Google appears to have an issue on its hands with its new Pixel 2 XL smartphone.
The phone, which has now been the hands of reviewers for about a week, appears to be suffering from burn-in issues. Multiple people have reported about the problem over the weekend, in which outlines of the phone’s navigation buttons appear to be visible when viewed on a grey background. It is possible that this is simply a ghosting effect, where the icons will fade over time, though either situation is hardly ideal. Pixel 2 XL features a 3K OLED display.
That’s some pretty wild OLED burn-in on the Pixel 2 XL after maybe 7 days of full-time use pic.twitter.com/EPJTs6D0Kg
— Alex Dobie (@alexdobie) October 22, 2017
“We put all of our products through extensive quality testing before launch and in the manufacturing of every unit,” Google said in a statement given to The Verge. “We are actively investigating this report.”
We haven’t yet seen reports of the issue on the standard Pixel 2.
While screen burn-in of this caliber wouldn’t render the phone unusable, it could certainly be troublesome for those using Google’s Daydream View headset with the new device. Like other mobile-based headsets, View uses the handset’s screen as a VR display, placed in front of a pair of lenses. It would be a huge problem for some VR apps if these navigation icons were to appear in scenes with a lot of greys.
We reviewed Google’s refreshed VR line-up earlier this month, though haven’t yet encountered these issues ourselves. Whatever the issue is, it can’t be as bad as last year’s debacle in which Samsung’s Note 7 smartphone started blowing up and eventually had to be killed off.
The Pixel 2 XL is expected to start shipping out in the US this week and arrive in other countries in November.
