Screen interlacing serial numer starting with F2

[lguest]

I looked at many iphone 5's at the apple store and some that my friends own and noticed an interesting correlation between the serial number and the screen quality.

Another post is talking about the same issue, and these screens have apparent vertical lines which makes the screen look grainy and chunky. For me, it made my eyes sore when I roll my eyes over the screen or when the screen moves when I type.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthre...screen+quality

One thing people have seen on these screens is continuous flickers when the attached image is set as the home screen. I took it from the post above and bigcstyle4 posted it on the 53rd reply.

I just got curious if this is really a correlation between the serial number and the screen quality.

Please post the first 2 letters of your serial number(F1 / F2 / DN / C3) and what you see when you set the image as your home screen.

== UPDATE
The real issue that bugs us is the vertical interlaced lines which distort the image during everyday usage. However, other people discovered that the attached image flickers when put as the home screen or the lock screen on displays that has the interlaced line issue. This is why the attached image is emphasized.

Summary of what to look for
- Steps to reproduce
1. (optional) Set the display brightness to high, because that is known to make you see the flickering much easier.
2. Set the attached image to the home screen and the lock screen.
3. Observe the lock screen and the home screen.

- What you will see on a screen with the vertical interlaced lines.
1. Lock screen: The screen will flicker. The gray areas on the top(where you see the status bar, date, time) and on the bottom(where you see "slide to unlock") will flicker the most.
2. Home screen: The screen will flicker. The gray areas near the status bar and the dock will flicker the most.

- Flickers and discolorization when things are moving does not indicate any problem. It is expected and normal.

This is discussed in reply #35(written by me) and #75(written by Bahroo).
The gist is that the software has to approximate the color to put on a pixel when the displayed image does not perfectly align with a pixel. The attached image has 640 black and white lines alternating and the lines are exactly one pixel wide. When this image is moved or resized on the screen, it is very likely that the lines will land between pixels, but since a line is only one pixel wide, the color for the pixels spanned by a line is approximated.

[vastoholic]

DN
Nothing happens.

[kockgunner]

Both replacement phones I had suffered from interlacing and they are both F2. What OEM provides screens for the interlaced units?

[Eckscaliber]

DN

The image looks perfectly smooth and normal.

[trozau]

C3 - no flicker

[ELMNT925]

Z5-flicker

[katmeef]

F2 with flicker. so glad to see another thread on this, my last few replacement white-box iphone 5's had this also and the Genius's look at me like I'm crazy.

Last time I had him put the test image on his own iphone and compared to mine, he promptly replaced it (but the new one does the same)

I find its really bad when the brightness is turned all the way up. To the point it would probably be easier on my eyes to go back to using a 3gs. Really takes the wow factor out of the retina screen...

I SO wish I kept my original iphone 5 with the super huge dent, at least everything else was perfect.

[mustu]

What do you guys mean I have tried it and cant find any issue - C3

[Dlanod]

C3 no flicker

[ogs123]

F2 and NO flicker

[mattopotamus]

DN, no flicker.....oddly enough that wallpaper looks good haha

[Zeusus]

F2 and flickers like mad. I've gone through quite a few replacements, they've all done it. Very irritating.

[thadoggfather]

I think it's also much more noticeable when you don't have a bottom row of icons on the home screen.

How many replacements are we talking?

[bigcstyle4]

My original was F1 and I had it replaced for it. Replacement is DN and is perfect.

[cababah]

F2 here..

Never thought I had a problem with my screen until putting that image as my home screen background. It not only flickered but when exiting in and out of the splash screen it MAJORLY distorted my screen.

Part of me wants to replace it but the other part of me wants to keep a phone that until this thread was perfect. I have never come across an image like that on the web nor would I ever have that as a background so I don't know if it will be worth it.

[Offshore1]

F1 perfect

[Zeusus]

I've had tons of issues. The first one (screen perfect) the home button stopped working, next dead row of pixels, dead wifi, and now this freaking interlacing. It really is incredibly annoying on my screen. I realize that it is the epitome of a "first world problem." I think I am going to just sell it and be done with iPhone5 for a while. One expects a "premium" product when they spend a "premium" price. Perhaps, I'll try again in a couple of months when they (hopefully) have their QC issues resolved. It is really embarrassing for Apple and not what I have come to expect from Apple.

If they going to "toot" retina displays as this amazing innovation, they better put their product where their mouth is. For them to tell me it is normal and not replace it is absurd. Why should I have to deal with a subpar panel (I assume one of the AU Optronics panels - they've always produced ***** panels), when the display that is getting beat up is more desirable because of its "stunning" display?

Rant over...

Really disappointed...

[scaredpoet]

DN, No flicker.

Do we know which screen vendors correlate to the serial number prefixes?

[ElZeus]

F2 no flicker. Thank God.

[dasx]

OK. Mine is C3 and I don't notice anything viewing that image.
Youtubed "iphone flicker" and all videos show way too big issues. Is that what you're experiencing? If it's something slight and small I can't tell for sure, but I couldn't see anything.

[kalexn]

DN, no flicker. Not really sure what I was looking for but it actually looked like a cool ackground

[Bahroo]

Originally Posted by katmeef

F2 with flicker. so glad to see another thread on this, my last few replacement white-box iphone 5's had this also and the Genius's look at me like I'm crazy.

Last time I had him put the test image on his own iphone and compared to mine, he promptly replaced it (but the new one does the same)

I find its really bad when the brightness is turned all the way up. To the point it would probably be easier on my eyes to go back to using a 3gs. Really takes the wow factor out of the retina screen...

I SO wish I kept my original iphone 5 with the super huge dent, at least everything else was perfect.

I have a f2 and it flickers with that wallpaper, but i guess my situation is MUCH MUCH less worse then yours...i compared my screen to my brothers i5 which doesnt have that issue and i have to really focus in and look if if there is any differences and even so Its extremely minor.

I keep thinking about swapping it but i dont wanna take a chance, espcially when its something so small... Im just going to let people gobble up the first few weeks of replacements, until they start perfecting the manufacturing process..Im just going to wait until i really ding up my phone and scratch it then ill get it replaced for free

[cababah]

My F2 flickers pretty bad and I had my gf test it on her F1 and same thing..flicker and distortion while exiting in and out of the splash screen.

Had a buddy with a launch day DNP test it on his and he said he saw nothing abnormal. I am getting pretty sick and ****** tired of this hit and miss effect with display manufacturers. I paid this much money to now go and play the iPhone 5 lottery again????

That is my OCD side talking..my practical side says that since my black phone has no cosmetic defects or any other issues, I should keep it since I never saw this screen problem until looking at that image.

[kalexn]

Originally Posted by cababah

My F2 flickers pretty bad and I had my gf test it on her F1 and same thing..flicker and distortion while exiting in and out of the splash screen.

Had a buddy with a launch day DNP test it on his and he said he saw nothing abnormal. I am getting pretty sick and ****** tired of this hit and miss effect with display manufacturers. I paid this much money to now go and play the iPhone 5 lottery again????

That is my OCD side talking..my practical side says that since my black phone has no cosmetic defects or any other issues, I should keep it since I never saw this screen problem until looking at that image.

Agreed. You never would have noticed it and there are lots more things that could be worse with it than that

[Bahroo]

Originally Posted by cababah

My F2 flickers pretty bad and I had my gf test it on her F1 and same thing..flicker and distortion while exiting in and out of the splash screen.

Had a buddy with a launch day DNP test it on his and he said he saw nothing abnormal. I am getting pretty sick and ****** tired of this hit and miss effect with display manufacturers. I paid this much money to now go and play the iPhone 5 lottery again????

That is my OCD side talking..my practical side says that since my black phone has no cosmetic defects or any other issues, I should keep it since I never saw this screen problem until looking at that image.

Id say just wait, at least a few weeks until people gobble up most of the replacements now for fresh ones that would replace them... I too never thought of anything until i stumbled onto this thread so its just our OCD's... Idk how bad is it in your case but in my case its pretty minute so