Last week, several Galaxy owners took to the internet to complain about seeing a distracting green line running across their phone’s screen. It was unclear whether Samsung would address this issue or ignore it. It turns out that the tech giant is going to help people solve the problem, but that doesn’t make it easy.
Industry insider Tarun Vaten on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) recently spoke to an “official Samsung support channel” on WhatsApp. And they told Vats that the company will replace both the display and battery even if the “warranty has expired” – as long as you meet certain requirements.
First, Samsung will only repair certain models. They include most of the Galaxy S20 series (excluding the S20 FE), most of the S21 line (minus the S21 FE), the Galaxy S22 Ultra, Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra”. Other models that mentioned in the initial reports, such as the Galaxy Z Flip 3, are not included in the support offer. Second, the smartphones must have been purchased within the last three years. Three: There must be no other physical or water damage to the device Taurn Vats spoke to Samsung India’s customer support channel and confirmed that it is the only branch offering the solution at the time of writing. Users in the country also have until April 30 to take advantage of the deal.
Repeated problem
While Samsung’s apparent offer to help is good news, it’s still disappointing that the program is so limited, even though it makes sense. India has faced the Green Line problem before. Back in July 2023, the exact same support channel that offered to replace screens when people encountered green, pink or purple lines. If you look at the recent complaints, many of them come from India. Naturally, Galaxy owners in other regions of the world are experiencing the same problem. India seems to be a bit of a hotspot for the outage for whatever reason.
No one knows exactly why this happens. One theory claims that this could be a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Forbes their coverage highlights how phones released in 2020 and 2021 from multiple manufacturers have seen the green line. You can find posts at Apple’s forums of iPhone users still encountering the problem to this day. Forbes states that the green lines are likely the result of lower quality screen materials due to “production delays due to the pandemic.”
No word if Samsung plans to expand its repair program to other countries. It is not known how widespread the Green Line problem is or whether it is a big enough problem to warrant expansion. We’ve reached out to the company for more information. We’ll update this story if we learn anything new.
In the meantime, check out Ny Breaking’s list of the best Samsung phones for 2024.