White iPhone 4 Delays Due to Light Leakage Affecting Camera Performance?

[MacRumors]

With Apple's announcement yesterday that it has once again pushed back the launch of the white iPhone 4, this time to next spring, speculation about the reasons for the ongoing delays has continued to run rampant. Previous reports had claimed that either color consistency issues or problems with the device's backlight leaking out around and/or through the white body of the device were responsible for the delay.

Cult of Mac now reports, however, that the problem is actually light leaking into the iPhone and affecting the performance of the device's camera.

The white iPhone 4 can't take accurate photographs. The handset's semi-translucent glass case leaks light in, ruining pictures taken with the internal camera, especially when the built-in flash is used.

"You don't get accurate pictures on the white iPhone because of the color of the glass back. It washes out the pictures," said a source with connections to Apple who asked to remain anonymous.

The source said Apple has been struggling to isolate the camera sensor. The problem may demand a complete redesign, they said, hence the string of delays.

According to the report, the issue was only discovered at the last minute at a testing facility Apple had set up for case manufacturers to ensure the compatibility of their products with the new device.

Article Link: White iPhone 4 Delays Due to Light Leakage Affecting Camera Performance?

 

[hamlin]

White phones are ugly

 

[Satori]

Surely they tested this with the prototypes?

 

[thevofl]

Now all this makes sense.

 

[jplevine]

Hard to imagine why they would release a white iPhone 4 in the spring when presumably the iPhone 5 would be out a matter of weeks later.

 

[GroundLoop]

How difficult is it to put an opaque film on the interior side of the white plastic casing? They can keep their "iPod white" and the light no linger leaks into the phone.

I am sure there are opaque films that would not affect radio/wifi/etc transmission.

GL

 

[Carlanga]

.....According to the report, the issue was only discovered at the last minute at a testing facility Apple had set up for case manufacturers to ensure the compatibility of their products with the new device....?[/url]

This is what worries me about product testing lately... there seems to be none...

 

[arnop]

I've been waiting for one since the announcement and I'm disappointed by Apple for failing to release it on time...

 

[Blu101]

At least they caught the problem before thousands got their hands on one...

 

[Small White Car]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

This theory makes the most sense yet. How many white cameras have you seen from other companies?

The Flip video camera? Right? That thing uses pretty thick plastic. You know, just like the iPhone 3G did.

 

[Pingwhen?]

i have a white back on my phone and i have seen 0 difference in pictures that i have taken. now i have not taken any real flash pictures because they still kinda suck, but i have had no problems with direct sunlight at the beach, or anywhere else that is super bright.

 

[Caliber26]

Hard to imagine why they would release a white iPhone 4 in the spring when presumably the iPhone 5 would be out a matter of weeks later.

Well, keep in mind that even if iP5 comes out in June, chances are they will still offer the previous generation at a lower storage/price. The 3G and 3GS were sold as the entry-level models with black being the only option. Maybe this time around they'll have plenty of white ones to offer as the previous-gen model. Also, the current design of the phone could be retained for the next generation, as was the case between the 3G and 3GS. To a vast majority of people this will be unimportant.

Besides, the average consumer just sees it as a 'new' iPhone simply because it's a new color they hadn't seen before. Those of us who religiously follow product cycles and release dates and are savvy enough to know when to buy, are relatively a low percentage from the overall number of iPhone buyers.

 

[allmIne]

I wonder if they'll just scrap it altogether at some point.

 

[swedefish]

Clearly Apple is looking to buy Sony so they can get their hands on Sony's elusive "glossy white technology".

 

[Jeremy1026]

i have a white back on my phone and i have seen 0 difference in pictures that i have taken. now i have not taken any real flash pictures because they still kinda suck, but i have had no problems with direct sunlight at the beach, or anywhere else that is super bright.

Apparently imitation knock offs are better then the real thing.

 

[iSamurai]

I've bought one of those eBay "leftover" white backs and here's what it looks like:

When I compared with my mate's unmodified iPhone the blueish/pink (seen on the paper shot) seems less pronounced. I'm not too sure if that's actually the problem but in natural light it looks ok to me.

Edit: you can see my white iPhone back's reflection in the 1st pic... and the 2nd pic is unaltered, lighting conditions is under fluorescent lighting from ceiling.

 

[TimTheEnchanter]

So my understanding is the "translucency" of the white is the problem.

Solution: Apply 2 applications of white so it's opaque and leave pinhole knockouts in second white application where the sensors are.

 

[SethBoy]

Yet another problem that a case would have "solved".... Except the no-back-protection bumper wouldn't have sufficed.

 

[mrboult]

This seems beyond ridiculous. Surely a second coat of black could be applied after the white to ensure light doesn't get through.

If they release it in the spring it will only be a few months ahead of new iPhones. So will anyone actually buy it?

Do you think we will see a design change next year considering all the antenna complaints?

Is anyone still holding out for the white iPhone? That must have been a whole lot of disappointment over and over since the ip4 release.

Whoops: stupidly posted before reading that most of my points have already been made.

 

[halhiker]

Quality control

I'm glad Apple's quality control isn't letting this out until it's right. If you can't have a properly working product, it's better to have none at all.

Too bad they didn't realize that before they put out the iPhone Bluetooth headset a few years ago.

 

[cere]

Good thing they caught it before launch. Otherwise it would have required them to have another App. The White iPhone 4 Case App would have been needed to allow customers to order their free back covering case. I guess most of the same cases from Antenna-gate would have been available...except the Apple Bumper.

 

[Nuvi]

Honestly I don't get this. Why can't they just have matte black paint on the reverse side? Surely it can't be that difficult...

 

[69650]

Now all this makes sense.

Agreed. Makes more sense than that BS about not being able to get the right colour white.

 

[3goldens]

makes sense.

they should stop wasting time on this, scrap it and figure out how to put a lit keyboard in the MBA!

 

[macridah]

what if the white iPhones will be available for Verizon since a redesign may be required ...