iPhone 5 yellow tint screen!?

"It is a shift in color calbration-- the creme-tint produces more natural photos" - This is where we get into a difficult area of personal preference that should not come into the equation. On my phone the photos certainly aren't more natural. Colours are strong but caucasian (white!) flesh tones in particular are well off, people actually look ill in pictures. Yes inanimate objects look ok but the eye is far more sensitive to skin tones so it's a useful way of telling by eye if a screen's colour is good or not.

People can make excuses all day long for a "Warmer" balance - the fact is that any tint is wrong and we know Apple prefer accurate to personal preference. It isn't even warmer - it's green/yellower and the vast majority seem to have this tint by the sounds of it - it's just that many people don't care or notice. You can't really excuse 25% more green than red in balance (as mine exhibits with a light meter), 5-10% difference is ok and you wouldn't really notice but 106% green, 92% blue and 81% red is well off. The blue-tinted iPhone 4 was not as far off standard and I certainly don't recall this amount of fuss being made about its screen despite what the previous poster said - I thought it was mainly 4S/iPad 3 onwards the yellow tint started to come in and people started complaining?

As others have said the blue tinted displays look naturally brighter and cleaner, most prefer this to a green tint - both are wrong at the end of the day but my iPhone 5 at least is far more wrong than my 4. We should indeed be given some colour balance adjustment options so we don't have to jailbreak to get them, this is a pretty easy thing to implement and would save Apple a lot of hassle in the long run. Is it too much to ask??

People in this thread who are lucky enough to have the chance to have their units replaced again and again until they get a good one just don't know how priviliged they are. In my case, I bought the iPhone 5 here in Brazil, the day it was released, decmber, 14th. Here, Apple has delegated the selling all to the local carriers. And If you think you have a bad time dealing with yours, you just can't imagine how much worse they are here. As I had to wait until 3:30 am in line to buy one, and was really tired, I didn't play with it until next mornig. The first time I got it in my hands and payed attention, I noticed the unit had scuffs in the corners and when I turned on the screen, there was a yellowish tint. My eyes were very accostumed with the screen of my iPhone 4 and I immediately noticed there was something different, not a good one though. The yellowish was very noticeable specially in screens whith white in the back. I immediately went back to the carrier and tried to have it replaced. They told me they wouldn't replace it because they have problems with Apple replacing defective units, they instructed me to seek an authorized repair center. And it all happened less than a few hours after I bought it in the same store. I energically insisted: give me a new unit or a refund. They finally agreed to refund me. I still haven't received my money back, in fact am about to have to pay the first installment, and ended up without the phone. Some people I know have been through the same thing, but weren't very persistent as they should be in demanding a refund. Their situation is even worse. They had to keep their defective phones and then, in contact with Apple Care, after being through the standar wast of time procedures of trying to restart the system, cheking this and that bla bla bla...they were informed that Apple Brazil is still not providig repair for the iPhone 5. So the carrier and Apple keep throwing them from one to the other. They are inconsolable after paying roughly $ 1000 dollar on the iPhone 5. And I still haven't got my money back...=/

I share the concerns of others who have not fully resolved their screen issue or still waiting to do so like me. I reported earlier I have the yellowish tint issue on my new iphone 5. I have a further update. Unfortunately for me I purchased my iphone 5 from an Apple retailer who represents one of Australia's largest telco providers. They told me to take the iphone 5 to my nearest Apple Store which I did today as its a warranty issue. Apple were understanding and we compared my iphone 5 to 4 different iphones on display with the same specification and firmware levels etc (White iphone 5 32GB) In every case the Apple store display model on max brightness setting had superior a display with clean white compared with my yellowish tint. In fact sitting side by side the difference is quite noticeable. I had an Apple technician first look at my iphone 5 against the 4 x iphones 5's chosen at ramdom and then the store manager for a second opinion. The Apple store manager said Apple would provide me with a new iphone had I purchased the unit from the Apple store and not their retailer. All he could offer me was to have the phone handed in for assessment. He suggested I take the iphone back to the retailer and ask for a replacement or refund since I only purchased the iphone 5, 6 days ago.

I went back to the Apple retailer / telco provider and they flatly refused to either replace the iphone 5 and when I asked for a refund this was also refused. I was told by the Apple retailer outlet manager he did not believe there is anything wrong with the iphone 5. He added its not a faulty phone. I again pressed for a refund but had no success. I offered the retail manger, the Apple store managers contact details or simply asked him to accompany me to the Apple store which is a few shops away inside the shopping centre on the same level. In both situations he refused leaving me with the iphone 5 as is and no chance of a replacement or refund.

I have now taken the appropriate steps to challenge this in writing but meanwhile I am stuck like some fellow forum posters without an appropriate resolution. There is not much I can do now since the Apple retailer does not agree there is anything wrong with the iphone 5. Apparently they feel their batch of Iphone 5's from a different supply chain i.e batch, means there is acceptable variability. If I have not seen the 4 ix phone 5's all with a much better display today and totally consistent; I would perhaps have a more tolerant view.

Surely this is not the sort of things Apple or their resellers should do especially at this time of year. So I am basically caught in the middle. Now I cannot even enjoy the new iphone 5 over the holiday season. Placing a support call to Apple will not work either. This difference between Apple Store and Apple retailer warranty / refund policies is a nightmare for consumers. I guess it is hard for me to accept this given the $899 I paid 6 days gao for the iphone 5. I can only hope Apple themselves picks up on these posts and does something soon. At least if this is recognized as an official issue the store refund and return policies within the normal 14 days might accommodate examples of screen discoloration.

Today, I received my 8th exchange iPhone 5 and guess what? Yellow screen!

This was my last attempt (after I read here that theshheep from the UK managed to get a white 32GB black). So I ordered a black 32 and the display is dark and yellow. I wonder how the ratio of dark yellow versus white displays is?

But now I’m not interested in an iPhone 5 anymore. I can’t stand the yellow cast (I work with color reproduction, so maybe I’m too sensitive in this case).

That’s it, Apple. I’m happy that I kept my old iPhone 4 with a bright, white display with a consistent color space :-)

A quick reply to my last post and in light of what icon707 said. I was fortunate enough to resolve the issue and received a refund today from the Apple retailer today. It pays to put things in writing and keep focused on the customer rights and company policy etc.

Given there has been a lot of discussion on the yellow tinting I thought I would test how far this goes today. I purchased another new White iphone 5 32GB this afternoon with the assistance from the Apple store manager. On a side note i have to say the manager and the store staff have been very patient and understanding. I opened the new iphone with the manager and after activating compared this with several demo units in the store, The iphone 5 had the same yellowish display issue I had on the previous iphone 5 I return to the Apple retailer this morning. Also for the first time, I noticed some minor marks on the frame near the top too. The manager offered me another new iphone 5 from stock and again I went through the same activation and screen comparison process. No real difference so I concluded after three iphone 5's (one from another supplier) this is an issue here to stay at present. Reading icon707's post from another country this would suggest the problem is fairly wide spread. If I was to say anything the yellowish display on the 3 iphone 5's I have had direct contact with are all the same. I did some more checking in the Apple store and looking a a few more White demo iphone 5's they all have better white displays. IN other words there was no trace of the yellow tint issue. So whats happening here? Were the very first units made from some special or older screen stock which cannot be repeated / replicated now?

In my case I still need a phone and all my work and devices are keyed around Apple. So I have accepted the final new iphone 5 Apple gave to me today for now. Unless there is some proper announcement from Apple on correction of the problem I see no point in bothering the Apple Store staff further given we would just be opeing one iphone 5 after another with the same issue.

I hope at least confirming similar issues as some of the other posts on several new iphone 5's perhaps this may help Apple review their supplier and display specifications. It could just be all that is needed is a screen calibration tool for the iphone 5 so end users can change the colour temperature a little to suit ones preference.

For the future I will not be leaping in an buying another new iphone 5 or later model until I can see good correlation between the store demo units and reports from end users.

At least I want praise the Apple Store management and staff in my area. They freely swapped out my iphone 5's and just wanted me to get a unit close t the ones they already had on display. Sadly this does not seem possible for now.

Sorry to hear you guys are still having a bad time with this 😟 (Especially JGabriel in Brazil, that sounds so annoying)

I hope at least confirming similar issues as some of the other posts on several new iphone 5's perhaps this may help Apple review their supplier and display specifications.

Don't forget, Apple probably doesn't read most of these threads. To get noticed, you'd need to submit feedback directly.

Thats a good point. I think someone mentioned it earlier as well. I sent some feedback and suggestions to Apple using there feedback process today. Also when I met with the senior Apple Store manger I he noted down the issues and also the iphone 5's which he now has to send back to Apple. I am sure the message will get through. Its still a great product aside from the display. I gave my iphone 4 and 4s away to family earlier this year and been using my old trusty Iphone 1 The new Iphone 5 is noticeably faster :-)

All the best for Christmas by the way to all on this post. Its easy to forget the important things. I hope you get some resolution to the problems mentioned here after the holiday break.

I got a slightly yellowish screen. But i didnt notice until i made a comparison with another screen. I learned to live with it because there is nothing I can do about it, its a very minor issue(unless your screen is yellow tinted) . The next iphone release is about a year away, and there is no good alternative in my opinion (unless you buy an iphone 4s) .

I am happy with my iphone screen, at least its unified. Unlike my iPad 3 which feels like half green, half pink, its 1 tone.

I learned to never buy these products unless its 4 to 5 months after their release, that way they most likely had fixed the issues with them. Its been a long time since I bought my first mac 10 years ago where Apple product quality was unmatched and everyone was happy with their purchase.

I never thought I would say this, but, I hope Apple loses serious market share. This way they will build less units making quality control easier than rushing the manufacturing process to fill market demand. Losing market share will make them want to compete again to be the best, Apple got too arrogant lately.

@Jgabriel

I share your feelings. I got my iphone as a contract from my cellphone company, the bill reads as "products sold are non-refundable or exchangeable"

And they dont care about customer satisfaction. Americans really have it easy

Worst time for me, i bought an iphone 5 from singapore. I've ended with a yellow tinted phone, a battery life that lasted 4 hours. The telco (singtel) ran a battery diagnostics that says it's pass with flying colours but couldn't explain why the battery life short. So, they started pushing responsibility to apple. It's not their fault. You already bought the same for **** s**** 3 days. We can't give u warranty, if you walk out of here 5 mins ago, not to mention 3 days.

So, there i go to applecare support call, to an authorized 3rd party apple store, and then all point back to the telco fault. Good luck to me after stuck with a phone that shutdown after 6 hours for a week now. And telco essentially could refuse a refund, as our consumer protection is very weak. You only got notice when their company name is in newspaper and the reputation is at stake. Go figure...

So, good luck for the hunt. It's just the same on the other side of the world.

Maybe apple really need steve jobs afterall. And yes, i'm another sour customers.

I got an iPhone 5 (VZW) for work back in November (monday after Thanksgiving). I had upgraded from an iPhone 4 (not 4S), so I never had the two side-by-side to compare the screen. My personal phone was a T-Mobile Android phone and I got so absolutely sick of it that I bought an unlocked white iPhone 5 and am now using it on T-Mobile (HSPA+...soon with LTE in March/April).

Right off the bat I noticed the color difference between my VZW iPhone 5 and the new one on TMO. The new one was yellow and the color "oddity" is even more noticeable when you look at the screen with POLARIZED sunglasses on. It was horribly GREEN with the sunglasses. So I went earlier tonight to the Apple Store and thought maybe it was something with the "white" units and the odd color of the glass to get the "white" to be "white" (recall that the initial white iPhones were delayed due to a manufacturing process and the "white" front face). They brought out a black one.... we fired it up, it, did an iCloud restore, and I set it side-by-side with my VZW unit (which has a PERFECT screen with no discoloration whatsoever) and the new one was not any better then the white one. It was still off. Under the polarized sunglasses, it was actually BLUE! So they brought out yet *another* black one and we fired it up.... this time it was not that noticeable, but still a TAD bit off.

So given that my iPhone 5 on VZW is only a little over a month old and has a perfect screen, I'm going to watch this new unlocked one (on T-Mobile) like a hawk in the coming weeks to see if the slightly discolored screenb "goes away". Remember, the key to seeing this issue clearly compared to one that doesn't have it is to use polarized sunglasses to look at the screens. It's a night and day difference and very easy to see.

If the coloration doesn't go away in a month or so, then I can only surmise that this is a normal variance in the quality of the GLASS and how it is tempered/hardened. After all, this is the issue we are seeing... NOT the display...it's the glass.

@ iPhones5: It is definitely NOT the glass of the display. It’s a mix of the LED backlight color and the display polarizer.

I just don't understand why Apple cannot include a color temperature slider in their screen controls. Wouldn't that simply remove the majority of all issues of all current and future released mobile Apple products?

Why does Apple believe a screen, that they say is perfectly calibrated, is perfect for everyone? It has been proven time and time again that not everyone sees colors the same way because we are all different, genetically, and therefore do not interpret colors (warm versus cool screens) in the same manner.

I have now had my iphone 5 since launch day in the U.S. I still have not gotten used to the more yellow tint (warmer tint) of my iphone 5 screen and still prefer my iphone 4's blue tint (cooler tint).

While Apple may be right in that their screen is perfectly calibrated, they are absolutely wrong with the assumption that their screen calibration is perfect for everyone.

I totally agree with you. I have also had my yellow-tinted iPhone 5 for about 2 months, and I still have not gotten used to it like you. Unfortunately, this screen is making me more and more sick of it day by day. I do not believe all new products have yellow tint. That is not true and even if it were true, it would not be an excuse. I hated my phone. Apple should do something.

I agree with the fact that Apple should give the customers the opportunity to adjust the colours of their screen as they like. However, I have this iPhone 5 since day one and after about 4 months of intense use, the white is whiter. I'm not getting accustomed, it's really whiter. I compare it with my former iphone 4, and the first day I was going to return this unit, since the iPhone 4 had a much colder white, that I like better, and the iPhone 5 was yellowish, but now the difference is no longer an issue.

Anyhow I have to say that the iPhone 4 I had (now belonging to my girlfriend:-) was perfect since day one, it didn't take four months to have a white colour that could be called white, instead of a white screen that at the beginning seemed some technician tool a leak on it before packing the unit...

Hi I just bought iPhone 5 at my rate plan in Poland and I got my hands down. Phone is amazing at the look and speed but this yellow tint is destroying my eyes! 5 min with new iPhone and my eyes getting red I got pain in the head. No matter which backlight I use. For me it's like allergy, don't know why. When I compare this one with my iPhone 4 it looks very yellow. I don't have this with my old iP 4 which is blue tint I can look at this whole day and nothing.

I love Apple products but I had the same with iPhone 4s. I had to sold this after I've received second with the same yellow tint screen. I've seen color profiles in web and my friend have this and it works great but you need jb which I don't use. I hope also that apple will enable color profile in the iOS and it will fix this issue for me. I don't want to sell my iP 5 now is 3rd day when i try to use it but still with red eyes. I know that I'm one of the milions of people who are not happy with this screen and I think it will change nothing but please Apple look at this problem - this theme got now 11 sides!