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...it doesn't seem to be a widespread problem... If you have a legitimate gripe with your phone call Apple and get a replacement, it isn't that hard to figure out...

I couldn't agree more. Legitimate issues aside of course (which I am sure 1 in 10 or 20 are perhaps true issues.) The debate of 5 vs. 7 seems to grow daily, to include more than screen in some cases. I have even read posts correlating battery life to the LCD series.
 
Comparison pics

My wife's 7 on the left, my 5 on the right. I had a 7, but my battery crapped out and now I have a 5. I do not have the white dots, but, I would prefer the 7 if I had a choice. My wife offered to swap, but I noticed a little ding near her headphone outlet. Nice try wifey, lol.
 

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Some more

Again, 7 on the left, 5 on the right.
 

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My wife's 7 on the left, my 5 on the right. I had a 7, but my battery crapped out and now I have a 5. I do not have the white dots, but, I would prefer the 7 if I had a choice. My wife offered to swap, but I noticed a little ding near her headphone outlet. Nice try wifey, lol.

Thank you for posting the photos. After seeing the images, I am happy to say I got the 7.
 
NoSpleen (lol, that's funny to type) -

Thanks for posting these photo's. Prior to these, nothing I have seen really demonstrates the issue. Your side-by-side photo's are the best ones I've seen so far and demonstrate, at least to me, what people are seeing/posting.

Kudos.
 
NoSpleen (lol, that's funny to type) -

Thanks for posting these photo's. Prior to these, nothing I have seen really demonstrates the issue. Your side-by-side photo's are the best ones I've seen so far and demonstrate, at least to me, what people are seeing/posting.

Kudos.

I agree, when the 5 is on all the way brightness, it really washes the screen out. I usually do about 75% and it doesn't look bad. On some things the 7 is too dark and the 5 is the better screen. My personal opinion is the 5 is more accurate with what my mac displays as far as pictures, web, etc. But, I think the 7 has more pop and would be my preference.

Hopefully they will add slight display adjustments to the settings panel. I doubt it, but, if they added contrast, I think the 5 would be my display preference because they lack the polka dots.

If my wife hadn't dinged hers, I would swap in a second.
 
From those pics, I'd be really disappointed with the 5* screen. However, my 5* screen looks much more like the 7* screen in that pic, except a little bit brighter, and not at all washed out like 5* in the pic.

It's as though there are variations in both screens, likely from calibration (or lack thereof) differences. For the 7* screen, on the good end it looks good, and on the other end it has those white polka dots and the contrast is tuned too high. For the 5* screen, the good end looks good like my 5* screen, and on the bad end it's very washed out.
 
Have you tried taking pictures of the 7 and 5 series with the 5-Series on the left instead of the 7-Series on the left??

iPhones are darker when viewed from the right. The way you have them setup will slightly exaggerate their characteristics.
 
Have you tried taking pictures of the 7 and 5 series with the 5-Series on the left instead of the 7-Series on the left??

iPhones are darker when viewed from the right. The way you have them setup will slightly exaggerate their characteristics.

Good call, I swapped them. These more closely resemble the differences seen in real life, even though technically the 7 is now on the right and at a disadvantage. But, this is pretty damn close. Reality is, the true difference is somewhere in between the first set and this set.

You CAN see the difference in person, but, if you do not have the 7 next to it, you would never think twice of saying that the 5 is a great screen.

Okay, so 5 on the left, 7 on the right.
 

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Again, 7 on the left, 5 on the right.

Pictures are not a good comparison. I took pictures of a 5 and 7 side by side and of course the 5 looks washed out because of exposure settings.

In person I think the 5 looks a lot better as a whole.
 
5 and 7 comparison

I've done the comparison numerous times, the 5 is washed out, the 7 has pop. The 5 is probably more accurate, the 7 just looks better sitting NEXT to it. My girlfriend has the 5, I have the 7. They are both awesome! But yes, the 5 has less contrast, therefore less saturation. The 7 is also a little oversharpened, the 5 has a more natural softer 3D like appearance.
 
I will throw my 2cents in. I have a 5 screen If I move the screen from left to right in my field of vision, it looks darker/more contrast on the left side, if this holds true for others what would the results be if the 5 phone were on the left? I could duplicate the picture image for both the 5 and 7 screen depending on my viewing angle.


Again, 7 on the left, 5 on the right.
 
Nospleen - In my experience, the 2nd to last group of pics was the most accurate for me. One can tell the most on the Weather App and text and your pics are a good demo of that. The text in your pic is much harder to read. See how the text on the 5 is grey'd compared to the 7?

Surely in post #79, Macrumors is far easier to read that fine print.

I will note that on some forums I'm seeing people going by the first number of their SERIAL number to claim what series they have. Instead of doing the Field Test.
 
Well, as long as these threads keep going, I will add in my comment. I started out with a 7 series. I could not see the polka dots unless it was right in my face. I sent it in for repair(the glass shattered while it was in my pocket somehow, I think it was because of keys. Apple took care of it at no charge!) and they sent me a new 5 series. After using the 7 the colors on the 5 seem a little dull and a little washed out, and I think the text maybe isn't quite as sharp. I always have the contrast at about 50% with auto brightness on. Both still look great though and if I had not seen any of these threads I may not have even noticed. And considering they didn't have to get me a new one, I am certainly not going to complain.
 
Wirelessly posted (Apple Communication Device: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/1C25 Safari/419.3)

I'm glad I have the 7 series. I have to take mine in for repair. If they decide to give me a new one, am I more likely to get a 5 or a seven?
 
Just got a 5 to replace my old 7. The colors are definitely less saturated and the overall image is slightly washed out in comparison. The grid pattern is of course completely nonexistent. I wouldn't complain if I ended up with a 7 during the next replacement.

I officially don't care anymore.
 
Just got a 5 to replace my old 7. The colors are definitely less saturated and the overall image is slightly washed out in comparison. The grid pattern is of course completely nonexistent. I wouldn't complain if I ended up with a 7 during the next replacement.

I officially don't care anymore.

Heheh, same here. The build quality of my 7 is worse than the 5 I had, but I officially don't care about small details like that anymore.
 
I had a 7 that I got on launch day, which started displaying some dead screen issues, so in replacement I got a 5. At first I was just confused... menus definitely looked better on the 7 and I had grown accustomed to the darker look, but I'm starting to get used to the 5. Pictures actually look good on the 5, and I'm a big fan of the grid being less noticable. I think I can kind of see what people say about the build quality on the 5's, but I just chalked it up to being a later build. Color contrast is just ridiculous tho on the 5's, especially with blues.
 
I experienced the dead-bottom-of-touchscreen problem and was sent a replacement iPhone, so I'm on my second one, and I definitely noticed that the screen on the new one (a 7 series) seemed much brighter and crisper right out of the box than the old one had. So I don't know what type the old one was (hadn't heard of this discussion before it died), but I suspect it was a 5 based on my very strong feeling that this one was different.

Has any correlation been made between the faulty battery meter and/or dead touchscreen problems and screen series? My old one had both problems (screen died after 22 days, which seems about par) -- the new one, so far so good . . .
 
I have a "5 series" and I took it to a Mac retail store today, because, like the rest of you, I totally tweak out on these sorts of "imperfections". The phones that didn't have locked sims were all "7 series" and were all less "washed-out" than my "5". However, I wouldn't say that the blacks were darker or richer. In fact, my iPhone actually seemd to show a truer full screen black than a "7" I tested it against.

I showed the "washed-out" (very slightly, and not even necessarily negative) appearance of my iPhone to an employee, and he guessed that they wouldn't return it. I asked him if his phone looked like mine, and when we placed them side by side, they were identical. I punched the code into his phone, and low and behold, it was a "5".

On a side note, I couldn't see any white dots on any of the "7"s and I've never been able to see them on my phone either.
 
I was wondering, I like the look of the 7 screens and the current iphone I bought the screen is very nice but havnt checked it yet on whether its a 5 or 7. but it does have a few stuck pixels and im thinking about exchanging it but afraid it will be a 5 screen. I remember my cousins iphone I played with a month ago the screen didn't seem as vivid as the one I have at home maybe its the 5 that he has? also any of u have stuck pixels on your iphones on black color?
 
I just exchanged my 7 series Iphone because of 6+ stuck pixels and they did it for me right away. Now I received a 5 series screen and no stuck pixels I think there is like 2 on the side but cant even see it unless you look at it from the side and its like not really white but a neutral star color dont know how to explain either way you cant really see it at all. But I checked it and its a 5 series, I did notice the screen didnt have that pop but the screen is much brighter. In my opinion it looks better on the 5 screen. I dont think it looks washed out at all just the 7 screen had a darker look to it but the 5 screen is easier on the eyes, seems more vivid and cleaner and the colors all seem to be more accurate than the 7 screen. And i'm a happy iphone owner... now quietly waiting for uniquephones.com to release the software...
 
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