Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iPhone 3G Yellow Screen Issue

slusse said:
Great! Thanks for trying it out. :) I didn't restore from my previous backup as I wanted everything to be 100% clean. You know, just be absolutely sure and knowing that there can't be any leftovers which might screw things up.

If this doesn't fix the yellowish issue for you, then we need to come up with other ideas. Oh, and it also proves that my eyes aren't to be trusted.

BR,

S
Click to expand...

Right, all done and the result?

It looks normal, right even, until I look at my 2G iPhone then it just looks so much more yellow-y.
 
sva said:
Right, all done and the result?

It looks normal, right even, until I look at my 2G iPhone then it just looks so much more yellow-y.
Click to expand...
Bummer.. Can you say if it got any better at all (i.e. closer to the 2G iPhone)? Some say that the 2G iPhone has a slight blueish color, which of course makes the 3G iPhone look yellowish. A matter of taste I guess. Anyhow, some say that this restore & no backup works nicely, and some say that it doesn't (or they aren't sure).

BR,

S
 
slusse said:
Bummer.. Can you say if it got any better at all (i.e. closer to the 2G iPhone)? Some say that the 2G iPhone has a slight blueish color, which of course makes the 3G iPhone look yellowish. A matter of taste I guess. Anyhow, some say that this restore & no backup works nicely, and some say that it doesn't (or they aren't sure).

BR,

S
Click to expand...

It's not close to the 2G at all, but I don't know which one is better.

I might wait for Apple to comment before doing anything. I don't want to risk getting a new iPhone, incase I get one with worse colour problems.
 
I was going to stay out of this thread till I had a 3G iPhone in my hand to use as reference, but as a lighting designer and someone who works with variable color temperatures a lot, I have to say that this thread SOUNDS to me like much ado about nothing. The iPhone Classic was clearly set to a color temperature range well within "blue". About that, I have no doubt. If the new iPhone has a more "color corrected" or "tungsten" temperature range, it is absolutely going to look yellow next to the Classic iPhone. That does not, in itself, indicate a defect in the LCD or the glass. In fact, it probably renders better looking photos and video as a result. Like I said, I could be wrong here, but that's all it sounds like to me.
 
DanielQ said:
Has anyone who bought it not had this problem? Or is it pretty much all 3G's?
Click to expand...
My guess is that this issue is with all iPhone 3G's which have the 2.0 (5A345) firmware (which is the shipping firmware). You can get a more recent firmware from iTunes if you restore, 2.0 5A347, and if you don't restore from a backup, it seems to fix the yellowish issue on some phones. Can't say for sure as I don't have my 2G iPhone at home atm.

BR,

S
 
:) I did NOT do a restore.

But there is a difference in old vs. new phones. I feel the old has a BLUE PUSH that is technically inaccurate. Cold with blue push.

New is warmer, no yellow on mine, just a more neutral to warm vs. the cold/blue push of the old. I like the new. Maybe would prefer a 'tad' less warm for 'paper'.

Interesting that restoring reverts to a more cold/blue push. LOL Now IDK what to do but I imagine we'll all have to restore at some point anyway.

Everyone please calm down. I exchanged 4-5 iPhones last year cuz of screens and if yours are like mine - please don't fret yet. :)
 
sva said:
It's not close to the 2G at all, but I don't know which one is better.

I might wait for Apple to comment before doing anything. I don't want to risk getting a new iPhone, incase I get one with worse colour problems.
Click to expand...
Hmm.. But can you confirm if the clean restore (i.e. not restoring from an old backup) changed the coloring in any way? I doubt that it will "fix" it to make it look like the 2G iPhone, but at least make it less yellowish and more clear.

BR,

S
 
I've just added this to the front page but will add it here too, it does repeat some things I've said earlier but for completeness I'll just leave it all in one piece:

Update

Since starting this thread, I've returned my iPhone and have been lucky enough to get another one and its a lot better. Now, from what I can gather from this thread and people's experiences is that all 3G iPhones have a slight yellow tint compared to the original iPhone. Its not as bad on the whole as my picture indicates.

If you have an original iPhone to compare it with, set both to maximum brightness with auto-dimming off. The iPhone 3G should be brighter than the original one. Yes it will have a yellowish tint compared to the blueish tint of the original iPhone. SOME iPhone 3Gs appear to have a slightly faulty screen/backlight and appear to be dimmer and very yellow compared to the original iPhone. In my opinion, these are faulty.

I'm a lot happier with my replacement phone although I would still prefer the colours a little cooler.

If you have an issue with the yellow tint but its not as bad as I described mine to be then I suggest filing some feedback with Apple about the iPhone using the following form:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

If enough of us ask for it, we MAY be able to get screen colour temperature options and maybe even more advanced colour/contrast/gammut settings etc - something professional photographers would probably like anyway so as to showcase their work on the fly better.

Some people prefer the blue tint, some people prefer the yellow tint. If we ask Apple enough, maybe they will give us some more choice on this. I fully believe this can be far better controlled with a software update. Honestly, there's a good chance that Apple purposefully made the screen appear this way so that the icons on the dashboard and films appear to have far more colour depth and contrast and so would pop out as better to some people.
 
I'd like to throw a spanner in the works to those who are saying it's simply a software/colour balance problem.

Mine is yellower at the bottom (towards the home button) and noticably bluer towards the top (towards the earspeaker).

Fix that in a software update, Apple!

I wonder if anyone else would like to check this. Simply load up a webpage with a white background (ilounge.com would do), stop it loading when you've got pretty much a blank white screen. Look at the image, mine is definately yellower at the bottom. Then do a 180 degree rotation, and look again. What I'm finding is the *opposite* side of the webpage is then yellowed out, meaning that end of the physical display (towards the home button) is more yellow than the top end of the display.

This is very disappointing. I too get the impression the 3G is built down to a price, whereas the original will probably always stand as a design icon, as no expense was spared in its construcion - eg the metal back.

On a separate issue, GPS doesn't seem to be working in Maps.

8G UK iPhone.
 
Spanky - can you take new pics with your better phone and what you consider to be acceptable? I'm not seeing "yellow" just warmer & less Blue push.
 
slusse said:
Hmm.. But can you confirm if the clean restore (i.e. not restoring from an old backup) changed the coloring in any way? I doubt that it will "fix" it to make it look like the 2G iPhone, but at least make it less yellowish and more clear.

BR,

S
Click to expand...

I don't think it made any difference on mine.
 
Well, took a tour of two close Apple stores today and then an AT&T store.

Both had long lines. I did look into the SF Stonestown mall store, but they wouldn't let me in just to browse. The main line was outside the mall completely (the grabbed a few people at a time to goto the inside door line). Not being a line kind of guy, I went to lunch and then checked out the SF store in the maria. Just drove by, but the line was pretty long too.

Finally stopped at a AT&T store. No iPhones left, but I did get to touch and play with one.

Hard to say with the anti-theft device slapped on the back, but I doubt the phone will sit flat on a desk to use.

Back doesn't look as scratch prone as I feared, but doubt I'd use without any protection like I have my old iPhone.

To get back on topic (too late): As for the yellow tint... yeah, both their display models were noticeably yellower than my iPhone at the same brightness level.
 
Started this morning with two 2G iphones (4gb with 7 series, 8gb with 5 series).

Went today and upgraded both to black 16gb iphone 3Gs at the Apple store.

One of the iphone 3Gs looks good, warmer colors than the 2G iphones and what seems to be (to me) better color reproduction.

The other iphone 3G looks *terrible*. The screen is yellow, and it is noticeable on pretty much all screens. In fact, it is yellow with a green hue, and some of the top menus/navigation take on a yellow-green hue.

:(
 
sva said:
Right, all done and the result?

It looks normal, right even, until I look at my 2G iPhone then it just looks so much more yellow-y.
Click to expand...

That's the nature of color temperatures.

Change your mac's color temp in the color calibrator. It will look really bad at first. But keep it at the weird temperature for a week or so and you'll get used to it. After a week goes by, change it back to your original color temp. The original one will now look bad.

Displays vary in their native color temperatures. I know, I use professional grade monitors all calibrated to 6500k using optical color calibration devices. And I can still sometimes notice a difference in the temperature depending on the lighting. Also, displays will shift color termperature over time and need to be recalibrated. For all you know, your original iPhone started out with the same warm tint and very slowly shifted to 6500k and then possibly even higher (based on what some people are saying).

Seriously, guys. Stop complaining about the visual tricks your brain is playing on you. Apple never advertised the iPhone to have any particular native display temperature.
 
with the screen problems from the first generation iPhones, didn't Apple release some sort of firmware that fixed the issue somehow?
 
Mine has a slight yellowish tint to it compared to my old 8GB, but the old 8GB seems to have a blueish tint. So as long as you don't put them next to each other they both look fine. The first gens blacks look richer too.
 
dustinl4m3 said:
...
The other iphone 3G looks *terrible*. The screen is yellow, and it is noticeable on pretty much all screens. In fact, it is yellow with a green hue, and some of the top menus/navigation take on a yellow-green hue.

:(
Click to expand...

This is exactly what mine is like! :(
 
I just tried watching a video and, well, it looked really good. It was an episode of Chuck, and he happened to be wearing a white shirt and it looked fine.

I'm so confused :confused:.
 
sva said:
I just tried watching a video and, well, it looked really good. It was an episode of Chuck, and he happened to be wearing a white shirt and it looked fine.

I'm so confused :confused:.
Click to expand...


Don't be confused, if you like what you see, be happy!

Those of us who have a badly affected screen cannot watch a video as the screen quality makes you sick!! :(
 
sq2mmw.jpg


Check it...3g looks the best to me..
 
Wow, you guys are hard to please.

My new 3g iphone has a very slightly warmer hue than my 2g iphone, but the offset is the new phone is a lot brighter.

I set both iphones to the home screen and walked around to five different coworkers and every single one of them liked the 3g iphone screen better. All of the colors (except for white, but there is no white on the home screen) looked brighter and more colorful.

If you go to a white page, then it is evident that the 3g iphone has a warmer hue, but any other color is brighter on the new 3g iphone than on my 2g iphone. I think this is a fair compromise.

Also the contrast on the new 3g iphone is much better than the 2g iphone. Again when showing the two screens to my coworkers, some thought the 3g iphone had a bigger screen. In reality the screen is the same size, but the blacks are so black that they blend into the black border of the phone.

Edit: I just saw SCMedic's post above mine. This is exactly what I'm talking about. Look at the difference in contrast between the 3g and 2g. The blacks are a lot blacker. All in all, yes the whites are a little more yellow, but I still prefer the 3g screen to the 2g since every other color looks better.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back