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Samsung is in the process of updating its phones and tablets to Android 14—it has already updated over a dozen models. The big update, which includes One UI 6.0, went through a months-long beta phase and is quite stable with no major bugs. However, it doesn’t appear to be completely free of issues. Some users have noticed that the pixel shift feature is not working properly on One UI 6.0, leaving phones vulnerable to screen burn-in.
Galaxy devices running One UI 6.0 are vulnerable to screen burn-in issues
OLED displays use pixel shift technology to prevent screen burn-in issues. It periodically moves the picture on the screen around by a few pixels to avoid image retention on a pixel, effectively stopping the image from damaging the pixel. The feature is primarily noticeable on large OLED screens such as TVs and monitors but it exists on Samsung smartphones too. You can easily check if your Galaxy device has burn-in protection by following the steps below.
Firstly, take a screenshot with the status bar visible. Now turn on auto-rotate and rotate the screen between portrait and landscape orientations multiple times in quick succession. This ensures that the UI elements move a significant amount of pixels. Now go to Samsung Gallery and open the screenshot you took earlier. If pixel shift is working, you should notice that the status bar elements have moved a little.
However, a Galaxy S23 Ultra user noticed that this isn’t happening following the One UI 6.0 update. They say the status bar elements perfectly overlap the elements on the screenshot despite repeatedly switching the screen orientation in quick succession. This suggests that the UI elements are static and not moving to protect pixels from burn-in issues. This isn’t the case on the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra running One UI 5.1 (not eligible for Android 14).
This may be a bug in the new One UI version
The said user has already reported the issue to Samsung and has urged others to do the same. The Reddit thread where they posted the screenshots has a few more Galaxy users confirming the issue. Interestingly, pixel shift appears to be working fine for the navigation bar, as the button icons have moved a little. Only status bar icons are not moving. It may be a bug in One UI 6.0. Hopefully, Samsung is aware of this and working on a fix. We will let you know when we have more information.