The example in the photo is clear liquid damage. When water/liquid works its way into an LCD the different layers of the LCD separate a bit and you get that strange cloudy effect.
Humidity doesn't do that, unless you're talking about extended exposure to tropical rain forest levels of humidity, and even then I'd call it a stretch. The same goes for the liquid indicators, which were first called liquid submersion indicators.
Source - Worked at Apple for several years and have handled hundreds of liquid damaged phones. When you see clear symptoms like this there really isn't even a need to open it up or check the indicators.
This might be relevant... The first questionable claim I dealt with was a 3G that had a similar screen effect going on. The guy admitted he had dropped it in a bucket of oil while working on his car. The phone still worked fine but obviously looked strange. None of the indicators were tripped, they require direct contact with a waterbased liquid, which oil is not. At the time the wording for classifying liquid damage was that it was OOW if the indicators were tripped. My lead Genius left the decision up to me and we ended up replacing it at half cost for the guy since he had been honest with us.
Humidity doesn't do that, unless you're talking about extended exposure to tropical rain forest levels of humidity, and even then I'd call it a stretch. The same goes for the liquid indicators, which were first called liquid submersion indicators.
Source - Worked at Apple for several years and have handled hundreds of liquid damaged phones. When you see clear symptoms like this there really isn't even a need to open it up or check the indicators.
This might be relevant... The first questionable claim I dealt with was a 3G that had a similar screen effect going on. The guy admitted he had dropped it in a bucket of oil while working on his car. The phone still worked fine but obviously looked strange. None of the indicators were tripped, they require direct contact with a waterbased liquid, which oil is not. At the time the wording for classifying liquid damage was that it was OOW if the indicators were tripped. My lead Genius left the decision up to me and we ended up replacing it at half cost for the guy since he had been honest with us.