Darker at top of screen?

[apple111115]

Just wondering if this is normal. When my phone is sitting, for example, on the table and I am looking at it from an angle, there is a dark area at the status bar...not really sure what it is or if it is normal! It is on an iPhone 6s Plus.

 

[Bryan Bowler]

Are you referring to this?

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/dark-spots-at-top-of-iphone-6s-plus.1924773/#post-22020499

 

[Knowlege Bomb]

I'm seeing the same thing on my 6s. Thinking about taking it back since I also have color temperature inconsistency from left to right (warm on left, cool on right).

 

[apple111115]

I meant to inlcude these pictures but never did. Most of the pictures show how the display is darker at the top when at an angle. One picture shows a very bright white spot where it appears the blacklight is bleeding through at the top, and then some show some light bleed at the bottom/darker shading. The picture trying to show the light bleed at the bottom was extremely hard to take, lol, it is the super blurry one. There is also sometimes a line (probably backlight bleeding) that appears at a certain angle at the top. There is also that infamous blemish in the bottom left part of the screen.

What do you think? Replace worthy? Or is it more likely I would receive one that's even worse?

even worse?

 

[AbSoluTc]

You will be hard pressed to find a phone that doesn't have this. Looking at the phone from that angle (any phone), it will exhibit those lines. That's actually one of the better ones. There are worse ones out there.

 

[apple111115]

You will be hard pressed to find a phone that doesn't have this. Looking at the phone from that angle (any phone), it will exhibit those lines. That's actually one of the better ones. There are worse ones out there.

Yeah, very true. I saw a display model at the AT&T store that was pretty good which made e think that I may want to replace it, but from what I recall Apple doesn't let you take back your old phone after they have brought out a replacement....

 

[Atomic Walrus]

_______    screen glass
_______    LCD
_______
|______|o  diffuser
                 -LEDs around edge

Crude ascii art of how an edge-lit LCD panel works. Nothing is to any kind of scale because ascii art.

The defuser is basically a big slab of light refracting material with a mirrored surface behind it. Its job is to turn the light from those individual LEDs around the edge into a uniform light output spread across the screen surface.

If you look at it from an extreme angle and the defuser is the same size as the screen then you'll be seeing an edge case (unintended) where the effect doesn't work.

_____\__    screen glass
______\_    LCD
_______\
|______|o  diffuser
                 -LEDs around edge

that's even more crude, but I think it illustrates the issue. Because the LCD itself is above the light source layer you can find an angle where you can see the edge of the screen, but aren't really looking into the diffuser. Depending on manufacturing variances you may even see light and dark areas at this angle because you're looking directly at the LEDs.

The defuser also just doesn't work as well at the edges, which should be obvious in top-down:

______________
            + |o
            - |
            + |o
            - |

The LEDs are right up against the edge so there's not a lot of material to do the diffusing here. This is how some people actually get "flashlighting," where you can see the alternating light/dark areas at the edge. Not all phones have it so this one's probably a manufacturing issue (diffuser uniformity, assembly tolerance, no idea).

 

[MaxBga]

I kind of have the same thing. Not bothering me & I dont use my phone that angle.

Seriously there are more serious problems like the touch id burning thing, the speaker thing etc..

This is a small thing, I wouldn't risk getting something with a serious problem. This is nothing....

 

[chabig]

I don't see anything to be concerned about.

 

[sunking101]

If I hunt around I can see imperfections in the display of my 6S+. I have the 'binding' at the top of the screen, and the 'pressure point' on the lower left. In normal use neither of these issues bother me and I'm also reassured by the fact that most if not all of this year's phones suffer from the same problems.

I don't hold my phone at a crazy enough angle for the upper screen imperfection to ever trouble me and as others have rightly mentioned, exchanging a perfectly good phone for one with the exact-same screen issues but also an additional, different fault seems like folly to me. They all have it, I must have looked at 17 now and not one has a 'perfect' display. Some really are horrid, with very dark blotches and urine-yellow tints. Even though my display isn't perfect it is by no means the worst out there! In fact it's probably one of the better ones.

 

[drew0020]

I think the LED's at the top of the screen are indeed a feature this year. Most of the iPhone 6S Plus have this.

It's not terrible unless I am specifically looking for it on my 2 phones.

 

[NYCphone]

I have a light pressure point on the bottom left and light spots at the top of my 6s+....miss my perfect 6+ screen.