iPhone 3G S has yellowish tint

I have the yellowish tint also on my 3GS. My older 3G phone is on the white/blue side. I looked at a few other 3GS's of others and one of them did not have the yellowish tint .It was quite white/bluish.

I have an appt. at the Apple Store tomorrow.

I have looked at a few new 3GS phones and one that I saw was definitely white like my older 3G, the rest (including mine) had a yellowish tint. I have an appt. with Apple tomorrow and see what they say about it. If they don't replace it with more of the "white" looking displays then I'll be returning it.

It's ok. 🙂 - That's how my AT&T store pretty much reacted. They did take the phone from me but the manager could not see a difference. However, several of the other employees could. I told them it's ok if they thought I was crazy.

Good luck to anyone that has a yellow screen. I hope you can find one that is perfect!

I noticed the same thing! When you compare the 3G S to the 3G, you can definitely see the difference. The 3G looks a lot better in my opinion, like someone else said here, the white on the 3G is much whiter than the 3G S. The colors on the 3G S look washed out/yellowish. I hope apple will mention something about this soon. Do you guys think it was done intentionally? like they did with the 1st gen iphone and iphone 3g?

Hey, just back from the Apple Store. The Apple management rep told me to go in and that she had talked to the manager and that he would swap it out for me. I can't return it for my money back because when they did the first swap they took my original phone that I had ordered from the web and so Apple won't give me my money back and to make matters worse, when I got to the store, the manager said they didn't have any in stock in back to swap with me. Then he came back and said he had found one the was on hold for someone and that he would let me take it. Guess what, it was the phone I had just given him. I know this because I remembered the serial number. This really upsets me that he thinks that I am that stupid. I tried to trust and believe that they wouldn't do something so dishonest, but he did and now I am out my money and have a bad phone to boot.

and you didnt say anything about it? seriously is it that BIG of an issue, are we really complaining about this? get over it and enjoy your iPhone. unless you have one that has white/yellow on the same screen, quit crying.

I'll live with it for another day or two to see if it bothers less. I'm starting to get used to it. I just might return to AT&T again and ask them to swap it out for me. If not I'll ask for my money back. Not a course of action that I want to take.

I suspected it, but it wasn't until I was in the car and looked at the serial number, that it was confirmed to me what he had done. It has a yellow tint and had an issue with the sleep mode. I can't get my money back. Excuse me for wanting to let people know not to expect much help or honesty from the store people. I think you would be quite upset as well.

The issue is real. Bought 32gb white for wife. Shipped from china. Bought my self a 32 gb black which shipped from Memphis. Her screen was fine, mine looked like parchment paper in comparison. Everyone I showed it to noticed the difference. We all ordered the what we thought were the SAME Iphones. We didn't gt to choose yellowed screens or whiter screen when we bought them. We all should get the best displays not settle for a lesser product. I open a case with apple and went to the Apple store in Boston. Called first and they had replacements in stock. As I told the genius my problem he looke skeptical. When he saw my phone he started to believe. When he went to get the replacement and we fired it up next to my old phone he was convinced. You have the right to ask for a replacement. They should do it for you without a hassle. If they don't then return the phone. Take the cash and go by another iPhone at another apple store.
Y guy was great. He said we could grab a replaceme and check it and if inwasnt happy he aid call apple MD so a replacment online. He agreed it was a real issue.
SO DON'T SETTLE!!!!!

Returned my 3GS today at the Apple store. The concierge did not see the difference even when I compared it to his 32GB phone (which looked good). The blue shirt guy did see a big difference in one of photos (which looked washed out compared to my 3G). Warmer or not, it is a big issue for some people. I got an exchange, but here's the deal. I setup the phone with AT&T and wiped the old phone only to find out the replacement had exactly the same yellow screen! The tech said AT&T requires 72 hrs to exchange phones, so I will wait another three days and try again.

Please Apple, come up with a fix or press release on this issue.

Well, here is one success story to keep everyone upbeat.

First off, DO NOT LISTEN TO ARTICLES ETC AND ASSUME THE SCREEN IS SUPPOSED TO BE YELLOW.

I took my phone to the Apple Store in Santa Monica today. I had to show three different people, but all agreed that the tint was there.

Long story short, my phone was replaced! And the best part? My new phone has the perfect, clear, excellent screen! This phone has a 24 build date.

There was one other guy there getting his phone replaced and his was also ugly yellow. We both walked out satisfied Apple customers.

In other words, this is a legitamate issue,and can be fixed!

I just got back from the apple store. I got a replacement for some stuck bright pixels. I mentioned the yellow tint and the genius said it was a different LCD they are using then the 3g(hearsay?) But did notice the yellow tint.

The thing is, all of the models in there looked similar. The replacement I got is very yellow and darker yellow on the bottom half of the screen. No bright pixels though.

It is obvious there is something wrong with the LCD if the bottom half is darker then the top...I will wait for some more shipments to come in before I go back again to get it replaced. This is not what I expected...

Just another person chiming in but I went to the ATT store today and compared my screen to the 3G[s] models in the store and it was DEF warmer than the floor models. I also compared their 3G[s] floor models to the 3G in the store and there was almost NO difference.

Have an appointment with a "Genius" tomorrow but I'm afraid even if I get a replacement it will just be one with a yellow screen as well.

I just got back from a second trip to a different store in my area. He first said he would swap the screen out(never heard of them doing that), but then he said they didn't have the part. He gave me a replacement and I thought he was handing me back my phone.

The bottom was yellow...This one is much better then the first replacement, but it still looks defective. We then looked at the store modelsand they were all the same too!!! The funny thing is, the new one seems to have a better contrast, regardless of the yellow tint at the bottom and is less washed out.

I will be waiting till apple sorts this out to go back, but I am definitely going back at some point in the next few months...

On a side note; I just wanted to give all the geniuses out there a round of applause, at least at the stor I was just at. It was soooo busy it looked like the freakin new york stock exchange, but they still had smiles, were genuine and wanted to help.

This issue needs to be addressed officially and I encourage all of you to call apple, send feedback and ask for replacments untill they fix it.

Here are my current findings:
I got a hold of a piece of polarized plastic (similar to polarized sunglasses but not tinted dark). If I turn on my older 3G iPhone and look thru the polarizer at the screen and rotate the polarizer, it would go from full bright to just about pitch black. Most LCD's would do that if they don't have a de-polarizer on them.

My new iPhone 3GS has a yellowish tint just looking at it, as others are noting here. I turn it on and do the same thing (looking thru the polorizer and rotating it 360)(actually repeats every 180 degrees) and the display brightness varies but not near full dark but you do notice it varying brightness quite a bit.

I was told that it probably has a de-polarizer on it to minimize when people wear polarized sunglasses and tilt the display.

I found someone that has a new 3GS iPhone that looked to have a white (non yellowish) display . I then did the same test to it and it did not vary brightness at all during rotation. It might have changed tint a little though.

And still another 3GS iPhone that someone else had, appeared to be white (non yellowish). I tested that the same way with the polarizer and it acted like my older 3G, i.e. it was bright and went all the way pitch dark as I rotated the polarizer. So that one did not appear to have a de-polarizer attached at all.

So from what I have encountered, there seems to be 3 variations of it.


3GS unit 1: Varies in brightness as the polarizer is rotated 360 degrees but not near to full dark. Probably has a depolarizer in the display. This unit had a week build of 20.

3GS unit 2: Does not vary in brightness as the polarizer is rotated 360 degrees. Also probably has a depolarizer in the display. This had a week build of 25.

3GS unit 3: Varies from full brightness to just about pitch dark as the polarizer is rotated 360 degrees. Does not have a depolarizer in the display. This had a week build of 21.

I was told that the week build number was the 4th and 5th digit of the serial number. I don't know if that is accurate but I recorded it none the less.


You can test it using polarizing sunglasses. Just rotate the glasses and see if you have any variations in light (360 degree rotation). See especially if the yellow tinted ones, vary in brightness but don't go all the way dark, as it did in my test.


If anyone else tries this, it would be of interest to see if this tracks with my findings.



Regards,




Dave