iPhone 3G S has yellowish tint

+"I do not believe this {that display models are different, pre-production models} to be true......as i checked the serial number on phones at the Michigan Ave APPLE STORE in Chicago and they had weeks 21 22 and 23. I wonder if time could change things?"+

Ouch for Apple's integrity. I was hoping that what I read somewhere that the display models were different, pre-production models was true, but you just blew a hole in that belief. This is VERY bad for Apple, but truth is truth...

If the store display models are not different, pre-production models, but are in fact just rare, hand-picked gems that are the best 1 out of XX? from production stock, then there indeed is clearly a HUGE varying degree of quality with regard to the color and brightness and polarization of the 3G S screens.

Why??? Loose tolerances and shoddy quality control? Rushing the 3G S out for sale so fast to avoid losing market share to the Palm Pre, Google G2 and a host of other recent competitors that they accepted a HUGE variance in quality from non-spec screens, hoping few would notice or care enough to do anything about it?

Any other reasonable explanations?

As nitpicky as this crowd is (and heck, who can blame anyone for being picky for paying $700 for a phone for heaven's sakes), this issue is not going to go away if some have a cooler screen and others do not.

I THOUGHT there was an intended baseline of normal warmer screens (such as what my wife has) but now even that idea which I assumed was fact and argued for is in doubt. To think I was arguing that the differences between non-defective 3G S screens should be undetectable to the untrained eye - this is HOW it SHOULD be but it seems I assumed way too much here with regard to Apple quality.

Like most of you, I then also want to have nothing less than the same cool blue screen models I also saw on display. I'm going to return this defective, dim, yellow-brown, polarized screened phone back and keep taking them back until I get at LEAST the same lighter yellow screen my wife has, although I sure would prefer the cooler bluish screen I saw on the 3G S models on display.

Apple really has done itself in with this issue here, and I do not think this is a firmware issue that can be updated away, else it would have happened already (or at least been announced).

I am returning my phone tomorrow for a refund. I am going to go back to my 3G until Apple solves the issue. WHat made my decision is the fact that just about everyone in this forum is saying, what I to have witnessed, that all the in store display phones have a clearer cooler display. There is an issue and I will wait for Apple to sort it out.

Just got my 3GS today, it's a week 25 with a yellow tint on the bottom half. Going to wait a couple of days to see if I can live with it, but the more and more I read on this thread the more I think Apple will be getting a call from me. It's really upsetting they couldn't fix this problem. I've had every single iPhone that's ever come out and I've never had a worse looking screen.

I read on Gizmodo that just out is a beta release of iPhone firmware update 3.1

I wonder if it has any adjustments to tweak the device's color profile?

Perhaps anyone who knows a developer could get them to comment on the effect on their 3GS. It could settle once and for all if this can or will be fixed by an update.

Although, personally, I'm in the camp that thinks the yellow/dull screens are physically like that from the factory and not addressable by software.

definitely not software, if yours is yellow on the bottom... If it is consistent, it may just be the normal warmer calibration...and what it with the comments from the peanut gallery about whether they think people are really having the issue or not? This thread is for people having the issue who want to compare and get advice on what to do...

I do think that they can make some color calibration changes to make the display a little less yellow, but on a display where you have a portion of it looking normal and another portion looking yellow that is a defect I would think.

But clearly the can calibrate these displays to some degree. We've seen proof of that with the 3G's when they were released.

Its not an aberation, the 3GS has a serious battery/power management related flaw. The web is crawling with complaints. I heard that O2 management in UK are discussing the situation for an announcement within the next 24 hours. There are an awful lot of 3GS users in the 14 day cooling off period with 02 (I'm one of them)!

My experince was a GPS usage where the phone was literally too hot to hold after 30 mins. The battery life was wacked also.

If this post gets sensored I'll let you know....somehow!!!

Returned my 3GS for a refund today and bought a new one. I did this so I was sure to get a new one and not someone else's returned phone. This phone does have the same yellowish tint. My first 2 phones were week 25 production models and this is a week 26. The first 2 were black, this one is white. For those people, like me, looking for the type of cooler more blueish toned screen on a 3GS you are going to have a hard time finding one. I went to a different Apple Store today and a lot of their display items had the yellow tint, which was different from the other Apple Store I visited where most of there display models had the cooler bluer tint. I will live with what I have now. The people I feel who will be most turned off by the yellow tint will be people like me who used the 2G and the 3G iPhone and whose eyes had become accustomed to the bluer tint. It will take us a while to adjust.

As an additional FYI. This phone has the issue others had reported here in this thread of the screen not being flush and recessed slightly on the right side. My 3G had the same problem so it doesn't bug me. However, my 3G had a perfect screen so it made trivial and minor flaws easier to cope with.

I just returned from replacing my phone at the local Apple Store in Houston due to the yellow tint problem. I had a week 26 phone and the replacement is from week 25.

The Genius compared my phone to his but neither of us could tell a difference between our screen colors. Before meeting with the Genius, I checked the display iPhones and found most of them had brighter and less yellow screens than my phone.

The Genius walked with me to one of the display models and laid all three phones next to each other (after adjusting to full brightness). There was no doubt that the floor model had a screen much closer in tone to the 3G than either his or mine.

He replaced my phone without any hesitation and, once activated, we checked the floor model again. This time his phone display was distinctly more yellow than my phone or the floor model.

I am now happy with the slightly warmer display color of the 3GS. It is not exactly like my 3G but I'm finding that I actually like it better. The colors are richer and the text is easier to read.

If you're not happy, don't settle. You'll just keep concentrating on the problem if you're like me. That's why I buy Apple products in the first place.

I purchased the 3GS yesterday (16GB Black) and immediately noticed what I can only describe as 'burnt yellow' tinge (or as some have described, "Nicotine Yellow") to any white background. I was coming from a 1st Generation Iphone and also 1st Gen iPod Touch so appreciated that there are bound to be differences, but still not quite to this degree. Having already played with a 3G the colour was still much worse..

Now, having had the chance to compare a member of the family who also purchased the 3GS in a side-by-side comparision a few hours ago I was amazed to find that my initial concerns were true; that my colours should not be this bad! His 3GS was in line with my excellent display on my iPod Touch, having a "warm" tint on whites but nowhere near to the extent I was experiencing (and noticing every moment of its use on my phone!) ..

I have since packed my unit up and will be returning it for a full refund tomorrow - not taking any chances with another phone as I do not consider this to be part of the "Apple Experience" I was expecting! I have also wasted a screen-protector on it and had the phone force-activated by the Apple store.. with £10 top-up time (Pay As You Go (UK)) enabled.. so will be seeking to have every penny returned.

I really do recommend anyone with concerns to replace your unit as soon as possible because direct comparisions with good units will make you appreciate just what you are missing and what you will end up with if you do not act swiftly.

We have 2 3GS phones and a 3G

The 3G is perfect. Bright, clear, great colors, no yellow at all.

One 3GS from week 22 -- warm reddish/yellowish tint, sharp, good colors
(the reddish tint is odd, but I like it, so I'm keeping this one)

One 3GS from week 21 -- nicotine yellowish tint, dark, not sharp, washed out colors

We tried to return the week 21 phone to the Santa Monica apple store, but the genius said because we bought it from AT&T we had to return it to AT&T; he said Apple will not replace any phones purchased from AT&T. Only looking at the icons on the black home screen, he said the phone looked just fine and meets Apple's specifications. We didn't bother arguing with him, the guy was not going to help us.

We called AT&T and they said that's not true, Apple handles all returns. AT&T transferred the call to Apple, and Apple sure enough Apple replaced the phone, even though this phone was one ordered on-line at AT&T and shipped by AT&T originally.

The new one arrived by FedEx today. It's a week 25.

It had interesting packaging. There were two boxes side by side in foam in the package, each box is half the thickness of a regular iphone box and slightly larger. One was black and said "iphone" in silver and the other was white and said "AppleCare" in red. The new phone with no accessories was in the iphone box, and the white box (which to me looks like a little ambulance) contained a little bubble-wrap envelope to place the "broken" nicotine-yellow iphone in so it could go on a safe little ride back home to the Apple hospital.

I assume these replacement units are new; but they are in their own unique packaging.

This new week 25 3GS does not have a nicotine yellow tint, it is sharp, and the colors are well saturated. The chrome is flush with the screen. I notice an ever-so-slight yellowish towards the bottom of the screen, but it's not that bothersome. We're keeping this one.

After much internal debate, I exchanged my iPhone 3GS at the local Apple store. Luckily, I didn't have to argue my case with the Genius Bar. An employee in the light blue shirt facilitated the exchange process. He brought out a brand new phone in a shrink wrapped box from the back. I originally had a _*Week 20*_ build that looked faded, dull, and yellow. The newer 3GS is a _*Week 26*_ build that is brighter and less yellow.

I wouldn't hesitate to exchange your phone in the first 30 days. This is the return policy on iPhones, why not take advantage of it while you have certain monetary rights aka get your money back.

I firmly believe the lack of quality control will be resolved in the coming months. I'd wait till then, but it's not an option.

Good Luck!

I'm probably going to do this too (complicated only by the fact I live 300 miles away from the Apple Store I bought it from).

For people who do return/exchange, could you please come back here afterwards and report on your success at getting a good screen, along with the build week indicated by the serial number (4th and 5th digits).

Hopefully data like that will help determine when it is "safe" to go back into an Apple Store...

I just got my 4th iPhone 3g s exchanged and this one is a winner. My first one was a week 23 and it had a fugly yellowish tint to it. Not only did the screen look yellow but it also looked dirty. Exchanged it twice at a local Apple Store with no luck 😟 both with similar yellowish, dirty looking screens. I kept it for about a week trying to see if I can adjust to it but I really couldn't knowing the fact that both my co-worker and boss both had a 3gs with nice, non yellowish, vivid screens so I went back to the Apple Store and exchanged it one last time. This one I got is a week 26 and even tho the screen isn't as white as my old 3G, it was much less yellow with vivid colors so I decided to stick with this one. Oh yeah, my 2nd and 3rd units were both week 25. My co-worker had a week 24 and my boss had a week 26. If you guys are looking to make an appointment with the genius bar, I wouldn't. Just go back to the store and ask for an exchange. They can't say no within your 14 days. If they do try and give you a hard time just return it and buy another one :P