The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is supposed to have the most durable display glass of any Android phone. The Gorilla Glass Armor used on the front and back panels is supposed to protect against scratches and avoid reflections. That sounds great, but a few months after its launch, users have reported problems with this glass, including damage to the anti-reflective coating on the display.

Various reports have surfaced on social media (via Android Authority) of the S24 Ultra's display coating wearing down and in some cases peeling off, according to images posted by Zaryab Khan and Piyush Baid. As a result, the phone looks dirty and stained. Despite this appearance, Khan says the screen is not scratched.

Baid claims that Samsung Store employees blamed this on common usage and recommended the use of screen guards. As they point out, that kind of defeats the purpose of an anti-reflective coating. This seems to be corroborated by a tweet from Rajan Thakur, who experienced repeated swiping causing spots on his phone's screen.

The question is, why does this happen? Any coating on a cell phone display will wear off over time, but it is unusual to actually hear about it this early in the life of a cell phone. We also don't often hear about coatings deteriorating this badly.

The good news is that there is no guarantee that your Galaxy S24 Ultra's display will begin to degrade in the coming weeks or months, as this problem does not seem to affect everyone equally. The bad news is that if you are experiencing this phenomenon, it is unclear if there is anything you can do about it.

Given that the phone costs $1,299 in its cheapest configuration, we definitely don't want this to happen, especially considering that the S24 Ultra is not yet 12 months old. I hope Samsung has a solution beyond telling us to use a screen protector. And I hope that by this time next year, the Galaxy S25 Ultra will not be suffering from the same problem.