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iPhone 11 Pro Yellow display or not... just the facts.

T

thomasfxlt58

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 14, 2014
178
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Here’s some actual spectrophometry on the 10 Xs vs the 11 ProMax

The basics: all Auto brightness functions disabled. True Tone off. Night shift off. Both phones at peak brightness setting. Both phones connected to power source. I’m using a contact Spectro C6 made by xRite with custom calibration by Portrait Displays (the old Spectracal).

Xs. / 11 ProMax

Peak nits. 616 728. (Higher is brighter)
Color temp. 6618 6608 (A higher number is cooler color temp in degrees kelvin)

Turn on TrueTone (midday, average room light, cloudy sky)

5112. 5171

TrueTone off, Night shift on Max warm

2744. 2783

TrueTone off, Night shift on med

4153. 4211

Most differences between the 2 models would be considered inside of any perceptible difference. Most importantly with all the auto settings OFF, TrueTone and NightShift OFF.... the 11 ProMax is nearly identical in color temp (an imperceptible difference IMO).

These are both launch day phones. The consistency of these readings I would expect to be repeatable with a large sample of the same phone. Modern display panels don’t have the variance typically.
 
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Some people might just be used to TVs in “vivid” and with cold color temps and think proper color temperature is too warm 🤷‍♀️
 
thomasfxlt58 said:
Here’s some actual spectrophometry on the 10 Xs vs the 11 ProMax

The basics: all Auto brightness functions disabled. True Tone off. Night shift off. Both phones at peak brightness setting. Both phones connected to power source. I’m using a contact Spectro C6 made by xRite with custom calibration by Portrait Displays (the old Spectracal).

Xs. / 11 ProMax

Peak nits. 616 728. (Higher is brighter)
Color temp. 6618 6608 (A higher number is cooler color temp in degrees kelvin)

Most differences between the 2 models would be considered inside of any perceptible difference. Most importantly with all the auto settings OFF, TrueTone and NightShift OFF.... the 11 ProMax is actually slightly cooler in color temp (but imperceptible IMO).
Click to expand...

Based on your data, I think you mean to say the 11 Pro Max is slightly warmer, not cooler with everything off.
 
If you want your new iPhone to come close to the peak cool temp, disable TrueTone, turn on NightShift manually and set the color temp to “Less Warm”. Adjust your brightness either manually or using Auto Brightness in accessibility. Adjust your color temp to your liking for a set condition using Manual NightShift or set a time range of the entire day and you’ll have one minute per day when it’s disabled.... (middle of the nite).
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Nacho98 said:
Based on your data, I think you mean to say the 11 Pro Max is slightly warmer, not cooler with everything off.
Click to expand...

I edited that
 
Nacho98 said:
Based on your data, I think you mean to say the 11 Pro Max is slightly warmer, not cooler with everything off.
Click to expand...

As he said above, the differences before Night Shift is turned on are essentially imperceptible. Remember that any two displays will be slightly different even if they came off the same line at the same time. Those values are amazingly consistent. Kudos to the OP for the work.
 
newellj said:
As he said above, the differences before Night Shift is turned on are essentially imperceptible. Remember that any two displays will be slightly different even if they came off the same line at the same time. Those values are amazingly consistent. Kudos to the OP for the work.
Click to expand...

Right, they are basically the same. Nonetheless, he stated the 11 Pro was cooler when it was warmer, and edited to correct it. A small correction, but a correction nonetheless.

Agreed though, thanks for the datapoints, OP.
 
So how do we get to 1200 nits, and what does that look like?

700 nits is far from the 1200 mentioned at the keynote.
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BTY both my 11 Pro and XS displays are very cool, with True Tone off... When you set it up, it let's you decide.. I choose to keep True Tone on.
 
danilko1 said:
So how do we get to 1200 nits, and what does that look like?

700 nits is far from the 1200 mentioned at the keynote.
[automerge]1569085826[/automerge]
BTY both my 11 Pro and XS displays are very cool, with True Tone off... When you set it up, it let's you decide.. I choose to keep True Tone on.
Click to expand...

That may be a function of HDR or DolbyVision mastered video during playback of HDR movies. I have a way I could test for that.
 
danilko1 said:
So how do we get to 1200 nits, and what does that look like?

700 nits is far from the 1200 mentioned at the keynote.
[automerge]1569085826[/automerge]
BTY both my 11 Pro and XS displays are very cool, with True Tone off... When you set it up, it let's you decide.. I choose to keep True Tone on.
Click to expand...

The 1200 nits only comes in quick flashes while watching HDR video, so basically, it's pointless/never really going to happen.

I'm more curious when you will even get the 800.

On prior phones, the peak brightness was 650, but only capable of reaching that when auto brightness was on. Otherwise with auto brightness off, they were capped at 500.

I'm guessing the 800 is only available with auto brightness on, so I'm wondering what the true max brightness is with auto brightness off. Still 500? 550, maybe 600?

In reality, these phones probably have three brightness caps:

XXX nits with auto brightness off
800 nits with auto brightness on
1200 nits when viewing HDR videos

It's the XXX that I want to know, being someone who never uses auto brightness. Hopefully they moved it up from the 500 of the X/Xs.
 
Even with consumer HDR televisions you have to send the correct metadata to the display to get peak nit levels.
 
thomasfxlt58 said:
Here’s some actual spectrophometry on the 10 Xs vs the 11 ProMax

The basics: all Auto brightness functions disabled. True Tone off. Night shift off. Both phones at peak brightness setting. Both phones connected to power source. I’m using a contact Spectro C6 made by xRite with custom calibration by Portrait Displays (the old Spectracal).

Xs. / 11 ProMax

Peak nits. 616 728. (Higher is brighter)
Color temp. 6618 6608 (A higher number is cooler color temp in degrees kelvin)

Turn on TrueTone (midday, average room light, cloudy sky)

5112. 5171

TrueTone off, Night shift on Max warm

2744. 2783

TrueTone off, Night shift on med

4153. 4211

Most differences between the 2 models would be considered inside of any perceptible difference. Most importantly with all the auto settings OFF, TrueTone and NightShift OFF.... the 11 ProMax is nearly identical in color temp (an imperceptible difference IMO).

These are both launch day phones. The consistency of these readings I would expect to be repeatable with a large sample of the same phone. Modern display panels don’t have the variance typically.
Click to expand...

Here's my 11 Pro/XS
Full screen white nits: 610/575
Color temp(TrueTone off): 6500/6800

Both phones measured with Xrite Colormunki.
 
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Nacho98 said:
The 1200 nits only comes in quick flashes while watching HDR video, so basically, it's pointless/never really going to happen.

I'm more curious when you will even get the 800.

On prior phones, the peak brightness was 650, but only capable of reaching that when auto brightness was on. Otherwise with auto brightness off, they were capped at 500.

I'm guessing the 800 is only available with auto brightness on, so I'm wondering what the true max brightness is with auto brightness off. Still 500? 550, maybe 600?

In reality, these phones probably have three brightness caps:

XXX nits with auto brightness off
800 nits with auto brightness on
1200 nits when viewing HDR videos

It's the XXX that I want to know, being someone who never uses auto brightness. Hopefully they moved it up from the 500 of the X/Xs.
Click to expand...

I measured 728 with auto brightness OFF. That’s on the ProMax. Not sure what the Pro would read
 
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Just as an fyi, I can read higher Nit levels during playback of HDR/DolbyVision content. I’ve read some screen values in bright white frames above 900 nits. I think we have to trust Apple at this point regarding the 1200. I’d need to be able to send HDR metadata to the phone to prove it at the high end (or have a specific film and frame where peak exceeds 1200nits to read it. The majority of HDR is mastered at 1000 for peak output. Some at 4k and a few at 10k.

Something I’m confident of though is that this phone will not clip any white values of the majority of HDR mastered 4k films. We’re good beyond the 1000 nits standard.
 
Last edited:
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Also as an umbrella comment here. Apple has been at the forefront of color management and display profiling since the 1980’s. I’m pretty sure they know exactly what these displays do and have fair tolerances for their suppliers in terms of consistency. (this exercise was intended to validate ONE sample, mine, for peak white nits and color temp with all wizardry turned Off). I suppose lots of things could go wrong with other devices causing a “yellow” error that I don’t have.
 
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My mates new 11 pro max is nice and bright and white mines darker yellowish, I’ve had enough every year the same thing, it ruins the phone to me
 
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dan9700 said:
My mates new 11 pro max is nice and bright and white mines darker yellowish, I’ve had enough every year the same thing, it ruins the phone to me
Click to expand...

Just make sure TrueTone is OFF And NightShift is both unscheduled and not manually enabled. Turn auto-brightness OFF in accessibility. Pump your brightness to match your friends. If it’s still yellow then there’s an issue.
 
thomasfxlt58 said:
Here’s some actual spectrophometry on the 10 Xs vs the 11 ProMax

The basics: all Auto brightness functions disabled. True Tone off. Night shift off. Both phones at peak brightness setting. Both phones connected to power source. I’m using a contact Spectro C6 made by xRite with custom calibration by Portrait Displays (the old Spectracal).

Xs. / 11 ProMax

Peak nits. 616 728. (Higher is brighter)
Color temp. 6618 6608 (A higher number is cooler color temp in degrees kelvin)

Turn on TrueTone (midday, average room light, cloudy sky)

5112. 5171

TrueTone off, Night shift on Max warm

2744. 2783

TrueTone off, Night shift on med

4153. 4211

Most differences between the 2 models would be considered inside of any perceptible difference. Most importantly with all the auto settings OFF, TrueTone and NightShift OFF.... the 11 ProMax is nearly identical in color temp (an imperceptible difference IMO).

These are both launch day phones. The consistency of these readings I would expect to be repeatable with a large sample of the same phone. Modern display panels don’t have the variance typically.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately there IS massive variance, especially around launch time. The people complaining of yellow screens didnt get ones that are 6500k or 6600k. They are more like 5500 or 5000.

Your test proved that your specific phone is the same as your specific xs, and thats it.

Just FYI, ive dealt with 6500k warriors who swear the yellow screens is just accurate color calibration and people are wrong for 10 years now. Every year apple releases a ton of phones with inaccurate, NOT 6500k phones that people end up with. Some return and we should encourage that, so Apple cant get away with lax tolerances anymore.
 
Kre I bought 3 iPhones 11 pro max on launch day. I bought a 256gb for my partner and a 256 and 512gb for me. I didn’t know which one I wanted so I opened the 512 and told myself I’d keep it if the screen was good. I came from a XS max which had the best screen from day 1 but the X before that was a disaster and had to do swaps.

the 512 is cool but the top is of a diff shade to the boom. it’s like blue tint shift people have when they look at oled side ways. In this case top to bottom

my partners iPhone is green when compared to mine. On its own it’s very yellow. Usually she doesn’t bother but this time she was like ya it’s bad. So we opened the other 256gb and it’s close to perfect.

So now I can either give that 256 to her and she can return the other one or I can keep the 256 for myself haha

but the screens are not definitely not the same
 
kre62 said:
Unfortunately there IS massive variance, especially around launch time. The people complaining of yellow screens didnt get ones that are 6500k or 6600k. They are more like 5500 or 5000.

Your test proved that your specific phone is the same as your specific xs, and thats it.

Just FYI, ive dealt with 6500k warriors who swear the yellow screens is just accurate color calibration and people are wrong for 10 years now. Every year apple releases a ton of phones with inaccurate, NOT 6500k phones that people end up with. Some return and we should encourage that, so Apple cant get away with lax tolerances anymore.
Click to expand...
👍 I’m a lucky guy.
[automerge]1569108031[/automerge]
 
garethjs said:
Kre I bought 3 iPhones 11 pro max on launch day. I bought a 256gb for my partner and a 256 and 512gb for me. I didn’t know which one I wanted so I opened the 512 and told myself I’d keep it if the screen was good. I came from a XS max which had the best screen from day 1 but the X before that was a disaster and had to do swaps.

the 512 is cool but the top is of a diff shade to the boom. it’s like blue tint shift people have when they look at oled side ways. In this case top to bottom

my partners iPhone is green when compared to mine. On its own it’s very yellow. Usually she doesn’t bother but this time she was like ya it’s bad. So we opened the other 256gb and it’s close to perfect.

So now I can either give that 256 to her and she can return the other one or I can keep the 256 for myself haha

but the screens are not definitely not the same
Click to expand...

Another example of lax Apple QC. Unfortunately they will keep getting away with it as long as people do nothing. Glad you are holding them accountable.
 
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