iPhone 3G S has yellowish tint

I just purchased the 3GS again, I returned my first 3GS about 5 weeks ago. My first 3GS has a very yellow screen and was slightly blurry, I couldn't take it anymore and returned and went back to my 3G for a bit. The speed of the 3GS was calling me back so I took another chance.

I purchased a 32GB black 3GS, it is a week 31. The screen has the "warmer" feel to it, which means slightly yellow. I am happy with it. The screen is not blurry or washed out. The whites are slightly yellow as opposed to my 3G which was slightly blue. I have compared it to my laptop screens and they are all slightly different (some yellow, some blue, some toward pinkish). I am going to keep it and don't think this one is defective, because it isn't overly yellow and not blurry, which was my biggest problem before.

for all those waiting, the time seems right to go ahead and get an iphone

As of yesterday some were still getting the 'Yellow tint'.

though thoroughly check your screen before you leave

Why, you still have to pay the 10% restocking fee,

You can ask to check your phone before they activate it and not pay a restocking fee. Explain why u r checking. If one sales rep won't do it ask for someone else. I did it today. Their policy is as long as they don't activate on your account you haven't accepted the phone. I compared it to my current 3gd and alsoto the display model. It was warmer than the display but very satisfactor. And beautiful clarity and color. I think it is most helpful to have a display u don't like to compare it to. That way no matter what kind of lighting is there u can see how it compares.

Was in a somewhat sad social situation at the weekend where 8 of the 20 people there had new 3GS, made you feel like such an individual 🙂 Anyway, I got everyone to line up their phone on the brightness page with the brightness turned all the way up and we compared ALL 8 phones. Guess what, NO TWO SCREENS WERE A LIKE! As a simple division, there was the cooler ones and the warmer ones, but there were greener ones, reder ones, magenta ones, cyan ones and so on. ONE thing however there was not one of them that was neutral white. Then we all got our phones mixed up and it turned back into an uncomfortable version of a modern swingers party 🙂

The other thing that did come out of this is no one had noticed that their screen had a colour wash on it until it was compared to another phone, and afterwards no one cared, my wife likes her slightly yellow screen, I prefer my slightly blue/magenta screen.

End of the day, they all work great, no one had any serious issues and we all went out immediately the next day and bought new covers or cases to make our different form everyone elses 🙂

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Thank you Jesus! God be praised! There are intelligent people out there! I thought I was lost in a sea of anal blue toned retention! Hallelujah!

Dawnrazor! THANK YOU! Thank you for standing up and saying "The other thing that did come out of this is no one had noticed that their screen had a colour wash on it until it was compared to another phone, and afterwards no one cared, my wife likes her slightly yellow screen, I prefer my slightly blue/magenta screen."

Dawn....like your wife, I prefer my warm toned screen just as it is. Nice rich colors. Great blacks. I'm glad you have the sense to accept your phone as it is and to enjoy it!

Thank you again Dawnrazor! Some people are just way too concerned about this issue....er....non-issue(?)

mArkie poo... I agree that to most people this may seem out of hand but I have personally seen several screens that belong on some budget kmart phone, not the (arguably) most advanced phone in the US. The new phone I now have is day and night different from my old one. It wasn't just a "warm tone" issue. The phone could literally have been a display for crest whitestrips, fading from bright white like. 3g cool screen to nicotine yellow at the bottom. This wasn't too bad unless you use your phone in landscape a lot like I do for reading and emails for school. Also the colors distinctively "popped" on this new phone when compared to the old one... Also some people paid $600-$800 for their phones and deserve a consistent and desireable screen. I have also seen these color variations and have foundtgat mos people don't have the best color vision and don't see this. Good for them. Those of us who make a living with graphics and video want a consistent an accurate display. I have seen screens that I wanted to throw up on... We already have to deal with ATT"s poor service and Apple's proprietary closed software just to have an iPhone, we should at least have good hardware

Leon...point taken. I have said in previous posts that some people, and I know you yourself have been dealing with seriously crappy screens. But I meant my point to be about the people who can't accept a small degree of difference in color temperature.

I upgraded from a first gen iPhone to find a very noticeable difference in color temp. My first gen is cool blue. My new 3GS is warm yellow. But the whites are still white. Just warmer and I actually prefer it. The colors are more natural and my contrast ratio is pumped way up from the first gen.

I also know you recently were finally able to get an acceptable screen. Glad to hear it!

kre62, not sure where you are getting your information, but you're posting invalid information. There is definately, obviously a problem with the yellowish tint. Read this entire post before responding.

i would like to correct my earlier statement...i traveled with a friend to purchase his iphone 3gs and we viewed several new phones with unacceptable screens. it seems what may be occuring, and i read this thought many pages ago, that the yellowish problem may be with the screen coating. i have noticed on several phones that have a nice tint on the top half, then on the bottom half fade to yellow. i am wondering about the bonding process, and if they dry or are heated? this would make sense that depending on how far away from the heat source that different screens would come out a little different. as far as some screens having a wahsed out color that could be from the different screen manufactorers. so maybe we are seeing two separate issues here... thoughts?

anyway if the rumors about the HTC hero receiving a good optimization before heading stateside i may be jumping the apple, and ATT ship once and for all

What happened to this topic? It was 60 pages yesterday and 18 today.

Regarding the fade to yellow at the bottom of the screen, I have seen it on almost every iPhone to some degree. My guess is that it's a backlight diffuser problem and not the screen coating. I also think the color temperature issue has more to do with the backlight LEDs than the screen itself. The wavelength of white LEDs can vary substantially and it would be impossible to make every iPhone look the same.

Cantelia wrote:
What happened to this topic? It was 60 pages yesterday and 18 today.

You're seeing something that also confused me when I first joined these forums - a settings choice for your account resulting from how many messages you have chosen to display per page. In a nutshell, log out, then hard refresh the page. You'll see it's back to the larger number of pages as a result of it displaying the lower default number of messages per page. So, nothing devious on Apple's part here (at least not yet!).

AntonioMX5 wrote:
You're seeing something that also confused me when I first joined these forums - a settings choice for your account resulting from how many messages you have chosen to display per page. In a nutshell, log out, then hard refresh the page. You'll see it's back to the larger number of pages as a result of it displaying the lower default number of messages per page. So, nothing devious on Apple's part here (at least not yet!).

Thanks. I should have realized it changed after I logged in.

You can ask to check your phone before they activate it and not pay a restocking fee. Explain why u r checking. If one sales rep won't do it ask for someone else. I did it today. Their policy is as long as they don't activate on your account you haven't accepted the phone.

I went to three (very busy) Apple stores. In each case the nice clerk checked with the store manager and I was nicely told that I cannot see the phone until after it is paid for and activated. While waiting, I met someone with a yellow tinted screen that was getting it fixed.

I ended up buying two iPhones that had beautiful "Cool White" displays. I can't find a thing wrong with these phones (so far). Once again I have proven that 'luck beats skill every time'. Hopefully this 'problem' has moved into the past.

I believe I said at at&t stores.... If not I apologize. Out of curiosity what is first five of serial numbers

I live in Athens Greece, and Iphone's are only provided by local mobile networks, I expirience the same yellow tint with my Iphone 3GS 32GB white, after half an hour comparing it with the sales rep I managed to convince him that there is an issue and sent the unit for service. I pray that they bring me a non-yellow tint one. Is there anyone else from Greece with the same problem?

Thank you.