iPhone 3G S has yellowish tint

Just got a factory 87 week 29 iPhone 3gs 32gb black, and the screen is yellowish. It is not as white as the phones they have on display. This is my 3rd iPhone 3gs. I can't seem to get a good one. I'm ******!!!

djrayray333 wrote:
Just got a factory 87 week 29 iPhone 3gs 32gb black, and the screen is yellowish. It is not as white as the phones they have on display. This is my 3rd iPhone 3gs. I can't seem to get a good one. I'm ******!!!

Ouch, I'm so very sorry to hear this DJRayRay. This now negates week 29's and is another example of a bad Factory 87 - meaning there are no "safe" factories or weeks and all this was wishful thinking.

If you could please share a bit more detail - viewing your phone stand-alone, on full Brightness on the Settings screen, do the whites look white to you? In other words, you only notice the yellow when comparing to an Apple Store display 3G S?

I should clarify that both my wife's "perfect" 3G S and my "near perfect" 5th screen 3G S are slightly yellow ("warm") when viewing stand-alone (when thinking of what "real white" looks like) and somewhat more yellow ("warmer") than my brother's 3G. Both are very slightly warmer than Apple Store display models (with full brightness on and auto-brightness OFF) although I admit ours are really close and you have to really look hard to see a difference.

Are our whites truly white-white white? No, but we still call them "white" since we expect this is about as "white" as white gets for the warmer by design 3G S (especially considering for comparison, 2 of the 4 previous 3G S's I had were excessively YELLOW and a 3rd was actually dirty dirt brown). Do we thus then consider our 3G S's to be yellow? No - just slightly warm and we call them "nice clear white screens". What's confusing with all this is the extreme variation in just how excessively yellow some 3G S phones are, and the fact that some have reported their 3G S (or some they've seen) are as white/bluish/cool as the previous 3G.

So, with all this clarification, just how much yellower is your Week 29 Factory 87 compared to the Apple Store displays - slightly more, somewhat more, a LOT more, etc.? Did you have yours and theres both at full brightness with auto-brightness off?

Chiming in on this one again.

This problem seems to have such a wide ranging effect. Some people are reporting just a warm tone screen which is a color temp issue. Like comparing a fluorescent lamp or a halogen lamp to an incandescent light bulb. Some people are complaining of heavily yellowed screens and some are complaining about specific areas of the screen being yellowed while the rest is whiter. I also believe that many people don't understand the term "color temperature".

When I first got my iPhone 3G on release date, I didn't think anything of the color temperature of my screen. I began seeing many of these posts complaining of yellow screens and took out my old 1st generation iPhone. Yes, my 1st gen has a cooler blue/white screen. My new 3G has a warmer cast, but my whites are still white. Just warmer. I like it better. The colors are more vibrant. It's like comparing Kodak Ektachrome and Kodachrome slide films, etc. Ektachrome is cooler, Kodachrome is warmer. My contrast is incredible. My 3G's blacks are deep, pitch black. My 1st gen's blacks are a bit to the charcoal side. This is with both at full brightness.

I have compared my 3GS to every iPhone and iPod I come across and I have found a wide ranging color cast. Some screens have a cooler hue while others are even warmer than mine. Some look muddy in comparison or grayish, lower contrast. But if you take most of these screens on their own, they look pretty well much OK.

However, I am quite surprised that this variance exists, especially from an innovator such as Apple. I hope that somehow this can be remedied with a software upgrade, but I have a feeling that we are seeing poor QC on behalf of the Chinese factories that Apple has contracted with. I agree, I don't think it has anything to do with specific factories or build dates.

Sadly, I'm joining the ranks of those plagued with a yellow-ish screen. I bought my 32GB White 3GS (Factory 88, Week 26) from the Apple Store last week, and have noticed that the bottom of the screen is definitely warmer than the top portion - from reading through this thread, I see that others have noticed this, as well. The top of the screen is a clean, crisp white, but the bottom is a bit dingy, mainly noticeable while using Safari in landscape mode and while looking at the settings screen (basically, anything with a white background). I called Apple Support and have a case number along with an appointment at the Genius Bar tomorrow. I've never been, so this ought to be an experience. Any words of wisdom from those who have gone through the process?

Reactions by apple employees will vary. Whatever u do retain a "broken record" stance and continue to repeat "I want a new phone" until u r satisfied. When they replace it compare it to a display model. I have had two replacements so far. The first being much better than the last. I will be back again. Each time I did not take proper time to compare to a screen which I liked and this time I ended up with a screen that fades from bright white to yellow at the bottom. At this point I will settle on a slightly yellow uniform screen.

If they say the phone is within spec, ask how you define in spec. Compare your phone with other models in the store at full brightness and auto brightness off. Be firm but persistent especially if you're still within the 30 days of buying. You can return the phone for a full refund. This is really your only bargaining chip. I have a week 26 in good shape compared to the store displays.

I'm 80% happy with the quality of parts. I honestly feel it's the Macbook Aluminum/Macbook Pro's all over again. They're waiting to really improve the LCD in a future release IMO.

Just another SUCCESS story! I was a happy iphone 3G customer for about a year and finally decided to upgrade it. I picked up a new Black 32G iphone 3GS at the nearby Apple store yesterday afternoon. When I got home and put down my old 3G and the new 3GS phones side by side, I noticed the new 3GS screen looked pale and yellowish. It looked very obvious when comparing to my old 3G phone which was much brighter with cool white. I tired many different ways to adjust the brightness levels but still couldn't get the yellowish to go away nor acceptable to my vision.

I decided to google it for the similar problem that other iphone 3GS cusomters might have and ended up reading this forum. I was shocked to see there were many people having the same problems. Thanks to many users who shared their experience and knowledge here, especially something about "factory numbers" does make some differences in my story. The 3GS that I had initially with yellowish display was:
Factory: 88 (Shenzhen, China)
Production year: 2009
Production week: 30 (July)
Production number: 23780 (within this week)

I brought it back to the store next day at the genuis bar. I told the rep about the display problem and she responsed: "oh yes the yellow! we can replace your screen part". I said I purchased this phone only for a day! am I going to leave the phone here for days to replace the part? I believe she went to the manager to speak about the issue, a min later she came back and told me they were going to replace it with a brand new phone.

The same sales guy who sold the iphone to me came to see me again. Overall I was very please with his attitude and politeness, I have to give some credits to him. Anyway, he said this warm display should be within the spec and all of other 3GS phones are the same. I said to him this is unacceptable to me and it really looked yellowish when compare to other iphones. He offered me to compare my yellowish 3GS to other demo iphones in the store. With the brightness turned to max and auto-brightness set to off on both demo phone and my 3GS phone, the result was manifest. He said he would grab a new phone to replace mine, then I mentioned to him about the "factory numbers" and prefer to get anything but factory "88". Within a min he came out with a factory "87" 3GS iphone and begun for phone transfer process. I was excited for the first min until I saw the new phone display color was about the same with yellowish. I was very disappointed.

The sales guy tried to explain the "same spec" theroy and convice me to take the phone if it's somewhat acceptable. He also said they couldn't open or try another new phones. I was debating and started to remember what other poeple said in this forum... "Don't give it up and stand on the fact - this is their problem, not mine!" Then I said to the sale guy if you can't replace it with another "good" phone, I would like to return it and get full refund. I noticed that he went and spoke to the manager again. A min later, he came back and told me a new story which was a little surprising. He said the manager told him there was a new batch of phones just came into the store this morning, he could take one out and give it a try. Of course I said yes, and how could I refuse such good offer?

After a min, he took out a brand new factory "86" iphone 3GS and proceed to the transfer process. When he turned on the phone, I immediately noticed the difference. I could no longer tell the difference between their demo phones and this new 3GS phones with bright white color. At the end, he appologized about this problem but I thank him for being so patient with me. I walked out the store with a happy smiles on my face.

Finally, after two yellowish 3GS iphones were replaced, I ended up getting a good quality 3GS replacement iphone (with factory 86) from what they referred as "new batch of iphones came in today". I started to believe that they might know samething about this yellowish tint issue related to the factory #, and they probably know that the newly arrived iphones could have fixed the problem.

Glad it worked out for you, and thanks for the tip about factory 86

anyone get a defective phone from factory 86?

Also could you post the link to check for factory number pls. My old Link doesnt work

ieonjunas wrote:
Glad it worked out for you, and thanks for the tip about factory 86

anyone get a defective phone from factory 86?

Also could you post the link to check for factory number pls. My old Link doesnt work

Mine is from factory 86...week 25. Slightly yellow towards the bottom. It's most noticeable on the settings screen and when viewing this forum in landscape mode. Otherwise, it seems fine. Battery life seems good, and I haven't found any other issues yet.

I thought we had already determined that there were bad phones coming from 86. Am I mistaken? I've been silently watching this thread and trying to decide if I should complain. I have a week left to return my phone to AT&T for a refund (no Apple stores nearby). The problem is that the slight yellowing at the bottom is the only problem I can find - and I'm really afraid I'll just get something worse. The screen itself is VERY bright and clear. I suspect I'm just going to have to live with it, but it certainly has tainted my first experience with buying Apple products.

Here's the link that was given before:
http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html

I thought we had already determined that there were bad phones coming from 86.

Correct. Feedback on these forums has finally demonstrated that problematic yellow phones can come from any of the factories and production weeks. And Jng65 had reminded us that this quality problem with yellow screens is not new to the iPhone line and has never been openly addressed by Apple.

As such, it may never be remedied by simply waiting and hoping it'll be quietly corrected. It's all about playing the lottery and determining how much risk/trouble/aggravation one is willing to go through to TRY to get a decent phone.

Just to follow up on my last post (2 posts above), the "good" and "acceptable" screen quality 3GS phone that I have is:

Factory: 86 (China)
Production year: 2009
Production week: 29 (July)
Production number: 11497 (within this week)

I am not sure exactly the meaning of factory numbers. I thought the Taiwanese owned company Foxconn they have only ONE main factory in Shenzhen China to manufacture iphones. But anyway, one thing I am sure that their inconsistent products quality has not been acknowledged. Otherwise, Apple would have made the statement and recall all the yellowish iphones or relpace it with a good quality display for the affected customers.

I just looked my iPhone up.

Factory: 86 (China)
Production year: 2009
Production week: 24 (June)
Production number: 392 (within this week)

Slightly yellow at the bottom of the screen.

I decided to buy 3Gs again. Colors are much warmer compare to my brother's 3G.

Factory 87
week 29
iphone 3Gs on left and iphone 3G on right.



Message was edited by: samven582

Message was edited by: samven582

Message was edited by: samven582

Message was edited by: samven582

The one on the right is pretty much what mine looks like. Slightly yellow in the bottom rows, but the top would be considered fine if it wasn't being compared side by side with an older 3G...

Catnippants wrote:
The one on the right is pretty much what mine looks like. Slightly yellow in the bottom rows, but the top would be considered fine if it wasn't being compared side by side with an older 3G...

I made a mistake in my post. 3Gs is on the left and 3G is on the right. My 3Gs is warmer compare to my brother 3G which is more on the cooler side.