Fixing the standard iP5 yellow tint.

[Jimrod]

Hi guys,

I'm sure many of you, like me, have a yellow tinted iPhone 5 screen and aren't particularly happy about it (but also can't be bothered to keep returning it as many do and end up with a duplicate of the problem).

It's not that "warmer" is preferable as fanboys may say, it's simply wrong - on my phone: 106% green, 92% blue and 81% red on the RGB spectrum to be precise (measured with a lightmeter).


Now, it's actually pretty easy to fix this for those that want to and as far as I've seen all the yellow tints look to be about the same level so this should be pretty generic:


1. Jailbreak. I know not everyone wants to, but this issue made me do it for the first time today and it was very stress-free. It's easy enough to Google the iOS 6 version...

2. Go to Cydia store and get the "Color Profiles" app, it's $1.99 but for me it's a small price to pay for fixing a phone I'm going to use for the next year at least, that's a lot of time looking at that screen!

3. Open the App and go to "Advanced", scroll down to "White Level" and you'll see three bars (un-named but represent Red, Green and Blue from top to bottom in that order).

4. Move the middle slider of the three to around the 85% mark, move the bottom of the three to around the 90% mark.

Voila! tint fixed, a nicer, bolder and correctly coloured screen with white whites is now yours! On mine this measures perfectly, it should be around the same for all yellow-tinted screens but of course you're free to adjust as you see fit.


Of course you shouldn't have to pay for this, Apple should allow this functionality since they've lost the ability to make "correct" screens in the last year or two (I imagine it's the LG supplied ones as this same tint is present on my LG plasma which I also calibrated, Samsung's are generally slightly red tinted, I've not measured a Sharp plasma) but for those that it bothers it's a small price to pay and not too much hassle.

Cheers,


Jim.

 

[LostMyiPhone]

Hi guys,

I'm sure many of you, like me, have a yellow tinted iPhone 5 screen and aren't particularly happy about it (but also can't be bothered to keep returning it as many do and end up with a duplicate of the problem).

It's not that "warmer" is preferable as fanboys may say, it's simply wrong - on my phone: 106% green, 92% blue and 81% red on the RGB spectrum to be precise (measured with a lightmeter).


Now, it's actually pretty easy to fix this for those that want to and as far as I've seen all the yellow tints look to be about the same level so this should be pretty generic:


1. Jailbreak. I know not everyone wants to, but this issue made me do it for the first time today and it was very stress-free. It's easy enough to Google the iOS 6 version...

2. Go to Cydia store and get the "Color Profiles" app, it's $1.99 but for me it's a small price to pay for fixing a phone I'm going to use for the next year at least, that's a lot of time looking at that screen!

3. Open the App and go to "Advanced", scroll down to "White Level" and you'll see three bars (un-named but represent Red, Green and Blue from top to bottom in that order).

4. Move the middle slider of the three to around the 85% mark, move the bottom of the three to around the 90% mark.

Voila! tint fixed, a nicer, bolder and correctly coloured screen with white whites is now yours! On mine this measures perfectly, it should be around the same for all yellow-tinted screens but of course you're free to adjust as you see fit.


Of course you shouldn't have to pay for this, Apple should allow this functionality since they've lost the ability to make "correct" screens in the last year or two (I imagine it's the LG supplied ones as this same tint is present on my LG plasma which I also calibrated, Samsung's are generally slightly red tinted, I've not measured a Sharp plasma) but for those that it bothers it's a small price to pay and not too much hassle.

Cheers,


Jim.

Jim,

Thanks for your post. Interestingly enough I was just laying out my saga with the yellow tint issue in a different thread. To make a long story short, my original, launch day iPhone 5 was perfect -- until the power button broke. I sent it back and got a yellow screen replacement (very noticable I might add). After giving it a week to see if my "eyes would adjust" it just bugged me so I called Apple who asked me to restore but to no avail. They promptly sent a replacement device to me. Surprise, the screen isn't really that much better. It's "brighter" I suppose, maybe "sharper" would describe it... but marginally at best. This in and of itself would be fine but upon further inspection I noticed that the camera is not sitting in the phone properly. As a result it takes crooked pictures! (https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/16812222/)

I just got done speaking with Apple for over an hour. I'm going to send the phone back that has the bad camera and keep the yellow screen phone for now. Like you and others I've read about, I'm not sure if it's worth the hastle to continue to swap these until I get a "good" one.

I am very reluctant to jailbreak because I've purchased an extended warranty (applecare+) and it's my understanding that this will void that warranty. Though it seems perhaps Apple should consider building this functionality into the next OS as it certainly would have corrected my issue and saved me a lot of time and a headache.

 

[Jimrod]

I am very reluctant to jailbreak because I've purchased an extended warranty (applecare+) and it's my understanding that this will void that warranty. Though it seems perhaps Apple should consider building this functionality into the next OS as it certainly would have corrected my issue and saved me a lot of time and a headache.

I agree that we shouldn't have to Jailbreak to fix what is basically a QC issue but it seems so widespread that replacements are a gamble. Also many won't notice/care but those like us who are maybe a bit OCD or work in Graphics get bugged by such things - the kind of things we pay a premium for Apple products not to have! I'm not worried about the Jailbreak, you can always restore if there are problems.

I do think standards are slipping, even the design itself (ignoring the me-too 16:9 ratio which only really helps with video) - the screen sits proud of the phone, the chamfered edges indicate from the side that it should have sat flush, I'd imagine the delayed Izgo screens from Sharp would have done so but Apple just had to launch... Disappointing. Hoping they get it right next time after the amount of issues with the 5.

 

[Mrbobb]

Of course you shouldn't have to pay for this

For 1.99 I say this isn't a battle worth fighting.

 

[LostMyiPhone]

I agree that we shouldn't have to Jailbreak to fix what is basically a QC issue but it seems so widespread that replacements are a gamble. Also many won't notice/care but those like us who are maybe a bit OCD or work in Graphics get bugged by such things - the kind of things we pay a premium for Apple products not to have! I'm not worried about the Jailbreak, you can always restore if there are problems.

I do think standards are slipping, even the design itself (ignoring the me-too 16:9 ratio which only really helps with video) - the screen sits proud of the phone, the chamfered edges indicate from the side that it should have sat flush, I'd imagine the delayed Izgo screens from Sharp would have done so but Apple just had to launch... Disappointing. Hoping they get it right next time after the amount of issues with the 5.

Agreed. I personally love gadgets of all kinds. I get this from my dad growing up. We always had all of the latest technology. Therefore I'm big on all of the latest electronics (though I can't always afford them). I've seen my share of poor displays and having such a poorly calibrated display is very noticable to me. I read a lot on my phone so it's extra noticable. So where someone like my wife would likely not notice, I do.

Saying replacements are a gamble is an understantement. I would have paid an extra $50 to just have my first iPhone 5 power button fixed even though I already bought an AppleCare+ warranty. That one was perfect otherwise.

Apple needs to be careful to not get too big too quickly. So far they've managed to not lose their customer service but it does seem that QC has begun to slip a bit. I have no qualms about the design of the iPhone 5, I love it... I'm just frustrated with the hardware issues.

Even I could get past the yellowish screen issue on the iPhone 5 -- if I had to live with it. I shouldn't have to considering Apple values this device at $932.63 but I would if I had to. The camera issue however is unacceptable to me. As stated in my other thread, I decided to forego a separate camera for the convenience of having one of the best in the industry on my phone.

I sure hope the next iteration is more polished. I certainly won't be an early adopter moving forward -- I'll allow them to work out the kinks before jumping on board.

----------

For 1.99 I say this isn't a battle worth fighting.

Agreed.

Oh hey Jim, have you noticed any degredation in performance or battery life after your JB?

 

[Jimrod]

For 1.99 I say this isn't a battle worth fighting.

Very true!

----------

Oh hey Jim, have you noticed any degredation in performance or battery life after your JB?

None at all but then I only did it this morning! It doesn't seem any slower or worse for battery than usual (battery is at 68% after full charge 14 hours or so ago but that includes normal use and messing with calibrating the screen for quite a while this afternoon!)

 

[LostMyiPhone]

Very true!

----------



None at all but then I only did it this morning! It doesn't seem any slower or worse for battery than usual (battery is at 68% after full charge 14 hours or so ago but that includes normal use and messing with calibrating the screen for quite a while this afternoon!)

Well, I may check back in with you either via this thread or via PM in a few days to a week to see how stable things are if you don't mind.

This seems much less stressful than going through the exchange process yet again...

Fortunately my Best Skins Ever just arrived and I can re-skin my phone (should I decide to keep it after all). Still kinda PO'd at myself for removing the screen protector/skin before fully going over the new device.

 

[Jimrod]

Well, I may check back in with you either via this thread or via PM in a few days to a week to see how stable things are if you don't mind.

This seems much less stressful than going through the exchange process yet again...

Fortunately my Best Skins Ever just arrived and I can re-skin my phone (should I decide to keep it after all). Still kinda PO'd at myself for removing the screen protector/skin before fully going over the new device.

No probs!

 

[C DM]

For 1.99 I say this isn't a battle worth fighting.

You can give f.lux a try: http://stereopsis.com/flux/ios.html

 

[spyguy10709]

You can give f.lux a try: http://stereopsis.com/flux/ios.html

f.lux makes your screen YELLOW. That's the opposite. Lol.

 

[LostMyiPhone]

I read about this app... sounds extremely cool. I guess it picks up on where you are based on GPS or something maybe that you input, it knows when the sunrise/sunset is, and adjusts your phone display to be perfect for the time of day... very very neat idea.

 

[Jimrod]

I don't think an App which changes tint depending on time of day would get around the base problem of an innate yellow tint, it would just change colour temp based on basic time of day lighting as far as I can tell. The incorrect base balance would still be there I think.

 

[TM WAZZA]

What? There's 2 settings. Night and Day. If you don't want it to change to a lower screen temperature at night then set it to 6500k both day and night.

 

[Jimrod]

My point was - what the phone thinks is 6500k will still be wrong if the phone is yellow-tinted, it will be a "warmer"* version of 6500k. It doesn't solve the problem. Manually adjusting the RGB balance does if you know what you're doing.

*People call it a warmer tint, it's technically a predominantly greener tint, blue is up a little on red too, making it a touch more yellow overall but the dominant colour is green.