor do they seem educated on how to clear up image retention. Even Kellen in this article mentioned “I’ve let the phone sit with that same grey screen for the past few minutes, it’s almost all faded away” but that isn’t the best way to clear up image retention (it’s not quite the worst way but close to it). Instead, he should have blasted solid white at 100% brightness for a while then displayed random colors (an action movie is often a good candidate) for a while before then looking at a gray background again. Just not enough info is out there yet to know if this is really burn-in or temporary image retention. That’s a big question that we need an answer to! If it’s really permanent, then you’re right, this is the wrong screen for everybody. But if it’s just image retention, then I’d argue that is not the case.

          • I’m a product manager and have a few ME’s that work for me. Let’s forget all that and quickly and efficiently go over your post. 90% of what you said is about preference – which for the most part can be tailored by the user (if engineering controls are removed or permission to be tweeked) 10% (the part that pertains to my post) is correct -there MAY be a Hardware problem and a big one. A problem QC should have caught early on. Sounds to me like, well, poor engineering with equally poor engineering Management. IF this is a real problem, then one should not pay a premium price for less than premium hardware and if this is a problem a product recall should be announced.

          • So then, once we put aside our lazy wording as we post in blog post comments, I think we agree. 😉

          • Yo you, every other $950 phone has an imperfect screen as well.

            Galaxy S8 has a very good screen but it’s not perfect. It also suffers from image retention and comes calibrated out-of-the-box with imperfect color accuracy.
            iPhone X has a massive notch. However, nobody really knows how good or bad the display is at this time since it’s not yet available, so we can’t really compare yet.
            Note 8 comes calibrated out-of-the-box with imperfect color accuracy. If you were to identify a current screen that is “as close to perfect as we have”, then this is probably it. However, it is still imperfect as there are some brightness deviations at times, it does suffer from discolorization, and it still can suffer from image retention. For example, it has a ~30% reduction in brightness at 30-degree angle and a slight greenish tint (I think it’s greenish – I have a red-green color-blindness so I might have misidentified this as such subtle things do tricky things with my eyes sometimes). So again, this is still not perfect.

            Am I missing any other $950 phones you think are perfect? I think the Note 8 is as good as it gets at this time and we’re still not there.

          • Sammy’s screens don’t have people talking about screen retention or burn in days after its launch. Hell, my S7 Edge doesn’t even have any signs of burn-in and its a year and a half old. Now you may scientifically say nothing is perfect and that’s fair. But when you are charging that kind of coin, you had better at least match screen quality of the top dogs because this isn’t something they just got right. Cameras are the last frontier to make better, not screens.

          • Thanks for the great information. I agree that the real issue will be the “burn-in” if its a real problem or not. From what I’ve read all the articles reference Alex Dobie phone. In any case I got my Pixel 2 XL yesterday, and so far its been great did notice the blue tint if you tilt your phone, but that’s something I would have never done if I didn’t read these articles. I have a 14 day return policy if I don’t have any issues, then I’l keep the phone.. I must say the camera on this phone is awesome!!

          • Glad it was helpful! I’ve only had my Pixel 2 XL for a short period of time. I have definitely been able to create image retention but it was definitely that and not burn-in. That’s not necessarily proof that the phone doesn’t have burn-in but I think it’s a good indication that most of what’s being seen is just run-of-the-mill image retention.

            Today I’m really busy with work so I’ve not been able to mess around with my phone much but have decided to try an experiment with a white background on my launcher to see if that would be enough by itself to regularly prevent image retention. So far, it’s worked but I don’t have many data points yet but it looks positive.

            I’m hoping to try hard to create burn-in over the next several days. While it still won’t be proof that there is no burn-in problem, it will be enough for me to make an educated decision as to whether I keep the phone or not for myself. 🙂

      • Google is paying 97$ per hour,with weekly payouts.You can also avail this.
        On tuesday I got a great new Land Rover Range Rover from having earned $11752 this last four weeks..with-out any doubt it’s the most-comfortable job I have ever done .. It sounds unbelievable but you wont forgive yourself if you don’t check it
        !tp58:
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    • I cancelled mine a few days ago. I see no reason why someone would buy the Pixel 2 XL right now. One of 2 things will happen and 1 thing will definitely happen.

      Definitely happen: In short order, maybe even before Black Friday there will be large discounts available on the Pixel 2 XL

      One of these will happen:

      1. Google will push a number of updates very shortly to address issues (will likely happen anyway)
      2. Google will recall phones

      Also, I think Google just has to be considering a mid year at worst successor to these Pixel phones with the huge negative buzz they have,

      I still kinda want one, just at no where near full price.

    • Yeah I cancelled mine too. It’s not like I can’t change my mind in a month or two if it turns out that the phone is worth any drawbacks. Besides, with Black Friday only a month away there might be rewards for those that wait.

    • Problem is, they might not have gotten enough panels from Sammy. Apple has a deal with them to supply panels for their new iPhones.

      • if the likes moto lenovo can get 5.5″ panels, for the moto z2 line from samsung i’m guessing google could have.

        The pixel 1 didnt’ sell very well, and i’m gonna go out on a limb here and say it didnt even sell as well as teh first gen moto z. I’m guessing they could have, but there was no way LG was going to make a phone with a non LG panel.

        I’d wager, originally it was going to be 2 HTC phones, and LG proposed letting them make the better one so it looked like the new v30 (which google would want seeing all teh new bezelless phones and their HTC based design already looking outdated) but it would have to be LG panel etc. And they ran with it.

        And well here we are

    • What problem?!? My v30 doesn’t have display uniformity issues. It looks fantastic to me! Huge improvement from the v20 LCD. I guess there are bad batches out there. Eveyone who has seen my phone says it even looks better than the Note 8….wonder how wildly different other units are?

      • I seen a v30 that had burn in… But then again LG cant find there way out of a wet paper bag most times. They have had way to many problems with quality control in the last 3 years… G4 v10 and v20 all had motherboard problems. Sorry the panel on the v30 is what all the reviews and even my own usage say is the biggest problem with the v30…

        • Obviously there is an issue with the panels, but for me it looks like the phone loto paid off. I am not seeing these issues and hopefully they don’t crop up later. As for burn in, I have yet to see anyone post or state that its appearing on the v30….sounds like fake news to me.

          • Have a read…. “LG’S OLED DISPLAY SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE BEAUTIFUL HIGHLIGHT OF THE V30, BUT INSTEAD IT’S AN UGLY DISAPPOINTMENT”…. And the blotches they are talking about in the google keep are real… Here is another quote “It’s painfully apparent that LG’s so-called plastic OLED screens are multiple generations behind Samsung’s alternative — which graces the Galaxy S8, Galaxy Note 8, and the upcoming iPhone X — as well as significantly behind the best LCDs, as exhibited by the U11.” https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/16/16457544/lg-v30-review-design

          • You cite the verge which I feel is a biased source. So to me their so called review isn’t valid. I have the phone in hand and looking at it beside my S8+ work phone, the panel looks great! Better yet, I have better signal-strength over the Samsung too. I suspect the Note 8’s radios are just as terrible.

          • Then here you can read phandroids which states the display has low light problems which the one I have does… The panels have contrast problems no if ands or buts about it. http://phandroid.com/2017/10/17/lg-v30-review/…. Its not a bad phone its just over priced for the panel they used in the phone… But then again its gen 1 tech so it happens.

    • I returned my V30 yesterday and got the Note 8. Immediately I felt the Note was a better choice for me. Much smoother and screen touch sensitivity.

      I did like the V30 and while I didn’t notice any issues with the screen in 3 days. However I returned it because I had several software glitches. I couldn’t accept a new phone with glitches.

      I feel bad for LG. I wanted to give them some business and I thought the phone was a good effort. I just couldn’t live with the issues.

          • But why should we pay a premium for glitchy devices? When we we’re paying $500 for phones, they were glitchy. Now we’re paying $1000+ and guess what? Still glitchy. I don’t think we as consumers making decisions with our wallets should just accept subpar devices at premium prices. I guess I’m just crazy…

        • Ok I will explain one of them, and weekly I felt I shouldn’t have to to accept it.

          The keyboard text box kept popping up in random apps without the keyboard keys for no reason. I would have to back out and restart apps to get rid of it.

          First I thought ok no big deal it’s a minor thing I can fix.

          First I rebooted the phone and it continued. Then it also happened whether I was on stock LG keyboard or Gboard.

          Then I went nuclear and did a factory reset to clear up any possibility of explanation.

          Still happened and after that I was done. I also had several other minor things.

          No glitches with my new Note 8 so far 🙂

          Again I felt bad because I wanted to keep the V30.

          • Very odd, especially since you did a factory reset. Mine never did that. Currently using Chroma Keyboard and it works great.

          • This. I absolutely love this phone. No burn in or any issues yet, so I am hoping it stays this way.

          • I love my V30. I really would have a hard time returning it. I have not experienced any issues with the keyboard yet. I am hoping that Google and LG respond favorably to this, so I can go on keeping this phone. It is just an amazing device. I now understand how owners of the previous note 7 felt.

      • 3 days is not “giving them business” my guess is your a Samsung fanboi and said you did something just to say you tired when you really didn’t. Fanbois are the worst.

        • Sorry the v30’s screen is just that far behind samsungs and even HTC’s own LCD tech in the u11….. I have all the phones stated and the v30 is the most disappointing of the bunch.

        • If he bought the V30 and returned it because he had problems, and he’s much happier with the new device, how is that being a Samsung Fanboi again? You could say that about any brand (he’s a Moto fanboi because he bought a Moto), so your logic is flawed, sorry.

  • Ive had my p2xl since Thurs and just checked. Yep, looks like screen burn in. What I find strange is I keep my brightness at 25% all the time too, so I wonder if maybe it’s a software retention (like mentioned in article) when the back bar is hiding more than actual burn. Eh, not good either way.

      • Especially not with the “light bleed” looking issue (its an OLED, how does one do that) and the dead pixels and banding. Its a new screen and its obviously defective. Probably shouldnt have taken a leap on a manufacturer that is new to OLED.

        Definitely still doing Nexus QA on the Pixels. My OG Pixel has the halo issue from the camera (really from the poorly design glass panel on the back) that was really only reduced using software.

    • Wow that’s almost hard to imagine. I think the problems are only just beginning with this display.

    • The Pixel XL uses Samsung panels, and i had burn-in on both units I’ve owned. Heck, the second had burn-in after less than a week of use with the display at about 60 – 70% brightness.

      • I just checked my Pixel XL – I have screen burn in as well. Anything we can do about as far as getting a replacement?

          • Yep, I purchased mine through Verizon. Calling them today. I purchased in November last year

          • I don’t get it… You only found out about this because of this article and checked purposefully and found it. What is the problem?

        • I suppose you could contact customer support and see if you’re still under warranty. If you are, I’d think you would be entitled to a replacement.

        • XL 2, or OG XL? Either way, if you’re within a year of purchase you should be able to get a replacement. It’s covered via the manufacturer warranty.

  • “If it’s something like a temporary image retention … will eventually wash them away as new imagery takes its place.”

    Thats the problem with these nav buttons, they are ever present and new imagery will not wash them away.

  • How did you hide the navigation panel? 3rd party app or a setting I haven’t been able to find?

    • Open image in Google Photos. Tap image. Done. 🙂

      (The ability to remove the navigation bar is like, the one and only feature I miss from my S8+…cannot wait until we get some ROMs going on these things…)

    • All depends on the app. Google Photos lets you, also do a pinch-to-zoom on a YouTube video and it will go full screen too.

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