The Samsung Galaxy S21 series has very solid specs across the board, and under the right conditions, the phones should still be very capable phones even five years after they launched.
That makes it particularly annoying if a software update, in a bid to keep your smartphone running smoothly, is what causes a problem. That's the fate of Samsung Galaxy S21 users at the moment, as it seems a software update might be inducing a vertical green line to appear across your display.
Some Samsung Phones Are Suffering From Green Lines On The Screen
It seems a lot of users with older Samsung Galaxy smartphones are complaining of vertical green lines showing up on their displays, running all the way from the top to the bottom. While there seem to be a few cases reported, the Samsung Galaxy S21 smartphones seem to be particularly susceptible to this issue.
There are user reports coming in from X, with some users saying that the problem struck at random, during a gaming session, or while performing a software update. In fact, two users report seeing the green line appear immediately following a software update, on an S21 FE and an S21 Ultra.
Additionally, it doesn't seem that this issue is necessarily related to the age of the smartphone either, as one user who experienced the issue says that his Galaxy S21 Ultra was in mint condition prior to this.
Considering that this issue is popping up during updates and gaming sessions, some people believe that it could be due to overheating affecting some display components, especially as the green line shows up even before the phone has fully booted up. In a way, this rules out a software glitch, especially as the problem doesn't seem to be resolved following the almighty factory reset.
This Isn't Exactly A New Symptom
A green line on a Samsung screen isn't exactly a new symptom. This problem has been seen before, with smartphones that are much older, such as this report from a user with an S20+ on Reddit. However, for a company with such amazing displays, it makes us wonder what's going on at the quality control side of things.
The aforementioned user woke up to see it, without a software update or gaming, so it surely points to some kind of problem in the display pipeline for Samsung, since this isn't as notorious an issue for other brands.
Recent Samsung Software Updates Haven't Had The Best Reputation
Back in early April, we reported on users complaining that they'd need to touch their screen multiple times before a touch was registered, and that was seen on the Samsung S23 devices following their One UI 6.1 update. Sure, ultimately, the problem was from Google, and not Samsung, but it still doesn't change much, since that same update was reported to bring fingerprint sensor problems, slower charging, and overheating.
As a Samsung owner, I can say that I've never had issues with my phone following a software update, but considering how these problems are springing up back to back, it is certainly very worrying. Perhaps there's something going on with the quality control of the software before release, but Samsung definitely needs to get itself back in order.
