It appears as if the Galaxy Note 8 does have some problems after all. While it’s a far cry from the absolute disaster of the Note 7, the Galaxy Note 8 seems to be having issues with its oleophobic coating, causing fingerprints to stick to the screen of the phone.
Oleophobic Coating
With how high-tech phones are in 2018, there’s bound to be some sort of problem with pretty much any modern flagship. While most are not nearly as severe as the Note 7 catching fire, when there’s so many pieces working together to make a high-end phone there are bound to be some issues. The issue with the oleophobic coating was reported by a user on Reddit, and other users chimed in with their own versions of the oleophobic coating having issues.
“Noticed this today on my Note 8, phone is only a few days old so this can’t be user wear. It also seems to be quite symmetrical. Only visible with fingerprints/smudges on screen. Does anyone else have this?” said the Reddit user.
This one Reddit post is far from the only occurrence of issues with the oleophobic coating issues, with many people from around the web stating that the coating was starting to peel off or otherwise degrade pretty significantly – in some cases, to the point of complete failure.
The oleophobic coating is just a fancy way to refer to a treatment on the screen of the phone that serves to protect the skin from oil – mainly a way to avoid messing up the glass of the screen with a bunch of fingerprints. While a failing of the oleophobic coating is definitely an issue, we don’t feel that it’s enough of a problem to warrant missing out on this excellent handset.
Samsung has yet to comment on the issue, although considering many of the issues with the oleophobic coating on the Galaxy Note 8 were reported soon after purchase, we imagine it should be a quick fix under warranty repairs. Redmondpie reports that some users are going that route and being provided replacement phones, but apparently, even the replacements are having the issue – leading us to believe the issue is widespread and may not be fixed before the manufacture of another run of phones, if it even is then. While the issue with the oleophobic coating isn’t necessarily severe, we hope that the issue will be addressed with the release of the Galaxy Note 9.
Galaxy Note 9
With the Galaxy Note 8, Samsung had a lot to prove. Following the failure of the Note 7 due to unfixable battery issues, their following phone had to be dressed to impressed if they were to win back the confidence of customers in their Note line. The Galaxy Note 8 is generally considered to be a big success despite some issues such as the problems with the oleophobic coating. With the Galaxy Note 9, however, Samsung has an opportunity to further distance themselves from the failure of the Note 7. While the Galaxy S9 release is shaping up to be a largely iterative improvement, we have high hopes for some major steps forward with the Galaxy Note 9. With a release date of later this year, we expect all the issues with oleophobic coating to be ironed out alongside the addition of new features. There will likely be some problems, as there are with most every phone, but we expect that Samsung will keep taking steps forward as they further distance the Note like from the Galaxy Note 7.
