Is anybody else getting a yellowish hue on their new iPad?

I am now on my third "new iPad" since the mid-March launch. All have displayed various degrees of the yellow, washed-out screen problem and the first two had yellow patches/stains on various parts of the screen.

As noticed by others, when put side-by-side with the demo new ipads in an Apple Store, mine have looked less than white, while the store demo units have crisp, brighter whites (all comparisons done witnh identical brightness control settings).

I have tried resolving this with Apple online, in their stores and through their "Executive Relations" department, but all refuse to acknowledge that the stores are provided with different (and in my opinion) better screens. The third new iPad I have is the best so far in that there are no noticeable yellow patches, but the white is still "less white" than the store units. An Apple employee agreed he could see the difference but told me to give this third unit a chance.

I'm slowly losing the will to keep on changing the unit for a new boxed item (which you can do as the 14-day period is restarted every time the iPad is replaced). I could just go back to my iPad 2 for a brighter screen (but with less memory), accept the latest unit with its inherent flaw or change it again.

While I am pleased that Apple seems happy for me to keep changing the unit, I am irritated by the point-blank refusal to acknowledge the problem or the difference that can be seen between their "perfect" store display units and what this customer receives out of the box.

One thing of which I am convinced is that if you receive a yellow screen it will always remain that way to some extent, no matter what you do. It appears different according to the lighting conditions of where you use the iPad. In particular I notice the problem more in lower lighting conditions.

I had the same problem when I moved from an iPhone 4 to a 4S. I accepted and stuck with a second 4S, though it has never had as bright a screen as my 4 or with "bluer" whites. But having paid a small fortune for the iPad 3, I expect to see at least the same or better screen than on an iPad 2 - to me it has been one huge disappointment.

Message was edited by: Bumper Man

apixel wrote:

There is no such thing as perfectly white. Color temperature and display calibration is a complex thing, and unless you compare to a standard, it's all relative. There has never been a "white" iPad or iPhone. Before, they were on the cool side, now they are on the warm side.

I'm a photographer as well as a graphics person. I work with calibrated equipment. Color calibration is not an absolute. If you looked at that "perfect" iPad 3 and compared it against a 2 - it would also feel more yellow. Photography and your eyes can only see comparison. If you think your brain and eyes know what "perfectly white" is, you are not correct. They don't.

You are perfectly right... but it still doesn't change that it's not as white as a demo new iPad 3 or my iPad 2. It's ugly yellow-pee 🙂

Signed:

also photographer and graphics designer and aware what he is seeing, thinking, likeing and saying 🙂

Yes! You want to find one as good as the demo one you saw. But I don't think you'll find one like your ipad2. The best new iPad will still be warmer than an ipad2.

Most of the time we are on the same page - but people should not be expecting a screen like the iPad2. That's not gonna happen. If you need that, then don't get a new iPad. But you DO NOT want a bad yellow new iPad. The good ones exist.

Krzysztof Przygoda wrote:

Unfortunately, you are absolutely wrong. Demo iPad 3 and my iPad 3 side by side.

R u sure the one on the Left is the New iPad, Wow ! That looks perfect to me I wish all the iPad-3 were like that ! I want one like that, who is gonna predict that I will win a Lottery that my iPad will turn out like that !

Of course, I am.

I wasn't surprised like you... I was infinitely mad on this Apple Premium Reseller (iSpot in Poland/Wrocław/Magnolia)! I felt like I was cheated or robbed, because they refused me to exchange this faulty (yellow) one. They just proposed to place a claim - can you imagine?

Krzysztof Przygoda wrote:

Of course, I am.

I wasn't surprised like you... I was infinitely mad on this Apple Premium Reseller (iSpot in Poland/Wrocław/Magnolia)! I felt like I was cheated or robbed, because they refused me to exchange this faulty (yellow) one. They just proposed to place a claim - can you imagine?

Infact in my Country India, Apple does not sell directly here they are not allowed by the Government of India to sell their products directly so it is sold via a Apple Authorised Premium Reseller and though the New iPad is officially not launched in India I still spoke to a couple of Resellers about this issue as in what would be their replacement policy for such an issue and they said this yellowish Hue issue is not a defect and it does not fall in to the replacement Policy from Apple. Can you believe that !!

I did this trick last night and seemed like it made a drastic improvement (reducing the yellow hue) of my ipad 3. Got into Setting, Brightness, and adjust the slider up and down as fast as you can at least 50 times. I did this until my finger hurt, and when I was done, I was surprised to see the yellow hue drastically subdued. I don't even notice it now, and it was really bothering me. Almost like a workout for your screen, and maybe it does something with the colors and mixing them up better? Let me know if this works for anyone else.

I am on my third iPad right now. The first one had what looked like a blotch on the bottom left side, and the backlight was pretty uneven. The second one had a very nice screen, except for dead pixels. Most of the third screen looks ok, but I noticed that the bottom right corner is actually kind of pink. I've never heard of pink before. It seems like the thread is going dead, so I assume that most of the complaints about yellow screens actually were glue. But what about pink? That's sort of a weird color.

Usmaak wrote:

It seems like the thread is going dead, so I assume that most of the complaints about yellow screens actually were glue.

Well said ! Looks like so !

How long did long did you have to wait for the screen to be uniform, if it indeed did clear up? I just got a refund on mine after waiting all 14 days and it still didn't look any better. I'd like to go and order one again but I'm just not sure it will be any better than my last--might even be worse from what I saw on the display models in the store & what I have read online. I really wish I wasn't so attentive to this.

themacinjosh wrote:

How long did long did you have to wait for the screen to be uniform, if it indeed did clear up? I just got a refund on mine after waiting all 14 days and it still didn't look any better. I'd like to go and order one again but I'm just not sure it will be any better than my last--might even be worse from what I saw on the display models in the store & what I have read online. I really wish I wasn't so attentive to this.

So u r saying the Models that you saw on Display also had this kind of Yellow Hue in the Apple Store ?

Basically, yes, I did notice it on several display model iPads in the store. But I also should point out that it is MUCH MUCH more difficult to see the problem in the bright light of the Apple stores. You've really gotta spend some time looking at them, and in all different ways. I wouldn't go as far as to say it's an overall yellow tint across the whole display, the thing I notice more is when it's unevenly tinted. Most of the iPads I saw were either greenish on one side and pinkish on the other, or a portion had a slight yellowish tint where another portion was pure white.

I'm afraid there won't be much done about this issue though because most people don't seem to pick up on this. It's not exactly as binary as the wifi issue where it either works or it doesn't. These varying degrees of problems are the worst!

Mine shipped to me on March 16. I opened it on the 19th and noticed the yellow color.

Went online that afternoon, learned about the glue, and used my iPad for a few consecutive hours that night, at which point the display lost its yellow tint. So for me it was very fast.

So what store did you see yellow displays set out for customers to see?

I noticed a lot of unevenly tinted yellow displays at the 4th street store in Berkeley. Maybe for some it is the glue, but that doesn't explain some of those store models being that way. I'm not sure when I should try re-buying it, cause I don't think it's going to be better later--this is an issue that's been plaguing Apple device screens for a lot longer than the new iPad has even been out. I wonder I it's worse or more common this time though. Maybe because of it being such a high res display? I do want to get one again, but I don't know if it was just a strike of bad luck or if there really is such a common defect that most people don't see.

Uneven yellow blotches was the reason why I returned my first iPad. One of the corners looked like it had a coffee stain on it. I gave it two weeks to go away, and it never did. I guess that uneven backlighting and yellow splotches might be a different thing from the glue.