Galaxy Note8 users report oleophobic coating wear off issues

Smartphone users often wipe the screen of their device to keep its gloss/shine on. What actually facilitates this quick display cleaning (without any cleaning solutions) is a grease protection layer called oleophobic coating. It’s a thin glaze covering the phone’s screen to resist fingerprint smudges.

Sadly, this coating is reportedly already wearing-off for some Samsung Galaxy Note8 users, resulting in undesired marks on the screen of their flagship phone.

A good chunk of Galaxy Note8 users on Reddit and other help forums, with newly bought units, are complaining about defective oleophobic coating. Going by the reports, this faultiness in coating has resulted in spots/marks – mostly near the edges of the screen, or sensor/ear piece/camera area in some cases – that can be seen more clearly when the phone is held at different angles.

Here’s how some of the complainants explain the matter in question:

Do you guys notice 4 cresent moon like spots on the top and 3 of them in the bottom where the front glass meets the metal? Its not easy to see, you will have to wipe out all finger smudges and watch carefully from various angles. My first phone had the problem, returned it and bought another, guess what, same problem!!

The following image shows the spots that the user mentioned in the comment:

After sending my Note8 in due to multiple issues, my second one(new screen, battery, logic board) also has the oleophobic coating issue

Noticed this today on my Note 8, phone is only a few days old so this cant be user wear. It also seems to be quite symmetrical. Only visible with fingerprints/smudges on screen

Not only help forums, similar reports can be seen on Twitter as well.

https://twitter.com/TheRealSaus/status/938812996658302977
https://twitter.com/dave6018/status/938043127818063872

What’s relieving is that some of the affected Note8 users have either received replacement or screen repairs.

Spoke to my carrier today and they are going to send me a replacement

I also had small spots in the locations you have yours, as well as one by the earpiece, but didn’t have pics of them in my post. Since then, I’ve had the screen replaced (under warranty)

But even the replaced or repaired devices didn’t completely eradicate the issue, at least in some cases:

Got my replacement. Has the same thing but it’s very minimal

Yeah the replaced screen has it very minimally – so I’m satisfied

Nothing much has been said by Samsung officially yet, but the reports are on a rise, with users worried – and rightly so – that the coating issues they’re observing may become significant with time. We hope the company addresses the matter before it becomes a more wide spread concern. Meanwhile, we are keeping a tab on all related developments, and will keep updating as and when anything news worthy occurs.

Don’t forget to let us know in the comments section below in case you are facing any of the aforementioned oleophobic coating issues on your Galaxy Note8 device.

Stay connected with us on Twitter (@PiunikaWeb) to hear about all related developments as and when they occur