[Update: Fix coming] Galaxy S22 Ultra owners report display issues, limited to Exynos models

Ben Schoon | Feb 23 2022 - 5:57 am PT

Samsung’s Galaxy S22 lineup is being delivered to its first buyers this week, with early pre-orders being delivered around the world. However, some Galaxy S22 Ultra owners are seeing their shiny new phone exhibit a strange display issue.

According to several posts across Reddit, a display issue on the Galaxy S22 Ultra sees the display with a line of jumbled pixels that show what looks like a form of static across the bottom half of the panel. This doesn’t appear to happen constantly, but rather primarily with content such as videos or games.

The exact cause of this issue is unclear, but its appearance does suggest it could be a hardware issue. Interestingly, the behavior has only shown up so far on Exynos versions of the Galaxy S22 Ultra, as one Reddit thread brings out. At first glance, that might seem like a hint that Snapdragon models are unlikely to see the same behavior, but today is probably the first day a considerable number of Galaxy S22 Ultra buyers from Snapdragon regions will actually get their phones to check for any potential display problems, so it’s too early to tell. Some users have found that switching the phone from QHD to FHD in the display settings seems to help.

Update 2/23: Samsung has confirmed that this issue is limited to the software, and that a fix has already been identified. In a support forum spotted on Reddit, Samsung says:

We are aware of a limited number of Galaxy S22 Ultra devices experiencing a pixelated line on the display when [the] customer plays YouTube or unlocks the device with fingerprints.
The issue may occur rarely when the user set[s] the device resolution to WQHD and Screen mode to Natural mode.
We have already worked to develop a patch on Galaxy S22 Ultra and will release software updates to address the issue soon. We recommend that until then, please change the screen mode to Vivid or resolution to FHD+ of your device.

Samsung doesn’t directly confirm that only Exynos models are affected, but the company does offer a temporary fix of changing the resolution to FHD+, until a software update fixes the problem for good.

Should this prove to be a hardware issue, Samsung will likely be willing to accept these defective units back through typical support channels. However, that does come while stock for the Galaxy S22 Ultra especially is being delayed through some retail channels due to high demand.

In our review of the Galaxy S22 Ultra published last week, we praised the phone’s excellent display for having stellar colors and sharpness, but unfortunately sitting beneath Samsung’s curved glass. Still, it’d be a definite disappointment to have that display have issues such as this.