Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra owners are complaining about warped and stained screens — here's what's going on

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra should have the most durable display glass of any Android phone. Gorilla Glass Armor, which is used on the front and back panels, is supposed to protect against scratches and avoid reflections. That’s great, but after several months of being on sale, users are reporting issues with the glass — including damage to the display’s anti-reflective coating.

Various reports have been popping up on social media (via Android Authority) about the S24 Ultra’s display coating wearing down — and in some cases peeling off. Images posted by Zaryab Khan and Piyush Baid show that the consequence of this is a phone that looks dirty and smudged. Despite what it looks like, Khan says that the screen is not scratched.

Baid claims that Samsung store employees blamed this on general usage, and suggested using a screen guard. As they point out, that kind of defeats the purpose of having an anti-reflective coating. This is seemingly corroborated by a tweet from Rajan Thakur, who has experienced a stain on their phone screen in spots with repeated swiping.

The question now is, why is this happening? Any coating on a phone display is going to wear out over time, but it’s rare that we actually hear about it this early on in a phone’s lifespan. We definitely don’t hear about deteriorating coatings looking quite this bad either, which is certainly not a good look for Samsung.

The good news is that this problem doesn’t seem to be affecting everyone equally, so it’s not guaranteed that your Galaxy S24 Ultra’s display will start to deteriorate in the coming weeks and months. The bad news is that if you are experiencing this, it’s unclear if there’s anything you can do about it.

Considering this phone costs $1,299 in its cheapest configuration, that is the absolute last thing you want to have happen. More so when you remember that we’re less than 12 months into the S24 Ultra’s lifespan. Here’s hoping that Samsung has a solution for people beyond telling them to use a screen protector. And that the Galaxy S25 Ultra won’t suffer from the same problem this time next year.

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