More and more users report "red screen of death" on older Samsung Galaxy Watch model

The Samsung Galaxy Watch4 is definitely not a brand-new wearable; we reviewed the smartwatch back in 2021. But it is not entirely outdated either and is still available for purchase on Amazon. Regarding this particular model, Android Authority has observed increasing reports of a serious hardware error lately. This should be treated with caution in two respects. Firstly, it is generally unclear just how high the incident rate actually is, as customers with problems are more likely to report problems than those without. Secondly, there is no precise record of the chronology of user reports over time, i.e., whether they are actually increasing.

The error itself is not new. Specifically, the color display of the Galaxy Watch4 changes unexpectedly and becomes strongly reddish, pink, orange or something in between. This problem continues to deteriorate to the point of the watch being non-responsive and ultimately unusable, with restarts no longer helping or even being impossible to carry out. A Reddit user reports that this happened to his 2.5-year-old smartwatch twice: in the first instance, the mainboard was replaced while the watch was still under warranty. In the second instance, two and a half years after he had purchased the watch, he was offered a display replacement at an authorized service center at a cost equivalent to around $80. Samsung appears to be making the same recommendation (display replacement) to all other users affected by a similar problem. Given the age, the current price of a new Galaxy Watch4 and the availability of newer models, such a repair is arguably not worth it.