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Pixel-style display woes on your shiny new X? Perfectly normal, says Apple

Burn in. Weird colours. Welcome to Super Retina

Is the technology press operating double standards when it comes holding Apple to account?

Owners of the £999 iPhone X are reporting issues with the OLED display similar to those experienced by Pixel owners. Only this time Apple is brazening it out. While Google promised fixes and software patches, Apple says you're going to have get used to it - because it's all perfectly normal.

The X is Apple's first OLED display, which it calls "Super Retina".

"If you look at an OLED display off-angle, you might notice slight shifts in color and hue. This is a characteristic of OLED and is normal behavior," Apple states in a new support note.

"With extended long-term use, OLED displays can also show slight visual changes. This is also expected behavior and can include 'image persistence' or 'burn-in', where the display shows a faint remnant of an image even after a new image appears on the screen. This can occur in more extreme cases such as when the same high contrast image is continuously displayed for prolonged periods of time. We’ve engineered the Super Retina display to be the best in the industry in reducing the effects of OLED 'burn-in'."

Reviewers of Google's new Pixel 2 XL, which uses LG's inferior OLED, soon noticed burn-in issues and strange colour hues. Google promised software fixes, but not in a hurry.

Apple has more reputational credit to call upon than Google, which is relatively unknown in consumer hardware. (Google's one and only consumer hit, Chromecast, was three years ago.)

"This is just the current state of Samsung's OLED; Viewing angle hue shift and god awful Pentile layout. Apple did the best they could with what's available right now," one Reddit contributor suggests.

"The screen looks great, but it does turn blue. It's 5.8 inches, yet feels a lot smaller," writes another, who is considering it swapping it for a Plus.

"Funny how the tech press are full of double standards when it comes to how they treat Apple and how they treat everyone else," notes our tipster.

Yes. We had noticed. ®

Bootnote

Apple also helpfully explained to users how to properly use its software updates at the weekend. If you'd like to "learn what to do" if you type the letter "i" and it autocorrects to an "A" with a symbol, click here.

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