Multiple Korean customers who pre-ordered the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus have alleged that their handsets have excessive red tints on the screen, with some posting images on popular local tech community sites Ppomppu and Ruliweb.

"Galaxy S8 Red Screen" was among the top searched terms on Naver, South Korea's largest search engine, on Tuesday morning as local consumers took to the internet for more information.

A Samsung spokesman told local media that the red tint is not a quality issue, and that customers can simply go to the settings menu to change the configuration.

Other customers alleged that they had visited service centres to fix the problem and were told to change their phones, although these claims have not been independently verified.

Samsung later provided an official statement to ZDNet regarding the issue: "All Samsung phones undergo thorough testing to meet our high level of quality standards. The Infinity Display on the Galaxy S8 and S8+ has applied Super AMOLED and provides rich and expressive colors, enabling users to enjoy a clearer and more vivid viewing experience.

"The Galaxy S8 was built with an adaptive display that optimizes the color range, saturation, and sharpness depending on the environment. If needed, users can manually adjust the color range of the display to change the appearance of white tones, through 'Settings > Display > Screen Mode > Color balance'."

Samsung began shipping the phones on Tuesday in South Korea, with customers who pre-ordered the handsets able to use them straight away.

Last week, the company said it was targeting 1 million pre-orders for the phone in its home country.

Samsung ended production of the Galaxy Note 7 last year due to battery explosions. The tech giant needs a smooth launch of the Galaxy S8 to redeem its mobile brand.

Update 10:15pm AEST April 18, 2017: Samsung official statement added.