iPhone 4S screen tint

Just compared the displays of my two new iPhone 4S devices with my iPhone 4:

http://i51.tinypic.com/im166g.jpg

You can see the difference very clearly if you go back a few steps from your computer screen.

The white 4gs looks good to me. In fact, I'm looking at them on my iPad, and the titlebar gray of the white 4gs best matches my iPad's safari gray, if that means anything. I use my ipad to proof photos in my studio. So, it can't be so far off.

I have the same problem (tinted display) with my black iPhone 4s. It is my first iPhone and I didn't figure it out until today that I compared it to another black iPhone 4. It clearly is yellow compared to 4. I compared it with Brightness set to max and Auto-Brightness turned off in order to make sure that they both are set to their maximum brightness. The difference is obvious! I also compared it to another 4s but a white one; the white one seemed to be ok as I noticed the same difference in screen color between mine and the white 4s. Pretty disappointed from apple as a first time customer. I chose Apple over Android due to their reputation in quality!!
I hope there exists a solution for this..

Has anyone else had problems with seeing scan lines on their iphone 4S?. I have a 64 gig black. All over

the screen i see very small lines. I took my iphone to the apple store to get it checked out. They exchanged it

for me, but the new one has the same problem. I checked out the iphones in the store and about half of them had the problem, on different models. In my opinon this is a much worse problem than the yellowing, because all i see now is these lines. The retina effect is gone.

I too have the same problem with my iphone 4s, the screen has that yellow tinge. At first glance I didnt notice the

yellow tinge, until I was setting the brightness on it. Like many and being an apple fan, I upgraded from the iphone 4 to the 4s. As I tried to get the same settings in brightness as my Iphone 4, I noticed the iphone 4s has

that yellow tinge. Theres no yellow spots its actually the whole screen. When I put my two phones next to each other you can see the difference. The iphone 4 is more vibrant then the 4s. The Iphone 4s simply has a contrast that I dont like and cant get use to.

The reasons why I upgraded to the 4s was because of the added benifits. Everything else I expected to remain the same, espeially the screen display.

Apple if your reading this I'll give you an example, if someone changes the contrast on your TV set, your bound to notice it and adjust it. The same thing goes with your phone, its on you every day, you see it every day, and your bound to see the difference. Consistency in quality control would be appreciated.

At the moment, I'm not happy with my purchase and Im really hoping its maybe a glue issue where it hasnt cured like some posts have stated. But most of all I hope Apple steps in and addresses this issue and make their customers happy.

samfromsevierville wrote:

Has anyone else had problems with seeing scan lines on their iphone 4S?. I have a 64 gig black. All over

the screen i see very small lines. I took my iphone to the apple store to get it checked out. They exchanged it

for me, but the new one has the same problem. I checked out the iphones in the store and about half of them had the problem, on different models. In my opinon this is a much worse problem than the yellowing, because all i see now is these lines. The retina effect is gone.

Depends what you mean by "scan lines". On an iPad 2 I bought it had some lines I could see in solid colors, mainly a medium gray or lowly saturated colors. Sometimes I could see it on whites.

If you see a grid underneath the glass (very small lines running horizontal and vertical)- I believe that is the touch sensor grid.

I notice the grid on the iPad 2, iPhone 4, and iPhone 4S. Haven't really looked at my original iPad but it's probably there too...

Elaborate what you mean, or snap a pic of it if you can...

This is more a study in human behavior than it is a defect in a phone screen. I too see the difference in my phones, and it looks exactly like some of the pics I've seen posted. I too was originally concerned with the obvious difference in color. But what became obvious to me is that the reason for the concern is simply that the new screen is DIFFERENT than the one I'm used to. In other words, - people don't accept change easily, especially when it is thrust upon them without their knowledge. Throw the internet in the mix, and now you have people "confirming" their initial concern with the masses of others posting their initial fear of change, and now you have a larger group mentality that supercedes the individuals' ability to reason.

It's is obvious that the new screen has a warmer color temperature (i.e less blue, more yellow) than the old one (on many of the new phones, not all, due to manufacturing variations). That is not a defect, it is a CHANGE. If things were reversed - the old phone was warmer and the new phone was cooler - I'd bet we'd be talking about Bluegate. Break away from the internet group mentality chanting DEFECT, use your new phone exclusively for 2 weeks, and then compare screens. I'd bet a bunch that you'll now feel that the old phones' screen looks too blue. Try it. Seriously.

I deal with this type of fear-of-change everyday. I am an eye doc. Whenever I change someone's prescription even though they think they see fine, they always fight it. They may be seeing 20/40 with their old glasses and 20/20 with the new specs, but since they were comfortable with their old glasses, they fight the change and hyper-analyze the new ones until they convince themselves they are not as good as the old ones. My answer? Wear them two weeks exclusively, then compare to the old ones, then get back to me if you still don't like them. I rarely hear back, and often at next years' exam, they admit they ended up liking the new specs.

I can honestly say that I prefer the new screen, and the old one looks too blue. I bet most people who hang in there and use the phone awhile will end up feeling the same way, and that will be the end of Yellowgate. Apple knows this and will just wait awhile for most people to adjust. I'm sure they'll accomodate the overreacters to keep them happy, but you won't see them changing the display.

Well I got my iPhone 4S at the Apple store today. When I went home, I compared my screen with my iphone 4. Sure enough my iPhone 4S does not have the yellowgate or the yellow tint (whatever people call it). It has actually a blue hue to mine (which is what I really expect). Btw I do have a white iphone 4S.

When I had the iphone 4, I did not notice if I had the yellow tinting or not but sure enough after comparing with my iPhone 4S, truely my iPhone 4S does not have yellow tints at all.

All well taken, but I would add two points:

1) This not a simple aethetic issue--the lower contrast impacts usability by decreasing quick "legibility" of many data displays (just try using Google Maps on the yellow phones--the grey, white, blue, and green just blend into a low contrast blob--miserable when trying to use this functionality in the car or in the field). So not only is the yellower screen different from the "bluer" screen, it is also less than optimal in many everyday scenarios.

2) This is not an engineered change by Apple. I went to my local Apple store, and all 10 iphone 4S display units (both black and white) were crisp cool screens--not a yellow one in sight. I showed my phone to an Apple employee, and he immediately made me a Genius appointment for a swap-out. A second employee also said I should swap out for a "normal" screen.

So whatever is going on here, and whatever change-resistance may be at work, the new screen is definitely a step down in terms of contrast and color separation, which is crucial in a device people need to glance at regularly (or even read on for extended periods). I'll bet it's just a screen sourcing issue, but I'm amazed Apple didn't demand at least ball-park uniformity in color temperature and contrast from these providers. As we can now see, a lot of people with yellow screens are now forced to play games wondering about defects, quality control, new design standards, etc. This shouldn't be the case, especially when the items on display in the stores (well, the ones I saw at least) have no variation in screen quality.

I got used to the warmer screen, and found myself liking what now seems to be a whiter shade of white (the old one looks markedly pink). But most days, I find myself straining to read the small grey on grey text in a way that simply didn't happen on my old phone (and doesn't happen on the cooler iphone 4s). So this is a minor fail on Apple's part, from my perspective.

My $.02

I also has a yellow-tinted phone. Made an appointment with an Apple Genius, told him the issue, and he claimed not to see it. I showed him side-by-side with another iPhone 4S, and he said mine "wasn't that bad." I explained that my eyes had a hard time resolving the lower contrast blacks on the screen, and that this wasn't a problem on my earlier phone, or the other iPhone 4S on display. I also told him that I realized my eyes would adjust to the warmer color--that wasn't the issue--but that the contrast (which is a relative value between lights and darks within a single screen) was not going to change. When I framed it as a usability issue for me and my eyes, he immediately said he'd swap out for a black-box unit (new, non-retail swappers).

I'd been told by apple workers the day before that the advantage to black boxes is that the genius can open them and you can compare screens prior to activations. Turns out this is not true--the boxes are sealed, and once the seal is broken, that's your phone... Fortunately, my replacement phone has a perfect neutral display and crisp blacks, so I'm happy... The genius did tell me that he could "fudge" it a bit until I was happy (I don't know what that means...), but that we should just try the replacement and see how it looked.

If you're not liking your phone, I suggest you make an appointment with a genius and explain that the warmer low-contrast screen is hard for your eyes to resolve (especially for text and grey scales). If you put it to them this way (rather than yelling that your phone is defective), you're more likely to get the resolution you're hoping for. If you get any resistance, just point out that you expect your phone to look like the display phones, and assuming yours doesn't, point that out...

Best of luck! There are plenty of nice, crisp, non-yellow screens out there (even on the black iPhones!), so if it is truly bothering you or impacting the phone's day to day usability, get it swapped out.

I called Apple this morning to ask a question. After I got my answer to my question, the tech asked if there was anything else he could help me with. I asked about the yellow hue issue I have been reading. I told him I could see a slight difference between my 4 and 4s. I told him my 4 has a blue hue and the 4s is a warmer hue. He asked me why I compared two different phones, that were produced differently with different parts. I told him what I had been reading and that I wondered if I had a bad screen and should return it. He told me I could if it bothered me, but I needed to be aware that they are limiting people on swap outs. I can see why they would now be limiting. Last year, when I was trying to get through yellow spots, I looked at 5 screens. I asked what would happen to those I had rejected. I was told they would be sent somewhere and gone over to see what the problem was as to why I rejected it. It would not be sold, but instead would go to be refirbished. My whites seem white, I know it does not have the blue hue my 4 did, but it does not have the spots and I don't want to go through searching for a screen that matches my 4. I asked someone to post the perfect screen we should all be looking for. No one posted. So I guess there is no ideal screen. And I am now thinking it was stupid to compare it to my 4. I hope this helps those who might be on the verge like I almost was of sinking to the depths of doubt as to whether I got a good phone. I am sending my 4 to be recycled and getting a gift card from Apple. Good luck to those in search of the elusive "perfect" screen.

I got 32G Black 4S and apparently see the yellow or warmer color temperature.

What I found interesting is that if I look at the screen from the left side its more yellow (warmer color), and if I do the same from the right side it's cooler color...like normal 4 would have. It's really weird. Does anyone find this as well or just me?

It's only been two days. I'll wait a little and if it persists, I'll have to do something about it.

same here... 😟 I hate the yellow tint... Apple has to release a firmware update to fix this.. I dont think its glue.. they just tell us to wait two weeks so we can get used to it.. The question is can this be fixed with an upadate ?

Oliverumy wrote:

same here... 😟 I hate the yellow tint... Apple has to release a firmware update to fix this.. I dont think its glue.. they just tell us to wait two weeks so we can get used to it.. The question is can this be fixed with an upadate ?

Unfortunately, firmware updates/iOS updates will does not fix screen issues like this.

Normally after some time of usage it should dry out. If not then take it to the apple store and get it replaced. It is likely that even if you do get it replaced it will have the similar effect.

If the yellow tint doesnt' bother you then just use it. But if it gets on your nerve then set up an appointment and raise your concern about the yellow tint.

I noticed this on a friends 4s. I still have a 4 and noticed it when I got it exchanged a few months ago. I believe they changed to cheaper, lower quality panels (Samsung to LG from what I've heard). Your probably going to notice it on the majority of iPhones 4s' out there. Nothing you can do about it