iPhone 3G S has yellowish tint

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'm at least glad your wife got one of the "rare gems". sorry about yours though. thanks for the response and the advice for the battery. appreciate it.

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

Anyone try to do a 3G to 3GS screen replacement? I really don't care about the oleo. screen. I wonder if its possible to put a 3G screen onto a 3GS. hmmm

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?!

I think Apple is trying to cover it up (conspiracy theory).

+"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?

Sarge_in wrote:
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!

I had been waiting, until I talked to all of the people I know who actually own 3Gs's. All were supremely happy with theirs and none had problems with yellow tint or battery life. I figured that the problem was less widespread than it appeared in this forum, and I bought my iPhone last week. I got a week 26 and I love it. I did notice a slight yellow tinge to the screen when I was in bright sunlight last week, but it wasn't abnormally or distortingly yellow, and I haven't noticed it since. Also, it's after 6pm where I am (took the phone off the charger at 8:30am), and my battery is at 91%. (admittedly with only 1 hour of usage, but still). Overall, battery life has matched the specs.

In sum, I agree with the previous posters who have said that the whole thing is pretty much a lottery. There are definitely bad units out there, but I think they are probably a relatively small percentage of the total inventory. It seems like a huge problem because internet forums like this tend to attract unsatisfied customers and magnify the issue.

Regardless, there are clearly some very, VERY poor units out there, and it is a poor reflection on Apple that user experiences are so wildly disparate.

Message was edited by: Lilyskip

My thoughts being
a. The phones 'coating' turns yellow

I think there's something to this. When I got my 3GS and started reading about this issue, I compared it to my 3G. I checked thoroughly, and my screen was uniform and just as white as my 3G.

Since then a bit of yellow has developed along the bottom (in the dock area). It's not enough that I'd return it, but it's now noticeable when you hold it landscape. It definitely wasn't like that before.