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Other This years screen lottery (17, 17 pro, 17 pro max and air)

I didn't expect my return today to be so convoluted and difficult.

At first, I was asking about a simple device swap, to which they reminded me that they couldn't guarantee anyway that I'd get a better panel. So I said "Alright, I'll just order one by mail then, those won't be shipped until late October anyway and return this one." They emphasized again that I wouldn't be guaranteed a better panel, and told me to just "get used to it" instead, while refusing to take the return. After wrestling their "Specialists" for close to two hours, I finally got my return and my mail order in. Let's hope that the Q4 batch is any better.
 
Evodo said:
Got a 17 pro 10 days ago thought the screen was great until I stumbled on this forum a week ago 😊. So I checked my panel (G9N) and can now see a slight pink the bottom half of the screen. It bothers me when I focus on it, but when I use the phone normally I don’t see it. I think the screen is within normal limits, so I’m trying to relax and just keep it. It seems like perfect screens don’t exist. And like others have said, I could get a worse one on an exchange.
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Aaaand another pink tinted Samsung panel.

But if you can live with it, that’s what truly matters.

I can tolerate my blue (it’s more blueish than greenish) shifting GVC panel when the screen is tilted, but I couldn’t possibly be content with an uneven or tinted screen when viewed directly.

Different strokes for different folks I guess.
 
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thatJohann said:
I told him, but he's a Pro Max guy. All the store 17 PM models had bad screens too so he figured the odds of the Pro Max lottery are the lowest out of all the models, so he's going to hold off for now.
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He’ll be holding off for a loooong time then.
 
Mick_ag said:
Aaaand another pink tinted Samsung panel.

But if you can live with it, that’s what truly matters.

I can tolerate my blue (it’s more blueish than greenish) shifting GVC panel when the screen is tilted, but I couldn’t possibly be content with an uneven or tinted screen when viewed directly.

Different strokes for different folks I guess.
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Are you sure the bottom inch of your LG panel isn’t brighter than the rest of the display when looking head on? When you turn on night shift you don’t see any pink tint on your phone? Might be worth checking because every LG panel I’ve checked has these exact issues.
 
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SumYoungGai said:
Are you sure the bottom inch of your LG panel isn’t brighter than the rest of the display when looking head on? When you turn on night shift you don’t see any pink tint on your phone? Might be worth checking because every LG panel I’ve checked has these exact issues.
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100% sure. As a matter of fact, there are many GVC owners here delighted with the perfect uniformity of their screens.
 
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The bottom of my G9N panel is a bit brighter at the bottom. Only noticeable when looking at an all white picture. 🤷
 
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Just picked up a Sage 17 256gb from Apple Carnegie Library and it has a G9Q screen
 
I’ve been thinking about the common forum assumption that certain panel serial prefixes, like G9N for Samsung and GVC/GH3 for LG, directly indicate the OEM.

We know that BOE has supplied OLED panels for iPhones (e.g., iPhone 13/14 and approved for iPhone 16 models). Yet, if these prefixes truly identified the manufacturer, why hasn’t anyone reported seeing a BOE panel with a unique prefix? Almost every user reporting serials still sees G9N, G9P, GVC, GH3, etc.

This suggests a more plausible explanation: Apple assigns these codes at the module level, not per OEM panel. In other words, the serial prefix likely refers to the entire display module, including the panel, touch IC, backplate, and calibration/firmware, rather than the panel manufacturer alone.

If this is correct, then:
  1. The same prefix could be applied to modules from Samsung, LG, or BOE, depending on the lot or calibration Apple assigns.
  2. Inferring the manufacturer based solely on the three-character serial prefix is not reliable.
  3. The observed “correlation” with Samsung or LG might simply reflect early or majority suppliers, not a universal rule.
 
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NotApplicable said:
They have, multiple in this very thread. It was something like J5V

Post in thread 'This years screen lottery (17, 17 pro, 17 pro max and air)'
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-pro-17-pro-max-and-air.2466900/post-34203462

And these serials come from the “raw panel serial” fields which is pretty explicit
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1760063248514.gif
 
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Mick_ag said:
100% sure. As a matter of fact, there are many GVC owners here delighted with the perfect uniformity of their screens.
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I’m one of those owners I had a G9N panel that had a pink hue on the bottom of the screen that I could see head on, went to the Apple Store returned it and got another one. This one is GVC has good uniformity, only has a slight tint that you can see when you tilt the phone towards you but it’s very subtleand I’ll take that any day over something that you can see constantly when directly looking at your phone head on.
 
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But things still don’t add up neatly.

There have been fewer reports of J5V screens than I would have expected from the supposed BOE share of the 17 pie.

And my 13 mini confuses me: raw-panel-serial-number reports GVC but has outright better off-axis performance than ALL the iPhones I checked in an Apple Store a few days ago. There is less brightness reduction off-axis, in any direction, than any of the modern phones, and there is MUCH less colour shift than the screens that go green (supposedly LG) and a bit less than the ones that go magenta (Samsung).
 
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There is no such thing as “head-on” or “directly” viewing a screen.

If the screen was at infinity that would be possible.

At finite distances, and especially at close distances, the viewing angle varies from top to bottom of the display.

The closer the viewing distance – and some people hold their iPhone much closer to their face than others – the greater the variation in angle of view.
 
Moreplease said:
There is no such thing as “head-on” or “directly” viewing a screen.

If the screen was at infinity that would be possible.

At finite distances, and especially at close distances, the viewing angle varies from top to bottom of the display.

The closer the viewing distance – and some people hold their iPhone much closer to their face than others – the greater the variation in angle of view.
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Is it that hard to assume that when people say "head-on" or "directly", it simply means the variation that people experience when viewing at short distance???
 
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lynxlok94 said:
Is it that hard to assume that when people say "head-on" or "directly", it simply means the variation that people experience when viewing at short distance???
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The problem is as I explained: people view their phone at very different distances. And not a single person in this thread has said at which distance they were viewing it “head-on”.

Six inches produces a huge viewing angle variation across the display. 24 inches produces little. In between varies accordingly.
 
Moreplease said:
The problem is as I explained: people view their phone at very different distances. And not a single person in this thread has said at which distance they were viewing it “head-on”.

Six inches produces a huge viewing angle variation across the display. 24 inches produces little. In between varies accordingly.
Click to expand...
Different people have different preferences and habits with using their phone in their hand. What does it matter if each user is satisfied with the display when it is being used per their usual posture??

Is there a point to tell users to try viewing the phone at an angle measured at 79.93° from eye level while maintaining 7.63 inches away from the center of each eye pupil, without shifting their head while moving their pupils from top of the screen above the dynamic island, and move your eyes slowly downwards at a speed of 1mm/s to discern variation, when they think the display is just fine when used in a manner that they are comfortable with?
 
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lynxlok94 said:
Is there a point to tell users to try viewing the phone at an angle measured at 79.93° from eye level while maintaining 7.63 inches away from the center of each eye pupil, without shifting their head while moving their pupils from top of the screen above the dynamic island, and move your eyes slowly downwards at a speed of 1mm/s to discern variation, when they think the display is just fine when used in a manner that they are comfortable with?
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Yes: the point of giving some context is to make one’s observations of any value to someone else. Precisely because we don’t all use our phones identically.
 
All this is very very worrying. What's gone wrong with Apple's QA? All these phones are expensive.

Do people here think Apple will fix this? I'm planning to buy a 17ProMax as a Christmas present for my wife (currently has a 14ProMax), but am now having second thoughts. Obviously I would give her the sealed box so would have no idea whether I'm giving her a crap-display phone!
 
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rvnx said:
I didn't expect my return today to be so convoluted and difficult.

At first, I was asking about a simple device swap, to which they reminded me that they couldn't guarantee anyway that I'd get a better panel. So I said "Alright, I'll just order one by mail then, those won't be shipped until late October anyway and return this one." They emphasized again that I wouldn't be guaranteed a better panel, and told me to just "get used to it" instead, while refusing to take the return. After wrestling their "Specialists" for close to two hours, I finally got my return and my mail order in. Let's hope that the Q4 batch is any better.
Click to expand...
So much for a no questions asked return policy.
 
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