iPhone 12 OLED Screen Issue

I ended up returning mine and got my refund. l’ve just picked up my new 12 pro max from an apple store. I checked the serial no before i bought. it was starting with F2. I’ll check if the issue is still there as soon as I’m home. Fingers crossed.

After checking my behavior, I doubt it's hardware. the gray screen happens after the device post. If it's hardware, it would happen at all times. apple must be waiting for an update for the screens and HDR (supplied by the manufacturer), I also feel that they should perfect the iPhone kernel. it can also be the cause

Ok, guys.

I’m back home from the apple store. I unboxed the new 12 pro max, currently migrating my data, but I tried some backlight bleed test videos (which are pure black and what I have been using to test my faulty iphone as well)

And it’s good news, there seems to be no issue! It was quite frustrating these past couple of weeks but I finally have a perfectly working OLED panel that doesn’t have any green tint or flickering issues.

And with this, I am certain that this is a hardware related issue. As I wrote here before, my friend also has a perfectly good iphone 12. He bought it in Turkey, and his serial no starts with FF.

If it was solely a software issue, there wouldn’t be any normal devices.

Now, that being said, I am not saying Apple cannot solve it by software, but just because they can work around this issue by a software fix, it doesn’t necessarily mean it is not caused by faulty hardware.

Anyway, here are the things that might be useful for checking yours against mine;

Model: iPhone 12 Pro Max

Factory: F2 (China, Zhengzhou - Foxxconn)

Production week: 50(December)

Imei starts with 3501

I hope everyone eventually gets their issues resolved.

Cheers!

The migration process is now done and all my data is on the new phone.

Also I realized I didn’t mention earlier. I am on iOS 14.3

I went into a dark room, and got under some blankets just to be sure. I checked it with every possible dual combination of nightshift & true tone at the brightness level of ~10% (both on, both off, Ns on Tt of, Tt on Ns off) I tested it with some black youtube videos that I’ve been using. and I also tested with the software update page in settings.

I then tried testing on these brightness levels with true tone enabled and nightshift disabled (which is my normal setting for the majority of the day)

~2%

~10%

~25%

~70%

~90%

~100%

There was no issue whatsoever. at every step of these tests I side by side compared the screen to my iPhone X as well.

Just in case people reading this have doubts about my assessment; I have been having this issue since 18th of November, and I found this thread because I noticed the issue on my phone, not the other way around. So I definitely would know if the issue was still there.

The iPhone I got today is perfectly normal and I am relieved!

Cheers!

That’s great to hear, I hope mine also doesn’t have a problem, it will arrive tomorrow. I also think it must be a hardware problem, it the screen though but the ambient light sensor. And that this could be fixed in software.

I returned mine on 24th Dec via UPS. It was manufactured in the week 47 and it still had the screen flickering and gray glow issues. I was on my 4th unit. I think I will wait until end of January to order a new one.

I bought a second iphone 12 pro for my girlfriend, 49 week of manufacturing. And the display shows pure black, but! I was still able to reproduce the issue.

The display glows very slightly gray in the range of 15-25% brightness, in all other cases it's perfectly black. But still it is much better than mine, I have a reproducible problem at all brightness ranges except 100%

It is really frustrating that there are nothing from apple not even an update with even unofficial changelog about addressing the issue.

The display calibration must be updated this really should never come out of such great corporation

Update

iPhone 12 Pro Received it in beginning of November F17DN can refund before Jan 8

Pitch black room

playing pure black video at brightness 0 or 10 %

shows green

but No blinking

my wife phone x all black not green

either i live with it since it’s not bothersome or I return it because it’s not true oled at this price and go back to my XR and wait for 13, 3 months after it comes out

My thought is, will I get worst.

At this point either they come up with

ios update soon or maybe I should forget about a new iphone

what i don’t understand why is the x not having the same issue ?

And this brings me to think it has to be hardware

but I’m no engineer

so if people getting new phone from this point on and they no longer have this issue than it is hardware

if they do have the same issue well maybe i’ll forget this year phone because patches over patches is not

a perfect oled as it should be

Well there it is folks.It’s hardware related and it’s a lottery. Merry Christmas and enjoy your faulty $1000+ phones (me included).

P.S: I really want Apple to prove me wrong in this case and fix it through software, but from the current stance it’s not that promising....

Alright, bad news again. After receiving the new device on saturday, I tested it extensively and concluded that it was perfectly normal. After 1.5 days of use, this evening something felt off again and I tested again under a blanket and there it was, a slightly lit, grey, flickering panel. I tried all the tests again with true tone and night shift combos, but yes, I don’t have the green tint, but I now have the grey flickering issue on all brightness levels (including 100%) . At 100% it stays pure black until I touch the screen, as soon as I touch it, a grey layer appears and disappears a few seconds later. Now with this I don’t even know what to think of it. During this one and a half day period, I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary that I can think of. So I don’t know what kind of issue is this anymore. Maybe hardware, maybe software, maybe combined.. it is truly a lottery at this point. I don’t think I will return as I absolutely hated the green tint, now at least it is not any other color and it is not as bothersome, but apple better fix this soon with a software update.

Me too G9N

The display is perfect with grey uniformity until I got below 30%

I get grey glow at startup (Last second after true tone kicks in)

I also get flicker with black background that is hardly to spot

I think it is a mix of software and hardware

It surely can be worked with software specially the grey uniformity the display should not go such low brightness

As for the glow it can display true black so the gamma values should be redone

Hardware or software... doesn’t matter to me. Apple it’s taking way to long to fix it and that’s why I’m returning this $1200 phone. If I want LCD panel I will go with iPhone 11 and it’s half the price. A14 it’s not very impressive anyway! Who care about 1 second performance over the last year . Too bad I sold my iPhone X . That phone with a new battery it’s a beast