iPhone 3G S has yellowish tint

I'm from Singapore and have called up Apple Asia Support which is based in Australia to report my "yellowish" screen.

After hearing me out, he put me on hold for 10 mins and gave me this answer:

"If you are comparing a 3GS screen to a 3GS screen, they should have the same colour temperature. Please send your phone to a service centre to get it repaired."

By now, I've compared enough screens to conclude that there's actually a varied range of colour temperatures across different screens. From yellow-greenish, to yellow-brown, to warm white, to blue-white and very blue-white. Demo sets on sales floor tend to be towards the cooler side.

My replacement is warm, but not yellowish. It's what I would accept for a "warm" screen.
Both my 1st and replacement are week 27.

+"i guess what i'm saying is that i'm not exchanging it, in which i'm afraid of risking getting something worse."+

From all that I've personally experienced, and what I've read others experience, if your 3G S is simply "warmer" than a 3G, you've got what seems to be the 'intended calibration'. If the screen is also bright, with no polarization, has rich colors and good contrast between whites and blacks, then IMO, you've got one of the rare gems (like my wife luckily also got) and I'm happy for you, while at the same time jealous. And yes, you'd most likely end up with something worse if you tried to exchange it. Too many others, including myself, have had this problem. 😟

+"although i'm curious of the people that claims to have the very yellowish screen. if it's no trouble, can you some of you maybe post photographs here? maybe mine is really good, and i'm just being anal about it. thanks in advance."+

Scroll back through this thread to see the pics I posted and pics from at least one other person, possibly 1-2 more, showing two 3G S's side by side (a "proper" comparison IMO is a 3G S vs. 3G S, not a 3G S vs. a 3G).

As far as your battery issue, you'll by now have found the several other relevant threads. In a nutshell, I'd make sure to fully discharge your battery then do a full recharge. IMO, do this at least 2 times before concluding your battery is bad. Also, consider turning off wifi, bluetooth and location services if you don't use them, or until you need to use them.

Yesterday I was torn between returning my phone and getting a new one and risk getting an even worse dud or keep the one that I have now that is the best one yet. I decided to keep the one I have for the time being. Hoping that week 28 and later phones are better.

My main issue now as it seems the "warm" issue is not as bad. However, whites are not as bright and crisp. I am also noticing that the screen is "washed out", "hazy", "fuzzy", or whatever other adjective best describes the issue. I guess it would be the contrast? It's severely lacking. I am not sure why, but inside - the phone looks like crap sometimes. Washed out and the colors are dull. Blacks are also gray. Outside, blacks are black, the colors pop and the screen is crisp, clean and perfect. Again, not so inside.

The phone seems to be lacking that "POP" and "VIBRANCY" my 3G had. I am trying to wait it out and see if the new 3.1 update might fix it, but I don't know. Don't want to risk missing my exchange period.

This whole foul up really aggravates me.

Yes, the green dot on the packages means nothing more than the box contains the NEW usb wall plug. That's it.

I have no problems with a "warmer" screen however I would like it to be consistent throughout the screen.

Today I checked out my friend's 16g 3Gs (black) and her screen was consistent. Slightly warm but NO yellow tint at the bottom. Jealous...

I saw a genius yesterday about the colours on my new 3GS. Showed him the S
and my 3G and he said there is definitely a 'slight gamma issue'.

Compared to the 3G the colours are really washed out and there is
definitely a yellow tint that is more visible at the bottom of the
screen. He said this was the first time he had seen this problem and
will replace the phone. He said they wouldn't normally replace it over something like this and if the replacement has the same issue, they won't replace it again.

I had a look at some display models before the appointment and
every iPhone in the store that I managed to see had better looking
colours. Unfortunately they were all 16GB models, no 32GBs available to check out.

The Genius is arranging a replacement, but I will have to wait until they get some in stock. Hopefully it will be of a much later build than my week 23 (if that matters).

The yellow screen I was actually starting to deal with, I had spoken to the Apple Support line and they said that the screen should be warmer than a 3G. But the more I looked at it, the more I noticed it was more yellow at the bottom. Then when I compared to another 3GS the colours were noticeably different, it had whiter whites and proper vibrant colour.

Anyway, hopefully my replacement will be better, fingers crossed!

Ok guys, I've been to two different Apple stores and went through (exchanged) 4 different Week 28 phones, and Every single one of them had very yellow and washed out screens. The last phone that I got which is the one I'm using now is actually worst than the very first one that I exchanged. My latest screen is polarized, it's yellow especially towards the bottom of the screen and the blacks are not dark. I must say I'm very disappointed.

Message was edited by: Jdlorinser

Jdlorinser wrote:
Ok guys, I've been to two different Apple stores and went through (exchanged) 4 different Week 28 phones, and Every single one of them had very yellow and washed out screens. The last phone that I got which is the one I'm using now is actually worst than the very first one that I exchanged. My latest screen is polarized, it's yellow especially towards the bottom of the screen and the blacks are not dark. I must say I'm very disappointed.

Message was edited by: Jdlorinser

Lol, looks like Week 28 phones are no better. Man oh man does this suck. Looks like I will be skipping an exchange yet again and just hoping that Apple fixes this major foul up.

I have been thinking about trying a new 3GS after having bad luck with reception when the 3g came out last year. Today I spent a couple of hours at the Indianapolis Apple store during which time I played around with 4-5 different 3GS phones. I'm not a pro photographer but do a lot of photoshop with raw files and feel that I'm critical of color and contrast. I paid particular attention to this yellowish tint problem and couldn't find any of the phones that looked bad to me. I guess if I had monitored them side by side with a 3G or 2G the difference may have shown up. Just wondering if maybe the problem is being resolved. Hate to hear of dissatisfied Apple customers and hope this issue will get better for all who are experiencing it. I tested the phones against many of the questions I was having and they performed very well. I travel and stay in an area that is going to be only EDGE for several nights a week allthough I pass thru 3G areas on my way. I would like to use the phone for a little web each night and to tie in with my mac account.

has anyone had any luck with them replacing the LCD in store as oppossed to getting a replacement?

Mine is yellow tinted on the bottom right and has a feint bright pixel, but I have had no luck with the replacements as they were all worse then this as far as the yellow tint only on the bottom...

I am 16 GB white iphone 3GS user in Hong Kong and I got my phone on 2009-07-11.

When compared with my wife 3G and friends' 3GS, yellowish tinted was noted in my phone. But their phone showing perfect white....Shxx!

Mine is week 26 and I found the displayed model in the outlet (correct white balance) is week 27. (from here I know there may not be a correlation for the screen performance with the production week, right?)

I pop up to service centre for replacement but the two brand new handsets given to me for inspection are both yellowish 😟

I was told that 3.1 will soon be issued next week and ship to HK so I left and wait for the next shipment.

In Hong Kong, not many people noted that the screen is yellowish before they do side-by-side comparison.

Any one interested for Hong Kong iphone please leave me message at workhardbrother@yahoo.com.hk


Workhardbrother

Wonder how many people (like me) are still on the sidelines to see how this huge issue plays out before taking the plunge! Hope this resolves soon and best of luck to all having this issue!

Btw, don't know if its just me, but I couldn't see this thread on normal browsing of the forum today. I had to search for 'yellow screen' to even find this thread. Anyone else seeing this too?!

+"has anyone had any luck with them replacing the LCD in store as oppossed to getting a replacement?"+

My last (4th) 3G S "swap" was a screen replacement. The new screen had perfect contrast & brightness but was more yellow (although evenly distributed) and was heavily polarized. Polarization = can't be used by my family so I took the tech's offer to swap it back to the original washed out, low contrast screen I'm still grudgingly using at the moment.

If you don't care about polarization or an evenly distributed warm screen, you might have luck with a screen replacement. FWIW, it took only 10 minutes per screen swap and the tech didn't scratch the phone or lose any data.

+"Btw, don't know if its just me, but I couldn't see this thread on normal browsing of the forum today. I had to search for 'yellow screen' to even find this thread. Anyone else seeing this too?!"+

After posting a comment to another user I waited a minute and pathed back to the thread listing under: "_Apple.com > Support > Discussions > iPhone Hardware > iPhone 3GS_" and found this thread at the top of the queue (sorted by most recent posting).

As horrific as this situation may seem to us who have been affected, and anyone browsing this thread may think the situation is, my opinion is that Apple is using the "ignorance is bliss" theory.

As the gentleman from Hong Kong mentioned, most 3G S owners have no idea their phone may have a substandard quality screen until they do a side-by-side comparison. And of those that do, many will just say "Meh, that's fine".

As others with experience moving from a 2G to 3G to the 3G S have explained at times throughout this thread, this same issue played out with each model release and apparently nothing - absolutely nothing, has been done to address the situation at any time. A small % of users will notice the problem (or learn of it from a thread like this) and of those only a small % will care enough to do anything about it.

I fear this is simply going to always be a LOTTERY. Individuals like us will eventually either get lucky with a replacement or just give up trying and settle with a "well it could be worse" iPhone...

Had a wk 20 3gs which I sent back due to a yellow tint.
And got a wk26 replacement.the wk 26 had a far better,and less yellow screen
,until today.after a day in the garden with it,the screen now appears more yellow.
The bottom more than the top.
My thoughts being
a. The phones 'coating' turns yellow
b. They must be 'dipped' in the 'coating' hence more yellow at the bottom.

Been Reading this thread a while,this is my 2 pence worth

Something interesting.

I read somewhere on here that other people felt the auto-brightness was a bit too aggressive, dimming more than it should. I wiped my phone & set it up as a new one and my screen just seems..... better. It's almost like the auto brightness was always off & now it's the way it should be - making the phone seem less warm and more white (when it was dimmer before, at the same brightness level). I then did a restore & it still looks better.

When inside of a lit room and brightness at 60%, my brightness would jump up a lot when auto brightness was turned off. After setting up as a new phone, it only jumps a little, at the same brightness level. This is how I know something is different.

Someone on here claimed that a restore fixed the yellowing, but I think it just corrects the auto brightness making the screen seem whiter. <Edited by Host>

Thoughts?