Some Galaxy S9 Plus users are reporting "black crush" screen issues

Some Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus users have been taking to the internet to report problems with the way colors are shown on their phones. 

As seen in multiple forum posts (via SamMobile), the complaints relate specifically to “black crush.” This is a problem where the screen has issues displaying different shades of dark colors — instead of revealing details in dark sections of videos, screens suffering from the problem will instead show blocks of black or pixelated images. 

Now, before you start to worry, it should be noted that not all Galaxy S9 Plus devices have the issue, and we haven’t yet encountered reports of the on the standard S9 (if you’ve noticed it on your S9, please get in touch). There is no real way of knowing how widespread the problem is, so if you haven’t seen it on your device, you may simply not be affected.

Fortunately, for those who have noticed the issue, the problem could be remedied with a software fix. This isn’t the first time that black crush issues have been reported on a high-end device: Google Pixel 2 users have reported the same problem occurring after a software update. 

Samsung hasn’t yet released a fix for the reported issue, but S9 Plus users on the XDA Developers forums were able to improve the issue by using an app called Screen Balance. While resorting to an app for a fix isn’t ideal, it could be a decent solution until Samsung provides one of its own. 

The display on the standard Galaxy S9 is generally considered to be one of the best on any device. In fact, last month, DisplayMate gave the S9’s display its “highest ever A+” grade and called the AMOLED panel the “most innovative and high-performance smartphone display” it has ever tested. It hasn’t provided a specific report on the Galaxy S9 Plus.