iPhone 4 Interlacing effect

You should definitely take it to an Apple Store and get a replacement.

i have exactly the same issue. i recently replaced my iPhone 4 after 8months of use due to reception failure, the replacement iphone has the interlacing all over the screen, i have now replaced the replacement but it is still not satisfactory, and is also showing the interlacing, it is extremly annoying.

I'm glad to see i'm not the only one with this issue, as the apple staff have not been too helpful

I went through a 2 week long saga and 4 replacement phones for this very same issue. I had an iPhone 4 that I got on launch. In April 2011 my home button started acting shotty so I went to the store and got a replacement phone. An hour after it was powered on I noticed the interlacing lines and couldn't believe it. The retina display is supposed to be prestine and now I could see these lines from even an arms distance away. Having a perfect screen and going to this was a huge shock. I went back the next day, got another replacement phone. It was fine in the store, but again an hour later it started. I thought for sure that store got a bad lot of phones (14th Street NYC) so I made an appointment at a store outside of the city. Got another replacement phone. Sat in the apple store for nearly an hour staring at the screen waiting for it to start and it never did. By the time I got home it was doing it again. Apple Care stepped in and told me they would send me a brand new phone, not a replacement phone, straight from the factory out of the original box. Needless to say, STILL INTERLACED. This is the phone I still currently have. I kept the case open with Apple Care and said I was done with the fiasco for now (I lost 4 nights restoring my phone and having it incapacitated for hours while doing so). Something was wrong and no one was admitting to it. My hopes was that more and more documentation would show up online, apple would rectify the issue, and that in a few months I could get it replaced again.

It is now almost August and these are other cases I've come across...

My girlfriend got a Verizon iPhone 4 in June, her screen is interlaced even worse than mine. She is lucky because she never had one that wasn't, so she doesn't know the difference and doesn't seem to care. I bet a LOT of new comers who aren't super tech savvy have no idea it isn't supposed to look that way. One my colleagues in mid July had his phone replaced. His screen is FINE. I've looked at it on numerous occasions just to see if has started but no, it has not. Another colleague of mine just this week (late July) got a replacement phone, low and behold his screen is interlaced.

Reading these very recent posts from all you guys further shows me that this issue is far from resolved. I am curious to know if Apple is acknowledging it yet because any Genius or Apple Care rep was acting like I was the first case of it (back in April). I will say, their customer survice was beyond extraordinary. I will never have a bad thing to say about Apple Care, the Geiuns Bar, or how dedicated they are to fixing someones problems. I am just surprised that these issues still persist and this problem doesn't seem be getting recified (on the hardware manufacturing level). I am still trying to figure out the best next step for me to take because I feel like I lost one of the most brilliant features of this phone. I wish I stuck with my haphazard home button and will be very reluctant to get a replacement phone for any reason in the future. It is great that they stand behind their products so strongly and replace whatever is broken, but the customer can't be walking out with an inferior faulty product if they do so.

If anyone else has more info on this matter I'd love to hear it! And thanks Jake-M for posting that picture. I can finally show people what I've been talking about. I've noticed people with glasses or less than 20/20 vision tend not to see it.

Good luck everyone.

Hey spez,

I'm currently on my 5th replacement phone. I initially got my iPhone 4 September 2010 here in sydney Australia. After 8 months of use the aerial died. All the replacement phones have had a screen that lacks the quality of my original handset. So far the apple staff in store havent been too helpful with all claiming they can not see the interlacing. Personally I don't think we should have to accept it.

Ive also noticed that with the replacement phones In good lighting mainly the sun I am able to see a grid When the screen is off, I'm not sure if the original was like this?

Cheers

Kev

Btw I wear glasses and don't have 20/20 vision and i deffinently notice it!!

Kev,

I will have to check a friend's phone who has an original from lauch, but I think those grids are actually the nature of the touch screen. I know on aftermarket screens (when people replace themselves) you can see them horribly no matter what, sun or no sun. Ours only show up in pure sunlight where you can also see all the sensors by the ear piece under the glass. I don't think it's a defect but will surely check the original when I can.

I also don't think we should accept it but how many more replacement phones can we go through? I wish Apple knew the root of the problem. I personally think they are getting screens manufactured from different companies. Some places are good, some are bad. There has to be a reason if SO MANY are bad, yet some still show up to be fine. Maybe they know which is which, maybe they don't. When this started happening I wondered if it even possibly had to do with the Tsunmai in Japan because I know a lot of their iOS device hardware is manufactured there. I'm sure a few things had to be changed up after that tragedy.

Unfortunately, I'm still at a loss, as I am sure you are too. Will always love Apple, but I am very disappointed in this whole experince.

Hi,

would anyone have anymore photos of the interlacing? i'm trying to take them with my canon g10, but its quite hard to capture...or what would be some good camera settings to capture the interlacing with?

cheers

hi, Jake-M

I got a test image for this issue.Save this picture( Full-size image with 640*960,not the Thumbnail) to you camera roll or photo libray,then check it without Zoom in or out,you would see the top and bottom bar flickering.

The test image is using for test screen glitches，it just make you see the interlace flicker more clearly,If the test image flickers on your iphone4 ,you definitely have this issue.Actually,if you are sensitive enough and see carefully at the top bar ,especiall on the lockscreen date bar,you would see fine horizontal lines ,even that you can see the horizontal pixel.The impact is that the screen is not sharp enough as a "retina display"What I am wondering is that they seem to go away after the phone has been in use for a little while and "warms up".

I suspect a relationship with production batches,the screens from different batches need different refresh rate,maybe very small difference,but apple doesn't take it into account

Im in china,i got my replacement phone in 23th july,and then I notice scan lines showing up on the phone.Im very sure that my origin phone dont have this issue,I think they would give me another replacement if I go to the apple store,but I'm worried there would be more issues,still interlacing,dead pixels,extreme yellow,battery...Apple increased in production and lead to a decline in the quality.

Jake-M

I dont think there is a realationship between yellow/warm screen and interlacing.I suspect it's the basebandversion.

1.Many people reported this issue when theyupgraded to ios 4.3.x version ,which get a different basebandversion. what's your girlfriend and your dad's ios version?

2.The main purpose of the baseband(demodulator) is responsible for regulating the cell phone communication (phone calls, text messaging, data exchange, etc.) and the interlacing is really like signal interference or glitches.

3.It occurs sometimes but not always,(Although most of the time)does this also implies a relationship with signal stability?

I will go to the apple store recently to test the iphone4 uesed to display whether have flickering test image or not,I will update my research for you.

SpezGuy

I read your saga carefully and find some factors associated.

1,The things happend fromApril,when the ios 4.3.x had released

2,You got 4replacement phones for this very same issue.,so it's not an isolated inciden

3，“It was fine in the store, but again an hour later it started. "

"By the time I got home it was doing it again. "

I suspect there isa relationship with signal stability,which controled by baseband

I hope you could do some small reseach with the test image I post.The more phones, the better.and then we shall our results here to try to find the root cause.Thanks.

My iphone is using 4.3.5 on baseband 04.10.01, the same baseband as your girlfriend's phone,but hers dont have this problem.when did she buy this iphone?

It seems that there was not much relationship with the baseband version.

I will go to the apple store today,and update myresearch soon

Troy,

Thanks a lot for posting that test image. My screen DOES flicker when viewing it.

Jake, just so you know I have a "warmer" screen and DO have the problem. My original theory was the cooler blue screens were uneffected and the warmer screens were faulty. The only good uneffected replacement phone I've seen since all this started had the blue cool screen. But who knows, that may all be unrelated.

Troy, you are onto something with the baseband possibly, but I haven't been able to figure out a rhyme or reason to it. I am currently using 4.3.3, baseband 04.10.01. When I was getting the replacement phones they were running on 4.3.1 if I remember correctly. 4.3.2 just came out but they were still shipping with 4.3.1. The issues existed out of the box before ever running a first sync on my computer.

Opposed to other people's observations, I feel like the screen DOES NOT show interlacing when it is not warmed up. When I wake up in the morning it usually looks fine. Even this morning I ran your test image and had no flickering. Low and behold, doing it now after using the phone for my morning commute, it does it. You suggest it may be signal strength but I have the issue happen and not happen in the same locations. My apartment has good service and the problem exists sometimes and doesn't exist others. Same goes with my office. I have not yet noticed a correlation as to the interlacing and location/signal strength. I just put my phone in "airplane mode" and viewed the test image. Still flickers. Would the issue existing in airplane mode possibly rule out this theory? Your thoughts?