SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Electronics giant Samsung will this week offer an unusually early software update for its newly released Galaxy S8 phone, it said Monday, after some consumers complained of red-tinted screens.
The launch of the device is a key step for the South Korean tech firm as it seeks to move on from last year’s humiliating withdrawal of the Galaxy Note 7 over exploding batteries, which hammered the firm’s once-stellar reputation.
The Galaxy S8 started over-the-counter sales in the United States and its home market but South Korean users who pre-ordered the phones complained their screens displayed an unusually reddish hue.
Online images of their phones went viral on social media but Samsung denied a hardware flaw and maintained that users could manually adjust the colour range according to their preferences.
As more users voiced doubts, Samsung said Monday that a software update would fix the problem by allowing them to readjust colors over a wider range than at present.
“Samsung… has decided to release a software update starting from this week which will provide consumers with a further enhanced ability to adjust the colour setting to their preference,” it said in a statement.
Samsung — the world’s largest maker of smartphones — has pinned its hopes on the Galaxy S8 to compete against archrival Apple’s iPhone after last year’s Note 7 disaster.
The recall debacle cost Samsung billions of dollars in lost profits and hammered its global credibility, forcing it to apologize to consumers and postpone the S8 launch.
