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iPhone X iPhone X OLED 'backlight bleeding'

P

pmouritz

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 14, 2015
74
10
Copenhagen, Denmark
Hey

I found a potential hardware flaw in my iPhone X's display. I have had it since launch date and could not be more happy with it. However, I quickly noticed and got quite tired of it now, so here goes nothing.

The OLED hype was based on numerous features, one of which was “true black” and I looked very much forward to that when using the phone at night to reduce light on the eyes. When I have a completely black image, all the pixels will turn off and the display will go completely black/dark. However, when using apps with black background such as the alarm clock, it will have some sort of white-OLED 'backlight bleeding' (don’t know the name for it). It is especially annoying when viewing an epub book in iBooks during night time where it is only supposed to be the letters being white and rest completely black. Is this a hardware or software problem? Do any of you iPhone X owners experience this?

It is very clear that the light originates from the top right corner (right to the notch) and kind of bleeds down to the middle. In the bottom of the screen, it is completely dark and bottom half of screen only shows the letters as it should. It definitely seems to be a problem lying in the top half of the screen as it is in the exact same physical spot when using iBooks in vertical mode which is why I am concerned that it is a hardware problem.

I figured that if I used the setting “Reduce White Point” the problem could be reduced. And if I use it, it actually solves the problem almost completely when set at 80% reduction. However, this is not viable and if it is a hardware flaw, I want the phone returned. I just hoped that all of you guys experienced it and that it would get fixed in a software update. Now running iOS 11.2, my hope of this have had a downward spiralling.

I would have taken a photo of it to attach this thread but my old iPhone 5s and iPad Air 2 are not able to get a decent photo in darkness. So I hope my description is enough for you guys to test and replicate my issue.

I can easiest see it when it is completely dark in the room and the display brightness is set to 1/3 or below. The ‘problem’ may just be that the pixels cannot go completely dark around the pixels with text. But I really want to make sure that it is not an isolated issue with my device.


Thanks in advance! Any suggestions are well appreciated.
 
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In the Alarm-clock section of the clock app that top bar (around the notch) isn’t black anyway. It’s grey by design. And with the transparencies of the on/off toggle in that area, are you sure that’s not what you’re seeing?
 
Here’s a picture of what I see. That transparency of the white toggle at the top right of the screen could be misconstrued as bleed, but as other have said, it simply cannot be with OLED unless there’s something extremely faulty with your unit.
 

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Thanks for the response all.

@WilliamG I see your point but I am 100% sure that it is not that I see in the iBooks app. Can you try to go into the iBooks app and reading an ePub in a dark room? Then it should invert colours so that the background is black and text is white. Then on my unit I will see completely black pixels in the bottom half of the screen while seeing black pixels in the top right corner of the display, looking like the ones on an LCD screen, i.e. not true black but with a lot of white light in them.

@j800r you are absolutely right, backlight bleeding is only seen on LCD panels, however, I think that it sort of looks like that which should not be possible on the OLED display, i.e. suspicion that I got a faulty unit.
[doublepost=1513173830][/doublepost]So I tried to close the blinds and everything, hehe. I know the first photo is completely out of focus but it is difficult to capture a photo of the entire display in dark that shows the problem. I think that you can glimpse the problem in the first photo. However, it was quite succesful in the second and third photo as I took a close up picture of the upper right corner and the lower left corner.

I think that the problem is quite clear in the second and third photos as it shows unclose how it looks.
[doublepost=1513173929][/doublepost]As you can see it is quite annoying to be able to see the white light from the upper right corner compared to the lower left corner which is 'true black' pixels. And this does not change when I flip the phone to use in vertical mode.
 

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The iBooks app has a very very dark grey background by design: Almost black but not quite.

You’d be better testing this with the calculator app. It has a true black background.
 
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This is a bit weird. I can’t see it all! Looking forward to comments from those who can, though.
 
pmouritz said:
Thanks for the response all.

@WilliamG I see your point but I am 100% sure that it is not that I see in the iBooks app. Can you try to go into the iBooks app and reading an ePub in a dark room? Then it should invert colours so that the background is black and text is white. Then on my unit I will see completely black pixels in the bottom half of the screen while seeing black pixels in the top right corner of the display, looking like the ones on an LCD screen, i.e. not true black but with a lot of white light in them.

@j800r you are absolutely right, backlight bleeding is only seen on LCD panels, however, I think that it sort of looks like that which should not be possible on the OLED display, i.e. suspicion that I got a faulty unit.
[doublepost=1513173830][/doublepost]So I tried to close the blinds and everything, hehe. I know the first photo is completely out of focus but it is difficult to capture a photo of the entire display in dark that shows the problem. I think that you can glimpse the problem in the first photo. However, it was quite succesful in the second and third photo as I took a close up picture of the upper right corner and the lower left corner.

I think that the problem is quite clear in the second and third photos as it shows unclose how it looks.
[doublepost=1513173929][/doublepost]As you can see it is quite annoying to be able to see the white light from the upper right corner compared to the lower left corner which is 'true black' pixels. And this does not change when I flip the phone to use in vertical mode.
Click to expand...

As others have posted, the iBooks app is more dark dark grey than true black. See if you have the same bleeding in the compass app for example. In that one... in a pitch dark room, I can't make out the notch. Whereas with the night mode in iBooks or in the clock app... the grey is more apparent.

Another thing I did to check with the iBooks app... was leave the pages on white and use the smart invert to see the effect. This one has pitch black screen with white letters. Don't know why Apple don't use the black more evenly across apps.
[doublepost=1513174960][/doublepost]Could it also be... that the light shift we're seeing in your picture of the iBooks app... is from you holding the screen at an angle? I know OLED tends to shift to blue normally...

I just tried holding the iBooks apps at an angle... and am happy to report that the light is even. Yipee.

Would really hate to take it back to the Apple Store for the third time!

First time... after a month... noticed the oleophobic coating was wearing off. Genius replaces the phone on the spot... changes the AppleCare warranty... I proceed to leech off the Store wifi to setup the phone when I notice a cosmetic ripple under the screen. Had to go through the process of changing phone once again. At least... they were understanding and did change for me.
 
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As others have mentioned it's because they are using a dark gray background instead of black. Had they used black it would look much better and completely uniform.
 
yes, ibook has a fade away effect...from true black bottom to a v dark grey on top
almost same dark grey as the top of the apple tv remote...where also, we have a true black at bottom and a v dark grey on top..check it plz
[doublepost=1513190000][/doublepost]Or the best way to see the true black on the whole screen, GO to settings wallpapers ->stills,and select the last one...set both. then lock the phone and see if you still see grey on top when your iphone x is locked
 
fokmik said:
yes, ibook has a fade away effect...from true black bottom to a v dark grey on top
almost same dark grey as the top of the apple tv remote...where also, we have a true black at bottom and a v dark grey on top..check it plz
[doublepost=1513190000][/doublepost]Or the best way to see the true black on the whole screen, GO to settings wallpapers ->stills,and select the last one...set both. then lock the phone and see if you still see grey on top when your iphone x is locked
Click to expand...

Actually it is all black when set to black. I checked myself. The only grey was some of the fonts.
 
fokmik said:
yes, ibook has a fade away effect...from true black bottom to a v dark grey on top
almost same dark grey as the top of the apple tv remote...where also, we have a true black at bottom and a v dark grey on top..check it plz
[doublepost=1513190000][/doublepost]Or the best way to see the true black on the whole screen, GO to settings wallpapers ->stills,and select the last one...set both. then lock the phone and see if you still see grey on top when your iphone x is locked
Click to expand...

I tried this - totally black, even with brightness turned up to 100% in total darkness.
 
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Thank you all for your responses and trying it out on your phones!

I can report that the screen is completely black expect the white text when I disable "Auto-Night Theme" in iBooks and use the smart inverter instead. However, the problem still remains for me when I use "Auto-Night Theme" in iBooks.

I am a bit confused of your reponses but if I interpretating them correctly, all of you have a completely black background in iBooks when "Auto-Night Theme" is enabled, even with 100% brightness? Because mine sure is not! :(
 
pmouritz said:
Thank you all for your responses and trying it out on your phones!

I can report that the screen is completely black expect the white text when I disable "Auto-Night Theme" in iBooks and use the smart inverter instead. However, the problem still remains for me when I use "Auto-Night Theme" in iBooks.

I am a bit confused of your reponses but if I interpretating them correctly, all of you have a completely black background in iBooks when "Auto-Night Theme" is enabled, even with 100% brightness? Because mine sure is not! :(
Click to expand...

No no no. Those of us who have tested (or at least with me) have selected the black colour which I assume would be the same as the auto night mode although cannot be certain. It could be that auto night does work differently to selecting the black display. Either way it clearly isn’t a hardware issue for you so I wouldn’t sweat it too much.
 
What you're seeing is almost certainly OLED's version of uniformity variance. In LCD it's mostly about backlight uniformity and white point, while on OLED the biggest issue is that different groups of pixels respond slightly differently to the amount of current applied.

It's best demonstrated by showing a full screen uniform dark grey image and noting that some areas are darker than others, in some cases all the way to black (this is called "black crush" in calibration terms). Multiple people have noted that iBooks has a dark grey (not black) background which would demonstrate the same effect.

I suggest going to the monitor test page at http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/black.php and zooming in on some of the darker near-black test squares, then moving them around your screen to see if you can spot the dimmer areas. If they match up with what you're seeing in iBooks, that's your answer. No OLED screen will ever be perfect, so I wouldn't drive yourself too crazy with it.
 
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WilliamG said:
Here’s a picture of what I see. That transparency of the white toggle at the top right of the screen could be misconstrued as bleed, but as other have said, it simply cannot be with OLED unless there’s something extremely faulty with your unit.
Click to expand...
That isn't light bleed. It's the way Apple designs their apps. It's always somewhat transparent at the top overlay of some apps.
 
i had the same issue. returned it and now my screen is super even and im happy with it when looking at it straight on.
however, a slight tilt would make the right side of my screen turn pink.

im done with the screen lottery and am just going to live with the issue.
 
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