Slight Yellow Tint (iPhone 4S)

Thanks so much for posting all of the pictures. I was really wondering about this issue. I have an iphone 4 and have just ordered the 4s. To tell you the truth, I like the display on your replacement phone the best because you can so so many more different shades of gray. The 4 screen is a little too blue for my taste. I got used to it on my present phone, but I would really like the warmer version...how much you want to bet that I'll be the one getting a phone with a bluish screen...

pardthemonster wrote:

My replacement came today, but based on an email I got yesterday with serial numbers, I was not too hopeful about the replacement. Starred numbers were all that was different.

Identification Numbers of the Original Product

Serial Number: C39GJ***DTDR

Identification Numbers of the Replacement Product

Serial Number: C39GJ***DTDR

Below are some pictures of my iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, and the replacement iPhone 4S (not being kept).

iPhone 4 left, replacement iPhone 4S right

iPhone 4 left, replacement iPhone 4S right

replacement iPhone 4S left, iPhone 4S right

iPhone 4 left, replacement iPhone 4S center, iPhone 4S right

iPhone 4 left, iPhone 4S center, replacement iPhone 4S right

I have an appointment this Saturday with the Genius Bar and hope I can finally find a non-yellow tinted screen.

Please guys go to Apple feedback to say somthing they may read it go to that link. http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html , this dicussions are not under monitoring , so at least they can hear our voices about the yellow tint .

Just another "yup, got that problem" chiming in. I have a white model; i've always had the black before. at first I thought it was just apparent contrast. but nope. definately a bleached feel to it. Contrast is set too high, relateive to two iPHone 4 models kicking around the house (my old and wife's). Hope it just needs to, umm, break in. Haven't had this issue before in numberous phones in the family

Yes. Mine iphone 4s screen has the awful yellow tint and looks washed out. Its even more obvious comparing it side by side to my old iphone 4. 😟

I'm taking it back if it doesn't get any better in 2 weeks.

Yeah, I'm wondering if it is in fact, the expoxy between the glass. When I got my 4s of Friday, it did have a slight yellow tint. Compared to my iPhone 4, it also seemed a little washed out. So, I did what someone else suggested and set my screen brightness to 100% for the last two days to see if it would help. Sure enough, today, three days later, I compared screens again. I moved the brightness back to the same level as was set on my iPhone 4...about 70% and compared them. The yellow tint on my 4s is pretty much gone...it's still "warmer" color wise but the yellowish is just about gone. As a matter of fact, my older iPhone 4 screen looks duller than my 4s at the same brightness level. So, I'm going to give it another couple of days and compare again.

Couple of things I've noticed comparing my 4s and 4 now...The 4s seems to have a slightly higher color temp, so colors are a little warmer. The 4 seems a little "colder", on the blue side. The brightness adjustment seems to have more steps in it on my 4s, compared to the 4. At the same settings though, the 4s is slightly brighter...

I have the same problem. I went to the Apple store to see if this was normal. All the 4S display phones had a nice crisp bluish cooler tint compared to mine with a dull yellow warmer tint. I showed the Genius the comparisons. They were reluctant to swap it saying that all the 4S's in the back had that same yellow tint. After insisting that they swap it, they did, and the frickin new one had the same yellow tint. Does anybody know if apple is using 2 different LCD makers to make the 4S? Perhaps this is the reason some are yellow and some are blue...

Perhaps this is related: Apple has changed the polarization of the glass on the front of the iPhones. I just discovered this (for myself anyhow; undoubtedly bloggers figured it out long ago). On my 3GS and 4, if wearing polarized glass-lensed Raybans or such sunglasses, you would see a mildly darkened screen when the phone was in the veritcal orientation, but a very darkened (unusably so) screen in the horizonal orientation. (Interestly, the iPads, both 1 and 2, are polarized in the opposite dirction, wokring w/ sunglasses in the horizontal mode.)

But w/ the iPhone 4S, I note something other than basic polarization at 90 degree increments. It seems to align (thus darken a bit, but actually more of a color distortion that mutes all contrasts?) in a diagonal aspect. Both horizontal and vertical are quite visiable at 90 degrees with sunglasses on (and without).

No, I'm not whining about seeing these in the sun. There are separate threads for that.

Anyhow, perhaps that polarization is what some of us are noting. Yes, I realize it isn't the case we are all complaining about the different shades of whites and contrasts when wearing sunglasses, but perhaps the new polarization (or polarization replacement) is the source of at least a subset of these effects that some of us are sesing? Just a thought.

I just received my iPhone 4S last night and I noticed the yellow tint rather quickly. The contrast hue tint is all 'off' balance. It's actually very harsh on my eyes. I'm glad i'm not the only one. I hope Apple will have something positive to say about this when I call them as soon as I get a chance....

I recieved my black iPhone 4S in the mail today and noticed immediately something looked off. On closer inspection, everything seemed washed out, the blacks were more grey and colors seemed much much less vibrant than on my iPhone 4. Then in the settings menu I noticed the absence of the cool blue that I used to have on my iPhone 4, and more of the yellowish tinge everyone here is mentioning. Definitely not acceptable, and hoping to either return the thing and go back to my iPhone 4 or get a different iPhone 4s.

I posted the very same issue around two years ago on here when comparing my wife's 3GS to my own 3GS.

We both upgraded to a 4s on launch day. Now hers has a yellow tint and mine doesn't.

Unbelievable that this issue is still going on with the hardware two generations on.

Same problem here. My 3G and 4 have much cooler tones. Side by side comparisons were super depressing. I feel like my 4s smokes 2 packs a day and gargles coffee. I don't even like looking at it. I'll give it two weeks, if it doesn't go away, I'm jumping the iOS ship.

Because I don't have 4S, I can’t understand the exact phenomenon, the glue between cover glass and lcd panel could be main reason of this problem. Glue itself is not changed so much its optical property by passing time, the problem is adhesion between cover glass and lcd panel. When you push the cover glass a little strong(not too much, not to affect lcd panel), does this yellow tint disappear? If so, adhesion will be the reason of yellow tint. Actually glue is needed to raise optical transmission by removing air gap between cover glass and lcd panel. However, before glue is perfectly stick to cover glass and lcd panel, there will be small air gap (less than wavelength of light), it causes interference of light and affect the transmission and reflection of light. Interference is very dependant to wavelength of light, it specially affect to color. (you may have seen the rainbow puddles in the road after raining, it’s also interference of light). If this adhesion is the real reason of problem, the time will be solution. Glue will be hardened by passing time, it will stick more firmly cover glass and lcd panel, finally the air gap will be disappeared. If this hypothesis(^^;) is not true, we have to doubt about lcd panel problem. In my experience panel maker is not so stupid to cause this problem.(because they always care about color coordinates of their panel…). If this hypothesis is true, Apple is ok by using more rapidly hardening glue from now.

When I push my 4s' screen it makes no difference, the screen is just cast yellow all over. To be honest, my eyes did get accustomed to it after a few days, but to make sure I wasn't imagining things originally I took my phone to my university electronics store and compared it to a display model iPad 2. In comparison, the screen color which I was used to on my original iPhone 4 was also Present here, a much cooler color temperature with a blue cast. In my opinion, this is definitely not a glue problem as it is uniform across the screen. When comparing the two devices, it's pretty obvious they are just different screens, and nothing else. I would venture to say this will not go away with time. I've owned numerous computer monitors in the past year and it is the same way, you usually, even with calibration will get a warmer or cooler picture from screen to screen. I for one would like mine replaced but am not near an apple store so have to wait. When I bought my phone had there been disclosure of this discrepancy it might be acceptable but I paid for it expecting apple to uphold its past standards. I suspect many many phones are yellow or blue depending on which plant they came from, but many people are not aware of the difference being first time users or simply don't look closely/care. My advice, if you have a yellow screen and want a blue one, go get your phone replaced, there is very likely no other solution.