iPhone 3G S has yellowish tint

I settled for this screen, but after a few weeks the yellow has gotten worse...

I will be going in for another replacement soon...this is ridiculous...

Has anyone actually taken off the digitizer to see if it is the glass vs. the LCD?

That is bad news Shaun. My screen does not appear to have gotten any worse but viewing angle does show the yellow tint or hide it depending on how I hold it.

I have two friends at work, one with a 32g and the other with a 16g 3Gs. Both phones are black and do not have the yellow tint at the bottom of the screen. Their screens are slightly warm but consistent.

Don't give up until you get what you want and paid for. I'm keeping an eye on this topic to see when people start reporting that their replacements have good screens. I really don’t feel like driving an hour each way to my Apple store and getting a phone with the same or worse screen.

My colors are better on my 3Gs then my 2G. I don’t have the washed out screen that some are reporting.

I also had a yellow screen (16GB black week 26). Yesterday, I made an appointment with the Genius Bar. I showed the very helpful person and she agreed the screen was not correct. She offered to replace the screen to which I accepted. Fifteen minutes later, the screen was replaced. I asked if I could compare with the display models to make sure the screen was better.
She agreed. I compared and to my displeasure the screen was just as yellow. I said I do not accept this and she got the manager of the store. I proceeded to show the manager the yellow and he agreed it was yellow but said that the LCD screen "vary". I said "not that much".
He then offered to open a replacement phone for me to compare. I said "great!". He opened a new iPhone and sure enough it has a beautiful screen!!!. Just like my 3G had. White whites, black blacks.

I am happy!!!

Be persistent. You can get a phone that is good. Just ask.

Now I can sleep at night. Finally.

Since your replacement seems to be a good one, what week is it? Also if you don't mind, please put your serial number in the decoder that was posted earlier in this thread because I'm curious to know which factory your phone was made in.

Hi smacman,

I have visited the service centre at Pak Yue Centre (MongKok)on 2009-07-16 and the staff first get me one new handset for replacement.

However, upon first check the screen is still yellow, I then told them for another one and they gave me the second one for check.

Unfortunately the second one is still not ok. Upon conducted two checks both NEW handsets are have yellow tint problem like my current one.

The staff then told me they cannot have the third handset given to me for check as there is simply like luck draw and they just cannot open every new phone one by one for me.

They tell me to wait for the next shipment which will be using OS 3.1.

My 3GS is 16GB white and is week 26. How is your replaced 3GS? Did you simply get one replacement and then found it has correct white balance? Or did you change a couple handsets for check before getting the right one?

Grateful if you could reply and ease my sorrow. Really bad experience for me!!!




Poor 3GS owner in Hong Kong

Hi mactheman,

We are interested about the week no. of your replaced new 3GS, can you give us more info?

In Hong Kong we need not drive too far to get to the service centre, but it wait too long as there are plenty of people waiting to replace defect phones.

For the thread talking 3GS in Hong Kong, very little people mentioning about the yellow tint problem.

I wonder not much people aware of the different before they do comparision side by side. God bless me to get the correct white balance one asap or else I cannot have good night sleep!!
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.......3GS Victim in HK :(:(:(

Jdlorinser wrote:
If you want to see which factory your iPhone is from enter the serial # here: http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html.

Mine is from factory 86 in china. Week 23 and my screen seems fine and not a bad yellow tint like the pics posted in this thread. I compared it to three 3gs's and about five 3 g's. Mine looked the same as the display models at the AT&T store. And the 3 g's at walmart looked way too blue.

mactheman wrote:
He then offered to open a replacement phone for me to compare. I said "great!". He opened a new iPhone and sure enough it has a beautiful screen!!!. Just like my 3G had. White whites, black blacks.

Congrats!!!

Was the successful week 24 new replacement good screened 3G S from a new retail box or from a plain brown or white box?

Workhardbrother,

The initial replacement phone they brought me was also yellow. I told him to go back and bring 2 more phones. The 2 next phones he brought were better. They still have a warm cast to them, but whites are white. I could not believe how bad my original phone was when I held it beside my replacement. If you are not getting satisfactory results, call Apple directly and tell them that 3 is not living up to their obligation to provide after sales service. Do not give up!

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

ARGH!!! _Screen Replacement Warning_ Follows:

As I posted previously, the washed out poor contrast screen I'm using now on my week 26 Black 32GB 3G S was replaced in an Apple Store. The replacement was heavily polarized so I had the Genius swap back this original washed out screen to "live with for the time being".

Well, as another poster warned (his compass was killed after 2 screen swaps), I just noticed a problem as well. There is now a big spec of dust stuck right in the center of the INSIDE of my 3G S camera lens that was NOT there before and which is blurring up all my photos and videos now.

FFS, now I can't trust screen replacements as a viable option and must recommend against trying this as it's just way too risky for the integrity of our phones.

Now I have to make yet another trip to the Apple Store to go and return another defective/ruined 3G S to then re-enter the lottery and try who knows how many more new replacements to get an acceptable screen.

Just got home from "the bar". Believe it or not my home button stopped working, so I had to get a replacement regardless...

This one is week 28, made in 88 (Shenzhen, China) and is yellow tinted on the bottom 1/3rd of the screen...

I have been to 3 different apple stores since launch and this is replacement number 4. I give up. This is outrageous...

It really is outrageous. I had the bottom 1/3 yellow tint on 2 iphone 3gs 32gb black, and now I finally got one that doesn't look like someone ****** into the bottom of my phone. but guess what now! the top right corner of the phone has the whites of the 3g and 2g, very white, crisp, almost blueish, and now the rest of the phone has a warmer color.

Apple really really really screwed up with whoever they chose to make LCD, install the backlight. Every single phone i've had the whites are screwed up. im so mad....They probably went the cheaper route with the backlight/lcd...and now they are paying for it. I will not give up until I get an iPhone that has consistent whites!

Oh, and another thing, how horrible is it that Apple purposely displays the 3gs's that are fine! Is it a coincidence that ALL the display models don't have the issue? I don't think so...If only I could sit down with Steve Jobs and explain to him the frustration of what I've experienced with my 3gs.

Message was edited by: marcoabuso

Well, I'm on my third iPhone 3GS 16GB (black if that makes a difference), the first was yellow 'stained' all over, the second the lower half of the screen was and finally, my current, third is again yellow 'stained' all over. Compared to my old 3G it's horrific in colour reproduction. They have all been week 27s.

I made an appointment with my local Apple store (Liverpool, UK) to see if they could help after O2 stated they would have to repair the unit after 2 replacements. After the first 'genius' (using the term loosely) looked at it and compared it to the 3G he seemed to understand what I was talking about but seemed preoccupied or not sure what to do, I couldn't tell. He said he could take photos of the screens and escalate it to Apple engineers. I proceeded to tell him that O2 had told me to visit to get something done about the problem. Eventually he gets the 'manager' and she eventually arrives and in an obnoxious tone tells me they don't replace units due to 'perception' issues.

I, understandly, wasn't too pleased and stated, it's not perception, it actually IS yellow-y compared to the old one, everybody can see that, so it's nothing to do with my 'perception'. She states there's nothing wrong and they won't do anything. I question that surely it's a screen production issue or possible backlight problem. "No, not at all" was her reply.

After a few seconds of contemplating whether to ram the 3GS somewhere, I decided to leave disgusted and speak to O2.

Top and bottom of all this, O2 aren't best pleased with Apple and are sending a replacement out of their new batch they've received for me to try. If I'm not happy I've been told to use my 14 day cooling off and return the phone and start again if I'm desperate for the 3GS. The way it's going though, I think the 3G will do me for now 😉

Not too impressed really after how made up I was with my launch day 3G.

ikaney wrote:
Eventually he gets the 'manager' and she eventually arrives and in an obnoxious tone tells me they don't replace units due to 'perception' issues.

What that manager said is absolute rubbish. But as she has the power of rejecting a replacement, you still hold the power of a return for refund which I suggest you use if the new replacement is not satisfactory.

I myself ate a 10% restocking fee with ATT in the USA to return my first 3G S in order to keep all options open to me, and I will only purchase replacement 3G S's from Apple Stores directly now. Of course, returning the 3G S and just sticking with your old reliable 3G works as well, if you can live without the 3G S enhancements...

ikaney wrote:
I made an appointment with my local Apple store (Liverpool, UK) ... Eventually he gets the 'manager' and she eventually arrives and in an obnoxious tone tells me they don't replace units due to 'perception' issues.

That is indeed disgusting service.

For a company that prides itself on perception of quality, to reject a customer's legitimate concerns in this way is reprehensible.

I'd be tempted to contact a newspaper. A decent journalist could have a field day with Apple's "perception" of what is important.