iPhone 3G S has yellowish tint

2 - Entire screen is uniformly "warmer" (yellow). - Software

Sorry, that's hardware also.

I was just at an Apples store in the UK after Carphone Warehouse told me they were the people to see about my yellow tinted screen.

Going through the the models on display: 4x week 22's with nice bright whiter LCD, one w25 and a w23 yellow as mine.

They told be I'd have to get a refurbed unit - I said I didn't care where it came from as long as it wasn't yellow tinted. They had no 32's in stock and no genius' free so I now have appointment for Monday.

One thing which was useful was to tilt mine and other good unit. My week 23 unit has much narrower angle of view and goes yellow and darker way before the w22 comparison. The sales assistant had to agree that this was very obvious.

I'll post what happens on Monday.

I received a replacement iPhone the other day with the same problem. The person I was working with at Apple tech support asked me to go to the Apple store to show the phone to a mac genius. I set up an appointment for the next day and met with a rep who had an iPhone himself to compare screens. I turned on the free Flashlight app while he downloaded it to his iPhone and showed him the difference between my screen and his "normal" iPhone screen. He took my iPhone in the back and replaced the screen. I have to imagine he checked the screen to make sure the tint issue was resolved prior to bringing it back to me.

** This solved the problem **

I would say to anyone out there with the issue of 1/3 of the screen being obviously brownish/tinted to bring your phone to the Apple store and ask them to replace just the screen and not the entire unit. That way you can check it in the store before you leave. The difference between my old screen and the new one is truly amazing. It is brighter and completely devoid of the yellow tint issue. Please note the screen is supposed to have a bit of a warm tint to it but not as everyone has described and what I personally experienced. I have to compliment Apple tech support they really worked with me to get this resolved.

its funny that Apple has just made i phone screen replacement an in store procedure. They don't have to ship phones out any more to be fixed. Maybe they are admitting in their own way they know there is a problem. I broke down ordered a phone got it its week 26 and it is slightly yellowed its useable but I may be bringing it into a store next week for a screen replacement

how long did a screen replacement take?

Are there any pictures of this yellowish tint? My 3GS seems fine, but I'd like to see what people are talking about.

It's kind of difficult to capture what we are all experiencing with a camera. Pretty much, if you go to cnn.com on your phone and read any article (it's especially noticeable when just reading all text with a white background), literally the bottom half of the phone looks like someone smoked a cigarette through it or something - yellow/brownish = nasty. If you put the phone in landscape mode, the yellow tint is still half of the screen and is extremely noticeable when reading articles. Literally, when you read the article, people with the problem notice the white background behind the text change from crispy nice white to yellow.

Lets face it, if folks haven't notice it, they clearly don't have the problem and should not go looking for issues.

I was fortunate in that my phone has been great in terms of the display. I've never detected any visible signs as described above. I still can't help, but think many of these phones are being returned and there is nothing wrong with them, just because of a growing paranoia that OMG my phone is slightly warmer compared to previous versions so let me take it back!

Message was edited by: Sirius Mac

I must concur with thetechnogeek's previous post. My iMac, Macbook, iPhone, iPhone 3Gs, a co-workers 3G, my friends 3Gs, my girlfriends 3Gs, our Sony Bravia, and all my iPods have color variations when displaying a white screen. That's just the nature of most backlit screens. I would say that if your 3Gs has a freakishly yellow tint return it (my girlfriends 3Gs display is more yellow than mine - she just doesn't care. Every iPhone screen I have looked at has a slightly different shade from the top to the bottom of the display. Although, it would be nice if Apple would allow us to change the display hue from warmer to cooler or vice versa on our phones... I prefer cooler.

I think this is very short sighted of you to say. Just because you don't have it doesn't mean others are having a placebo / paranoid reaction. It is true that all LCD's vary in color even within the same model and same build date. I have gone through 5 iPhone 3GS's already and I clearly see a difference.

First phone: battery life terrible, week 21
Second phone: overheats randomly, week 23
Third phone: hairline cracks near headset plug, week 25
Fourth and Fifth: Unevenly yellow screen, Week 25

Now let me say that I have 4 iphone 3GS at any given time in the household to do comparisons. I don't mind so much the yellowing, in fact all of us agree that some of the yellow screens actually display certain colors (especially black) much better than the 3G's. One of our 3GS's is super bright and slightly pinkish. When displaying black, it looks like the background of the home screen is bleeding. Another one has what some would say, the "perfect screen" because it displays a perfect white.

I had to return my 4th and 5th phone because when placed side to side with the other phones in the house (and even when not placed side to side), there was obvious yellowing near the bottom of the screen. My girlfriend and I did blind tests one night before we went to bed by downloading the flashlight app, setting to max brightness and setting to white in the app. In total darkness, all you can see is the screen. You can't see the bezel or the home button or the call headphones. We would randomly turn the phone and both of us could, 100% of the time, pick out which side was the bottom due to the yellowing.

THIS IS NOT PLACEBO. All of my immediate friends are iPhone freaks so we've all returned our phones a few times here and there (not the ones in the household). I have charted and kept track of all the phones so far. This is by no means 100% accurate but is what I strongly believe(and from what I have seen):

Week 21: 4 out of 5 phones had bad battery life (restored as new, cycled, etc)

Week 23: 3 out of 3 had perfect screens. ALL apple store demo phones in santa clara/los gatos apple stores have these and have perfect colors (look for yourself)

Week 25: 1 out of 4 had yellow screen

Week 26: 5 out of 6 had yellow screen UNEVENLY. 2 out of 6 had defective compass.


From all this, I felt week 23/25 had the best chances of getting the best possible phone. I have charted more than 30 iPhone 3GS since release. Right now my girlfriend's Week 26 (which is the 1 that doesn't have uneven yellowing, but actually has a unique pinkish screen) has hairline cracks near the power button and the headset jack. We are waiting to exchange when Week 27 is released here in cupertino.

Again, don't take my word for it. I'm just giving you guys what I had experienced. I don't think comparing 30 phones (usually 4 or 5 at a time) and still finding these errors means we are all paranoid.

Message was edited by: Dabomb665m

Well said Dabomb665m.

I absolutely hate it when people tell me I'm being ridiculous for complaining about the yellow tint. I've had every single iPhone since day 1 (2g, 3g, now 3gs) and I've never had such a worse looking screen. For someone who has used an iPhone for the past two years, everyday, it is an immediate thing to notice that half of the screen has a nasty yellow tint to it. Every single one of my friends I've asked to check out my phone sees it to. We are not making this up and or being paranoid freaks. Apple is one of the best companies for customer service and they know they screwed up...that is why we are all able to get replacement phones as opposed to them telling us that the different hues/yellows is natural.

Do not come in here and tell us we are paranoid, especially if you don't have the problem yourself. I'm on my second replacement phone, I've had a week 24 and a week 27, both with obvious yellow tint to the bottom half. I think I'm going to wait 20-something days (we have 30 days to return) and then call again and ask for a replacement. Hopefully by then they will be shipping out non-defected lcd. I wish I had an Apple store where I live because then I would just take it in the store and ask for a replacement screen like someone else in this forum successfully did...Anyways...enough ranting..Good luck to everyone...I will update here with my situation.

I am sorry, I just don't buy it. I think you are exaggerating to make a point! This isn't to say that some have not had problems. If you were not being so highly defensive, you would have understood what I was saying. No where did I say because my screen was acceptable that this means no one actually has an issue.

I do however think and it has been verified by the post and workers in Apple Stores that many are just bringing these phone back for little to no reason because they are reading what someone else said or because of what has been posted on this forum. There is a difference between actually having a real legit problem and someone that isn't sure, but just goes to swap out a phone because of what they are reading on these forums, that my friends is paranoia. If some of you that have legit problems made the assumption I meant you were paranoid then that is about you!

Personally I don't care what folks do, it doesn't impact me one iota. But the fact remains that there have been a lot of phones returned that was slightly warmer with no other defects whatsoever! Believe it, don't believe it, I could care less.

I am sure there are some displays that are defective with over a million being sold there is little doubt about it. But rather it is extreme as some would have us believe, I can't say. None the less to think that no phone returned has been just simply because they are slightly warmer you are totally naive. Also no where has anyone said folks shouldn't complain!

You guys are really defensive when you don't need to be! All this has created some paranoia in some buyers on the 3GS and it is evident!

dinofx wrote:
15 days for an exchange is not accurate. You can return the phone for a full refund for 30 days. This is required for any cell phone sold with a contract in the US.

I'm sorry, but the Federal Government doesn't control commercial contracts at a local level. State law sets contracts, unless it's a nationwide policy of the phone carrier.

Sirius Mac wrote:
I am sorry, I just don't buy it. I think you are exaggerating to make a point! This isn't to say that some have not had problems. If you were not being so highly defensive, you would have understood what I was saying. No where did I say because my screen was acceptable that this means no one actually has an issue.

I do however think and it has been verified by the post and workers in Apple Stores that many are just bringing these phone back for little to no reason because they are reading what someone else said or because of what has been posted on this forum. There is a difference between actually having a real legit problem and someone that isn't sure, but just goes to swap out a phone because of what they are reading on these forums, that my friends is paranoia. If some of you that have legit problems made the assumption I meant you were paranoid then that is about you!

Personally I don't care what folks do, it doesn't impact me one iota. But the fact remains that there have been a lot of phones returned that was slightly warmer with no other defects whatsoever! Believe it, don't believe it, I could care less.

I am sure there are some displays that are defective with over a million being sold there is little doubt about it. But rather it is extreme as some would have us believe, I can't say. None the less to think that no phone returned has been just simply because they are slightly warmer you are totally naive. Also no where has anyone said folks shouldn't complain!

You guys are really defensive when you don't need to be! All this has created some paranoia in some buyers on the 3GS and it is evident!

Excellent post. I've watched three different launches of the iPhone here, and there are always a bunch of people who exaggerate their claims, whine about their iPhone, or are, frankly, incompetent with setting it up. Yes, after selling 1.5 million phones, if .1% have a defect (which is outstanding quality control), that means, that's a lot of phones that have real hardware problems. But those who are saying "software needs to be updated", "everyone has these problems", "I've compared 247 phones and they're all the same" need to give us all a break. 99.9% of these phones are perfect. The remaining may have any number of issues including user mistakes. Apple Stores have been more than helpful to everyone. This thread is ridiculous.

Hello

Could someone explain the week number thing to me please?

I cant understand it. I would assume it was the week that the phone was made, but what does that tell you? What happens if come friday afternoon, the factory shuts down for the weekend, components that where on the line that would of been, say week 23 phones had they been completed, would now be week 24 phones?

I just dont get the relevence of the week numbers. Surely their must be another way like a factory code? I could understand say iphone with a yellow tint screen coming from one factory and good phones coming from another because you could then say, their must be a problem with the components at one factory while the other is fine.

Then again, every iphone looks 100% the same on the outside, but on the inside, even though each iphone does exactly the same thing as each other, their could be many diffent components made by many different companys ie the screens could be made by say 10 or 15 or 100 different companys, who knows.

Im just not sure how the week number can help tell you whats a good batch and whats not a good batch.

For example, on the bottom of the Xbox, you can see the manufacturing date and the serial number. The manufacturing date is in the following format:

2004-11-20

i.e. YYYY-MM-DD

(Year-Month-Day) which is the date according to ISO 8601.

The serial number looks like this:

3137905 44705

i.e. LNNNNNN YWWFF

L the number of the production line within the factory,

NNNNNN the number of the Xbox within this week,

Y the last digit of the production year,

WW the number of the week of the production year,

FF is the code of the factory (02: Mexico, 03: Hungary, 05: China. 06: Taiwan).

Surely the iphone must have something simular, and if so, I think it would give a better indication of where and who made the iphone. That way, you would be able to better judge if a certain place has production problems, or if it a wide scale issue.

Sam