That Blinking White Pixel On Your Samsung Galaxy S10 Is A Feature Not A Bug
At long last, Samsung's much anticipated Galaxy S10 family is on sale today, as in you can actually pluck one from a retail shelf and bring it home (as opposed to going the pre-order route). Already, however, some users have noticed a blinking white pixel that is causing concern. Rest assured though, it is a feature of the phone, and not a bug.
We mean that humorously (in reference to Apple using explanation) and not snarkily. It actually is a feature—the blinking white pixel is related to the proximity sensor. This allows the Galaxy S10 to detect when your face or ear get close to the phone, as would be the case when making an actual phone call, so it can automatically turn off the display to avoid any accidental inputs. Here's a look at it in action...
This is a byproduct of the trend towards utilizing every square millimeter of space on the front of a phone for the display, in effort to ditch the traditional bezel. We've seen notches, and now a punch-hole design. As it pertains to the Galaxy S10, there are numerous sensors underneath the display, such as the fingerprint sensor.
If you are still wary about the blinking pixel, you can confirm that everything is working as it should by turning on the speaker during a phone call. This should turn off the blinking pixel, because it no longer needs to detect if you're about to smash your face to the display.
Of course, a constant blinking pixel would certainly be annoying, and thankfully Samsung did not go that route. The only time you should see this is when making a phone call. One way to avoid it altogether, though, is to avoid that archaic method of communication and join the modern world in text messaging (we kid...sort of).
Blinking pixel aside, the display on the Galaxy S10 is tops, according to DisplayMate, which awarded it an A+ during its evaluation. We plan to post our own review at some point, but in our experience, Samsung's Super AMOLED display are indeed the finest around. You can read the HotHardware review of the Galaxy S10+ right here.
