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4S screen + polarized sunglasses = crap.

mcdj

mcdj

macrumors G3
Original poster
Jul 10, 2007
8,972
4,225
NYC
I mentioned this in another thread but it bears repeating. They've changed something about the glass between the 4 and 4S.

With my polarized sunglasses and a Power Support Anti Glare HD film, the iPhone 4 looked the same at any angle. With the same glasses and same screen protector, the 4S has a terrible blue-green tint in the vertical position, with pink and yellow diagonal streaks. It's somewhat lessened in landscape, but there's a magenta cast.

The screen looks ok only when held at a 40 degree angle. And the worst part is that it looks better overall (but still discolored) with NO screen protector.
 
Do you have the white iPhone?

There's an extra coating on the white glass to stop the sun from fading it.
 
I vote for removing your sunglasses. Although it is weird because I have tried this already and thought the same thing.
 
It happens to a lot of phones, Hell, my Evo(s) did the same thing, as well as on my mothers BlackBerry Torch.
 
mcdj said:
They're prescription sunglasses, but thanks for playing. And I don't understand why an upgraded phone needs to have downgraded glass.
Click to expand...

The change in the way the filter on the glass interacts with your polarized lenses does not mean "downgraded" glass.
 
Jody said:
The change in the way the filter on the glass interacts with your polarized lenses does not mean "downgraded" glass.
Click to expand...

Ok bad choice of words. It's a downgraded experience.
 
Do you know the tech behind polarization?

This is completely normal as you are on letting in one plane of light.

And I am pretty sure your iphone isn't the only device/screen that has this effect. When I wear polized glasses, I get it on my car's gauges/clock/etc., windows, etc.

Have you tried it without the screen protector? Maybe the screen protector is causing the problem.
 
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Polarized sunglasses make many types of lcds look like crap. I would skip em on your next pair. They dont help much anyways
 
Is the screen protector neccessary for you? I haven't used a screen protector since my first gen iPod touch. I just found it took away from the 'feel' of the glass.

And quite honestly, my old 3gs phone has been up against some pretty tough stuff, but the glass still looks fine.
 
r/firstworldproblems

You should've thought of that before getting the polarized coating on your glasses. You're going to have a lot of problems with electronic displays, not just your iphone.
 
jjlannoo said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Polarized sunglasses make many types of lcds look like crap. I would skip em on your next pair. They dont help much anyways
Click to expand...

They help greatly when fishing..
 
Hmm noticed this too. Sucks because I wear my Nike sunglasses literally everywhere.


Ive also noticed (without glasses on) with the black iPhone 4S when you tilt it to the left and hold it down a little at an angle, the screen looks dark yellow.


Same with my girlfriends white iP4.
 
AGREE -Experience with 4s screen under polarized glasses is crap

I have my sunglasses on and the screen on my new 4s looks very dark (almost unreadable). Turn the phone landscape and my view brightens full. I removed the screen protector - no change. I fetched my wife's iPhone 4 and it displays full brightness regardless of orientation. I can only conclude that Apple has added a polarizing filter to the front of the LCD. I am disappointed as i wear Rx polarized sunglasses regularly. Not sure how missed this new "feature".

Yes my phone is white but i just dropped in to verify the same on a black 4s at the ATT store.
 
You all understand how polarized glass works?

Then understand how LCD works?

Put the two together and the things are NOT going to work well.
 
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Already pretty much been said but it's just one of them things. I wear polarised glasses for pretty much any outdoor activity as my eyes suck at bright/daylight vision. For my phone just take them off!
 
MaxBurn said:
You all understand how polarized glass works?

Then understand how LCD works?

Put the two together and the things are NOT going to work well.
Click to expand...

exactly. have you tried looking at a LCD TV with polarized glasses and tilting your head side to side?
 
kfergiez said:
exactly. have you tried looking at a LCD TV with polarized glasses and tilting your head side to side?
Click to expand...

I don't have any. But I have been to the museum of science, they had all kinds of stuff like that set up.

On another thought if you turn the phone you might find an angle that sort of works.
 
mcdj said:
Ok bad choice of words. It's a downgraded experience.
Click to expand...

Dear God, are you serious? This is all you have to whine about? I have a Nikon D3S that does the same thing because of the optics. Should I write Nikon and tell them that I having a bad "experience" because of a natural coating process? Really dude? Seriously? Take the phone back and get one with a gray scale screen and be happy.
 
Is this thread full of genius irony or just idiocy, sorry can't tell..


Anyway. So that this is slightly more than what it may appear as, bashing or whatever.. I can tell you that there is absolutely no appreciable difference between using my sunglasses with my iPhone 4 and 4S. I always thought it was a cool, if unusable, effect. I'd ditch the superfluous screen protector and get your prescription in a regular pair of glasses (e.g. for indoor use).
 
Last edited:
hmm, weird. I haven't really noticed this with my ray ban predator and aviators, both of which are polarized. But I also don't have a screen protector and I have a black iPhone 4S.

Is yours white? like others have said, the coating on those are slightly different to prevent UV damage to the white paint.
 
I have the same problem. Fortunately I only need the sunglasses outdoors, and I can always ask siri to do stuff for me if I can see the screen. :D
 
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