Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPhone 11 Pro Any yellow tint on iPhone 11 Pro Max?
- Thread starter praxis219
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
EDIT
just came back from the apple store. I compared 4 different iPhone 11 Pro Max to mine. They were all brighter and crisp white like they supposed to be compared to mine.
i walked over to the genuis bar cause i had a reservation.
Long story short, Girl pulls her XS Max out and right away “okay whoaa its definitely not as bright“ and tells me they dont have any in stock or any parts available to fix which obviously i wont do. Why fix a brand new phone. So she advises me to go to my carrier which i did right after.
In my case i get to Verizon, right away puts in my order to get mine replaced. But wont get to me till Oct 9 or so. And just gotta send mine back once i receive it.
Hopefully its a good unit and not the same dim display. If its the same, im done and just gonna keep it like that.
just came back from the apple store. I compared 4 different iPhone 11 Pro Max to mine. They were all brighter and crisp white like they supposed to be compared to mine.
i walked over to the genuis bar cause i had a reservation.
Long story short, Girl pulls her XS Max out and right away “okay whoaa its definitely not as bright“ and tells me they dont have any in stock or any parts available to fix which obviously i wont do. Why fix a brand new phone. So she advises me to go to my carrier which i did right after.
In my case i get to Verizon, right away puts in my order to get mine replaced. But wont get to me till Oct 9 or so. And just gotta send mine back once i receive it.
Hopefully its a good unit and not the same dim display. If its the same, im done and just gonna keep it like that.
As sad as it is you’re “lucky” the carrier agreed to do a swap. Normally it’d be a loop of eating a restocking fee or taking it to Genius Bar
Got back from the Apple store today. They accepted my request for a swap, however the new phone they took out of the box looked even worse. The employee said it was their last of that model, and that I'd have to wait for them to get a new shipment in if I wanted to try swapping again.
The comparison is pointless and invalid if auto brightness was on on both, regardless of what the brightness slider showed.
To compare displays, you need to control ALL the variables, and this is done by turning off auto brightness and TrueTone. Additionally, you need to turn the brightness slider all the way up - I see too many people claiming they set two phones to 40% brightness when you can't really know they are the same by eyeballing the slider somewhere at the 40% level.
Only way to properly do a comparison:
-Auto brightness off
-TrueTone off
-NightShift off
-Reduce White Point Off
-Set phones to max brightness
Max brightness can work to compare the same two models, however this should not be used if comparing two different models. Brightness differences will trick your eyes into preferring whichever is brighter. While constantly tweaking the slider is tedious, it's worth taking the time to match two differing displays by hand so all you're seeing is color difference. On my faulty 11 Pro whether it's brighter or dimmer than another I can still make out the color shift.
These screen threads are very subjective and they always show up year after year. Everyone can potentially have a different perception of what a yellow screen is which is why I think these threads are pointless. Even if there are pictures, whatever your device these pics are being viewed on color might be off and alter what the persons phone actually looks like anyway. That said, I have owned every IPhone since they came out. I was one who used to play the game of returning phone after phone in hopes to find that perfect device. In reality, there is no such thing as "perfect" when talking about a mass produced product. One person might think its perfect and the same phone someone might find multiple things wrong with it. The key is don't go out of your way to find imperfections you will just make yourself nuts. As I mentioned I used to always play the lottery and found myself at times returning a phone that was better overall than the replacement and was kicking myself. At that point, you begin obsessing over finding one that was better than the last which can take who knows how long. Find an acceptable one (not a perfect one) and just enjoy the phone! Apples screens over the past few years (especially concerning OLED) tend to be on the warm side. I am not disagreeing the color temp is warmer, but do not think its looks bad by any means or at least the ones I have owned. Me personally I would rather have a warmer display which are generally more color accurate than an over saturated blue screen. My 11 Pro Max is actually cooler temp wise than my XS Max and the brightness very noticeable. I just think this is how its always going to be going forward unless Apple totally changes the screens they use and calibration methods or you jump back to an LCD model which tend to have their own short comings.
Got a replacement at 5th ave Apple store, just as yellow, maybe even worse. I noticed the demo units were all like this there, so who knows, maybe this is normal.
Thing is, the phones rarely get cooler in subsequent years like yours did this year. You're very lucky. Last time I had a screen get cooler was when I went from a 5 to a 6. The 6 was SO nice. Since then, nothing but sliding yellower and yellower and yellower.
The reality is, most people who complained about their screens being too yellow last year, are seeing - yet again - even further warming this year, so they have a right to be getting tired of it at this point. It's every single year for the last 4-5 years.
When has the warming gone too far, to where the screen is just flat out yellow and beyond the point where people can claim color accurate? They were supposed to be the world's greatest displays last year, so if they are yellower this year, then both last year's and this year's phones can't be considered color accurate. At least one model is not.
All this talk about display calibration has pushed me over the edge to finally pick up an i1 Basic Pro 3. As a professional photographer I've wanted one for a while to have a fully managed color workflow.
Colorimiter probes on the market (Spyder, i1 Display Pro, etc.) have limited accuracy because they're simple tristimulus devices (like a camera) however a spectrophotometer measures the full spectrum of wavelengths from an emissive device.
What we're seeing on these phones might not just be down to white balance, but could also have to do with coatings, polarization, shifted primary wavelengths, and other weird non-linearities causing metamerism. A lot of colorimiters on the market can not measure wide gamut displays properly (which all recent iPhones are) without a calibration profile for the probe itself matching the type of display you're probing, which of course don't exist for a smartphone OLED screen.
Will post data once I get my hands on a spectrophotometer
Colorimiter probes on the market (Spyder, i1 Display Pro, etc.) have limited accuracy because they're simple tristimulus devices (like a camera) however a spectrophotometer measures the full spectrum of wavelengths from an emissive device.
What we're seeing on these phones might not just be down to white balance, but could also have to do with coatings, polarization, shifted primary wavelengths, and other weird non-linearities causing metamerism. A lot of colorimiters on the market can not measure wide gamut displays properly (which all recent iPhones are) without a calibration profile for the probe itself matching the type of display you're probing, which of course don't exist for a smartphone OLED screen.
Will post data once I get my hands on a spectrophotometer
Last edited:
All this talk about display calibration has pushed me over the edge to finally pick up an i1 Basic Pro 3. As a professional photographer I've wanted one for a while to have a fully managed color workflow.
Colorimiter probes on the market (Spyder, i1 Display Pro, etc.) have limited accuracy because they're simple tristimulus devices (like a camera) however a spectrophotometer measures the full spectrum of wavelengths from an emissive device.
What we're seeing on these phones might not just be down to white balance, but could also have to do with coatings, polarization, shifted primary wavelengths, and other weird non-linearities causing metamerism. A lot of colorimiters on the market can not measure wide gamut displays properly (which all recent iPhones are) without a calibration profile for the probe itself matching the type of display you're probing, which of course don't exist for a smartphone OLED screen.
Will post data once I get my hands on a spectrophotometer
Be sure to test a wide variety of samples. Remember the point is that there is variance and not all pros are the same.
Fantastic. Do you happen to have any other apple devices? I would love to find out what they measure at as well. I always hear/read how 'accurate' my ipad pro, macbook pro, XS Max and now 11 pro are but they're all different in respect to white point.All this talk about display calibration has pushed me over the edge to finally pick up an i1 Basic Pro 3. As a professional photographer I've wanted one for a while to have a fully managed color workflow.
Colorimiter probes on the market (Spyder, i1 Display Pro, etc.) have limited accuracy because they're simple tristimulus devices (like a camera) however a spectrophotometer measures the full spectrum of wavelengths from an emissive device.
What we're seeing on these phones might not just be down to white balance, but could also have to do with coatings, polarization, shifted primary wavelengths, and other weird non-linearities causing metamerism. A lot of colorimiters on the market can not measure wide gamut displays properly (which all recent iPhones are) without a calibration profile for the probe itself matching the type of display you're probing, which of course don't exist for a smartphone OLED screen.
Will post data once I get my hands on a spectrophotometer
I don't understand how it is possible that apples gives 0 statement about this.
Everybody notice that the A LOT of the screens are much warmer than normal and that there is a problem???
Everybody notice that the A LOT of the screens are much warmer than normal and that there is a problem???
Well it’s not in their interest to, is it.
I’m sure their engineers know exactly how the samples coming off the production line perform, and consider, say, +/- 10% variation within tolerance.
The simple fact is most customers really don’t care, and what they don’t see won’t hurt them.
The precise degree of variation would be top secret information and under no circumstances allowed to reach the public.
Anyway, I’ve returned my 11 Pro today, as I decided I read far more on my iPhone than take photos. The suboptimal black text on white background experience was annoying the hell out of me.
I will take kre’s advice to wait if/when they’ve settled down before buying another.
I’m sure their engineers know exactly how the samples coming off the production line perform, and consider, say, +/- 10% variation within tolerance.
The simple fact is most customers really don’t care, and what they don’t see won’t hurt them.
The precise degree of variation would be top secret information and under no circumstances allowed to reach the public.
Anyway, I’ve returned my 11 Pro today, as I decided I read far more on my iPhone than take photos. The suboptimal black text on white background experience was annoying the hell out of me.
I will take kre’s advice to wait if/when they’ve settled down before buying another.
Last edited:
I understand but it's incredible how "innocent" they talk to you (and me) and say that they never heard about such a problem etc....
Sad but true reality is Apple likes employees who are sheep mostly and don't know a lot of technical bits as to keep them in the stream of whatever Apple says is true or shield them from things like this. They are a very compartmentalized organization with their finger on the pulse of public image and issue containment.
That being said, there are some who they employ who are knowledgable, but those are far and few in between. It's a Numbers Game, Tim Apple is a numbers guy. When I went in and the store told me in replacing my phone they would refuse to return the replacement if their management couldn't see anything wrong is an indication of the measures they will go. And I'm sorry, is this my money or Apple's money buying the product. End result was they lost a sale, I've communicated this experience and that probably leads to others having opinions about them as a result too. This group is a minority on here, but we are due what they promise.
Don't get Phil up on stage touting how much better the screens are and then ship us some half baked panel that our old phone looks better than. I'm not meaning screen temp, but simply panel uniformity, debris under the glass, scratches, and other defects. Apple should hear about our frustrations and that's the ONLY way is if enough of us keep being vocal to them. Look how long it took for a bigger battery?
Please write to Apple via this web page: https://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html. Perhaps they will provide us with a Cool to Warm slider to adjust the white balance in a future iOS release.
In my experience, I find the properties of these OLED displays change with time.
When I got my XS Max last year, I found it a lot warmer than the 8 Plus it replaced. Noticeably warmer in daily use and really noticeable when placed side by side with the 8 Plus. True Tone was off on the XS Max and on on the 8 Plus.
Fast forward a year and my XS Max isn’t anywhere near as warm as it was at the beginning. Even when placed side by side with the same 8 Plus, its only slightly warmer and this is with True Tone on on the 8 Plus and XS Max.
The only thing that didn’t change is my XS Max is brighter at the bottom than the rest of the screen and this hasn’t changed over time.
When I got my XS Max last year, I found it a lot warmer than the 8 Plus it replaced. Noticeably warmer in daily use and really noticeable when placed side by side with the 8 Plus. True Tone was off on the XS Max and on on the 8 Plus.
Fast forward a year and my XS Max isn’t anywhere near as warm as it was at the beginning. Even when placed side by side with the same 8 Plus, its only slightly warmer and this is with True Tone on on the 8 Plus and XS Max.
The only thing that didn’t change is my XS Max is brighter at the bottom than the rest of the screen and this hasn’t changed over time.
So you think that this will maybe change with time? The screen will get brighter?
OLEDs do NOT get brighter in time. They are an emissive technology and that is not possible. Day one they are as bright as they will get. Display evenness or image retention fade are things that can adjust as the pixels age or wear. The same things are discussed on forums for OLED televisions. They have similar issues and limitations as we see here and is how I judge or go by what I see on my phone and deem it to be acceptable or not.
OLED torture tests are at low power/brightness on gray slides. This is how you can really see the defects or not on the panel. And 100% bright.
OLED torture tests are at low power/brightness on gray slides. This is how you can really see the defects or not on the panel. And 100% bright.
OLED torture tests are at low power/brightness on gray slides. This is how you can really see the defects or not on the panel. And 100% bright.
[/QUOTE]
Agreed. At full brightness I can hardly notice yellow tint. Anything below ~50% it gets worse and worse. Especially evident in greys (ie settings menu etc)
[/QUOTE]
Agreed. At full brightness I can hardly notice yellow tint. Anything below ~50% it gets worse and worse. Especially evident in greys (ie settings menu etc)