iPhone 12 OLED Screen Issue

SO after getting two brand new iphone 12 pro max, after ordering Like 9 models , i can confirm all fot this weird LCD like screen in pitch black room on a blakc wallappaer in full screen in photos apps ( to reproduce the issue easily ) or even by jut booting each phones out of the box in my bathroom with no lights on , ( you see this grey flicker...

I got 2 12 pro max today starting with F2 week 51 of production, like most of the ones i got , it's way better than the last one i got starting with G0... the issue is still present but barely visible specialy on one model + no yellow tint...

So i send pics to apple, and they confirmed to me THAT THEY DO NOT READ THESE FORUMS... AT ALL...

if u cant this minor issue ( in their opinion and i agree ) to be fixed , you need to call them and spend 30 min or 1 hour max with tech support and explain them all of this.. issue is software cos it never happen with brigthness at 100% and when the phone boot at first, the screen is perfect , you see the apple logo and then the grey flicker comes for a few seconds, it means that so cores components that initialize when booting up like all the sensor in the notch must be causing a little software bug that most ppl do not see.

they do have enough reports of this specific issue.. if all the people here were to call them maybe they'll will really look into the issue.. i've send pictures to them, spent some time with them, and it's the only solution for a fix to be coming ASAP.

hope most of you will calll them . otherwise they may fix it when 13 is released..

Guys, let's wait for the final iOS 14.5 version! We have now the confirmation that Apple is aware of the issue and is really working on it. I think it's not very trivial, because they have to correct several different displays-batches and suppliers and all display have to look good after a new software-based calibration. (Not that they have before green tint and after iOS 14.5 for example a blue tint or red tint).

For my two devices with G9P OLED-panel the Beta 2 of iOS 14.5 works perfect! I have no flickering in YouTube or other Movies with black content and no raised blacks in photos or my "AtomUhr"-App or the settings!

Here you can see the "AtomUhr" App under iOS 14.4:

And here you see the same "AtomUhr" App under iOS 14.5 Beta 2:

Went to apple store again and was told they have to follow protocol before swapping out my phone. So we did another software reset directly through the computer which did not resolve issue. The next step was to replace the screen and not the entire phone. Took about two and a half hours, but I can confirm that the new screen fixed the problem of the green tint. No more tint or flashing on black screens at any brightness levels, at least so far. I am on ios 14.4. This leads me to believe it is a hardware issue. Hope this helps

I went there and explained the problem.

First they offered a software solution, they updated and reinstalled the firmware (not the OS) on both phones.

One of them (mine) stayed the same and the other one (my girlfriend’s) got worse.

They offered to replace the screen on both phones but they only had one so I told them to replace my girlfriend’s since it has gotten worse.

I’m waiting for them to call me when they receive more displays.

My girlfriend’s phone has been perfect since then. Pure black on all scenarios described in this thread.

Here’s my girlfriend’s phone after the reset.

https://youtu.be/hk_k133TObA

Both her phone and mine were on were on 14.4 presenting the issue everywhere.

I’ll let you know (the thread) after they fix my screen (supoosedly) later this week.

[Edited by Moderator]

I suppose you just have to know how to negociate 🤷‍♂️

Of course, he asked me a lot of questions but I went there well informed and with my thoughts and knowledge about the issue well structured in my head.

Once I was there, obviously the guy that was assigned to me was not able to see the issue with all the bright lights (he even tried to see it by putting his finger on the notch 🙄 .. ) I showed him videos and told him to go to a darker room. He went to a dark room and came back. He told me he was able to see the issue and that the first solution was the software one (If they can avoid paying the screen they are going to at least try it) and that if that was not the solution they would replace the screen. I’m a CS graduate and I discussed with him about the firmware, the controllers, etc etc so i think that knowing about the issue helps.

When i got the phones back i told him that I was going to test the phones in my car (in the dark) and if it was not solved they had to replace the screen.

As I said the phone with the replaced screen is perfect and I’m really excited that the problem is finally solved (at least in one of my two phones)

So apparently there are three problems with the iPhone 12 series screens.

1. green tint issue
2. hdr glow issue (where it lights up like an LCD, also called as iPhone screen glowing issue)
3. yellow screen issue

I had green tint issue on my first phone. Replaced it, i had again the first two issues green tint and glow on the second one, and now on the third one, i have just the hdr issue. Apparently 14.4 beta fixes the hdr glow issue. I am installing it at the moment. i will check back here to report if there are these issues still.

Yeah well I finally got around to doing a hardware calibration of my iPhone 12 mini before I returned it to confirm the green tint was real and it was and way worse than all my other devices except for my only other OLED device which is an older LG V35!

The chart on this page shows all devices including the older Apple X and even 8 have lower than delta error 2 which shouldn't be noticeable to all but trained eye https://www.xda-developers.com/google-pixel-3a-display-review/

Both my OLED phones average higher than 5 which even average person will notice so I can only assume I got unlucky and 2 defective screens or bad batch!

Anyways, will stick with my iPhone SE 2 and iPad which both score near delta error 1 or less which is basically considered perfect to even best trained eyes! ΔE values below 1.0 appear indistinguishable from perfect. Just returned my iPhone 12 today since couldn't tolerate the green tint contaminating every other color which is can clearly see from the memory color checker pattern test I ran on it!

iPhone 12 hardware calibration test results showing strong green tints throughout. I even did an extended greyscale test with 20 points instead of normal 10 and you can see under 10% brightness the green seems to shoot up and get even worse while the red and blue dive down making it even more noticeable at low brightness levels!

LG V35 OLED screen even worse guess that's why I never use it!

iPhone SE 2 results which shows way more accurate colors without any signs of green tint though sharp eye might notice slight blue in bottom left which is supposed to be white since Red Green and Blue line of greyscale still not on top of each other like my main display which is most accurate display of all and what I use most the time because of it.

Ipad has better white but way worse black than the iPhone SE 2 probably because of the worse contrast ratio 1000 vs 1600.

Finally my main display while not OLED still has over 2x contrast the iPhone SE 2 and way bigger at 43" with better whites and colors as accurate or better and proper greys, which should explain why I was so disappointed with screen quality on my iPhone 12!

 Checked now with 3utools the Serials from display panels.

1st iPhone 12 pro, 39/2020, Sn: F17DG, Panel Sn: G9P0356 (Date 2020-08-29)

2nd iPhone 12 pro, 49/2020, Sn: F17DT, Panel SN: G9P0466 (Date 2020-11-14)

3rd iphone 12 pro, 50/2020, SN, F17DV, Panel SN: G9P0491 (Date 2020-11-30)

All three had/have raised blacks and look yellow. I will leave the 12 Series out and wait for the 13.

I'm no longer interested in this lottery.

Hope Apple does not make this mistake again with the 13 Pro.

Guys there is some hope:

I have chatted with apple support again and the agent said it is a known problem of the 12 series and can be fixed in the future but is difficult because every device is different and they only can deliver one update for all.

Even try this video with 20% brightness in a 100% black room. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EwUp5QM9jk&feature=emb_logo

But wait for the eyes to get used to the black room otherwise you cant see it.

For all who have the problem write the support. The chance is getting higher for a fix.

Look into the chat (german)

Mine 12 Pro is Week: 49. S/N: DNPDT... , iOS 14.4 Public Beta

Didn't have an ability to check the display manufacturer.

Mostly the same issues: green tint on the bottom half of the screen on low brightness, on <75% there's grey glowing in static black videos, black pixels doesn't turn off in dynamic videos. When viewing photos with pure black color, pixels turn off only after 2-3 seconds.

Got my defect confirmed by AASP, waiting for a replacement.

@ifromduluth

100% agree with you , the only hardware related thing is if your screen has a yellwosih or bluish or greenish color calibration , but you can tweak it via accesibility .... i'm sure too that it is software because Apple Aknowleged the issue in an internla note to technicians telling them it will be fixed via software , and if it would be hardware the problem would reproduce 100% of the time at 0% , ro 100% brightness... and on the 1st 12 pro max i have, at 100% blacks are true blacks.... and on the 2 newer units i got hte issue is really negligable , and i only see this LCD type of gray light flicker when britgness is at 0% on both , after 1% to 100% the blacks stays perfects all the time in a pitch dark room, With HDR video or not, or a black picture in barious photos apps...

Every iphone have the raised blacks. I’m almost certain its software issue. If you put the brightness to like 40-50%, turn on dark mode, go to a dark room, open up settings and the software update window and then scroll up and down you can clearly see pixels being lit and then if you leave it there for 2-3 secs the pixels shut off and true blacks are being displayed. Now if you put the brightness to 100% the pixels stay turned off all the time. Its impossible not to see. You dont even need a pitch black room for this too see, a really dark one is enough and if you pretend you cant see it you should get your vision checked... Now for the issue itself Im almost 100% sure its to prevent the purple smearing. Again in the same dark room with screen on 50% brightness scroll fast up and down in the settings you see no smearing appear because when you scroll pixels are being lit. Now put the brightness to 100 and scroll fast again you can clearly see purple smearing on the edges.

So thats why the blacks are not being turned off. Its up to apple to make them turn off all the time then we will see constant smearing. I dont mind that tho its better than LCD type of blacks and saves you battery aswell.

@cristianro one last test to confirm that you have a perfectly working display, do your greys smear in the settings app when you scroll? Normally with a perfectly black display, it should smear because I am sure that apple has done the tinting to mitigate the smearing. When i have perfect blacks above 20 percent i have smearing in settings app but when i am below 20 percent and not perfect blacks then the smearing is not visible at all. It has something to do with the brighness levels, apple has activated the green tinting at lower brightness levels and at higher brightness levels it is not necessary and therefore this is a solid proof that it is a software issue and not hardware. Simple test to prove this to everyone is put your display brightness to 100 percent and scroll through your settings app, you will see the grey color smearing purple or pink and this will not exist on other brightness levels. The reason we all have it different is because our displays are unfortunately not able to produce the same brighness nits since they are Organic displays and therefore the uniforminty differs due to inconsistent manufacturing, the good news is that iphone can calculate at what nit the iphone is at and therefore the tint kicks in to mitigate the smearing and hence apple can correct it using the nit algorithm system that they use to punch in the green tint for smearing.

The level of delusion is real. Sorry it's not a smearing method by Apple or something. Stop trying to make excuses for Apple. No other Oled iPhone have this ''anti smearing method'' nor some other Iphone 12. It's an hardware defect, period.

My first 12 PM had really noticeable raised blacks and flickering. My second one from a month later had really less raised blacks and flickering than the first one. A non consistent software method to prevent smaering ? No, sorry.

Moreover, my brother's iPhone 12 has not any sign of raised blacks or flickers at all. It turns black instantly like it should, at any brightness level. Same iOS version, so why if it's software ? Stop this delusion please. People have to wake up, it's a hardware problem. Maybe they can try to correct it or negate it by software, I don't know. But it's simply not a software problem.

I read on another forum if you set your brightness to 70% and set reduce white point to 85% as well, the display will act normal with no flickering, no green tint, and no raised/lit blacks. I tried that and it actually worked! So that leaves me again with the confusing question of it being more software related that hardware in the end?