iPhone 12 Pro iPhone 12 Pro “raised blacks” display

[Gagaohlala]

Let me chime in on the "does my iPhone 12 have this issue?":

First, my backgound. I am a video and television guy that has years of color grading experience with DaVinci Resolve. Flanders Scientific LCD panels are not uncommon to me. Secondly, I have used every single iteration of iPhone including the first OLED versions (X, 11). Lastly, I have access to lots of iPhones because of my job. Like hundreds.

I've read every single post in this thread (324 posts). And my summary judgment is that all iPhone 12s have raised blacks in low screen brightness ranges, and this issue is not present in Xs and 11s.

All iPhone 12s.

As to why some people deny their iPhone 12s exhibit it?
-The problem is only shown in certain conditions
-some viewers aren't critical enough to notice

So in summary, all iPhone 12s technically have the issue, but if you don't see it--it's not an issue to you. It is, however, an issue for me.

Please that's really not true people ! As myself I thought so that every iphone had it. My 12 Pro Max had it too ! And according to what I saw online and here I was sure every new iPhone had the problem. But then my friend ordered an iPhone 12 too. Omg it's screen was so good. No yellow tint at first like mine also had. Then I tried to compare mine with her Iphone 12 in a black room, same conditions, same settings, same low brithness, no TT, just the pure black YouTube video / or black mode setting screen. My 12 Pro Max was flickering as hell, with my friend's one next to it being... pure black. The difference was so clear. I tried to change the brithness, same results.

So, I instantly changed my mind. This raised black and flickering issue is a hardware deffect. I returned my iPhone. My friend's screen was just so good compared to mine, and really no deffect. Believe me I read everypost on this forum, I know phones and OLED, and I would have saw it if my friend's phone had it - just like I saw it on mine. But it didn't.

Now I just ordered a new iPhone 12 pro max. I hope it will be as good a my friend's one. But as of now I don't believe anymire that every iphone have this problem like I thought, because it's not true.

 

[Cheule]

Please that's really not true people ! As myself I thought so that every iphone had it. My 12 Pro Max had it too ! And according to what I saw online and here I was sure every new iPhone had the problem. But then my friend ordered an iPhone 12 too. Omg it's screen was so good. No yellow tint at first like mine also had. Then I tried to compare mine with her Iphone 12 in a black room, same conditions, same settings, same low brithness, no TT, just the pure black YouTube video / or black mode setting screen. My 12 Pro Max was flickering as hell, with my friend's one next to it being... pure black. The difference was so clear. I tried to change the brithness, same results.

So, I instantly changed my mind. This raised black and flickering issue is a hardware deffect. I returned my iPhone. My friend's screen was just so good compared to mine, and really no deffect. Believe me I read everypost on this forum, I know phones and OLED, and I would have saw it if my friend's phone had it - just like I saw it on mine. But it didn't.

Now I just ordered a new iPhone 12 pro max. I hope it will be as good a my friend's one. But as of now I don't believe anymire that every iphone have this problem like I thought, because it's not true.

Please do chime in once you get your new model. OLED screens are complicated devices and my gut tells me there is more than one thing going on.

For example, you mention “yellow tint.” It could be you had a display with an additional production problem. And when you get the new one, hopefully that is solved for you. Doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t have the “not true black issue.” I feel like some people aren’t critical viewers enough to notice this very low grey, but not black issue.

 

[Denmat]

14.3 RC2. It didn’t fix the glow, I have the feeling it’s worse but it could be that I am just suuuuuper frustrated about the Situation. No fix, no statement at all, nothing.

 

[richard371]

I hope they fix it but the more annoying issue for me is the animation stutter at times when swiping up on apps. Had it on the pro 12 and now on the 12 max. There is a long thread about it.

 

[Donga120]

Not fixed for me either

should the lock screen not be pure black? When I unlock my phone it is pure black, then half a second after it goes to a green tint... how can they both be different? The darker version is from manu

 

[Hamsterhjulet]

No fix in RC2 unfortunately. On the upside the notifications seems to work properly again.

 

[josecuervo888]

Still no fix? I can’t believe it.

 

[absolutkev]

Hello from Germany.

I bought my iPhone 12 Pro in November. It has the same problem. It is best seen in a room that is completely dark when the device is booting. At first, only the apple logo is white, otherwise everything is pure black. Shortly before the boot process is over, the black changes to gray / green. Then the homescreen follows.

BUT: I switched to the iPhone 12 Pro Max yesterday. What can I say? The black stays black. A YouTube test video also showed this. Both devices have iOS 14.2.1 installed. Is it a hardware error after all? The iPhone 12 Pro Max was produced in mid-November.

Here are the comparison videos between 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max. It is difficult to capture on camera, but with the 12 Pro, you can see the "flickering" of the display at 00:08 min. At the 12 Pro Max: pure black.

https://we.tl/t-TVEX0ICjhw

(Sorry for my bad English)

 

[Amabile Ricci]

Here is my iphone 12 pro! What problem can that be?

 

[Al Rukh]

Still no fix? I can’t believe it.

The longer it takes, the less hopeful we get. I’m not an owner of any of the 12 series, but I do feel disappointed that users have to put up with this rubbish experience for weeks or even the months to come.

 

[afilopou]

Here is my iphone 12 pro! What problem can that be? View attachment 1692121

You have the greenish glow. This is the one problem. I see a brighter small area below the apple logo (to the right side). what is this?


If this area exists on your panel, I think that you should return it.

 

[Amabile Ricci]

You have the greenish glow. This is the one problem. I see a brighter small area below the apple logo (to the right side). what is this?


If this area exists on your panel, I think that you should return it.

I only have the green screen problem! That's a reflection!

 

[afilopou]

I only have the green screen problem! That's a reflection!

Happy to hear it is a reflection. I had the same problem (pro max week 44). I sent it back to Amazon.

 

[Amabile Ricci]

Happy to hear it is a reflection. I had the same problem (pro max week 44). I sent it back to Amazon.

And now this iphone you have, has the green screen problem?

 

[afilopou]

And now this iphone you have, has the green screen problem?

Right know i am with a google pixel :-(

 

[Lion007s]

Hi guys, I noticed with a week 48 a similar issue. However, it is much more pronounced when using the black screen video in the YouTube app at 30-40% brightness and changing volume. But open a private tab, head to the website, play the same video with the same settings, there is no flickering (but a bit of a glow still).

I think it may be software after all and display drivers for certain displays.

 

[martesch]

I tested my new iphone 12 pro from week 49 again, and at the boot up there is no flickering, but when i watch the black youtube video or a black image it starts to glow. what does this means now?
and really hilarious, if i put my screen brithness at 100% and open a black pic it start to glow grey.
i could not make a video of that because it does not adjust in die end the black level so you can't see the glow. but i made some pictures

Edit: Auto-Brightnes is off


Edit: I found the error, the image i used was not really black so this was my fault
So I choose the black background from iphone 12pro, then i took a screenshot, cut the middle to get a pure black image. if i open this on the iphone 12pro with a brightness under 50% it starts to glow green,
with 100% brightness its really black and you see nothing.

 

[Cheule]

Hello from Germany.

I bought my iPhone 12 Pro in November. It has the same problem. It is best seen in a room that is completely dark when the device is booting. At first, only the apple logo is white, otherwise everything is pure black. Shortly before the boot process is over, the black changes to gray / green. Then the homescreen follows.

BUT: I switched to the iPhone 12 Pro Max yesterday. What can I say? The black stays black. A YouTube test video also showed this. Both devices have iOS 14.2.1 installed. Is it a hardware error after all? The iPhone 12 Pro Max was produced in mid-November.

Here are the comparison videos between 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max. It is difficult to capture on camera, but with the 12 Pro, you can see the "flickering" of the display at 00:08 min. At the 12 Pro Max: pure black.

https://we.tl/t-TVEX0ICjhw

(Sorry for my bad English)

On my iPhone 12 Pro Max, the screen goes perfectly black under certain circumstances (like over 50% brightness for example). What I really want to see is you displaying the perfect black youtube video, with the brightness at 5-10%. Shoot footage near where your notch is, it should show that the screen is actually dark grey. However, if you turn the brightness up to full, the background goes black. I can even find brightness levels in the middle (like 30-50%) that freak the software out, and the panel's black pixels go grey-black-grey-black a few times.

I think you had a green tinted screen first, and now a properly manufactured one, but that your max probably has the same non-black issue the thread is about. What I see is a thread where people are trying to talk about pitch black vs dark dark grey pixels, and a bunch of other (typical) OLED manufacturing errors are entering the discussion.

 

[Cheule]

I finally called in to Apple, to make sure they're aware. I hit the usual tier 1 support (Lennecia) who asked me the iPhone of equivalents of "did you turn it off and on again" (IT crowd reference). After over-explaining to their tier 1 in order to get the situation elevated, I finally hit a "Senior Advisor." The senior advisor (Alycia) was less confused about what I was explaining.

She took this forum thread link down, however explained she was prevented from opening it inside Apple's firewall. I explained that there was copious amounts of information in this thread and someone at Apple needs to read it. So she elevated the case to a 3rd person, this time someone she said was a "Senior software engineer."

The Senior software engineer (Tara), read over what was said so far, and then told me all she could do at this point was change my case to a "complaint" status. According to her, this would send it to someone even higher who could then read our forum link, and then get back to me.

All 3 people I talked to searched Apple internal documents and saw no mention of this issue. I'm starting to think Apple still doesn't know, and that's why there is no fix in 14.3rc. I'm going to stay on top of this, but I encourage others to as well. If it comes from multiple people, they start to listen.

 

[afilopou]

I finally called in to Apple, to make sure they're aware. I hit the usual tier 1 support (Lennecia) who asked me the iPhone of equivalents of "did you turn it off and on again" (IT crowd reference). After over-explaining to their tier 1 in order to get the situation elevated, I finally hit a "Senior Advisor." The senior advisor (Alycia) was less confused about what I was explaining.

She took this forum thread link down, however explained she was prevented from opening it inside Apple's firewall. I explained that there was copious amounts of information in this thread and someone at Apple needs to read it. So she elevated the case to a 3rd person, this time someone she said was a "Senior software engineer."

The Senior software engineer (Tara), read over what was said so far, and then told me all she could do at this point was change my case to a "complaint" status. According to her, this would send it to someone even higher who could then read our forum link, and then get back to me.

All 3 people I talked to searched Apple internal documents and saw no mention of this issue. I'm starting to think Apple still doesn't know, and that's why there is no fix in 14.3rc. I'm going to stay on top of this, but I encourage others to as well. If it comes from multiple people, they start to listen.

There is also a thread in Apple's forum

iPhone 12 OLED Screen Issue - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

I think that they will not have "firewall issues" with their own site.

They do know. I am 100% sure.

 

[Cheule]

There is also a thread in Apple's forum

iPhone 12 OLED Screen Issue - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

I think that they will not have "firewall issues" with their own site.

They do know. I am 100% sure.

Thanks for posting this. When I say “seems like Apple doesn’t know” what I mean to say is “the people that can launch an investigation, apparently don’t know.” Imagine this silly scenario I’m using for illustrative purposes:

Say that the entire janitorial staff of the apple campus is aware of this issue. And they tell Cook himself. It doesn’t really matter that there are 50+ janitors working for apple that know, unless someone in a decision making position (Cook in this case) not only listens, but decided to act.

 

[MacGiver]

There is also a thread in Apple's forum

iPhone 12 OLED Screen Issue - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

I think that they will not have "firewall issues" with their own site.

They do know. I am 100% sure.

I posted on the Apple community to relate this issue...and added Macrumors thread link. Here what I received.

« Thanks for participating in Apple Support Communities.

Recently, we removed your post “iPhone 12 OLED Screen Issue,” because it contained link(s) that weren’t directly related to the original poster’s question. We understand wanting to share experiences, but these forums are meant for technical questions that can be answered by the community. »

 

[martesch]

I posted on the Apple community to relate this issue...and added Macrumors thread link. Here what I received.

« Thanks for participating in Apple Support Communities.

Recently, we removed your post “iPhone 12 OLED Screen Issue,” because it contained link(s) that weren’t directly related to the original poster’s question. We understand wanting to share experiences, but these forums are meant for technical questions that can be answered by the community. »

Same here, twice.

We removed your post iPhone 12 OLED Screen Issue because it contained rants or complaints that weren’t constructive. We understand wanting to share experiences, but these forums are meant for technical questions that can be answered by the community.

We’ve edited your post iPhone 12 OLED Screen Issue because it contained link(s) that weren't directly related to the original poster's question. To read our terms and conditions for using the Communities site, see this page: Apple Support Communities - Terms of Use

 

[michael31986]

Idk how anyone can think it’s hardware if it doesn’t happen at full brightness... def seems software.

 

[afilopou]

I am thinking to skip the panel lottery and order 11 pro max. Is it a wise choice? What do you guys think? It seems that 11 pro max does not have the issue with greenish/raised blacks.Right?

12 PM sent back due to greenish/glow issue. My main issue is the glow which is getting worse over time. At first happened when brightness was in between 5% to 25% and after a few days I can see the glow when the brightness was less than 100%. Also did a clean install through mac to 14.2.1 and the issue was still there.