Ipad Air yellow screen tint on left hand side?

Just received my second mini retina. Same yellowish tint and blue hue/bookspine.. Even worse to be honest. Sended in an DLXLL, the replacement mini retina is/was a DLXLN. Ordered my next Replacment service, maybe third time´s the charme.. Unbelievable Apple. Happy Customer for years. This ipad air/mini retina-fiasco is just sad.

I returned ipad air for refund today and am now worry free! I'm done with this time consuming game, at least for a while.

I also exchanged my wife's ipad mini retina and it has the same yellow tint near the home button. She doesn't think it's a big deal but I'll try exchanging one more time.

Serial numbers for all ipad air displayed at Apple store were either DMPL or DMQL and they didn't seem to have yellow tint but all had faint book spine on the left. However, I also didn't notice the yellow tint on the replaced ipad mini at the store due to bright light, so I'm not confident to say that all displayed iPads were with defect free screen.

You probably just can't see the yellow tint on the display units because of the bright display lighting in the store. They design the lighting in such a way that flatters all of the devices. You can't know if the screen is good until you take it out of the apple store and into your normal-lighted living room. That's the only way to know for sure.

I will say that I think my brightness ununiformity has been getting better with time in my replacement. It could also just be my eyes adjusting to it but even if that is the case I could care less because if I don't notice it I don't care.

Yeah probably my eyes because if I use it in portrait mode upside down I can see the brightness difference but like I said, if if don't notice it it's not a big deal. Until I see the majority of users here getting perfect screens I'm not risking getting one with bad color uniformity. Because at least mine has that even if it is not quite as bright on the left side.

Also, someone awhile up said that the stronger magnets or the closer proximity of the magnets for the Smart Cover to the screen could be causing it... I highly doubt that. LCDs don't work on magnetic principles. The only screens I've known to be affected by magnetic forces are old CRT displays that you have to degaus after being exposed to magnetic fields. You can hold magnets up to LCD screens all day and it won't do anything. I think it's more a problem with the backlight light diffuser. Someone posted a cnet article that talked about the common deficiencies of edge lit LED LCD screens. One of the common ones was bad uniformity. The thinner the tv, the worse the uniformity. It's a good bet that the strive for thin devices has gone further than technology can currently allow. What I don't understand is why they don't just adhere the screen to the glass like they do with the iPhones. It also produces deeper blacks, eliminating the space between the LCD and the digitizer. Maybe it's not possible with larger screens or something. It just seems like they could have achieved the same reduction of thickness by eliminating the space between the layers and gluing them together. I'm no hardware engineer though. It would certainly reduce repair ability if not making repairs impossible altogether.

Oh well.

To whomever replied to my post about my iPhone screen having that small nick in it... I think it's getting bigger, which means it is a micro fracture of sorts on the underside of the glass. I'm getting it replaced... Again... I'm just too worried it'll turn into a full blown crack one day and then I won't be able to get it replaced under warranty. Also it just bothers me like you said, having a nick under the glass... It's just wrong... How does that even happening?

Maybe the Tim Cook era QC is just going to be like this and this is as good as it gets. Aren't the ipad air, and the iPhone 5s the first devices that started development after the death of jobs? I think iPhone 5 and the ipad 4 were the last devices jobs had any involvement in.

Just got my Air yesterday.

At maximum intensity, which is the way I view the display, I could not discern any faults with the monitor

At low intensity, I noticed the bookspine effect, though I thought it acceptable. Best of all, there was no "yellowing," and the brightest part of the display was a uniform white/ivory - no pink or blue, thankfully. No missing pixels. DMPLR

Looks like a keeper.

i ´d the same situation with my ipad Air (32gb) DMPLD and have ask the genius bar for help.

so after a quick short look of the specialist he´d ordered a replacement with my wish to check that before i have to come to the store again and see no better behaviour but what shall i say.

the call from the lady came two days later - the display is ok so i went to the store but it wasn´t.

i got the following answer: "i can order a new unit and no replacement unit but you will the same behaviour. The ipad Air is not a suitable unit for you".

This was the time i requested a refund which i got after i return the hole package incl accessories.

Sorry Apple, but with this quality of a quite expensive unit is not what existing customers like i (several iOS devices + macbooks) cannot accept. we won´t buy a new ipad air as long this problem exists.

Ordered 32 wifi+4g model. Got a good deal on black friday but... sent it back to Apple...

The deviec had 3 dark stripes (horizontal, from left to right) after a few minutes of usage.

Not sure if I want to order another one... I played "returning" game with Apple a few years ago (when ordered an iMac and had to return it 3 or 4 times because of vibrations. Finally got (almost) perfect one but I'm not sure if I want to repeat the excercise)...

Hey guys,

I just received my Ipad Air 32gb wifi and I have none of the yellow or bookspine issues, but I do have a "whiter" spot on the screen. It.s situated at the D of the keyboard when in landscape mode. You can see it when scrolling through pages, but not that hard on a static page. I was wondering if I should just keep it, or do the hastle to return it? (Bought with points earned from flying with Lufthansa) so a non official apple store.

Thanks in advance!

Hello All,

I purchased my new iPad Air 64Gb Gray (SDMPLN) last week to replace an iPad3.

Screen of the iPad Air was not as bright as the iPad3, screen brightness is less "fresh", is bit warm white.

In potrait the left part is bit darker than the right and on the left side, especially the left hand bottom corner the screen has a Yellow tint. Tried to ignore it first days but started to annoy me more and more, bought an Apple because it is the best tablet and expect excellent quality so decided to exchange.

Went back to the retailer today and explained the problem, showed the (White) screen with "Pages" and one of the test pictures from this discussion forum.

The salesman noticed it, checked with his coleague and acknowledged that they have heard about it.

They ordered a new one for me without a problem. They were not on stock but expect a new batch from Apple / China with hopefully improved models. Could keep the current one to work with till the new one has arrived, good service.

The demo model in the shop with a DMPL number looked good.

Wanted to report that I finally have a unit which I am pleased with. In all I went through more than 10 Airs and many trips to and from the Apple store and BB and lots of frustration. The current Air that I have does not have any yellow tint, however, the right side is brighter than the left side and there is very faint book spine effect which I really do not notice unless I really go looking for. For me it was the yellow uneven tint on the left side of the screen and dust under the screen that really caused distraction when using the iPads and I constantly was bothered by that. The unit I have now is DMPLP.

I am curious as what the weeks following the holiday will be like for Apple in regards to customer returns and what the policy at the Apple store will be for those who also receive iPads with yellow tinted screens, etc. since the new iPads in November surely makes them popular gift items.

Hallo,

habe heute auch versucht mein Air im Jungfernstieg zu tauschen. Angeblich ist das Problem dort nicht wirklich bekannt - manche Mitarbeiter haben nocht nichts davon gehört, ein anderer meinte, es sei bekannt aber die Retouren deswegen wären gering. Kann ich mir bei den ganzen negativen Rückmeldungen kaum vorstellen.

Ich hatte ebenfalls einen leichten Gelbstich in der linken oberen Ecke bis zur Hälfte des Displays. War lange nicht so schlimm wie manche Bilder hier, gestört hat's mich aber trotzdem. Was man einmal weiß fällt einem halt immer wieder ins Auge... Jedenfalls habe ich mit dem Mitarbeiter insgesamt drei neue Airs ausgepackt, alle waren fehlerhaft. Die ersten beiden kamen unten vom Verkaufstisch und waren aus der DMPLN- Charge. Meins war ebenfalls ein DMPLN, die gaben sich alle nicht viel. Alle eine Verfärbung in der oberen linken Hälfte, bzw. auf der ganzen linken Seite. Danach habe ich dann um eins aus der aktuellsten Charge gefragt und es wurde mir eins aus dem Lager gebracht (angeblich aus der letzten Lieferung) war irgendwas mit DMQ... und das Teil war eine einzige Frechheit! Erstmal hatte es hinten einen Kratzer unter dem Logo und das Display war komplett gelblich, im Vergleich zu den anderen nochmals deutlich schlechter! Da bin ich echt vom Glauben abgefallen, wie man sowas verkaufen kann... vorallem im Premiumsegment.

Beim Verlassen des Stores bin ich unten nochmal an den Ausstellungsstücken vorbeigegangen und habe die genau inspiziert. Zwei davon hatten ebenfalls einen Gelbstich und zwei waren absolut perfekt. Waren aber auch ein DMPL und ich glaube ein DMRL, sagt also nichts aus. Es gibt aber definitv fehlerfreie Airs!

Bin mit meinem Austauschgerät auch nicht zufrieden und werde demnächst nochmal hingehen und es versuchen. Finde ich kein gutes, geht das Teil zurück. Schade, bin ansonsten wirklich zufrieden mit dem Ding...

Hallo jack3d,

habe auch ein DMPLN, und die gleichen Symptome (allerdings vom MM und nicht vom Apple-Store). War auch schon am Überlegen, ob ich zum Jungfernstieg gehe, aber das kann ich mir dann ja sparen.

Eine Frage: Wie sieht es denn mit Umtausch etc. aus, wenn 14 Tage um sind?

Beim MM kann ich ja auch noch 14 Tage lang zurückgeben. Danach wäre dann eine Rückgabe nicht mehr möglich.

Viele Grüße,

Stephan

Hi Stephan,

ja, die Erfolgsaussichten sind nicht sonderlich hoch. Ist wirklich wie 'ne Lotterie habe ich das Gefühl. Du solltest auf jeden Fall versuchen, innerhalb der 14 Tage das iPad zu tauschen, dann hast du keine Probleme und kannst auch noch problemlos vom Kauf zurücktreten und dich evtl. woanders nach einem fehlerfreien iPad bemühen.

Danach habe ich leider keine Erfahrungen, denke aber, dass Apple es auf jeden Fall tauschen wird (sind eigentlich sehr kulant). Obs dann ein nagelneues wird oder ein refurbished von der Genius- Bar, kann ich dir nicht sagen.

Versuche, wenn noch möglich, innerhalb der 14 Tage zu tauschen, dann hast du keine Probleme.

Ich habe meins vor 1,5 Wochen gekauft und am Freitag wäre die Frist abgelaufen. Habe durch den Austausch ab heute allerdings wieder 14 Tage Rückgaberecht, werde davon aber wohl schon Samstag gebrauch machen, da ich keinen Bock (sorry wegen der Wortwahl, L_u_s_t wird hier zensiert 😀) habe, dieses Gerät wieder mit allen Daten zu bestücken um es später dann wieder zu tauschen. Nervt total...

LG

Not my case... (I'm copying below what I've reported in Mac Rumor forum)

After having tried last week to swap my current iPad Air with 2 other iPad Air and came back systematically to my initial iPad Air because of the poor screen quality of the proposed iPad. I've decided to try again today in another Apple Store:

Obviously the manager came to me once they saw that I've tried 5th times to swap my iPad. I first showed (sales person + manager) where is the issue on my screen and they agreed on the brightness difference between each side. Then the Manager offered me to swap once again and if the screen would not fit my expectation then he would had the only option to refund me in order to stop trying swapping all the time.

To be honest I'm tired swapping as well (i.e. definitively not an exciting activity) and I accepted the deal. Without really surprising me the new iPad screen was more yellow and less bright than my current one and both of them was agreed... So I've decided to not keep it and go to the refund as offered by the manager. He just told me that he understand that I'm not satisfied but he can do much...

Swapping 6th times made me definitively disappointed... I'm still positive and I'm want to believe that Apple will do something, get it better in the further batches.

Also my only fear is that they will for sure offer all those rejected iPad Air through the Genius bar when the Genius are offering to swap a device...

Once a replacement device is opened, if it's rejected they don't just tape it back up and put it back... They ship it back to the remanufacturing plant and all of the parts are inspected and replaced as necessary. All of the outside casings, bezels, glass, and batteries are replaced regardless, automatically. They test the logic board and display and replace if necessary and then assemble it and rebox it. Most get boxed in those white boxes for warranty replacement, others go to the apple store for sale at reduced price as remanufactured/refurbished device. They end up arguably being better devices since they are each hand inspected, rather than the ones from the factory where they only sample one device out of every 100 for defects/QC. They really end up being no different than a retail device since the entire outside casing including front glass is replaced, as well as the battery. The only potential difference is the age of the logic board (since it may not have been replaced, if all of the components were tested and were defect-free), and the age of the LCD display under the glass. The glass gets replaced, but not always the LCD if they are inspected. On iPhones the glass and display tend to be one unit, since they are glued, but not on iPads. If the yellowness and bad color uniformity is too subtle to see in quick inspection, they likely go back out again with the same screens but the worst are filtered out. The age of the logic board really doesn't matter, since they rarely fail within the use lifetime of the iDevice, especially iphones. All of the original iPad 1's out there are still going strong. I had one before my Air and it's still working great.

The concern about refurbished devices is unfounded. Of all of the iPhones I had replaced, the remanufactured ones were the best, and they never just put rejected devices back on the shelf, nor do they do it with returns either. If the box has been opened, even if it was never turned on, and it gets returned, it goes back to the remanufacturing plant.

No not true.

Most of the returned yellow ipads if they're in perfect condition and not too yellow with packaging faultless etc are cleaned (all this instore btw) and re-shrinkwrapped instore (they do this for all the third party returns too ie beats, bose, apogee I mean do you think Apple Retail Stores are going to take a hit everytime something is returned). So the chances of getting your iPad back are slim but sure someone else will get it back

Apples Quality control is excellent - they saw this problem long before these shipped but had to run with it, remember this new iPad is a first generation forget all that came before it, they'll get it right on the iPad Air 2, Apple didn't quite get it right this time.

Some folk will return their Airs some won't.

Oh About those faulty displays - they're not faulty!

The chances are all iPad Airs have this warmer yellow half or book spine effect - you can't blame the display manufacturers it has to do with the internal components, ever sat a speaker that wasn't magnetically shielded next to a TV set and got that yellow or blue side blotch next to the speaker side.

There is nothing wrong with your displays, they are reacting to interference from something below the affected area on the board or on the case - yeah it's not cool I've had two and realise after looking at Airs on demo that this in inherent in all of them.

It's embarrassing for you as a customer to have to constantly keep returning /exchanging faulty tech, Staff look at you like you have OCD, so return for a refund and buy another but you're not going to find a good one yet until this magnetically shielded problem is resolved, the displays aren't the problem trust me it's more than this.

Apart from all this lets face it the iPad Air is awesome and blows all tablets out of the water.