iPhone 3G S has yellowish tint

I had something similar. I have the first generation iPhone and the newest one (3GS 16GB). I went into settings and turned off the auto setting under "brightness." I also put my two phones side-by-side initially and saw the difference. My old phone's brightness was right in the middle. When I went to turn off the auto setting, it seemed to rectify the colo(u)r issue.

I just compared mine with a 3g at best buy. The display and my 3gs was at all the same settings. Mine was very close to the 3g display. I thought the 3g was a tad too blue. I thought my 3gs was more natural looking. Mine is a week 23 build.

I did not think my yellow screen was all that bad. In fact I thought it looked a little better then it did when I first bought it.

Today at work I noticed the screen looked more yellow then usual at the bottom. It almost looks like there are little brown dots all over the screen getting darker torward the bottom of the screen.

It wasn't the lighing conditons as it looks this way also at home and in the dentist's office today. I am really disappointed...

I have auto-brightness set to on and the slider is just under the two "S's" in "brightness".

That's very odd, that a good screen could change to a yellow screen just by letting the battery drain?

A wild theory could be that there was some volatile setting that adjusts the OS to match the color profile of the LCD, and that drained battery power loses it. That's far fetched though.

I wish there was some definitive information around about how this all works.

I would like to return my third replacement 32gb black and get a 16gb black since two of my friends bought that with no problems at the same store (hopefully the same lot) My question is on the final replacement receipt it now says No Returns? Did the genius screw me? I bought the phone on 19th, first replacement on 22nd, last replacement on the 25th. First replacement was in a new box and the last was in the white box.

I'm still waiting for the product specialist to call back.

Quick update for me

I had a week 21 yellow screen phone. I traded that for a week 24 service phone. The service phone was OK, but seemed a little off. The bottom half of the screen had a slight yellow tint.

I just took the phone back and upgraded to a 32GB phone. This phone is a week 26. I can say that without a doubt this is the best iphone I’ve seen. The screen is the nicest I’ve seen, with rich colors, bright whites, and super sharp detail. The sound is excellent. Battery life is really good. Week 26 is a winner.

Week 26 was last week. I recommend this build. And for anyone who still insists this is a software issue, you either just don’t know or are not thinking clearly.

Message was edited by: kre62

Message was edited by: kre62

If you read through the threads there is no consistency with the production week (as indicated by the S/N) and the tinting. Apple uses different LCD suppliers which can be used within any week. I have a week 23 phone with a perfectly good screen.

What about location? I'm in LA and I called 3 stores here, and none have heard of any problems. I talked to a friend who has one and she doesn't know of the yellow tint or overheating.

Could there be a correlation with where the iPhone is purchased?

Hard to say. Calling stores and asking the guy who answers phone calls if he knows about it doesn't necessarily correlate to what is actually going on. Looking through a few of the posts in this long thread, it's being reported from all over the place.

Can you post pictures? What I am worried about is people who "think" they have a good screen until they see a comparison. For example, my friend and I both bought 32GB Black 3GS's and I found my display to be of the yellow tint. I called him and he said it looked fine. We then compared screens and it was clear that his was actually worse than mine (both were worse compared to my old 3G). I have a overnight replacement package that I can send in my new phone, but I am reluctant because who knows if the display will be better/worse.

I sort of think that some folks who are seeing just a slight yellow tint are freaking out and bringing these things back myself. If you read through this thread you sort of get that idea. I think there are a lot of these phones that have been returned or attempted to return that are just fine.

I've compared mine and it is no doubt warmer, but to read some of these post is just seems some get totally carried away with this.

Mine in my opinion looks fine and to expect that the current one will be exactly like the previous model is probably a mistake because they have said this display will be warmer. Now some have said theirs is down right yellow, well mine isn't it looks warmer and more natural. Some may say that looks a bit yellow compared to a really bluish white display.

There is no doubt Apple needs to get on this and take care of it, one way or the other. They need to either decide this warm screen is the way it will be, take it or leave it or advise folks that these displays are inferior and should be replaced. Again I am happy with mine, but I don't sit around comparing it constantly, I just use it and it works great!

In a way, I agree with Sirius Mac. I'd be happy with my 3GS even after comparing it to my cooler white iPod touch 1st Gen. The only reason I'm not, is that the top right quarter of mine looks to be cooler than the rest of the screen. The bottom quarter probably has the yellowest tint. That to me is a fault, and it does get pretty annoying.

+"Can you post pictures? What I am worried about is people who "think" they have a good screen until they see a comparison."+

I agree with the idea that many are freaking out unnecessarily that their properly "slightly warmer" 3G S (as compared to a 3G cool, overly bluish-white) is defective when it is not, it is NORMAL and by design.

I also KNOW that there are some 3G S models that are CLEARLY DEFECTIVE with YELLOW screens (plus a polarization problem). Mine is one of them, as you will see below.

Now, so as not to confuse matters, I am NOT going to do a 3G S side by side with a 3G. That is apples and oranges: my brother has a 3G and comparing my wife's properly warmer 3G S screen (slightly yellow to some people) to his 3G would show a difference but this is a moot point that is a matter of preference and is only noticeable when you compare side by side - you wouldn't notice it otherwise if it's just the proper slightly warmer 3G S (like my wife has).

I'm doing a 3G S vs. a 3G S which is apples to apples - both should be IDENTICAL to the untrained eye, with only normal tiny variations due to manufacturing that only an expert or a measuring device might be able to detect.

BOTH are identically set with MAX brightness and Auto Brightness OFF and both SHOULD be slightly warmer than a 3G and identical to each other in brightness, color saturation, contrast, viewing angle ability, etc. etc.

Now, the difference is MUCH MORE apparent when on the settings screen or on a Safari page where there is much more white on the screen, but I opted to photograph the brightness settings screen so that no one could possibly assume I had the settings different between the phones. So I avoid any "yeah right" responses but I sacrifice showing just how BAD it really is by sticking to this screen.

Now, with all that said, my wife's (on the right) IS slightly yellow = slightly warmer in comparison to my brother's 3G (NOT shown, but his is too blue/bright and yes some people prefer that, that's fine and great, but there is no problem with my wife's slightly warmer screen). This is NORMAL and looks good - her screen is clear, bright, crisp, vibrant, with good color saturation and strong contrast. Mine in comparison is dull, faded, washed out, low contrast, yellowish/brown AND from an angle there is what, less than HALF the brightness? That angle issue is EXTREMELY BAD and is from a polarization problem I think? and is NOT normal, is CLEARLY DEFECTIVE from a bad batch of bad screens that I think has nothing to do with build weeks but rather what supplier bin the screen was grabbed out of at whatever factory is was built at.

Both our 3G S's are 32GB Blacks pre-ordered and purchased at the same time on launch day, from AT&T in Southern California, and we were told they were shipped from some place in Texas. Both are week 23 builds.

My entire family complains they can't see my screen clearly from the side (faded & dim) while we can all see my wife's bright and clear. Seeing is believing, and from the pics below everyone should know EXACTLY what those of us with really FAULTY YELLOW screens is talking about. Again, this is a normal "warmer" 3G S on the right vs. a YELLOW DEFECTIVE 3G S on the left.

The quality of my digital camera in that low light is crap, it's on a poorly chosen screen to prove both have identical settings, and is MUCH WORSE than what I can show here, but even so, I think anyone and everyone should be able to still clearly see what I mean by a defective yellow/dim 3G S vs. a normal warm 3G S. Enough said, see what I mean:

!http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b249/honeychub/Yellow3GS-ArialView.jpg!

!http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b249/honeychub/Yellow3GS-SlantView.jpg!

I don't doubt what you are saying, but that picture is totally subjective to angle of the picture and locations of the phones in the picture. What if you had swapped them a round and took that picture from the exact angle.

Anyway... I do not doubt that all these display are the same, but then I wouldn't really expect them to be. Mine doesn't have a very good viewing angle either, but I don't use my phone from an angle, I am using it while looking head on into it, so that isn't a big deal!

It isn't like folks gather around an iPhone to watch movies. If you want to show folks stuff at least I just hand them my phone and say look!

I replaced my week 23 White 16GB at the Apple store last night. My phone had an off white screen and the white backgrounds looked quiet pale. I didn't like looking at it since I was used to the crisp white screens on my iPhone 3G and 1G iPod touch. It seems like they are well aware of the issue now. The Genius told me that slight variations in LCD color temperature are expected but if I didn't like my screen they would do a one time courtesy replacement. She didn't even look at my screen before offering me a replacement. I asked if I could compare the screen on the replacement with mine before accepting it and she had no problems with that. She offered me a week 26 which has a great screen...I was in and out of the store in 15 mins.