iPhone 3G S has yellowish tint

Ok. Just picked up a week 26 replacement and guess what...Its bottom 3rd is tinted yellow!!!

I have figured something out though. It is most likely the glass and not the lcd. I hear when the gloss on glass gets heated too much it turns yellow...thus not firmware fix for this one folks.


I am at a loss as to what to do. I don't want to cancell my contract, but I also don't want to be stuck with a half-yellow screen. Any suggestions? Customer relations? I just give up, but am not a happy camper...

The contrast on the screen is great btw, it is just the bottom 1/3 of yellow tint that is obvious on whites!!

I may send an email out soon to some contacts... and try to sort this out.It would be nice if apple could let us know what is known and what is being done about it.
obviously they are sending info out to employees via newsletter...

I just want assurance it is being fixed and I will get a replacement when it is...

I can tell you it's the LCD and not the glass.

1 - I applied FLAME to the screen from a lighter for a about 10 seconds moving it around. Other than some black soot forming, nothing changed.

2 - I think as time goes by, it's getting better, however it's still noticeable. Top part of screen white, bottom off white/yellow. Same in landscape, left side is clearly white/cool, right side is off white/yellow.

It's a joke at this point I think. Steve jobs having liver problems. When the liver goes bad you get jaundice - I guess all the new phones suffer from jaundice. They need to fix it.

I'm sorry to hear that Shaun. I have decided to keep my iPhone. My yellow tint is very faint and actually seems to be getting less noticable.

It could be the caused by the coating on the screen. That would make sense. Is the new iPhone problem free other then the screen?

hey Shaun,
I got a week 26 iPhone 3gs 16gb black. not a replacement.
Iam looking at the entire screen and its my first iphone so i cant tell if its yellower or not. but i put my phone on full brightness and looked at the bottom..seems fine. nothing noticeable.
i want to see more pics so i can compare.

Message was edited by: Ruthvik

Yes. It seems great. Contrast is great, brightness is great. I just got home and restored it, but I am very happy with it other then the bottom 3rd of it being obviously yellow on light backgrounds. It is most noticable in "settings" or a new blank safari or email/text. Especially in landscape. But any light background it is visible.

I am fine with holding on to it as long as I have some assurance they are aware of the issue and I will be able to get it swapped. I just get scared holding onto itfor too long and then getting told, tough luck...

I had a perfectly good 3G too, and decided to take the plunge anyway. I am completely satisfied otherwise, but shouldn't have to pay this amount of money for a half yellow screen...

Anyone get an answer from apple?

The geniuses replaced it both times right away and saw it obviously, but they just keep giving me replacements that have the same issue...It is so frustrating.

At this point I would be ok with having them install a 3G screen in my 3GS and pass on the oleophobic coating...but I am sure they won't do that...
32GB Black

first off, you are nuts for "applying flame" to it, but thanks for the experiment anyway.

although, this type of yellow tint "overheating is not done by flame from a lighter, but industrial ovens.
and has happened on "other" glossy screens before.

But it could be either one...

The way the yellow "stain" looks on my iPhone does seem as if it is caused by the coating. I think Shaun is on to something here.

I'm not the only one who has mentioned that it appears to be going away somewhat. Thinking it was just wishful thinking I showed my iPhone to a friend at work and she thought the yellow was fading away as well.

My entire screen is not yellow, just the bottom third.

It's not the coating.

I have taken an eraser and rubbed it over the entire lower portion of my screen to see if I could "rub it off". Doing that did nothing and it also made it very clear, the color was deeper - hence - it's the LCD.

More than likely what happened is they used 2 different LED's or whatever it is they used for back lights. Clearly they were NOT the same color temperature and that's causing the issue. The LCD seems to be lit from the top and the bottom evenly or from the entire backside.

Again, I have applied flame and friction/heat and the screen (glass) is still the same. This is an internal lcd/backlight issue.

So removing the coating made it worse? You would think that after Apple had the yellow screen problem with the original 3G they would not have released the 3Gs with a similar problem.

Do you think the LED in the bottom of my screen could be "burning in" and that's why it looks brighter?

I really do love this phone but I don't know where I stand with this screen issue.

The coating from what I am seeing - does not just "rub off". Even after using an eraser and rubbing it quite hard for over a minute - nothing. It's still the same old screen. The yellow dingyness is below the screen in either in the LCD or the back light itself.

What I am doing now is this - I have turned my auto lock OFF so it won't lock and have set my brightness to MAX. I have also plugged the phone it. I am going to leave it plugged in and on max brightness for a few hours to see if there is any change in the yellow color at the bottom of the screen.

Interesting...I did something similar to that. I turned the brighness all the way up and turned off auto-brightness. I then used my "flashlight" app to see if I could burn in the screen. I'm not saying it will work for everyone but it did seem to help me.

I still see a faint shadow at the bottom of the screen though.

I just checked my screen again and it is definitley better then when I first bought it.

After 6 days I decided to exchange my 3Gs. The first 3Gs had the yellow tint problem, along with the battery problem and the compass was messed up too.

Either way, I went into the store and compared my phone with their display models. None of their display models had the problem. Also, it was very obvious the display had a yellow tint...not just a hint of yellow or warmer colors. Greys were completely messed up because of this, looking kind of brown.

I showed 2 guys working there and one of them said to the other "ok replace it, it's a non-fixable issue". Then he tells me they've seen quite a few phones like this in the past couple of days. I never told them about the battery or compass issues.

The screen of the new phone looks almost identical to the 3G screen, with a warmer color temperature, not yellow tint. Also the battery on this phone seems to be back to normal. The compass is working perfectly now.

So, stop wasting time and get your phones replaced. If you are complaining about a yellow tint, YOUR SCREEN IS FAULTY.

Good luck. If they do let you swap for a second one, make them let you examine it. They aren't so helpful, if you have further problems. I am turned off right now because of how I was recently treated at the Apple store. I still have a phone with a yellow tint and a bad battery to boot. The manager said they wouldn't help me any more. I lodged a complaint with Apple. I have spent a lot of money with Apple over the years, and do not feel that I deserved the treatment I recently received. I am out the cost of the phone and do not have a good one to show for it. Stick to your guns and good luck.

People have swapped out their iPhones and received replacements with the same screen issues.

Maybe we have to give Apple some time to sort this and then we can exchange our phones.

All the same I am loving this phone!

We took the iphone with the dark screen and yellowish tint today into the Apple Store in Santa Monica. Even though this phone looks really bad (we've compared it with a 3G, 3GS, and every phone in the Santa Monica store), he claimed that it looked fine to him and was well within Apple's specifications.

The "genius" then said that the Apple Store WILL NOT EXCHANGE ANY PHONE PURCHASED BY AT&T, NOR WILL THEY EXCHANGE ANY PHONE PURCHASED ON-LINE BY APPLE. He also said that you don't take it into an AT&T store, you exchange it by phone. If you purchased it on-line with AT&T you must call AT&T; if you purchased it on-line with Apple, you must call Apple.

Yet, when you call AT&T support, and put in your phone number, it automatically transfers you back to Apple.

The part of AT&T's website that explains exchange refers you to the Apple website, and Apple's website verifies the serial number of the phone, and tells you to take it into an Apple store for exchange!!

So what is going on here?