iPhone 3G S has yellowish tint

Bought an iPhone 16GB 3GS Black from my local Apple Store and noticed the dreaded yellow/grey tint on the screen. Went back to the Apple Store to have the phone replaced. The Genuis assistant was very sympathetic and agreed there was a fault as the display iPhone was much crisper with excellent whites and vibrant colours. Anyway, tested out the replacement on the spot in the store and again, the same tint problem! He replaced the phone yet again and again the same issue with the screen. The assistant then went on to speak to his manager who recommended I get a refund and come back in a few days time as they would be getting a new batch of phones as clearly they seemed to have a bad batch.

I've got my refund but i'm really desperate for a iPhone as I need it for work. However, I can't live with such a poor quality screen. I hope Apple address this issue very soon as this whole process of exchanging phones is proving quite stressful and time consuming !! By the way the iPhones in question were week 39 and week 40.

Yeah. They deleted my post. I don't want to fight with these people rather I found a different way to handle them.
I'm creating awareness to all my friends who buys or already own an iPhone or iPod Touch about the possible issues on the device that is called as a DEFECT by Apple Store Genius that leads to a device swap (no questions asked).
Most common issues are:
1. Dust spot under the screen (4 out of 5 iPhone has this issue. Take a closer look at the screen. You can flash an LED light on the screen to catch one dirt spot)
2. Minor cracks on the case develops near the vibrate switch.
3. Minor cracks around the dock connector.

I'll post more on my findings!

- Pradeep

I purchased two iphones 3Gs's last weekend. Both 16GB one black for my wife and the other white for myself. My screen is yellowish compared to my wifes which is blue(ish).
Factory 88 Week 42 is the yellowish one that I have, unsure of wifes one, but hers is no doubt older as it came out of the box with older firmware revision that needed updating on itunes.
Just an FYI.

Like someone mentioned earlier here. There must be some service menue to adjust color temp? As I really prefer the wifes one with the slight blue hue.

Went to AT&T two nights ago and got my iPhone 3GS 32GB. It didn't take long to notice that the screen is very yellow and washed out compared to my 3G. At first, I thought this was an intentional change, but then I walked over to the Apple store near my work and every 3GS in there (including 3 employees') looked blue-ish normal (like my 3G). Not one there looked yellow! My new phone has a 39 in the serial number. AT&T says they will exchange but cannot guarantee the new phone won't be of the same batch. The Apple store told me to take it back to AT&T. I walked back to work and called Apple Care for advice; they said the Apple store should have replaced it, made me and appointment and I walked back over. But then the Genius at the store told me they could only service the screen, OR replace my 20-hour-old phone with a refurbished model. They said they couldn't give me a new phone because it would "affect their retail numbers."

I work with Windows machines and VMWare ESX all day, and frequently nights and weekends. When I get home, I don't want those hassles. I payed the additional price for my iMac, my new Mac Mini (two weeks ago), and now this 3GS because of the hassle-free reputation of quality; in a nutshell, to avoid THIS.

I'm taking the 3GS back to AT&T tonight, paying their restocking fee, and going back to my 3GS which I like so much better. I really hope the next iPhone is more consistent.

Well I went to my local apple store and they exchanged my 5 day old phone for a refurbished unit. The screen is much better. Now the phone looses signal all the time and states on occasions no service even though my wifes iphone has signal and service. Tried all the resets and restores to no avail. I suspect the refurbed unit that I was given was originally sent in for the same reasons!

My first experience with an Apple product and thus far it has not been so good. I guess my options are limited. Either go back to Apple store and get another refurb, perhaps yellow one again or return phone to AT&T for refund. If I chose the latter would I lose my ported telephone number? I came from T-Mobile?
Thanks,

Just a follow up to my earlier post. I called Apple Care to inquire one last time about the yellow tint and they escalated me to an engineer. The engineer was very nice and explained that the screen color change is intentional and is not considered a defect in any way. At this point, some of the 3GS' out there have blue-ish screens and some have yellow-ish screens due to design change. Basically for me, it came down to personal choice. I like the added memory and features of the 3GS but I SO MUCH prefer the blue-ish tint on my 3G, that I returned the 3GS to AT&T today and paid the restocking fee. Despite the fact that it's all scratched up and a year and half old, I have such an appreciation of my 3G now. A new Incase cover and Zagg screen protector and it's beautiful with it's blue-ish tint.

If there never had been a blue-ish screen to compare to, I probably would have thought nothing of it. And knowing that this is not an abnormality helped me make a clear choice rather than trying to exchange it. I'll wait for the next phone release. Apple, the blue-ish screen looks clean, clear, and modern. The yellow-ish screen looks dirty and dark; it just doesn't provide the same experience by comparison. On the next iPhone, please stay with the blue backlighting/display. Thank you...

Any news on this?

My screen seems to change color. One day it's dingy yellow, the next it's a rich white/blue. Sometimes it's so nasty, I want to throw it at a wall.

I was thinking of going to the Apple store and have them replace it, but the last time I did that, they scratched the **** out of the back of the phone and gave me a screen that was nearly unreadable because it was so dark and yellow.

I have to say, unless Apple resolves this issue in the next phone - I will not be getting it.

I've ordered two black 3gs 16gb as I was afraid ordering one might not be enough to get a good screen. As it turns out ordering two didn't help much either, both are from different build weeks (39 + 40) and factories, but both have a display that starts out acceptable on the top but goes yellowish on the bottom.

Imo this is the worst case, as even a yellow tint could be acceptable if it was uniform, but with one third being yellow that's just crap.

So I'll have to return both to the dealer. Servicing them at apple is not an option as they are imported (you can't buy one in my country if you don't buy a 2 year data plan as well) and therefore can't be sent in in the country where i live due to apples product policy. And sending them back to apple in their origin country via my dealer would leave me with no phone plus a good chance of getting back a similar or even worse screen after a few weeks.

I'm not quite sure how apple manages to keep this poor display quality for such a long period and even so consistently, but on a device that cost me 700 euros (that's more than 1000 usd) this is unacceptable for me. I wonder why apple seems to think that iphone users will accept such a screen. I'd consider them to be more into image processing than any other consumer group, therefore having higher standards concerning panel quality. But maybe that's just a myth.

I had connectivity problem with my 3gs(brand new but connectivity issues) and got a replacement. Now that i have both the handsets with me (defective one should be returned within 10 days), the replacement 3gs has a yellowish screen whereas the defective one has bright n crisp whiter screen which is more appealing! and now I'm going to get replaced with a brand new one this week at apple store after speaking with the apple assistance!! People! Its the manufacturing fault! nothing to do with the firmware or whatsoever!

If its truly a manufacturing fault then why does Apple state that the yellow hue was / is a intentional change.

My personal belief is that it is a fault and they are covering it up. If the yellow hue was legit then shouldnt it be uniform ? Instead of the lower half just being yellow?

Like I said before, we bought two at the same time. Mine was yellow, wifes wasnt. When I went for a replacement all if not most of them had a yellow tinge, some more than others. Infact the Genius's own unit was so yellow, it seemed it had yellow fever. He duly fobbed it off as being " normal" and that no two LCD panels are exactly the same.

I stumbled onto this thread because I too was wondering why my brand new 3GS was a bit dimmer than my other 3GS. The older one was purchased two months ago in October, but the screen was bright and blue unlike my newer one which was dim and warmer yellow. Now that you guys mentioned it the yellowish tint does get a bit more noticeable towards the bottom, but not very severely. I couldn't understand why the screen was different between a phone that was only purchased two months apart, but I went ahead and returned the phone for a full refund.

Message was edited by: turbo95eg6

ok this is crazy i think. i just got the 3gs, and was really just hoping to get a an iphone that was like my 3g. well to my surprise, the yellow screen! i cant stand it! so i take it back to apple and the guys at genius dont know anything about this issue. but after reading so much about it online i found that hard to believe. even in the process of showing one of the apple reps he changed my brightness setting as i looked away and then compared mine to his, saying it wasnt an issue.

so i let feeling defeated. well i went back to see what i can do at another time in the day, and the assisnt manager there was very helpful. she saw the yellow hue in my phone and they got me a new one on the spot. problem is it was the same batch. 2009 WEEK 48. so after that, she looked it up in the K-BASE and apparently thats where they found the information that they made the change to a "warmer" tone, etc etc. and all phones have this yellow gradiant. i couldnt believe that i had to prove my case like i was on trial at apple. their standard response was " its in the normal range of acceptability and variance for the 3gs"

but i havent seen much posted lately on this issue and wanted to see if anyone else has the same thing going on with 48th week phones.

my problem is this. i do not like the yellow tone at all. it bugs the **** out of me, ive spent countless hours of research on it and it just doesnt seem right. i hope they have an update or firmware fix in the near future. is anyone else having this issue with a 3gs phone bought in 2010. i should have waited for 4G but didnt see the yellow screen issue coming at all.

so i have 26 days to return the phone, and i dont want to because it flies compared to the 3g but dammit all. i guess the yellow otterbox compliments it.

i know i know sweet blog....


last 3 question what are folks doing about the yellow phone and what are the chances that a kelvin update are in the future?...is there away to fix it now?

Hi, I just thought I would add to this fantastic forum thread which has been very helpful to me thanks all that contributed.

I like you had an iphone 3G for the last 18 months and could not fault it in ANY way at all...Brilliant!!
I upgraded willingly to the new 3GS this week at the O2 store in in Crewe Cheshire.
When I got home and had finished charging I could not believe the poor quality first digits of s/n 9 88 46 not so much of the yellowish tint although not brilliant white, but more noticeable than anything the wishy washy washed out colours in the display, most noticeable was the usually rich green bubble when you have texted somebody this was much lighter, also frames on most web pages washed out and also the calender with text much greyer than normal.
I had got rid of my old iphone 3G so didnt do a side by side test..but didn't need to I noticed this difference immediately.

So after much thinking I took it back to the store where I bought it and got great service of the guy there, who listened sympathetically to me and checked the phone and agreed to change it for a different batch serial number with no hassle at all...just how it should be, he didn't think I should have to put up with something not right on a £550.00 phone either.
So got great service and now I have just checked my replacement and it'ds great just how I wanted it to start with.
So I am posting this to anyone who like me was wondering if it was worth swapping the phone for a replacement not sure if you would get a better one or not, I say do it.

I wasn't happy with the couldn't care less attitude from Apple in Ireland over the phone, he just said he had not heard of it before....BullS~#t !! I hate that!!
Apple you have a great product for christ sake stay with it dont get complacent
Its clear you have a problem with displays they should not vary as much as they do across the entire range, people are reporting all sorts of issues with displays on most forums...listen to the people!!

Interesting read this, so nice to see a comment from Apple on THEIR forums - not!
I have just "upgraded" to a 16GB 3GS from the original 3G and the screens are worlds apart. The 3G was awesome, the GS is yellow and seems to have a slower refresh rate? as in scrolling blurs text much more on the GS than the G. I'm really not happy with it at all and will be arranging return tonight.

I got my new iPhone 3GS Yesterday, that is my second iPhone, my first one is iPhone 3G, I like to use it very much, that is why I buy another one.

base on this topic, my new iPhone 3GS also have the same problem of yellow screen, I do not really like it, it is not look like a normal design, I feel the color is too warm, and all the color of my photos look a little strange that color I can not accept. my previous iPhone 3G's screen color are correct than my iPhone 3GS.

Are there any solution could fix this issue Apple? or could I replace it form seller?

I really hate the yellow screen.

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