Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iPhone Contrast Difference

R

ryan.go.habs

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 14, 2007
175
0
My original iPhone 3G needed replacing so I got a replacement but as soon as I turned it on and I noticed it was very light. The colors were not deep and as nice as my original 3G. I took pictures so you could take a look, what should I do?

Edit: New one on the right if you couldnt figure it out ;)
 

Attachments

  • 100_1058.JPG
    100_1058.JPG
    944.5 KB · Views: 482
  • 100_1059.JPG
    100_1059.JPG
    938.2 KB · Views: 306
  • 100_1061.JPG
    100_1061.JPG
    324.8 KB · Views: 164
  • 100_1063.JPG
    100_1063.JPG
    657.7 KB · Views: 205
I see. I just meant the iPhone on the left looks better.

Did they send the iPhone out and you have to send your old one in? I thought you could only do that at a genius bar.
 
nickspohn said:
I see. I just meant the iPhone on the left looks better.

Did they send the iPhone out and you have to send your old one in? I thought you could only do that at a genius bar.
Click to expand...

I called Rogers and they sent me a new one, and I have to return the old one if 15 days.
 
Same thing here i got a new replacement from apple in the mail and the colors arent the same , blacks arent as deep also. Im torn between the two screens now
 
Why would that matter? The old one is already packed up and on its way back to iPhone heaven.
 
I compared mine to the Apple in store display models recently and all the ones I looked at were much contrastier and nicer. :/
 
i also saw one like your new one... it was a 16 gb black serial 83829

the screen looked different... black was really more whiteish..more luminous... i cant' explain.. good colors but very weak contrast...

maybe a different screen manufacturer?
 
hmm i take it me and the OP are the only ones to notice the difference or we got the only 2 iPhones ever made with a different contrast setting
 
Most of the people only recognize the yellow screen issue. The contrast issue is quite a bit harder to notice. But I have made some observations about this issue.

I had 2 white iPhones here for a few days and they had totally different screens. One had a yellow/green tint but strong blacks and overall great contrast, making it look quite brilliant. The other one had nicer, more blueish white, which I prefer, but it had very weak contrast. All the black areas looked greyish, so the overall screen experience was rather washed out.

So I first thought that there is 2 kinds of screens, the ones with better white but bad contrast and the yellow ones with good contrast. But that was wrong, I went into 5 different tmobile shops (they sell the iphone here in germany) and took a close look at their test devices. Of course I disabled auto brightness and cranked up the brightness on all of them. I found 4 different types of display using this method of comparison.

of course the 2 I described above:

- Yellow with good contrast
- White with bad contrast

and 2 more at the tmobile shops:

- Yellow with bad contrast
- White with good contrast (which was definatly the best screen I have ever seen)


Now the question is, how would I rank those different screen types. In my opinion it would look like this:

1. White with good contrast
2. Yellow with good contrast
3. White with bad contrast
4. Yelllow with bad contrast


Of course it is hard to tell if there is only 4 or even more different screen types floating around. Maybe there also some unseen minor differences in those models I described.

Sadly I only own a #2 ranked iPhone, but since it has 0 other problems I will most likely keep it. The chance to get one with a worse display are very high.
 
Hey all.
I have the EXACT, same problem.
I got my iphone 3g 8 gig on launch day and the screen is beautiful.
Too bad the ear speaker is dead. No amount of plugging and replugging in the headphones would fix it.
So I first spoke with the Apple store techs and they said they would replace it. But they were out of stock for days and had no idea when more would come in.
Rogers send me a replacement which I received in three days,
(Wow, Rogers good for once;))
The first thing that I noticed was the crappy washed out screen. The blacks are like a darkish gray, the colours paler. It's noticeable and irritating.
So the replacement one I ordered finally came in at the Apple store so I go to check it out to see if hopefully I get one with the first release screen type.
No, it's the crappy screen again. I showed it to the tech, manager, and even the head tech. No one there has no idea what to do, AND they all noticed the colour and depth difference. First they give me the run around telling me that I have to go home and try and update it with the older firmware.
Good, so go ahead and set it up. Better yet tell me where I can go and get this older itunes package so I can do it my self.
Nope, on both counts.
All their computers have been updated to the newer itunes and he can't find this older itunes dl he was talking about.
I told him that it has nothing to do with the firmware and it's a screen and\or gamma issue.
Is there anything to adjust the gamma at least? Contrast?
Well the manager finally told me that I just had to eat it or they could try and get another replacement phone ordered.
Look, I don't have the time or the gas to waste on playing around with this.
This is my first Apple product purchase and it's not going well.
Sorry for ranting a bit but I just had to get this off my chest.

Man, I thought I was the only one.

This is unacceptable. Why do I have to settle for an inferior screen?

Is there anyone representing Apple that has any more info on this?
 
ShiroDX said:
This is unacceptable. Why do I have to settle for an inferior screen?

Is there anyone representing Apple that has any more info on this?
Click to expand...

I feel your pain. My 1st 3G had a dingy yellow screen. My 2nd had a washed out screen like yours. Those were exchanged for other issues. The 3rd one has a warmish screen, but not totally yellow, and not washed out. However, it still doesn't look anything like EVERY iPhone on display at all 3 Apple stores in NYC. Those screens are neutral and contrasty with no warm cast and deep blacks.

Obviously, the Apple store demos are a specially made batch. And this was of course denied up and down by a Genius.

My best advice to you is just hold onto the phone if there are no other issues. By exchanging again, you take a serious chance that the replacement, if it doesn't have a color issue, could have some other issue...cracks, dust, light leaks, etc. If you got a dingy yellow screen version, you would kick yourself for trading for it.
 
I was comparing my iPhone with my friends today and I noticed mine had a more washed out screen compared to hers. With closer inspection hers also seemed to have a slightly warm tint giving some greys a bit of a brown tint, but the photos look much better than on my screen which looks more washed out with less contrast. Her phone is a week 27 mine is week 32. I'm not sure how the screen is supposed to look, more like mine with no tint but less contrast or like hers with more contrast unit a warm tint. Not sure whether I should exchange it, which was initial response upon looking at the 2 screens. now I don't know.
 
So I've had 4 3G models so far:

1st Model: Great screen but had connectivity (voice+data) issues
2nd: Good contrast but had dust and a dead pixel but fully functional
3rd: Yellow Screen + dust + dead pixel + low speaker volume
4th: Good Voice Quality but I think that the screen is slightly washed out.

The 4th model appeared to be fully functional until I updated to 2.02 software. Now the 3G data reliability is horrible (had this same problem with 1st phone). I can have 4-5 bars but it still will take minutes to load web sites that load much faster in edge. I'm tired to swapping these things out so I'm going to live with washed screen and 3G data issue until the 2.1 SW comes out and hopefully it will fix the connectivity issue.

They really need to add a contrast setting to the display options!
 
anyone else still have this problem? , i was hoping the update would fix it but nope
 
I have two iPhones in the house and they are definitely different, even after the 2.1 upgrade. One of them has a beautiful screen with deep blacks and the icons jump off the screen like they are floating in air. The other (mine) has the washed out look which I can't stand. If I didn't have one of the good screens in the beginning I probably wouldn't know the difference but now it bugs me.

I'm still not going to take it back and risk getting something worse. I've had too much bad luck with iPhone exchanges.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back