Some Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra screen coatings are wearing out – and it’s not a good look

• Some users are seeing degraded Galaxy S24 Ultra screens
• It seems the attached coating is wearing out quickly
• Not all handsets are affected and Samsung hasn’t commented

In our Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra review we awarded the flagship phone 4.5 stars out of 5 – but that was of course written just a few weeks after its launch in January 2024. Less than a year later, we’re seeing widespread reports of issues with the phone’s display coating.

The folks at Android Authority have collected together some of the complaints across social media, while there are also posts on Reddit going back months. These threads include comments from users who do and don’t have the problem on their handsets, so it’s clearly affecting some units but not all of them.

What seems to be happening is that the coating is wearing off prematurely. This does always happen over time, but in the case of the affected Galaxy S24 Ultra handsets, the wearing down process seems to have been accelerated somehow.

That leaves dirty, oily smudges on top of the screen – and there’s nothing that can really be done about them, as the coating is fixed to the display. Some users are also reporting permanent scratches in the coating surface.

We’ve contacted Samsung for an official response to the reported issues and will update this story if we hear back.

Samsung and many other phone makers use a special oleophobic (oil-repellent) coating on top of certain handsets, which is intended to protect the screen, make interactions smoother, and minimize fingerprint smudging.

All good in theory, even if it’s accepted that this protection only lasts so long – there’s no official estimate for how long it should take for an oleophobic layer to degrade, but it’s unusual for it to stop being effective within the first year.

The advice to users from Samsung’s official social media accounts has been to contact Samsung directly with details of the problem.

With the Samsung Galaxy S25 series rumored to be appearing sometime next month – most probably on January 22 – some clarification on these coatings and their expected lifespan would be welcome (from both Samsung and other manufacturers).