iPhone 12 Pro iPhone 12 Pro “raised blacks” display

[Denmat]

@Alfieg I can only guess what they are talking about, no English subtitles :/ I really hope it’s only software related.

@johnbourne would you kindly share your feedback from Apple support?

 

[johnbourne]

That YouTube video is quite interesting and useful and also explains how HDR is fine no matter the brightness but SDR has the issue which explains why the UI and photos app suffer as they will be in SDR, the subtitles worked for me and he has an interesting theory and believes it to be software related.

If Apple support call me back I will explain this to them and let you know what they say but imagine it not being a very productive call. lol

 

[Alfieg]

I’m amazed this isn’t getting more traction here. The whole point of OLED is the pixels are individually lit and can be off on 0% black. This is how they achieve such excellent contrast and power saving. This is affecting all 12s and we’re literally not getting what we’re paying for.

Yellow tint, which is getting a lot of attention, as much as it might not be very nice or an accurate 6500k white point, is sadly the norm for iPhone displays and better to let it go.

 

[johnbourne]

I agree but think it’s possibly because you have to go out your way to see it but once you have seen it you it can’t be unseen.

Now that YouTube has been updated to support HDR on the iPhone 12 the test videos don’t work unless you force your device to show it in SDR mode by enabling low power mode.

Perhaps people are expecting to see a grey or green mass on the screen when it’s actually quite subtle however extremely annoying.

I tried showing it to my partner and they thought I was mad and could barely see what I was making a fuss about. lol

 

[treyhunnid]

Now I remember why I got off here. y'all complain about every little thing. like not obvious stuff either. I gotta watch specials videos, disable stuff, turn out the lights. etc. its crazy. You have to go out your way to see it.

 

[jdb8167]

No I remember why I got off here. y'all complain about every little thing. like not obvious stuff either. I gotta watch specials videos, disable stuff, turn out the lights. etc. its crazy. You have to go out your way to see it.

And I’ve heard at least 3 different instructions on how to see it. You see it at 100%. No at 0%. Maybe between 10 to 30%. Anywhere from 30 to 70%.

I haven’t seen it at at 100% to 40% or at 0% though why I would watch a video at 0% to 30% escapes me. I’ve moved the slider to multiple spots and I sometimes see a flash then complete dark. Mostly I see nothing.

 

[Sorig]

No I remember why I got off here. y'all complain about every little thing. like not obvious stuff either. I gotta watch specials videos, disable stuff, turn out the lights. etc. its crazy. You have to go out your way to see it.

Ignorance is bliss.

Personally, I'm thankful for threads like this. I do not want to buy a $1000 phone with an OLED screen that acts like a cheap LCD.

 

[Alfieg]

Perhaps those who aren’t interested in or don’t see this as an issue could find something better to do with their time?

 

[Denmat]

No I remember why I got off here. y'all complain about every little thing. like not obvious stuff either. I gotta watch specials videos, disable stuff, turn out the lights. etc. its crazy. You have to go out your way to see it.

Yeah right, why would you clean under a carpet? Makes no sense because you are walking on it, it’s not designed for that. Nobody lifts them stupid carpets to watch under them and see dirt right? But still it might be dirty underneath. So if something is buggy in IOS and I get that particular error because of how I use it, I should ignore it because most don’t use it that way sorry man not gonna happen, and i use my phone in low to no light conditions often.

@johnbourne did Apple catch up with an explanation? Hopefully we get an SW fix or statement soon.

I chatted with Apple today and they just said I could give my phone back. Which was not pretty helpful.

 

[johnbourne]

They did call back and said the iPhone engineers are still looking into it but want pictures or videos of it happening on my device and not links to pictures of other iPhones or YouTube links.

So I have got to try and do that and send them the images and they will call me back on Monday.

 

[Hamsterhjulet]

It’s really bad. Was watching an episode of The Mandalorian before bed in a dark room. Every time a black scene was on, the screen started to flicker between grey and black like crazy. This can’t be normal.

 

[Rockhouse]

I'm experiencing the same problem. Strangely, when I look at photos in Gallery (problem is most visible in portrait mode in there), some of the photos don't show this problem while others have this green/gray tint on the black areas around the photos. Turning off HDR in Gallery settings actually helped a lot, but some photos obviously look considerably worse with this turned off. This of course do not help outside the Gallery app where the problem is also visible.

I really hope a software update can fix this. In dark environments my display sometimes reminds me of an LCD.

 

[johnbourne]

I would recommend anyone having this issue send Apple some feedback who knows someone may actually read them?

Feedback - iPhone

Apple wants to hear from you. Send us your comments and feedback about iPhone.

www.apple.com

You could also create a case using the Support app and chat to the advisors who seem like they want to help I told them I don't want to exchange my device as its likely the replacement will suffer the same issue.

It isn't something that affects my day to day usage as I wouldn't have known about it had I not read these forums, I suspect its fixable in software but if not I may try an exchange in a few months and give Apple a chance to release some updates as they may silently fix it perhaps a 14.2.1 update next week to fix any bugs on the Mini and Pro Max.

We could do with some of the sites and YouTubers reporting it however they may be reluctant to do so as it might affect Apple sending them free devices to review in the future.

 

[BraeburntPie]

Imo (and I'm hoping) it's a software issue or the way colours are encoded in images (see: the wallpaper that bricks certain smartphones). I just got my 12 Pro and compared the blacks with a Samsung A50 with true tone and night shift off, I didn't seem to have an issue... until I tested with a wallpaper randomly chosen from forum.blackmagicdesign.com here (I searched 'dead pixel text' in Qwant). The Samsung screen looks entirely OLED black (i.e no light is emitted) but when the same image was displayed in portrait on the iPhone, the borders above and below were perfectly black and the wallpaper was a rectangle of grey.

Spoiler: Edit 1

I woke up during the night and went to look at my phone, now I can see why people think this is unacceptable quality. I went to use my 12 Pro on very low (<20%) brightness in the dark, normal-ish use, and decided to look at this same wallpaper in the gallery and this happened: I got the grey-green screen. It's ugly. People are rightly upset. But then it went away so that the borders above and below the image in Photos were properly unlit. This does not happen at all if brightness is 50% or higher or when I look at normal images, where I get proper OLED behaviour and no grey-green light. Again, the Samsung A50 is all the way true black and I'm not sure why my 12 Pro seems to need a moment to sort itself out over the exact same picture.

I hope that all makes sense because I think this is a significant find, I don't have a camera that's sensitive enough to detect it the dark so I can't take a video of it. What are people recording with that can detect this?

Spoiler: Edit 2

I must be really bored in lockdown to be chasing this up even though it’s not a big dealfor me. I asked about it in a chat with Support and the person I spoke to wasn’t that technical about it but he did make me feel reassured that our reports don’t fall on deaf ears.
He first asked me what software I was on (I answered iOS 14.2) and then said it could be ‘screen sensitivity’, explaining that this is where ‘OLED screens are more subjects to colors than a normal LED screen [sic]’.

 

[contacos]

Curious if the Max will have the same issue. Supposedly it uses Samsung instead of LG screens?

 

[Hamsterhjulet]

I'm so happy right now! Apple has fixed this issue with iOS 14.3 Beta 1! All the tests give me perfect blacks now! Phew!

 

[brgjoe]

<posted in wrong thread. please delete>

 

[Kraudi2k]

I'm so happy right now! Apple has fixed this issue with iOS 14.3 Beta 1! All the tests give me perfect blacks now! Phew!

Glad to hear that. Could the fix also improve battery life a bit?

 

[Alfieg]

Glad to hear that. Could the fix also improve battery life a bit?

I can’t see how it couldn’t. Turning off pixels on black is how OLED saves power. So this is great news! I shall look forward to the public beta

 

[Rockhouse]

I'm so happy right now! Apple has fixed this issue with iOS 14.3 Beta 1! All the tests give me perfect blacks now! Phew!

That'd be great news! I was thinking about returning my 12 for a new one but I thought I would wait for an update. Glad I did (hopefully).

 

[Simacca]

Apparently been fixed in latest 14.3 beta.

 

[Hamsterhjulet]

After some more testing it seems like the problem still can occur. But it’s only at around 40-60% screen brightness and only in a certain YouTube video. I can’t replicate it in photos anymore with a true black wallpaper. It’s now completely dark. Doesn’t show up in settings with dark mode on, and can’t replicate it in Netflix anymore. So Apple definitely did something about it.

 

[Legendary---]

Holy **** this is the most annoying issue ever!

I thought I was the only one, and stumbled across this thread by random today.

I thought it was hardware related at first, but then I updated to 14.3 and the issue is STILL THERE!

14.3 does not fix this. I’m lead to believe this might be hardware related.

 

[Rockhouse]

Holy **** this is the most annoying issue ever!

I thought I was the only one, and stumbled across this thread by random today.

I thought it was hardware related at first, but then I updated to 14.3 and the issue is STILL THERE!

14.3 does not fix this. I’m lead to believe this might be hardware related.

Interesting. I can't see the problem in that video. For me it's visible in some photos/videos but not in others.

Edit: You deleted the video?

 

[contacos]

someone with a Mini or Max needs to try it. I am curious