iPhone 5 Yellow Tint Issue, anyone else? Updated: Example Picture Added!

Nashville · Oct 3, 2012

I received my iPhone 5 by delivery this past Friday, Sept 28th after ordering it at 5am first day CST. I immediately slipped it into it's Otter case which I received the same day. Outside of maps everything is working fine except for a yellow tint I have over the screen. There is a big marked difference when I hold it up to my iPhone 4. I plan to visit the Apple store today regarding this. Has anyone else noticed this problem on your new phone?

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MikesGravity · Oct 3, 2012

It has been discussed. Every iPhone 5 I have seen has a slight warmer tone to it.

Nashville said:
I received my iPhone 5 by delivery this past Friday, Sept 28th after ordering it at 5am first day CST. I immediately slipped it into it's Otter case which I received the same day. Outside of maps everything is working fine except for a yellow tint I have over the screen. There is a big marked difference when I hold it up to my iPhone 4. I plan to visit the Apple store today regarding this. Has anyone else noticed this problem on your new phone?

k3roro · Oct 3, 2012

Nashville said:
I received my iPhone 5 by delivery this past Friday, Sept 28th after ordering it at 5am first day CST. I immediately slipped it into it's Otter case which I received the same day. Outside of maps everything is working fine except for a yellow tint I have over the screen. There is a big marked difference when I hold it up to my iPhone 4. I plan to visit the Apple store today regarding this. Has anyone else noticed this problem on your new phone?

I am in exactly the same boat. I received my iPhone 5 on 9/28 as well and noticed a yellow tint immediately compared to my 4S. I gave it a couple days to see if it would improve over the weekend, but could not stand it anymore so I went to the Apple store yesterday.

It took a while for the Apple Genius to “see the yellow tint”, I am not sure if they’re pretending not to see it or what, but eventually the Genius had another Genius to come offer an opinion and eventually saw the yellow tint and offered me a replacement.

The replacement came out of a white box and I asked if they don’t mind me activating it to see if the yellow screen persists. What a surprise, the screen was yellow tinted as well. At this point the Genius was confused as to why all the ones in the Apple store were fine but these ones are yellow tinted, so they asked me to come back another day to see if the issue has improved. As I am almost an hour away from the Apple store, I asked the manager to try one more time. And what do you know, this new one is even worse tinted than the first replacement. At this point I am so disappointed, the Genius goes on to tell me that they won’t open anymore boxes because all of the new ones will be like this, apparently he says that the ones in the Apple store are on 24/7 so the screen has a chance to “burn in” or “cure the glue”. He then told me to give it a week, leaving it on maximum brightness on a white background overnight to see if it gets better.

I am quite disappointed that my whites look yellowish, my blue looks purpleish and my greens look lime neon greenish (ugh).

Will update in a couple days to see if it has improved.

kre62 · Oct 3, 2012

nerdpov said:
I am in exactly the same boat. I received my iPhone 5 on 9/28 as well and noticed a yellow tint immediately compared to my 4S. I gave it a couple days to see if it would improve over the weekend, but could not stand it anymore so I went to the Apple store yesterday.

It took a while for the Apple Genius to see the yellow tint, I am not sure if theyre pretending not to see it or what, but eventually the Genius had another Genius to come offer an opinion and eventually saw the yellow tint and offered me a replacement.

The replacement came out of a white box and I asked if they dont mind me activating it to see if the yellow screen persists. What a surprise, the screen was yellow tinted as well. At this point the Genius was confused as to why all the ones in the Apple store were fine but these ones are yellow tinted, so they asked me to come back another day to see if the issue has improved. As I am almost an hour away from the Apple store, I asked the manager to try one more time. And what do you know, this new one is even worse tinted than the first replacement. At this point I am so disappointed, the Genius goes on to tell me that they wont open anymore boxes because all of the new ones will be like this, apparently he says that the ones in the Apple store are on 24/7 so the screen has a chance to burn in or cure the glue. He then told me to give it a week, leaving it on maximum brightness on a white background overnight to see if it gets better.

I am quite disappointed that my whites look yellowish, my blue looks purpleish and my greens look lime neon greenish (ugh).

Will update in a couple days to see if it has improved.

It IS NOT glue and it WILL NOT improve, 100%.

This is an issue that happens with every launch. A disproportionate amount of yellow screen phones hit the market. The yellow screens are cheaper and easier to manufacture, so to meet demand theres more of them.

Wait til end of October and try to do a retail swap (RETAIL not genius) and you'll have a better chance at a clear screen.

k3roro · Oct 3, 2012

kre62 said:
It IS NOT glue and it WILL NOT improve, 100%.

This is an issue that happens with every launch. A disproportionate amount of yellow screen phones hit the market. The yellow screens are cheaper and easier to manufacture, so to meet demand theres more of them.

Wait til end of October and try to do a retail swap (RETAIL not genius) and you'll have a better chance at a clear screen.

What is a retail swap?

How do I get one done?

Rocko1 · Oct 3, 2012

kre62 said:
It IS NOT glue and it WILL NOT improve, 100%.

Thank you. I am so sick of people saying it's glue, it's not. It will not change over time. Download a solid white background on each phone and set brightness to same level and compare. I had to go through 3 4S's before I got one that wasn't piss colored.

kre62 · Oct 3, 2012

nerdpov said:
What is a retail swap?

How do I get one done?

If youve already done a genius swap you are SOL, you can no longer return the phone. A little something they dont mention to you when you get a replacement at the bar.

If you have not gotten a replacement phone, you can ask for an exchange. You just return the iPhone, and have them give you a brand new unopened box.

You have to do this because all the yellow screen phones that get returned get resurrected as genius phones. The clear screens will be placed in the new retail boxes. You have a chance at a clear screen with a genius phone, but its much lower then retail.

Hope this helps.

Rocko1 · Oct 3, 2012

kre62 said:
If youve already done a genius swap you are SOL, you can no longer return the phone. A little something they dont mention to you when you get a replacement at the bar.

If you have not gotten a replacement phone, you can ask for an exchange. You just return the iPhone, and have them give you a brand new unopened box.

You have to do this because all the yellow screen phones that get returned get resurrected as genius phones. The clear screens will be placed in the new retail boxes. You have a chance at a clear screen with a genius phone, but its much lower then retail.

Hope this helps.

The reason you have a higher chance of getting a yellowed screen is when they pull the phone out of the bin to be refurbished, 90% of the time they don't or can't see the yellow defect, so the screen portion is not replaced and the cycle repeats itself. Hard to see the yellow unless you have another phone to compare or know what to look for. Some 50 year old light iPhone user may never notice.

PBz · Oct 3, 2012

Curious about this I recently compared my 4 screen to the display 5 models at an Apple store. I have to say the 5 just looked more warm and WAY more accurate. Still holding off on buying a 5 though..for now anyway.

Rocko1 · Oct 3, 2012

PBz said:
Curious about this I recently compared my 4 screen to the display 5 models at an Apple store. I have to say the 5 just looked more warm and WAY more accurate. Still holding off on buying a 5 though..for now anyway.

5 has 44% more color saturation.

mzjin · Oct 3, 2012

Nashville said:
I received my iPhone 5 by delivery this past Friday, Sept 28th after ordering it at 5am first day CST. I immediately slipped it into it's Otter case which I received the same day. Outside of maps everything is working fine except for a yellow tint I have over the screen. There is a big marked difference when I hold it up to my iPhone 4. I plan to visit the Apple store today regarding this. Has anyone else noticed this problem on your new phone?

Because your iPhone can only show excessive blue, you think a warmer color tone that covers 99% RGB looks yellow.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6334/iphone-5-screen-performance

k3roro · Oct 3, 2012

kre62 said:
If youve already done a genius swap you are SOL, you can no longer return the phone. A little something they dont mention to you when you get a replacement at the bar.

If you have not gotten a replacement phone, you can ask for an exchange. You just return the iPhone, and have them give you a brand new unopened box.

You have to do this because all the yellow screen phones that get returned get resurrected as genius phones. The clear screens will be placed in the new retail boxes. You have a chance at a clear screen with a genius phone, but its much lower then retail.

Hope this helps.

That's kind of stupid. They did not tell me this and I'm using a replacement phone now.

I ordered it through AT&T though so I can always just return it to AT&T.

I just need to think about what phone to use in the mean time.

mzjin · Oct 3, 2012

kre62 said:
If youve already done a genius swap you are SOL, you can no longer return the phone. A little something they dont mention to you when you get a replacement at the bar.

If you have not gotten a replacement phone, you can ask for an exchange. You just return the iPhone, and have them give you a brand new unopened box.

You have to do this because all the yellow screen phones that get returned get resurrected as genius phones. The clear screens will be placed in the new retail boxes. You have a chance at a clear screen with a genius phone, but its much lower then retail.

Hope this helps.

At this point, this is false.

All genius replacement phones are brand new as not enough time has passed since launch.

These phones are not yellow, they are ACCURATE.

adcx64 · Oct 3, 2012

Confirmed with a high supervisor at Apple today, the yellowing is caused by the warmer calibration and not like the older displays where it is a defect. I have been through 3 of them and all have the warmer tone.

Rocko1 · Oct 3, 2012

adcx64 said:
Confirmed with a high supervisor at Apple today, the yellowing is caused by the warmer calibration and not like the older displays where it is a defect. I have been through 3 of them and all have the warmer tone.

When looking at a bright snow white background, seeing yellow is a defect. This has happened to a small percentage of iPhones since the 3. Again, where pure white is represented as yellowish nicotine stained color is not accurate by any stretch.

kre62 · Oct 3, 2012

Rocko1 said:
When looking at a bright snow white background, seeing yellow is a defect. This has happened to a small percentage of iPhones since the 3. Again, where pure white is represented as yellowish nicotine stained color is not accurate by any stretch.

Dont pay attention to that one, Rocko, hes trying to convince himself his phone is fine. He also doesnt get that we are not talking about a slightly warm tone, we are talking about a yellow cast to the entire screen, which is clearly incorrect.

"Confirmed with an Apple supervisor" ha. I've confirmed what I've wrote with Tim Cooks executive office.

STiNG Operation · Oct 3, 2012

Could someone please post their "YELLOWISH" screen on here. Thank you.

Nashville · Oct 3, 2012

STiNG Operation said:
Could someone please post their "YELLOWISH" screen on here. Thank you.

Okay, here is my new iPhone 5 next to my old iPhone 4 with the same exact screen showing. I took the picture with my new iPad, so all Apple products! Judge for yourself! I also added this to my original post at the top. Sorry for not adding this from the beginning.

[/IMG]

cababah · Oct 3, 2012

You can't go in and use the iPhone 4 as a reference point and demand a new 5. Apple doesn't see the warm tint as a defect. Now if there are patches of yellow and dead pixels that is a different story but you can't just say the screen tint is warmer than the 4 and get a new one.

Go to an Apple store and compare it to those floor models, that picture would be more useful.

mzjin · Oct 3, 2012

Nashville said:
Okay, here is my new iPhone 5 next to my old iPhone 4 with the same exact screen showing. I took the picture with my new iPad, so all Apple products! Judge for yourself! I also added this to my original post at the top. Sorry for not adding this from the beginning.

Lol...

Yes, if you can't see that your iPhone 5 has neutral white and your 4 is blue as hell...

k3roro · Oct 3, 2012

cababah said:
You can't go in and use the iPhone 4 as a reference point and demand a new 5. Apple doesn't see the warm tint as a defect. Now if there are patches of yellow and dead pixels that is a different story but you can't just say the screen tint is warmer than the 4 and get a new one.

Go to an Apple store and compare it to those floor models, that picture would be more useful.

I've actually done that. It is quite funny, I put mine in between 2 floor models all showing the same image and you can tell mine in the middle is yellow tinted.

sth · Oct 3, 2012

In case this is not the usual "drying adhesive" problem (which will go away after a week or so):

Maybe Apple finally switched the white point to 6500K, which is quite a bit warmer than what most consumers are used to*. Previous iOS devices had a much colder color temperature, which really showed when you looked at them next to calibrated monitors.

Therefore, it may not be a technical problem, just better calibration. Would be interesting to know if this is the case.

* A quick note: Most consumer screens, especially with TN panels, have a strong blueish tint by default. Many people are used to it and see it as "normal", but that doesn't make it any better.

[edit]:

nerdpov said:
I've actually done that. It is quite funny, I put mine in between 2 floor models all showing the same image and you can tell mine in the middle is yellow tinted.

Okay, in that case it's probably not a general calibration thing. May still be drying adhesive.

nefan65 · Oct 3, 2012

Nashville said:
Okay, here is my new iPhone 5 next to my old iPhone 4 with the same exact screen showing. I took the picture with my new iPad, so all Apple products! Judge for yourself! I also added this to my original post at the top. Sorry for not adding this from the beginning.

Let me see...

dasx · Oct 3, 2012

For what I've read this is an intended thing. This screen should give more natural and accurate colors than previous iPhones. Also the new one-layer screen helps.

STiNG Operation · Oct 3, 2012

Nashville said:
Okay, here is my new iPhone 5 next to my old iPhone 4 with the same exact screen showing. I took the picture with my new iPad, so all Apple products! Judge for yourself! I also added this to my original post at the top. Sorry for not adding this from the beginning.

Thanks for posting this. It's nice to have reference point and comparison. I think I may have lucked out with a good screen....so far.

iPhone 5 Yellow Tint Issue, anyone else? Updated: Example Picture Added!

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