iPhone 4S screen tint

I just received my iPhone 4S last night and after struggling on the phone with Apple/AT&T to port my numbers correctly between my account, which they totally screwed up and now I have to get all new SIM cards BUT anyway after all that I was finally able to use the phone and I noticed right away how my new 4S has a true yellow tint as compared to my iPhone 4. My co-worker noticed this morning how the contrast is also "off" color. The colors are not very vibrant either. The yellow tint is Very harsh on my eyes as well. Apparently Apple hasn't made any statement regarding this issue but I do see that I'm not the only one to be experiencing these issues. I will be calling Apple support tonight to figure this out.

Agreed. For me, there is a noticeable yellow tint when looking at the display from a on-angle while wearing polarized sunglasses (mine are neutral density - no color tint - just polarized). The yellow tint is reduced when viewing from off angle. The fact that polarization allows viewing of the tint suggests that it's an optical property of one of the layers of the sandwich - possibly intentional to allow better viewing through polarized lenses. That's certainly an issue with some LCDs - for example, my Canon PowerShot S95's display goes black when held in portrait orientation and viewed through polarized lenses, which makes it rather hard to frame a shot. But it could also be an effect of the glue, if there's some isotropy in the material that decreases with curing time.

Screen tints will differ from batches to batches and also based on the manufacturer. When i bought Iphone 4 it had a more of blueish (normal) tint. I had to get a refurbished Iphone 4 due to some issues and it had yellowish tint. Actually yellowish tint is more natural looking and the pictures looks quiet warmer. Recently got an Iphone4s and it has the blueish (normal) tint.

I am fine with either tints. But it is definitely not an issue with the screen according to me.

also there is a bug in 4s. you can call and text anyone even when the screen is locked using siri. search for places and add stuff to your calendar with screen locked using siri.and diagnostics screen shows there are so many crash reports. i can't believe it. there are more than 30 crash reports half of them that are due to low memory in 2 days.

I couldn't stand the yellow tint on my Iphone. I went through 3 replacements before giving up and getting a refund - it looked like someone had blown cigarette smoke all over the screen:

This doesn't go away like the articles suggest. I left my yellow tinted phone on full brightness with no auto lock for days with no improvement.

I'll just stick with my original IP4 with beautiful clear whites.

I have to agree with you I went into the southampton store without an appointment a misunderstanding from my earlier telephone conversation anyway I have to say they were brilliant in that store nothing was to much trouble ended up comparing quite a few phones black and white ones and they were all the same..they still offered to replace my 4s with another brand new one if I wanted to which I declined as there was no point as it looks like it is a charecteristic of this new phone I also checked my sons white 4s whos serial number is a long way from mine and his is the same.. so that set my mind at peace.

My wife and I both bought 4Ss at launch. She bought a black 32Gb and I got a white 64Gb. Her screen is fine, and was since she first turned it on. Mine is distinctly yellow.

My provider (Three UK) are happy to change it. I hope I get a better one next time.

It got me thinking, this phone has now become a powerful computer in its own right. Given that, there should really be some kind of screen calibration in the settings. It's been in PCs for ever, it's about time we had it in phones. Even a simple white point adjustment would be great.

I noticed the same yellowish tint (and increase in overall "brightness" and lack of contrast) in my 32mg black iPhone 4S. Looked fine until I set it side-beside with my iPhone 4, which is much cooler (blue). I'm beginning to wonder whether this is actually an issue. Apple has worked hard to get their camera properly color balanced, and this screen seems to be optically correct for photos. Only in comparison with the high contract and blue-shifted screen of the old phone does this one look "pale". In order to test this out, I downloaded a b&w (grayscale) spectrum, to test what the gamma and black level of both phones actually is. When compared side-by-side, the new phone with the "yellowish" screen displays subtle shadow details far beyond the iPhone 4 (which loses the detail in pure black). This suggests that the gamma on these newer phones is set to a higher (brighter) level of 1.8, allowing more subtle tonal gradations. The overall effect is a more detailed and "true" image. I think we just got used to the relatively poor color balance on the old phones, which were too blue and too contrasty (and appear to have a gamma of 2.2). Makes things look sharper and darker, yes, but also sacrifices a lot of shadow detail.

To check this out for yourself, download the grayscale spectrum here:

http://www.normankoren.com/zonesystem.html

Put in on both phones, max out the brightness, and compare the shadow detail.

That seems plausible (I calibrate my monitor often and am well aware that what seems 'over-warm' right after calibration is often right). However, this doesn't explain that we are seeing discrepancies between identical models (like my household's two 4Ss).

I agree--there are still a lot of unknowns. Some people are claiming all the units look "warm" while others, such as yourself, have found variations... Regardless, if you've got a yellow-biased screen, I'm not sure that's a bad thing for the reasons I mentioned. If you're into photography, this may well be a better calibration.

As for the visual lack of contrast, I suspect the reason for this is that a percentage black (say 90% black) would appears as pure black on the old iPhone (with its 2.2 gamma), but will will look truer (and therefore grayer) when the gamma is raised to 1.8. In theory, this means the old phone was displaying <100% black values as 100% black, while the new phone requires a tonal value closer to 100% to appear dark black.

As for the yellow tint, the baseline "warmth" of the screen has probably been increased--as you correctly point out, we've gotten way to used to cheap "overly cool" lcd screens, and a properly calibrated one often looks too warm at first...

I could be totally wrong about this--we might find out these are just a batch of "off" screens--but regardless, they seem to perform better than the old ones in terms of absolute color balance and color clarity. Or maybe I'm just trying to make myself feel better. I do, after all, prefer the experience of using the older screen... 😟

I have the same problem. My new 4S looks yellow and washed out, my gf's looks normal, cooler color. Both pre-ordered at the same time. Both are the black model.

Compared display models at two Apple Stores. None were yellow. Talked to genius at both stores. One said that there are different suppliers of screens and that they're always different. The genius at the other store told me that it will go away over time.

I don't mind a warmer color screen but I think it's too yellow.

My 3GS and my 4 were both cooler color screens.

One great advantage upgrading from a 3G/3GS is that no matter what, ALL the 4S screens loook awesome 😁

Seriously tho, i thought we all knew that the 4S screens would come from multiple suppliers. So these tint differences are a surprise?