The latest Samsung Galaxy One UI update, version 6.1, has recently landed and it brings with it a fix to a problem from an earlier release which reduced burn-in protection for the phones’ displays.
The phones in question have OLED screens, which is always prone to burn-in if there are elements which are static on screen for extended periods of time.
The previous update, One UI 6.0, came out in November 2023, and it quickly became apparent that Samsung had made a change which could encourage burn-in.
This own goal happened because elements in the status bar at the top of the Galaxy display such as the time, wifi-strength and battery life were no longer moving.
I don’t mean these features were ever very lively, but that they employed a coders’ clever trick where items on a display are slightly moved on a regular basis, so they never stay put for long, in the hope that screen burn-in will be avoided. It’s a discreet but effective practice which is so subtle that users really never notice it.
Well, they did when it wasn’t there, and it caused consternation when people feared the status bar could eventually be a mass of overlapping burnt-in letters and icons.
Now, according to 9to5Google, things have changed again with One UI 6.1. The lack of movement of the status bar items was first spotted on a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, and it’s that model which is in the news again now. A user with this handset has confirmed that it looks like the status bar icons are now more ambulant again, gently shifting over time so the problem has gone.
Samsung did not previously comment on this issue, so it’s possible there was a different solution all along, but the fact that there’s been a change like this is reassuring for everyone.
The update has brought new Galaxy AI features to Galaxy S23, Z Fold5, Z Flip5 and Tab S9 machines—you can read full details in Forbes contributor Janhoi McGregor’s feature here.
Those new features will be welcome, and offer significant enhancements in what these products can do, but it’s just as important that elements like screen burn are attended to, and it looks like that’s what’s happened now.
