Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Ive got the exact same issue with my iphone5, compared it next to my mates iphone5 and his seemed whiter however we was in a light room, come home and compared to my iPhone 4s and the screen is definitely yellower.

If this is how it should be then it strange but fair enough. however on photos on the phone and next to a white piece of paper the iphone 4s looks better.

I took some photos below, see what you think. I rung apple but they said they have no stock to exchange but I can get a refund if I am not happy, bit unsure on how to proceed, love the iphone5 but should I return it and wait for a new one, will it have the same issue, if there is a issue?

Image

Image
The one on the right looks slightly pinkish...
 
If the warm yellow is 'more natural', can someone explain to me why all iPads (without exception) in the stores are very white and crisp?
 
Do this simple test: Take a piece of white paper and put it next to both screens... Which screen looks more like the physical piece of print paper??

I bet you it's the one you feel like is warmer.

Comparing white printer paper and displays is not a good way to test things out. Paper has optical whiteners added and while the paper is a shade of white they're hardly ever a neutral white.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_brightener

On a properly calibrated screen, neutral white will look warmer to many since most screens have a cool white balance as the standard setting.

If you are ever around a photography store see if you can take a look a some photo paper used for film photography. If you held one of those next to a plain piece of printer paper you'd see that the plain paper is much brighter and has a cooler tint compared to the photo paper. I don't print photos at home so I'm not sure ho inkjet photo paper is but I'd guess it's more neutral as well.
 
So this is how I am looking at yellowness.
my iPhone 4 had a very blue screen compared to my iPhone 4S, which was yellower. my iPhone 5 is bluer/whiter than my iPhone 4S. Unfortunately, I don't have the iPhone 4 to compare the 5 to anymore.
 
My screen is definitely more yellow than my iphone 4's screen. It also has more vibrant color than the iphone 4's screen. It looks better, the 4's screen looks a bit dull in comparison.

*shrug*.

It doesn't bother me and I'm not going to play the keep switching phones game when it really isn't an issue. It's not making any of my stuff look yellow, it just is noticeable when i put it next to my old phone (but it's also noticeable that it has brighter colors and in general looks better). I honestly think for many people the yellow screen is only an issue cause they hear other people complaining about it and then start worrying they need to worry about it (I've seen a few pics where it was definitely bad but most people are over worrying things).

If things looked yellowish, then I'd complain.
 
This is all simply a result of Apple sourcing displays from Sharp, Samsung, LG, and whoever else. They're all going to be different, but that difference is really only perceptible when comparing two phones side by side.

As a two-iPhone household since the 3G, this is a blessing and a curse. For the third straight time, my wife's phone appears very vibrant and saturated, but in my opinion has a purple tint to it. For the third straight time mine is more muted but is probably closer to a correct color tint.

My advice from lots of experience (and having designer's OCD): forget about it and use the phone.
 
My IPad 3 and iPhone 4S have similar colour temps,both were warmer than the iPhone 4 or Ipad 2 but my iPhone 5 is warmer than both, but not by much,more noticeable at lower brightness settings

In the photo though it looks like the iPhone 4S is marginally warmer
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    1.3 MB · Views: 447
My phone on the left, my wife's on the right. Both 32GB iPhone 5's. Mine is black and hers is white, obviously.

Both at 100% brightness. Check out how dim and washed out mine is. Ignore the orange color on the right of her screen, it was something created by the camera. Look more at the left side of her screen for a good idea of how it really looks.
 

Attachments

  • photo.JPG
    photo.JPG
    112.4 KB · Views: 675
Simple, the devices brightness are turned up all the way and the store lighting creates that vibrant look on the devices. Even my phone looks different when I am inside the apple store.

I saw on another blog that the screen is warmer than previous models and color is much better. My take is that this warmer screen is normal. If you have ever calibrated lcds, you will know that you always target a warmer calibration which is more accurate. So stop wasting your time by worrying about this, your eyes will eventually get used to it. Only when you look at another iphone with bluesh tint that you will notice your screen warmer. Enjoy your phone while some of us are still waiting for preorders to be shipped :(.

If the warm yellow is 'more natural', can someone explain to me why all iPads (without exception) in the stores are very white and crisp?
 
Last edited:
Simple, the devices brightness are turned up all the way and the store lighting creates that vibrant look on the devices. Even my phone looks different when I am inside the apple store.
This is not true. I have a 'yellow' iPad, and mine is very yellow, has lower brightness and lower contrast when I hold it side by side IN the Apple Store. It's not the different lighting, it's the screen!

All iPads/iPhones in the Apple Store are white and not yellow.
 
here is mine. brightness set at about 40% (just above the first 's' in brightness. what do others think? i've just compared it with another and mine actually seems pretty good :)
 

Attachments

  • Image0008.jpg
    Image0008.jpg
    1,002.4 KB · Views: 364
I have the same problem. just received my 16gig black ip5. its yellow screen. but my ip4 is more crip white. i compared mine to the ones they show in store, the iphones are so much whiter on display.
 
I'm guessing all screens have colour shifts (even head on)?

Haven't seen one that hasn't had some sort of shift towards one of the corners/sides. Same as the iPad 3.

Or my eyes are just too good at differentiating colours.

My eyes started noticing it after the retina display change.
 
Mine is warmer too but i've mostly adapted and i barely notice anymore. Helps that its not outright yellow...just warmer than my 4S which was cooler toned.
 
I'm guessing all screens have colour shifts (even head on)?

Haven't seen one that hasn't had some sort of shift towards one of the corners/sides. Same as the iPad 3.

Or my eyes are just too good at differentiating colours.

My eyes started noticing it after the retina display change.

It looks that way. But to be honest, I don't own a display that doesn't. Nothing is perfectly uniform.
 
Unfortunately after using my iPhone 5 today I have noticed that it has a strong yellow screen. The iPhone 5 is pictured below on the left and the iPhone 4 is pictured on the right. I hope Apple fixes this major issue. Does anyone else suffer from the yellow screen issue?

yellowscreenip5_zps0c5a076e.jpg

yellow screen issue? it is not a issue at all, in fact the screen on the left looks better then the bluish screen on the right.

----------

This is not true. I have a 'yellow' iPad, and mine is very yellow, has lower brightness and lower contrast when I hold it side by side IN the Apple Store. It's not the different lighting, it's the screen!

All iPads/iPhones in the Apple Store are white and not yellow.

not true at all
 
Dropped by my local apple store tonight and compared my phone to all the display models. My iPhone 5 appears to be a little yellowish next to my old iPhone 4, but at the store, my iPhone 5 had the clearest whitest screen compared to all the display models. Every iPhone on display seemed to have an eggshell white color, mine just looked crisp white. I was kind of surprised/happy.
 
God, you really want to see the god awful colour shifts of the AMOLED devices that Samsung chucks out. If you think apple are bad for uniformity, check that utter **** out. Every Android phone I bought from Samsung had some terrible pink or yellow patches. The iphone 5 has without doubt the best overall colour consistency I have seen in a mobile device. Also I have a phone with a warmer tone and its really a lot easier on the eyes;) Warmer tones allow for more colour and vibrancy in my opinion;) The only thing I would take my phone back for is if the screen was not consistently one tone... But no screen in the world is perfectly uniform so it up to you what you deem unacceptable....
 
Last edited:
here is mine. brightness set at about 40% (just above the first 's' in brightness. what do others think? i've just compared it with another and mine actually seems pretty good :)

That looks yellow in the northeast quadrant and while there are screens that do not exhibit this quality, it is truly luck of the draw. Same boat I'm in.
 
So I could have sworn my replacement iphone 5 was much yellower than my first one (which may still be true), but I went to the store today and my replacement is still better than all the ones they have on display. Those units seem to have a red tint on the screen compared to mine, believe it or not.

Maybe I should have kept that original phone, because that one looked amazing. Dont' recall feeling that the screen was warm or anything.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.