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Yellow screen on iPhone 4 32GB

J

jshelton

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 4, 2008
528
8
I have looked at all of the threads about this, but couldn't find anything current. My screen tint is really yellow and washed out. I carried to the Apple Store and showed the employee my phone side-by-side with one on display. The difference was obvious. The store model was a bright, crisp, cool screen -- and mine looked almost dingy.

She was going to replace it, but she powered the new one up and it looked the same. I just kept my phone and left.

Is this something with the 32GBs only? Has anyone figured out a solution to this?
 
If you do a search you will find this has been brought up many times before. I large percentage of the iPhones have the yellow screen. My replacement that I just got has it. They are not nearly as nice as the non yellow iPhones but apparently Apple finds them acceptable.
 
Yeah, it SUCKS.

My original had bluetooth issues.. which I'd rather have than this issue.

Worse.. they had to replace my iPad 2... that screen is MORE yellow than my iPhone 4. Pretty pissed. Need to call Apple about it. If they're going to claim they have the greatest screens, they need to fix this crap.
 
PLEASE READ THESE THREADS:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1178033/

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1183222/

Me, along with another member "AndrewR23" have been through many phones, all being yellow.

The past year, Apple's QC has definitely slipped. If you walk into any Apple store, you'll notice how bright and crisp the displays ALL are, while you have a dingy yellow.

AndrewR23 has had a genius open 40 iPhone replacements before finding one with a good screen. That's insane. Going to the store will get you no where. The iPhones in the black boxes are re manufactured. The chances of getting another yellow screen are extremely high, call Apple Technical support, and ask for a senior adviser. They will put a $600 hold on your credit card, and overnight you a new iPhone. That's your best bet if you want to get rid of that screen.

I have come to the conclusion that it's either extremely bad QC, or different screen suppliers. The "give it time, the glue needs to dry" excuse is *********. It doesn't go away with time. Trust me.

If you notice, last year almost all the AT&T iPhone 4's had the bright blue screen. As demand increased, the production needed to as well. My theory is that they started to use different suppliers, or were rush manufacturing the phones, causing bad quality control and crappy quality screens. It's sad really, this problem BETTER be eradicated by the time the iPhone 5 comes out, or Apple's in for it. It's pathetic and annoying. I'm on my third replacement, and I'm going to call later this week to have them ship me another one. Don't let people tell you it's OCD or something. It looks like crap compared to other phones. It's extremely annoying to have this type of screen. The selling point of the thing is the super awesome "retina" display. Well it looks like crap. It seriously better be fixed when the iPhone 5 comes out

TL;DR Your screwed
 
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Yeah there are lots of threads across many forums on this.

Some say its a fault and some say its normal.

I have a new ip4 with the yellow tint but its only obvious when I put it side by side with my 1st generation ipod touch.

General use of the fone does not highlight issues with the tint and I personally prefer the warm glow instead of the baby blue.

I read a thread recently saying a person had 40 units opened in an apple store looking for the baby blue screen. Now thats a certain case of ocd and customer service !
 
Woah, wait a minute. Take a look at this guys. The Samsung Galaxy S II is reporting the same problems, and it uses a SUPER AMOLED screen. This is getting weird! Both phones have this problem now! Wth?


 
That's cause the blue tint is the bad one.

Regardless what tint you have, and whether or not you want to believe this:

YOUR EYES WILL ADJUST TO THE TINT. My iPhone 4 (original bought in august) had yellow tint and I didn't notice it until this year when I saw all these stupid posts on here. My replacement has the same tint and it displays pics and videos just fine.

Some people just love to complain. Go outside and enjoy your life not cry because your screen is yellow as opposed blue
 
erayser said:
I kind of like my bad blue tint screen. It sucks that it took a year to find out I had a bad screen all this time.
Click to expand...

I, too, like the blue tint/calibration (or whatever Apple wants to call it.)

But yeah - it is kind of odd that all the display models I've seen in Apple Stores (be it a VZ or AT&T model) don't have that yellow tinge to it.

Of course you'll get used to it if that's all you see -- but some are so damn yellow, it's just not appealing, no matter how long you use it (even without a "comparison session".)

Never did get quite used to my grade school teacher's yellow teeth (OK, non-sequitur, I get it. :p )
 
Here's my story.
Me and my friend had black iphones 4 for one year, perfect colors, never had an issue.

We just replaced them with iphone 4 in white. Both are 16gb white and were purchased at the same time in one shop (NY). And both have horrible and completely different displays.
One has too much yellow, another is too white, but both are pale, what is supposed to be red is looking like pale pink.

I've attached couple of images with 3 iphone compared:

1 NEW iphone 4 white that is too yellow
2 NEW iphone 4 white that is more white
3 OLD iphone 4 black

We show devices to many people and they all see the difference.
Basically the issue is that colors are not deep enough.
Take a look at calculator screenshot - on 3 picture you can say that background with "111 111 111" definitely has olive tint. Can you notice the same on 1 and 2 ? It just looks like gray or dirty.

I'm sure they use different screen now as hardware part that is more crappy and cheaper. And this is very sad.

I know that display may have different color temperature, some people like it more warm, some like more calm but COLORS should be RIGHT in both cases.
By right color I mean what you see when you take colorful items in your room, take pictures and compare to what you see on your screen. This is what annoys us. Once again, it is perfect on old iphones 4 (made in 2010).
 

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clopin said:
Here's my story.
Me and my friend had black iphones 4 for one year, perfect colors, never had an issue.

We just replaced them with iphone 4 in white. Both are 16gb white and were purchased at the same time in one shop (NY). And both have horrible and completely different displays.
One has too much yellow, another is too white, but both are pale, what is supposed to be red is looking like pale pink.

I've attached couple of images with 3 iphone compared:

1 NEW iphone 4 white that is too yellow
2 NEW iphone 4 white that is more white
3 OLD iphone 4 black

We show devices to many people and they all see the difference.
Basically the issue is that colors are not deep enough.
Take a look at calculator screenshot - on 3 picture you can say that background with "111 111 111" definitely has olive tint. Can you notice the same on 1 and 2 ? It just looks like gray or dirty.

I'm sure they use different screen now as hardware part that is more crappy and cheaper. And this is very sad.

I know that display may have different color temperature, some people like it more warm, some like more calm but COLORS should be RIGHT in both cases.
By right color I mean what you see when you take colorful items in your room, take pictures and compare to what you see on your screen. This is what annoys us. Once again, it is perfect on old iphones 4 (made in 2010).
Click to expand...

Apple is only getting more popular -- this is my theory. Back in 2010 when the iPhone was first released, the only demand was AT&T. Production was fast, but the screens were still coming out pretty good. Apple then knew that they were releasing for other companies, so they sped up the production drastically. This is where the crappy quality control and parts come in.

Right now, Samsung is dealing with the same exact thing on their Galaxy S II phones, granted they aren't nearly as bad, but there's some yellowing on the screens, and they use Super AMOLED versus the iPhone's retina display. It's sad really. To see such a premium company like Apple producing crap. I can only imagine how the iPhone's will be when their on every carrier in the USA

You think your's is bad? Take a look at mine



1zd2mu0.jpg
 
I thought mine was fine until I read this thread, and sure enough, I compared it to my wife's black 16gb (both on Verizon, both purchased the same day, she got black, I got white) and mine is significantly yellower. I'm going to swing by the Apple store tomorrow since it's close and just ask about it. I figure it can't hurt. I want to pick up another case anyway.
If they offer me a replacement and the screen on that is yellowish, would they let me get a black one instead? Just wondering. I like the white, but I would rather have the "better" screen.
 
IIRC, iPhones (going back to the orig model in 2007) have always had multiple companies making the screens, and ones always been more yellow (warm) compared to the other.

At one point there was a way to go into field test mode and get a value that told you which screen your iPhone had.

I've had each model iPhone, and occasionally have gotten warranty replacements when something broke. When the replacement had the other type of screen, it was weird for a day or two, but then I got used to it and wasn't a big deal.
 
RafaelT said:
If you do a search you will find this has been brought up many times before. I large percentage of the iPhones have the yellow screen. My replacement that I just got has it. They are not nearly as nice as the non yellow iPhones but apparently Apple finds them acceptable.
Click to expand...

The same thing happened to me. I have to admit I MUCH prefer the blue screen to the yellow one; however, since this is a replacement phone due to hardware problems on my original iPhone 4 I really can't complain -- too much.
 
clopin said:
Here's my story.
Me and my friend had black iphones 4 for one year, perfect colors, never had an issue.

We just replaced them with iphone 4 in white. Both are 16gb white and were purchased at the same time in one shop (NY). And both have horrible and completely different displays.
One has too much yellow, another is too white, but both are pale, what is supposed to be red is looking like pale pink.

I've attached couple of images with 3 iphone compared:

1 NEW iphone 4 white that is too yellow
2 NEW iphone 4 white that is more white
3 OLD iphone 4 black

We show devices to many people and they all see the difference.
Basically the issue is that colors are not deep enough.
Take a look at calculator screenshot - on 3 picture you can say that background with "111 111 111" definitely has olive tint. Can you notice the same on 1 and 2 ? It just looks like gray or dirty.

I'm sure they use different screen now as hardware part that is more crappy and cheaper. And this is very sad.

I know that display may have different color temperature, some people like it more warm, some like more calm but COLORS should be RIGHT in both cases.
By right color I mean what you see when you take colorful items in your room, take pictures and compare to what you see on your screen. This is what annoys us. Once again, it is perfect on old iphones 4 (made in 2010).
Click to expand...

Honestly, I can't really tell the difference between the two white ones, except that the colors on the black one are a little dark. :eek:

flipster said:
You think your's is bad? Take a look at mine

[url=http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/5861/photo7xw.jpg]Image[/URL]

Image
Click to expand...

I still think these look fine. Good for me I guess, I won't be too picky when I'm getting a white iP4. :p
 
milani said:
The same thing happened to me. I have to admit I MUCH prefer the blue screen to the yellow one; however, since this is a replacement phone due to hardware problems on my original iPhone 4 I really can't complain -- too much.
Click to expand...

I agree I liked my blue a lot better. The only reason I did not make a big deal out of it is because I will be getting the iPhone 5 soon and my fiancee wont even notice it when I give her my iPhone 4.
 
RafaelT said:
I agree I liked my blue a lot better. The only reason I did not make a big deal out of it is because I will be getting the iPhone 5 soon and my fiancee wont even notice it when I give her my iPhone 4.
Click to expand...

Who says the iPhone 5 won't have this problem? Hopefully it will be eradicated by then
 
I really don't think it would bother me to much, but looking at the side by side comparisons, it looks like the yellow tinged screen is an aged photo compared to a digital high resolution photo... lol...

I hope when my wife and I upgrade out iPhones, we both have the same color screens so don't have to do these side by side comparisons.:p
 
Alaerian said:
Or you could, you know, just not try to compare them and instead just use the phone. ;)

They look perfectly fine until you start getting nit picky.
Click to expand...

You get 2 iPhones in one household, there is going to be comparing, and one person is going to like one over the other. But like I said in the quote you excluded, I don't think it will bother me much. But for now, I'll enjoy my old blue colored screen until the next iPhone.:)
 
I have a white iphone with a yellow tinted screen, my girlfriend has a black with blue, we both prefer the yellow for some reason
 
flipster said:
Who says the iPhone 5 won't have this problem? Hopefully it will be eradicated by then
Click to expand...

I hope it is fixed by then but either way I am getting the 5 so it doesn't really matter in the end I guess. Wish Apple would get there quality control in check... or at least give us a way to mess with the color on the screen.
 
RafaelT said:
I hope it is fixed by then but either way I am getting the 5 so it doesn't really matter in the end I guess. Wish Apple would get there quality control in check... or at least give us a way to mess with the color on the screen.
Click to expand...

Option to adjust color temperature? Nice. Would be.

But point of interest: I have dual LCD monitors for my desktop - exact same models - yet they are clearly different beasts (color-wise) no matter how much I fudge with the hardware/software calibration settings. One is inherently warmer than the other.
 
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