iPhone 3G S has yellowish tint

I finally got the courage to go and see if I could get a replacement 3G S so that my family & friends could see my screen along side of me as mine had a dim yellow-brown polarized screen. All week the local Apple Store in Brea, CA has been fully booked for Genius appointments so as I went back to the original ATT store we bought our 3G S's from in San Dimas, CA.

The ATT store had no replacement 32GB blacks in stock - they're still waiting for new stock and have had none in since all were purchased by a flood of customers on June 19th and even the whites were still out of stock although they said they expected "some" in later today (as if I'd take a white though, sheesh). So, what to do?

I'm pleased to report that the ATT manager was very pleasant and when he saw my 3G S side by side with my wife's 3G S (both on max brightness, auto brightness turned off) he agreed that it was night and day difference and admitted he wouldn't have been satisfied either. I was SO happy to have an honest person not try to play me with that issue.

Regardless, he did say that it was policy and required to charge a 10% restocking fee. I suggested that it didn't sound fair considering the unit was defective. He countered well, explaining that could be avoided by going through the route of the Apple Store doing a repair or swap, which made sense. Since I didn't want the nightmare of going through that experience, I decided to eat the 10% fee and returned the phone.

The manager was understanding and said that if I wasn't able to find another 32GB black anywhere else, to please call back and leave my phone with them so that they could notify me of when more stock finally arrived (no estimated date, apparently Apple is cleaned out).

So there we have it - no more iPhone for the time being - just a humble old Nokia 6600 for phone & texting only until I can find another 32GB black. I could not settle for defective quality, nor would my wife had, nor would the manager himself, and as I wanted full flexibility and freedom of choice, I was willing to take a 10% loss.

I'll report on my experience(s) later as I try to find a non-defective 32GB Black 3G S somewhere in southern California, insisting that I preview any and all phones for screen defects before purchasing (I'm not going through this mess again).

I find that I do notice a yellow tint if I'm outside in bright sunlight. It's not horribly distracting, but I can tell that some of my white backgrounds are sepia. Not bad enough that it would be detectable to anyone in the iPod store, though.

So, my experience on trying to find a new, non-defective 32GB black iPhone 3G S...

Went to local Apple Store today. Stood in line for an hour. Told retail sales guy I had just returned my former 32GB 3G S back to ATT due to dim yellow polarized screen. I wanted to check quality of screen from new stock before committing to buy. Not possible. Had to pay up front before they'd open any boxes.

Paid for a new 32GB black. Guy opens it up, says I have to pay for a new activation (ATT implied I could just re-use my old SIM card - yes I can, but not in a new iPhone - not how Apple activates new ones...).

Brand new week 26 is not dim, yellow & polarized as my old defective one, but instead it's dim, dirt brown and polarized. Horrible horrible screen. Guy compares it to my wife's proper warm yellow 3G S and agrees its bad and goes back to talk to manager to see if he can open up another one.

I get a 100% complete refund on the phone with no restocking fee (heck I touched it for only 15 seconds and never walked out with it). Sales guy comes back with another new 32GB "from a different batch". It's another week 26 and we go through the all new activation. Compare it with wife's 3G S (always comparisons are max brightness with auto brightness off).

At first I say "Ooh this has potential!" as I glance at it from a couple feet away as he lays them out next to each other. Then I get close and look careful.

2nd new phone is BRIGHT, as bright as my wife's. It's NOT polarized! But it's screen is brown-yellow, very noticeably more than my wife's, but not as bad as the former one (the sales guy described it as "better"). But the colors are all washed out. There's hardly any contrast. Details are fuzzy. There are no blacks, it's just very dark charcoal. Totally unacceptable. He agrees it's not the same quality and says he's running out of options. He goes back to manager and is told to tell me the following:

1) This is the first time that this store has heard of this yellow screen problem (wonder how many times they've used that line, sheesh - so insulting).

2) All 3G S phones will exhibit some varying degree of screen quality and all are within spec (OMG, um, sales guy had just agreed the 2 brand new phones were not the same quality for heaven's sakes).

I roll my eyes at the poor guy and he just smiles shrugging his shoulders saying if he were in my shoes, as no more boxes will be opened for me, to just take this 2nd one and come back and talk to the Genius guys to do a swap. I state I've tried for a week to get an appt and nothing's open. Of course he can make one and so I've got an appt scheduled for Monday.

He packs up my box and I leave completely depressed, frustrated, ready to just give up. I get home and prep to sync the new but defective crap screen phone. I then find out that the new retail box is missing something - he didn't give me the sync cable - he had kept it to sync the phone with his iTunes to activate it, and well, forgot it, adding insult to injury.

3 phones in a row, completely defective screens, totally unacceptable, even my wife said no way would she accept any of them, and no one, not ATT nor this Apple retail sales guy disputed the fact that the screens were different and not up to parr in comparison to my wife's 3G S, which itself is dimmer and yellower than most of the display models they have, but which is "within spec and acceptable variance" in my opinion. There's variance, and there's defective, and I have yet to see any 3G S that's to spec other than Apple Store & ATT store display models and my wifes...

And so begins the long frustrating swap routine so many of you have already gone through, and continue to go through. What a horrid frustrating mess this quality control issue is. I can certainly see how many just give up and just accept sub-standard quality to just avoid all this headache 😟

I have said previously that I was +beginning to accept+ the yellow-tint but upon further investigation of side-by-side comparisons between all iphone devices I have been able to get my hands on; two 1st Generation iPhones, one 3G and four 3GS’s (3 replacements and one from a friend) *I have come to the conclusion now that _if you have a ‘yellow tint’ you have a ‘problem too’_ ..*

Essentially I have synced around 300 photographs I have taken over the course of a year with a high-end digital camera to each of the devices I own; my PC and Macbook and HDTV, Apple iPhone/Touch units. Swiping through each image and comparing amongst all the devices showed a *worrying trend of inaccuracy on the 3Gs* that I have had (all 3 have had the same level of yellow tint) but not my friends 3Gs that is less yellow.

What I found was that anything red, like a a car for example .. that I know the colour of in real-life; was showing as almost ‘pink’ or ‘orange’ and not the red that it should have been. Faces, natural skin tone .. again, showed extra amounts of ‘red’ saturation in them as though the colour had been turned too high. White shirts showed as ‘off-white’ (expected because of the yellow tint) – but equally purple, light blue and green items of clothing that I understand the accuracy of in real-life were showing inaccurately.

Infact, the more I swiped through the images and compared against each device it was the 3GS that was coming last in every single accuracy test.

If the yellow-tint was purely a problem for ‘whites’ then this could be accepted. But to find that images are no longer ‘true to life’ makes this device a complete return item.

I really do now recommend checking your device with images taken previously with other equipment and that you know the colours of, etc; and then doing your own comparisons, because I believe you will find similar results providing you have the worrying ‘yellow tint’ that seems to be a dead giveaway of a problem unit!

It’s no good losing your 14days return only to find you have to keep this unit for its lifetime and soon discover Apple have resolved the issue. Do not just presume that the issue is the obvious 'yellow' hue but seek out colour-by-colour tests amongst your devices to see there is deep inaccuracy within.

I have a 32GB white 3GS and it has a yellow display with bad contrast and washed-out color. I have direct comparison to my old 3G which is how an iPhone should be. I wonder why Apple doesn’t care about the quality of the displays? They could at least make tests in the chinese factory from time to time?

My display is so yellow and flaw it wouldn’t have passed a simple visual test at the factory.

Over here in Germany I don’t have an Apple Store nearby so I have to send it in to Apple Service. I will most-likely receice a refurbished phone with some other flaw. Because that was my experience with the 3G. They exchanged my 3G with stuck pixels against a 3G with other stuck pixels AND scratches and dust (and what else?!).

I will not change my yellow iPhone against another one which is refurbished. Which seems most-likely to get back. I’d rather keep my bad one and be angry about it every day for the next 2 years.

Thank you Apple, not.

Let’s be clear about this thread with 40000+ views: It’s like a lottery game to get a good screen.

If you’re lucky you get a good screen, if not you get a yellow screen or a weird battery.

Apple doesn’t say anything about this issue.

So, gooood luck to all you lottery participants.



BTW: I have a yellow 3GS and they refused to exchange it in the store where I bought it ("Intended by Apple..blah")

The situation ***** big time. I'm still waiting (and will be for a while - maybe even a freaking YEAR at this rate) to dip back into the iPhone pool. Sheesh, I may even go for the Palm Pre.

One thing I can assure you is that Steve Jobs absolutely does not accept this kind of crap being sold and spoiling or threatening his precious brand. He stands for excellence, innovation and "the very best" in consumer electronics. As a businessman however, maybe this issue is MORE of a problem than we even realise and properly addressing it would be hugely costly and create a negative PR frenzy. Silence is the best (and most often used) defense against this and that's what we're all experiencing. It's probably down to some or a group of Apple employees either brushing this off as "whining customers" a la some of the posters here and hence the people who could actually look into this issue never hear about it, or more likely it's that the upper echelons know about this issue and are quietly and probably VERY SLOWLY dealing with it.

I looked at a few more iPhone 3GS's in an O2 store (all of them to be precise) and I noticed that all of the screens on their display models seemed almost perfect in terms of colour but interestingly had a little backlight bleed at the bottom which I've never seen before. Funny thing is, I would prefer to "live with" slight backlight bleed than slight colour issues. In any case the indicators are definitely that there are "Don't give a **" people in the factories making these iPhones and amongst Apple employees - and given the wages paid these days, on a certain level I don't blame them.

iPhone lottery? Perfect. Let's make it an official phrase to refer to the probematically variable quality of the iPhone 3GS in particular.

Anyone have a week 27 phone and if so - how is it? My brother and I went to swap his phone at Best Buy and they are all week 27 phones. His week 25 has major battery problems and the yellow screen so his will be swapped either way. My phone on the other hand has the yellow screen issue and washed out colors. My problem is I don't want to risk getting an even crappier phone. If there is a chance that the week 27 phones are still bad - I will keep my phone and just say whatever.

I have gone through the same thing... I had opened and checked amongst the display models 3 3GS's in the Apple store and all of them had the yellow tint. The store employees confirmed this but said, well I can't just keep swapping it out for you. They said I should wait a week and come back to see if the LCD maybe needs to be 'burned in' stating that the display models are 'always' on and thus may have gotten brighter. Either way, I have a phone that has a yellowish tint, not horrid, but after opening 3 brand new phones in store, what else can I do?

I've been following this topic around the web for a few weeks now.

When I got my 3GS and heard about this I pulled out my old 1st gen iPhone and compared the screens. My 3GS is definitely "warmer". I recently went in to an Apple store and compared it to the display iPhones to find the same. MY 3GS was warmer than their display models.

Now I wasn't looking for an exchange, although it would have been nice, but what bothered me was the fact that I was treated like a dummy. YOU KNOW that every bleeding salesperson is up on every single issue with the 3GS. They have to be. When I showed the salesperson the difference between their display phones and mine he played dumb and went off to show my phone to someone else only to come back with the story that he just showed it to the manager and they made a comparison to the manager's phone and that the MANAGER'S iPhone was even more yellow cast than mine! He also went on to explain that the problem was that the iPhone is made in different factories and they all use different glass.

Well I suppose that certainly is possible. But that's really poor quality control. Now as I said, I wasn't really looking for a replacement. When you're looking at one screen, white is white. I can live with that. But I have come to expect much more from Mr Jobs and Apple. I expect to be treated with a certain amount of respect when I enter an Apple store. I expect NOT to be treated like a moron, encountered by a staff that denies known issues.

Perhaps in the near future I'll switch back to a Sony PC and a Blackberry.

I think some of them came defective. I just got the iPhone 3GS and it has the "cooler" screen you described, as opposed to my iPod Touch (1st Generation, almost a year old) which displays a yellower screen color. My boyfriend acquired his 3GS about 2 weeks after I got mine and when we compared them next to each other (same brightness level) we could tell the difference, his had the yellowish coloration. I'm surprised to see that this issue is the most common people have been experiencing with the 3GS. Even though I haven't had a single issue with my phone (it is perfect actually) my boyfriend has had way too many. His first 3GS (which he got the same day I did) had an annoying rattling sound when shook (mainly if shook in the vertical direction), he returned it and got this other one that not only has the rattling noise as well but also the screen defect.

Apple -on the other hand- has been pretty helpful and they have said that none of these issues are normal.

I hope this helps.

Message was edited by: anapty

SpurtSpanker wrote:
*Anyone have a week 27 phone and if so - _how is it?_* My brother and I went to swap his phone at Best Buy and they are all week 27 phones. His week 25 has major battery problems and the yellow screen so his will be swapped either way. My phone on the other hand has the yellow screen issue and washed out colors. My problem is I don't want to risk getting an even crappier phone. *_If there is a chance that the week 27 phones are still bad - I will keep my phone and just say whatever._*

I specifically asked for a week higher than my previous week 23's that I had - already aware that week 27 phones had also reported issues - but that was as late as my 3rd replacement could be. I reported earlier that this phone suffered equally as bad as the others that I have had experience with.

It is essentially a lottery as to getting a decent phone that is 'as it should be' -- and the 'week' has little if nothing to do with this IMO. The week is nothing more than what we know, when it was made. The factory and the parts used is the larger concern and for that we seem to have little to no idea how to decide on how to select a unit that has acceptable parts by simply looking at the box serial or parts display.

I would reiterate that if you have a concern over the yellow screen to do much more testing because you will find that RGB values are off the mark more than you will first wish to think; and as a result colours are going to show much less accurately across the board.

I have read people with week 28 phones reporting fewer issues - but this could be nothing more than luck of the draw from those posters.

Regarding my week 27 phone I will be returning it tomorrow for what might be the final time. If the store offer for me to try another (will be seeing the manager) I may well take the chance but otherwise I will be seeking a refund and waiting a few more weeks; or chance a different brand phone.

Having a sub-par display that will be with you for the duration of the life of your phone is not acceptable as far as I am concerned. I appreciate that others will be of the view 'ah well, its only a phone.. i aint comparing it to anything else so I'm fine' -- excellent, but the "Apple Brand" and "Sub-Par" are not words they should be associating themselves with.

Put it this way. I have an iPod Touch that flickers if it goes below half brightness. I have a Macbook Pro that flickers if it goes below a quarter brightness and a 1st generation sharp, beautiful iPhone that I have never had a bit of trouble from. I have used 2nd generation 3G iPhones that have been equally as good in display and also experienced two 3GS units owned by friends that in side by side comparisons are also excellent and what I would consider 'perfect' .. I am not settling for sub-par displays, others might.

We all know Apple are excellent in the first 14 days.. they love you, but after that time having problems will often result in a complete different beast. I am not willing to run the 14 day gauntlet and be stuck.

My iPhone 3GS (Week 26) has the same issue, yellow tint throughout the screen. My mother also got the 3GS (Week 27) and the screen is much better. It's much whiter and there seems to be no yellow tint whatsoever. I even compared mine to the other iPhones at the Apple Store today and most of them didn't have the yellow tint issue. I'm going to set up an appointment for the genius bar and see if they will swap out my phone for another.

@Yellowphone: Look at the bottom of any Apple iPhone 3G S retail box. Bottom left hand corner look for the text "(S) Serial No. XXXXXXXXXXX". The 4th and 5th digits of that serial number are the week build.

Now if only anyone could find out which factory a given phone was built at by looking at the serial number, then we might find a more clear trend as to where this problem originates...

Eeps I haven't done this. Thank you for this reminder! Now, would someone please kindly post a URL link here so that slow-minded folks like me don't have to search from here to Kingdom come trying to find out where and how to do this? 😉