iPhone 3G S has yellowish tint

to the above poster ^^

turn off auto brightness and examine the viewing angle while looking at white menus. You will see that the yellow dinge is more noticeable from extreme viewing angles and from some orientations more than others.

**some of this may be related to inconsistencies in the polarization process im thinking. **

Message was edited by: wintermutefa

Yeah, I have been playing with it since I got it. This is the better of the 4 phones I have had. Different angles give me different views and saturations. I am not sure if that is right, but it seems pretty inconsistent really. I never had this much of a problem with my 3G.

I know depending on how you hold the phone, angle, portrait, landscape, tilted or whatever, yellow will be present or it will be crisp, clear and white. It makes me wonder what the problem really is. Is it the LCD or the screen itself? Perhaps its both causing the issue?

I don't know. It is rather annoying.

I've now discovered the battery is screwed on the only iPhone that had a good screen. It jumps from 100% to 70% in 10 minutes, then back up to 98%, then slowly drains to about 70% at which point the battery dies. I've done a full charge and full drain to reset the battery calibration but to no avail.

I just can't believe it. Out of all eight 3GS iPhones not one of them is any good. Apple has some serious quality control issues with these new phones. I'm getting rid of all of mine and will be pinching my perfect old 2G back from my other half. Sort it out Apple!

Picture of all six phones (one has been exchanged and the other sold):

http://i30.tinypic.com/33oqy4h.jpg

Picture of the 3GS with the prefect screen on the left (I've changed the system font by the way) and the worst of the bunch on the right:

http://i32.tinypic.com/j0z9zs.jpg

It's very difficult to capture the yellow whites with a camera but the blue's really show the difference. The yellow whites are as obvious as the blue's when looking at the phones in person.

That's horrible. What makes it worse is the fact that people say it's "normal" yet you have phones that look exactly like the 3G ones, crisp, clear, white. This is terrible.

Even the "good" 3GS you have there has yellow at the bottom of the screen. I am noticing this even on the phones people say are "good". I NEVER noticed this on my 3G and I can tell even the slightest of color change. That's what annoys me the most.

I am hoping most of this can be resolved with a firmware update, but I don't know at this point. I expected much more from Apple - hence why I bought the new 3GS. The 3G was my first ever Apple product and loved it.

Now it pains me to think they don't care since there has been NO response from them.

Yes I have noticed the same thing. Sometimes my screen looks great and sometimes it does not. I think it is a combination of ambient lighting and viewing angle.

The lighting at work makes my screen look pretty good but if I go outside I can see the screen problem. My yellow tint is not as bad as some of the photos I have seen.

Right now in my house the bottom of my screen looks slightly brown. I don't see it when I tilt the phone.

The fourth iPhone (reading left to right) is a 3GS?? Wow, I would say that is on par with the old 3G color temperature/contrast. I thought I was going to live with a yellow half tinted display, but after seeing that, I am really ticked off. I had to pay the full upgrade price (which is fine), but I would expect the "upgrade" from 3G to 3GS to be better. I have another replacement phone coming tomorrow (fingers crossed it isn't the nicotine yellow display).

iaTa please clarify if the 4th one is a 3GS or an older model. Also, what was the week build - even though there may be no correlation.

Yes they are all 3GS models. The good one is a 32GB week 23 from China. The second picture shows the good phone (fourth from left in first picture) on the left and one of the two very bad phones (second and third from left in first picture) on the right. All phones are still set to the default brightness with auto brightness turned off. The slight yellowing towards the bottom of the good screen is hardly noticeable.

I'm just gutted that I found a good screen but it has a knackered battery. It's unbelievable actually. Out of all the 25+ phones I saw in stores none had a screen as good as this one.

If I were you I would have apple just swap out the battery. Keep the good screen as we know its a lottery to get one. They should be able to monitor your battery to prove its bad with some carrier setting install.

sandchoi wrote:
My husband and I both got phones, but his is the bright blueish tint and mine was the yellowish tint. I switched it out today and the new one is still yellowish but less so. *My husband got his the first day it came out*. I got mine the second. So regarding the yellow tint issue. It is definitely a toss up.

I have such a love and hate relationship with the phone and Apple.

Friend of mine who with a less warm display purchased his on day 1 and is week 20. The phones I have had experience with since (purchased the week after and beyond) have all had much more intense 'warm' level to them and as a result stand out in any direct comparison with less warmer units.

Strangely, I am possibly coming to the conclusion now more so than ever that the more 'warmer' level we are seeing on 3GS (beyond 1st and 2nd Gen phones) might be the *_correct level_*.

The 'glaring whites' we have been used to on our monitors and 1st Gen phones, etc. is not the recommended form any longer and a move to even warmer settings is recommended for correct movie calibration on our HDTVs (Warm2 on most TVs is recommended) .. So if we have been used to web-pages and our screens with retina burning whites will force things to stand out - largely because its such a change.

I think possibly using the phone without comparison to any other device for a few days before deciding that we hate it might be the thing to do; because the more you use it the more you appreciate that colours and images do actually look better than on 'colder' display units.

I have had 3 phones and all have been the same level of warmth. I think those with a more 'colder' setting may well be the ones with the faulty units.

Whites should not be 'blaring white' in this day and age.. they are supposed to be warm if you take you wish to have 'proper calibration'.

My experience at the Apple Store Sydney:

I made an appointment with a genius and explained my case: I believed I had an iPhone with an overly yellow and dim screen.

At the same time, I laid out on the bar my girlfriend's 3GS bought at the same time as mine, my old 3G, and my yellow 3GS in the center, so there were three iPhones lined up. All at maximum brightness, auto adjust off.

The genius immediately agreed my 3GS was very yellow, and set off to get a replacement unit. He unboxed it and gave it to me to assess. I looked at it next my girlfriend's 3GS (which has a good, pleasing screen), and it seemed very similar. Both were a little warmer than my old 3G, but that appears to be intentional with the 3GS. No uneven tinting towards the bottom, no rattles on the moving buttons.

So, I accepted it, the genius did the serial number registration thingy, gave me a warranty replacement form to sign, and that was it.

Painless, friendly service.

My wife has the cooler tint. My eyes hurt from squinting too much when using hers, even on medium brightness. If yours is pi$$ yellow like some are, return it. If it's just warm then I say go with it, sine it's probably not an issue and you'll likely get another replacement that's the same. I don't think any issues will get ironed out, my wife got the original 3G 1 year after it was released and it still had the light leak issue.

vivarevolution wrote:
Strangely, I am possibly coming to the conclusion now more so than ever that the more 'warmer' level we are seeing on 3GS (beyond 1st and 2nd Gen phones) might be the *_correct level_*.

The 'glaring whites' we have been used to on our monitors and 1st Gen phones, etc. is not the recommended form any longer and a move to even warmer settings is recommended for correct movie calibration on our HDTVs (Warm2 on most TVs is recommended) .. So if we have been used to web-pages and our screens with retina burning whites will force things to stand out - largely because its such a change.

As long as the fact that there are definitely too yellow screens out there isn't being confused by this observation, I think you're onto something there.

(It could even be a change of manufacturing standards amongst their part suppliers rather than a deliberate intention on the part of Apple. I would assume Apple has final say over the specs of the componentry, however.)

It's been less than a day that I've been using a "normal" 3GS (exchanged from an obviously too yellow unit), and in this short time I am not entirely convinced I like the subtle amount of added warmth and slightly lowered contrast over my previous 3G screen.

But, I have to recognize that the 3G was something I looked at constantly for over a year, and my standard of "normal" has been shaped by that. After few days, this may seem normal.

I believe there are definitely differences in these screens. My co-worker has a week 24 32GB black and when I compared my 3 day old week 27 32GB black to hers there is a marked difference. We both set ours to approximately the same brightness level with auto brightness off and hers is bright white and mine has a cloudy yellow tint.

To me the screen is perfectly readable and unless I did this comparison I wouldn't have known. I'm not sure if I want to return it as it seems to be hit and miss and although the screen is tinted it's not really that bad.

What bothers me the most is the low volume of the earpiece. At half volume I can barely hear the other person and at max volume it's still too low. You can forget using this in any noisy environment. As a comparison, my Moto Razor at half volume was way louder than my iPhone at maximum. Anyone else have a low volume issue?

After further comparisons, I'm not so sure I would call the tint yellow. It's more like hers is just brighter at the same brightness level then mine. Even at max brightness hers is still brighter where mine although bright, seems dimmed/dirty but not yellow.

Hmmm... what to do?

In my office where I work, there are 7 of us that upgraded to the 3G[s]. They all have the exact same screen color. A bit of yellow tint. Not too bad, but you can see it if you compare against a 3G.

Not bad enough for any of us to return them.

I agree with the previous post. It seems that the brightness control is a bit off. If you turn up brightness, the yellow is way less noticeable.