iPhone screen showing negative/shimmering black/dark areas

It doesn't matter if Apple is "against" you asking for a replacement. If your screen is as defective as many of us are experiencing, you should DEMAND a replacement.

OK, those of you who wish to have the test photoshop gradient that clearly shows the defect, please go to my public folder and download one of the files there:
http://homepage.mac.com/WebObjects/FileSharing.woa/57/wo/G4DFhkmZlL0qsVzD.1/0.2. 1.2.26.31.97.2.35.0.1.1.1?user=rbreeding&fpath=iPhone&templatefn=FileSharing3.ht ml

Again, this is a simple white to black gradient that shows, of defective screens, that the rightmost area, a complete black, is rendered lighter than the almost black to its left. Xfer to your iPhone; you'll see what I mean if you have the issue.

Thank you for posting the link to your gradient picture. It was very helpful and gave me a quick check to see if I had a problem (I didn't).

I had this issue when i bought my iphone on September 27th. I went into the Tysons Apple store in Virginia and spoke with a Mac Genius about a week later. He was aware of the problem so I didn't have to show him the articles i printed out showing him that it was widespread. He was very nice and exchanged it with a brand new one but upon testing it that evening, i noticed the same problems. I went into 'Field Test Mode' to check the LCD serial number and sure enough it's the 7xxx Series. For $400 + tax Apple needs to have a recall or at the very least, let owners exchange the iphone until they're satisfied with their product. PLEASE APPLE, FIX THIS!! Other than that, I'll wait for the software updates to fix the rest of the issues. Love the thing despite it's drawbacks.

Interesting - how did you go into field test mode - and back out. I and others might find that useful.

To get into Field test mode go to the Number pad as if you were going to manually dial a call.

(this forum won't let me post the symbol for Asterisk so I just wrote it out instead)
Dial "Asterisk 3001#12345# Asterisk" and hit "Call" then go to "Versions" at the bottom which should tell you the LCD Version number.

bump for any news about Apple fixing the iphones so i can exchange it with one that works!!!

I heard a rumor that the new iPhone update actually fixed this issue, but I got an exchange before I was able to try it out. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

New meaning 1.1.1? No, it didn't.

OK, I checked my LCD Panel ID and it is 7455232 - yet, the swap did fix my issue.

???

I am coming to the end of my Verizon contract and I would love to get an iphone, but I'm worried about receiving a unit with this poor quality screen. Perhaps all the 7 series units have been sold by now or have quietly been replaced in stores by Apple? Or maybe I should wait? Any thoughts?

As of about a week ago, I got a bad unit. If you want to wait, its not time to buy yet.

I got one as a replacement last Friday in Memphis. This is the third replacement phone I've been given, each with its own unique problem. It has the shimmering/negative black issue and I'm sending it in to apple for repair. I'm not too optimistic though since I can't see the repair guy really looking for the problem too hard. It's definitely an issue though and I have a good photo to show the apple store people if I have to eventually take it back for yet another swap. Goes without saying that this is very frustrating.

This is the first apple product I've ever bought and although the genius bar people are very nice and eager to replace, the replacements themselves definitely leave something to be desired. I think people keep swapping out the bad phones and they keep getting circulated in an attempt to put them in the hands of less discriminating consumers.

I was wondering, you said you had a picture to show the mac genius' proof of the shimmering effect. Could you somehow post it or send it to my e-mail address? Also when you guys are getting replacement iphones are they refurbished or brand new ones? I went 2 weeks ago to replace and got a brand new one, then when i went this past weekend i was only offered a refurbished one and the mac genius this time was kind of a jerk and specifically said "when will you guys just be happy with the iphone."

See my Oct 3rd posting for a link to the test pict.

My replacement came in a little white box. I don't know if it was new or not.