LONDON: Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Smartphone displays won’t auto-rotate properly, according to early customers on user forums. Less than a week after the device first went on sale, dozens of customers and perhaps more have complained that an image presented on the display from an app or the phone’s camera remains stuck in portrait vertical mode and won’t rotate when needed to landscape horizontal mode.
Customers on an AndroidCentral forum said they had taken phones back to both Verizon Wireless and Sprint stores to get replacements. The problem may be affecting Edge devices from other carriers as well.
One customer on the forum named Pro3D replaced an Edge device that had the problem at a Vallejo, Calif. Verizon store only to find that the issue cropped up again in the replacement Edge device. “No screen rotates again, second phone!” Pro3D wrote.
Verizon, Sprint and Samsung did not immediately respond to questions about the problem or possible causes.
It isn’t clear if the issue is caused by a faulty accelerometer in the device or by software. One forum contributor said the problem seemed to be related to a recent Android 5.0.2 update. Another theorized the accelerometer gets stuck because of overheating from fast charging.
Another forum contributor, Sarv79, said he also had two Edge phones with the auto-rotate problem and had finally gotten both Verizon and Samsung to admit there is an “ongoing issue.”
“So that’s 11 days I’ll be without a phone I paid full price for,” Sarv79 said in a post Thursday. “I guess this is what I get for jumping on the new phone craze.”
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge onboard diagnostic screen in portrait modeMatt Hamblen this shows how the onboard diagnostic screen should rotate into landscape mode — unlike the faulty units.
Various forum contributors have noted that Edge users can do a quick diagnostic test to see whether the problem exists. To do the test, a user should open the phone’s dialer, then type *#0# * to open a new screen, and then tap “sensor,” which will have a real-time read-out of the accelerometer coordinates. If the display won’t auto rotate, the X coordinate will be stuck at 32768.
