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"Dead Zone" Around Screen

L

lukeman3000

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 20, 2007
122
0
Today, I noticed a gray-ish "dead zone" around the screen of my iphone 3g. It's like there's a small rectangle of un-used pixels around the whole of my screen!

Furthermore, the un-used space appears noticeably larger on the bottom and left than on the top and right. It's like my screen resolution changed and shifted up and to the right a little bit.

Here is a pic of someone else's iphone that clearly shows what I'm talking about

Can someone please tell me if this is normal or if I should return it? Naturally, I have searched on the issue, and there isn't really a solid consensus on whether or not the phone has always been like that. Some people say they don't have, others do. However, if it is normal, shouldn't it be an even thickness around the screen instead of being noticeably larger on the left and the bottom?
 
Same thing here, 16GB white 3G. I only notice in in certain light. I assumed it was totally normal, but I could be wrong.
 
spamdumpster said:
Same thing here, 16GB white 3G. I only notice in in certain light. I assumed it was totally normal, but I could be wrong.
Click to expand...

Well, I think it is normal actually. However, mine is not even all the way around the screen, like the whole lcd screen was not seated properly in the housing.

Believe it or not, this is my 3rd iphone after having returned 2 previous ones. I cannot believe the build quality of these phones. I am a picky person, but seriously, if I'm spending $300 for a $500 device, I shouldn't have to put up with stuff like sharp edges, recessed screens, and now an improperly seated lcd screen, or whatever it is.
 
It's totally normal, actually. It's because there's a glass layer over the LCD screen, which pushes it inward slightly, and if Apple removed that gray area and lengthened the black area to right at the edge of the screen, the black area would then block you from viewing some of the pixels on the screen whenever you looked at it from an angle other than straight on.

This is also the case in all of my iPod's, including my iPod touch, and almost any other screen with a layer of glass or other protection over it. The reason that it's gray around the edges is because that gray color is the color of the LCD panel when it's off. If you turn off the iPhone and put it under similar lighting, you'll notice the whole area under the glass layer is exactly the same color.

The only reason I would think it could be uneven on the left and bottom is if you looked at the phone from the top-right. However, if you look at it from dead on and it's uneven, it likely is a hardware defect, although it won't matter in any way at all to the stability of the hardware. This is seriously one of those cases where you really don't have to worry about it at all.

EDIT: If you didn't understand it, and I don't think anybody will, here's the gist: it's totally normal, and nothing to worry about.
 
menthol moose said:
It's totally normal, actually. It's because there's a glass layer over the LCD screen, which pushes it inward slightly, and if Apple removed that gray area and lengthened the black area to right at the edge of the screen, the black area would then block you from viewing some of the pixels on the screen whenever you looked at it from an angle other than straight on.

This is also the case in all of my iPod's, including my iPod touch, and almost any other screen with a layer of glass or other protection over it. The reason that it's gray around the edges is because that gray color is the color of the LCD panel when it's off. If you turn off the iPhone and put it under similar lighting, you'll notice the whole area under the glass layer is exactly the same color.

The only reason I would think it could be uneven on the left and bottom is if you looked at the phone from the top-right. However, if you look at it from dead on and it's uneven, it likely is a hardware defect, although it won't matter in any way at all to the stability of the hardware. This is seriously one of those cases where you really don't have to worry about it at all.

EDIT: If you didn't understand it, and I don't think anybody will, here's the gist: it's totally normal, and nothing to worry about.
Click to expand...

I pretty much agree with this 100%. And yeah when I say a "grey-ish" color what I mean is it looks the same as the rest of the screen when it is not displaying anything, which means it's not part of the active matrix. I am starting to believe it to be normal, but mine seems to be much more exaggerated because it is indeed thicker on the left than the right when viewed straight on. I don't know how many more times Apple will replace my phone for me, but it's getting to be ridiculous. I just don't think I should have to "put up" with a hardware defect like that.
 
lukeman3000 said:
I pretty much agree with this 100%. And yeah when I say a "grey-ish" color what I mean is it looks the same as the rest of the screen when it is not displaying anything, which means it's not part of the active matrix. I am starting to believe it to be normal, but mine seems to be much more exaggerated because it is indeed thicker on the left than the right when viewed straight on. I don't know how many more times Apple will replace my phone for me, but it's getting to be ridiculous. I just don't think I should have to "put up" with a hardware defect like that.
Click to expand...
It's possibly the most minor hardware defect I can think of. How noticeable is it to you when you're using the phone?

I just noticed now my iPod touch was uneven in the same way, I've had it for over six months, and I really had to look hard to find it.
 
menthol moose said:
It's possibly the most minor hardware defect I can think of. How noticeable is it to you when you're using the phone?

I just noticed now my iPod touch was uneven in the same way, I've had it for over six months, and I really had to look hard to find it.
Click to expand...

Well, the average person would never notice it. I am just very detail oriented (see: OC) and things like that tend to bother me.
 
I noticed the same thing. You really only see this under strong lights or under direct sunlight. Mine was actually really badly crooked. My Signal bar had a significant dead zone above it while the battery indicator barely had anything.

I returned it through the mail and just got a replacement that is pretty much perfect.
 
It's normal, if you look closely at the pictures of the iphone on Apple's website you can see it. It's also on every iphone I've seen on display in stores.

I was berated severly by a forum troll last week for posting this very same question so watch out!
 
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