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Apple Watch 4 screen tint
- Thread starter RobNor
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the only time I find this annoying is when using the Infograph face with a white background. It looks blue at an angle. Otherwise, I don't really see it.
It's definitely not just down to the screen size - at least with my watch. My S4 takes on a considerably more pronounced blue color than my S0 or S2 did when viewed from an angle greater than about 45 degrees.
The thing that makes it more noticeable with my watch is that it's almost an instant switch from white to blue as well. It's white until you reach a certain angle, then suddenly it's full-on blue.
When I first turned my Apple Watch on and it displayed the Apple logo I was a bit freaked out because the Apple logo was bright blue, then I realised it was just because I was looking at it from an angle.
I'm still wondering if my screen is worse than most others because it doesn't so much shift to blue, it switches to blue at a certain angle which makes it more noticeable.
It’s normal for OLED to shift tint when viewed at an angle. Your OLED phone does it to. Even OLED TVs do it. Samsung’s shift toward blue, LG shifts toward yellow. Samsung’s QOLED panels don’t do this. But OLED in general does.
Here’s some info on the new LTPO backplane.
https://www.oled-info.com/apple-launches-two-new-oled-iphones-and-ltpo-oled-watch-series-4
https://www.oled-info.com/apple-launches-two-new-oled-iphones-and-ltpo-oled-watch-series-4
I know all about OLED colour shifting. I have an OLED TV and an iPhone X as well as two Apple Watches with OLED screens. I'm just surprised about the amount of colour shift I'm seeing on my S4 watch OLED display. It's *considerably* more than I get on either of my previous watches, and considerably more than what I get on my iPhone X. Is that normal?
My series 4 Nike 40mm also has the blue colour shift from almost any angle but interestingly it is significantly less when the crown is switched to the left side. In other words when the crown is on the right and you tilt the watch away from you the blue is very noticeable, crown on the left and the blue tint is reduced by around 80%
I checked other 40mm and 44mm Series 4 watches in stores and they all appear to have this blue colour shift. I wonder whether newer batches will overcome this or if it will not be addressed until Series 5 and beyond.
My series 3 38mm has almost no perceptible colour shift at all, whites look white almost until you cannot read the display, quite impressive.
Based on the examples I've seen it is not just your screen, the switch to blue tint is quite sudden and happens pretty quickly when not viewing directly from the front.
As a test you could try turning the watch 'upside down' so the crown is on the left, this made a considerable difference to mine, not a solution obviously but interesting to see if improves yours in a similar way. In some respects I actually prefer the crown on the left, it takes quite a bit more force to press than the series 3 version and I find using a thumb to do so is easier and the watch moves less.
With all this being said I would still prefer the screen to have no colour shift and as such will probably return mine and wait on the next batch in the hope they improve.
I’m really surprised this thread has so few replies. I’ve upgraded from 2 to 4 and the bluish tint is horrible! On aw you don’t see a watch face, you see a faulty screen every time you look at it! Apple’s response (I’ve try to find a solution) was arrogant, as often happened when they can’t solve “it’s a normal behavour”.
I've been an Apple customer for a long time,
Patience and fidelity have a limit
I am afraid that too many end users simply put up with poor quality products these days and hence Apple and others continue to produce sub standard kit at ever higher prices. Usual response is that "it's a standard feature" or "they all do it" and so on, I returned mine for a refund.
Until consumers start rejecting products like this then companies like Apple will continue to produce them and things won't get better, the more slack they get given the more they will take and apparently there are too many loyal customers for it to have any real impact.
Personally I have given up on new Apple releases until I feel the quality returning and prices heading South. It will also be nice if they start producing phones without part of the screen missing, but that is likely a personal preference!
Is your opinion the stance for everyone else’s that has polar opposite experiences of your own? I could make the counter argument that _all_ the products I purchased from Apple over the last 18 months have been nothing short of being stellar with AirPods, *multiple* Series 4 Apple Watch, iPhone Max, etc. Think about it, you’re just one opinion on a tech site for the millions of customers that Apple serves across the world that are likely content with their products every single day. There’s a reason this companies success is flourishing with their hardware standards. Sure, Apple isn’t perfect with all their products, and there are defects when you mass produce anything like an Apple Watch, but I’m going to believe the majority of Apple Watches are perfectly fine units compared to the absolute minimal amount of feedback that you would read on a site like this that doesn’t equate to the other millions of others users experiences.
Unless Apple have changed the panel on the newer batches of series 4 watches (all the models I looked at and the one I purchased had sub par screens, i.e. blue tint at angles) then this is a very real quality problem, this is not an opinion it is fact. Whether it bothers the owner is a personal preference, many simply don't care, others have higher standards and expect at least a screen that matches the quality of the old series 3, not much to ask of the new model.
If nobody bothers to raise these issues then nothing will get done about rectifying them on the next release, I would like to buy the new series 5 watch and look forward to trying one when they are on the shelves.
If nobody bothers to raise these issues then nothing will get done about rectifying them on the next release, I would like to buy the new series 5 watch and look forward to trying one when they are on the shelves.
I quote every single word you wrote. And it’s not only a poor screen quality issue. AW4 has
1 raise to speak worked after 3months and several software updates
2 heart rate measurement during workout was a problem until watchOS 5.2 (3days ago).
Apple Watch 4 wasn’t ready for prime time. I regret having done this “upgrade”: it was an expensive downgrade. I payed to be beta tester for Apple.
Just received my Apple Watch 4. Upgraded from a series 0. Must say that the watch 4 is a huge leap from the series 0, in almost all respects: speed, screen size, design with more rounded edges, sound and mic quality, water proof, bands, battery, etc. So very glad with it. What I also immediately noticed was the blue shift. It’s especially noticeable when you have a white background or light photo in the background. I first thought it was an issue with this particular watch, but after viewing this discussion I now know this is just the way the screen is supposed to work. Probably it is a compromise of the more rounded screen and higher brightness. Especially the higher brightness maybe enforces the effect. It is indeed much worse than on my series 0. However, I think it will not be much of an issue when using it from day to day, but can understand the frustration with some people. In my real life use case the screen is either black when not looking or I raise the screen and look at it from upfront. I sometimes look at the watch from an angle too quickly view some info, but than the colour shift is not apparent. It would be real issue if you could not view the screen any more. So far my thoughts and experience. Thanks all for sharing!