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

Let's solve this annoying 3GS "warmer screen" issue

e3lysium said:
I am currently on my 3rd 3GS and I have to agree that its looking more and more like it is 'intended' to be the more warmer level; just as most calibrators recommend that we change our HDTVs and Monitors to a 'warmer' colour level than the old fashioned 'white is white' ("cold/normal") we have been used to.

It's easier on our eyes for one (reading for longer periods.. less 'glare' at higher brightness) and even more comfortable in darkness for reading/browsing at night.

Pictures furthermore in comparison do look better on 'warmer' units .. comparing the stock-pictures included with 1st, 2nd & 3rd gen phones demonstrates that the 3GS 'warmer' level displays each picture better.

Once you get over the fact that a webpage that has a white background that you have always been used to being white is now 'warmer' (and warmer than you may have been using on a 3G) and get over the initial 'its too yellow' -- but give it a chance, you'll find that you actually like it more after a weeks use.

Those with 'cold' 3GS units seem to be the faulty ones if the truth be told.
Click to expand...

My issue wasn't so much the warmness (my 3G has a warm tone... I like it) but, it went from cold (top) to warm (bottom). It wasn't an even tone. It made things like Mail look weird because the blue would be a different color on the top and bottom but, they're supposed to be the same color.
 
warm screen gradient - blue on top, yellow on bottom
genius fixed screen via replacement
turns out he broke proximity sensor
ARS shipped me a new phone... with the gradient problem. now i'm just driving 2.5 hours to get to an apple store.
 
additionally, if you guys go to an apple store, get a screen REPLACEMENT, not a new phone - the replacements are nice, beautiful, cool screens :)
 
sk2sep2304 said:
They already have the oleophobic (ps?) screen replacements?
Click to expand...

I think the coating is on the glass, not the LCD which is underneath.

I went to an Apple store and got my LCD 'replaced' today (after having to argue my case for about 20 mins) for the yellow gradient issue. Strange that the 'replacement' screen has EXACTLY the same uneven gradient. Very unhappy.
 
Eminemdrdre00 said:
I just miss the "pop" the iPhone3G's whiter screen had. Made text easier to read IMO.
Click to expand...

I know exactly what you mean!!! My iPhone 3GS had such dull color and the screen actually looked a little blurry to me compared to my brilliant 3G screen. I hope that next year they use a different screen.
 
TheSpaz said:
I know exactly what you mean!!! My iPhone 3GS had such dull color and the screen actually looked a little blurry to me compared to my brilliant 3G screen. I hope that next year they use a different screen.
Click to expand...

Next year they'll probably use OLED.
 
TheSpaz said:
I know exactly what you mean!!! My iPhone 3GS had such dull color and the screen actually looked a little blurry to me compared to my brilliant 3G screen. I hope that next year they use a different screen.
Click to expand...

Yellow tint is one thing .. inaccurate colours is another.

Currently on 3rd 3GS and have finally decided to return it even after getting used to the warmer yellow tone. In side by side comparisons of two 1st Generation iPhones and a friends 3GS all displaying pictures that I had taken previously and synced to each of the phone, the 3GS displayed was less than acceptable.

In terms of 'truth' to the pictures anything white (pure white, such as shirts, cabinets, etc.) obviously would show as 'cream' or 'yellow' as the change from white to yellow is the most obvious.

However, further comparing images of faces, skin tone showed clearly that skin colours on the 3GS were 'redder' and not natural as on all other devices. Equally red cars were showing as almost 'orange' in hue .. and this continued on for numerous pictures, with blue shaded shirts showing up accurately on all devices but the 3GS.. it was frightening to know that the device is just far too inaccurate to be trusted to deliver true-to-life images that you could previously rely on.

So, anyone with the yellow problem.. you should try and compare images you have taken with a digital camera other than the iphone and then sync those images to all your devices and do a side-by-side comparison. I think you will be surprised to find that the problem is far worser than you might have first presumed.

Returning my 3rd 3GS (week 26) next week.. doubt very much I will try another as its getting out of hand now.
 
e3lysium said:
Returning my 3rd 3GS (week 26) next week.. doubt very much I will try another as its getting out of hand now.
Click to expand...

Good luck! I just got a week 27 from Apple.com on Thursday and I definitely have a warmer/yellower screen. Again, if I didn't put my 3G right next to it, it probably wouldn't bother me as much, but I prefer the 3G calibration. Makes text easier to read for me. This 3GS makes everything look so dull.
 
Eminemdrdre00 said:
Good luck! I just got a week 27 from Apple.com on Thursday and I definitely have a warmer/yellower screen. Again, if I didn't put my 3G right next to it, it probably wouldn't bother me as much, but I prefer the 3G calibration. Makes text easier to read for me. This 3GS makes everything look so dull.
Click to expand...

I entirely agree. I have done everything possible to "try" and like the yellow-3GS but I simply cannot accept that it is less sharp, yellow (varying yellow intensity depending on brightness setting) but never truly acceptable, especially when you do comparison of pictures and discover that colours look inaccurate from their true values.

The percentage of people who will be returning because of this will be too low for Apple to even register the issue as a problem yet. Apple may well quietly communicate to their Chinese Quality Control the list of issues they are aware of in a few weeks time and shoot one or two of their staff there - but this will be of no help to those that have willingly accepted problem units and are happily playing with their 'sepia' 'urine' 'nicotine stained' phones unaware they are now the minority owners with problems that future shipments have corrected.
 
I hated this problem so much that I returned my 3GS and I'm back to using my 3G. The 3GS was nice and fast but the screen display is more important to me. I'd rather be happy instead of pissed off every time I use my phone.

I have to admit though, looking at any other phone, Apple has the nicest displays even with these problms. If I was just switching from another phone to the iPhone, it probably would have been fine. Since I'm coming from an iPhone already, it's harder to accept worse quality than my previous iPhone.
 
TheSpaz said:
I hated this problem so much that I returned my 3GS and I'm back to using my 3G. The 3GS was nice and fast but the screen display is more important to me. I'd rather be happy instead of pissed off every time I use my phone.

I have to admit though, looking at any other phone, Apple has the nicest displays even with these problms. If I was just switching from another phone to the iPhone, it probably would have been fine. Since I'm coming from an iPhone already, it's harder to accept worse quality than my previous iPhone.
Click to expand...

Finally...
 
how similar is this issue to when the 3G had a similar problem, and how was this issue fixed?
 
e3lysium said:
Yellow tint is one thing .. inaccurate colours is another.

Currently on 3rd 3GS and have finally decided to return it even after getting used to the warmer yellow tone. In side by side comparisons of two 1st Generation iPhones and a friends 3GS all displaying pictures that I had taken previously and synced to each of the phone, the 3GS displayed was less than acceptable.

In terms of 'truth' to the pictures anything white (pure white, such as shirts, cabinets, etc.) obviously would show as 'cream' or 'yellow' as the change from white to yellow is the most obvious.

However, further comparing images of faces, skin tone showed clearly that skin colours on the 3GS were 'redder' and not natural as on all other devices. Equally red cars were showing as almost 'orange' in hue .. and this continued on for numerous pictures, with blue shaded shirts showing up accurately on all devices but the 3GS.. it was frightening to know that the device is just far too inaccurate to be trusted to deliver true-to-life images that you could previously rely on.

So, anyone with the yellow problem.. you should try and compare images you have taken with a digital camera other than the iphone and then sync those images to all your devices and do a side-by-side comparison. I think you will be surprised to find that the problem is far worser than you might have first presumed.

Returning my 3rd 3GS (week 26) next week.. doubt very much I will try another as its getting out of hand now.
Click to expand...

well, at least one person at MacRumors actually has a good eye for color!


Is there a huge level of variation allowed by one sole display manufacturer, or is Apple using multiple vendors for these displays?

W I D E amount of variation on these new screens, and the majority seem to be sub-par.
 
55test55 said:
how similar is this issue to when the 3G had a similar problem, and how was this issue fixed?
Click to expand...

I'd like to know too! Wasn't there a firmware fix? The firmware out of the box had the color issue, but if you downloaded a newer version it fixed it? Any 3.1 beta testers notice a change?

Again like I said earlier, maybe my phone isn't as bad, but if this were my first iPhone I don't think I'd see a problem. My issue is that I used a iPhone3G for a year, and set them side by side as soon ad I got my 3GS. The 3G has whiter whites, which helps the text "pop" and be much easier to read IMO.
 
My two cents:

I took my first week 21 3Gs back after I noticed a dead pixel. Yes, it did have the yellowing, but it wasn't that bad.

After a very friendly and helpful exchange at the genius bar (surprisingly!) I had in my hands a week 27 3Gs that had no dead pixels, but the display was still warm. I groaned a little bit and was going to say something but then I went and compared it to the other phones they had on display.

I found that my phone was warmer, but it wasn't as washed out as some of the displays, and that is wasn't as blurry.

Yes, it is a change from the 3G, but if you put the two next to each other and look at the wallpapers (particularly the frog one) the 3Gs has MUCH better saturation and looks more real! The 3G does have a brighter display, but it takes away from the richness that the 3Gs is able to produce.

I am happy with my 3Gs, and for all those having problems, it IS supposed to be warmer, but if you have the really gross nicotine yellow tint, I would take it to the Apple store.
 
Have these display problems cause any latency with wifi or 3g network speeds? Or even better, has the display issues that you guys have noticed caused any increase in dropped calls? I am very concerned.. :rolleyes:
 
:( At least you guys have 3GS's with this problem..

My 6TH 3G replacement has the worste screen I have seen on any of the 6 iPhones I've had... not only does it have stuck pixels but it also gradually turns yellow... more yellow... then even more yellow depending on how long it's been on..

Mine is a week 23 3G
 
I recall that when there were issues with the first gen iPhone and negative blacks, that the community was able to determine which LCD models were affected, by activating "field test mode" or something like that. It involved pushing a sequence of numbers and symbols, something like "#*123*#" or something like that (that's not it).

Then, you could actually see the model # of your phone's LCD. Is there a way we can do that with the 3GS, so we can determine which model LCDs are affected and which are not?
 
When you guys keep bringing back phones to try to get a better one, do you do a full reset before bringing it to the store to erase all your personal data?
 
dauerhippo said:
I recall that when there were issues with the first gen iPhone and negative blacks, that the community was able to determine which LCD models were affected, by activating "field test mode" or something like that. It involved pushing a sequence of numbers and symbols, something like "#*123*#" or something like that (that's not it).

Then, you could actually see the model # of your phone's LCD. Is there a way we can do that with the 3GS, so we can determine which model LCDs are affected and which are not?
Click to expand...

I'm glad someone else finally brought this up. I had mentioned it in the other yellow screen thread a while back (quoted below), but no one really seemed to take an interest. It would be nice if some 3GS owners could try this to see if the yellow/gradient/washed out characteristics are due to different screen models. I've still got my first generation iPhone, so I'm not able to check.

Maybe the code sequence does not work on newer iPhones?

chriswg said:
Wasn't there a way to check which specific screen you had on the original iPhone and maybe on the 3G by typing in a certain code on the numeric keypad? I thought I remembered people doing this on the original iPhone when it first came out and finding that one screen manufacturer code was warm and the other was cool.

Perhaps this would be a better way of comparing screens rather than using the build week numbers (which don't seem to have much correlation). Anyone know what I'm talking about?
Click to expand...

EDIT:

I found one of the threads mentioning how to do the test.

Here is a link to the thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/331511/

And the quoted first post that tells how to perform the test:

opticalserenity said:
You have to go to field test mode by entering *3001#12345#* and go to Versions, there you will see an LCD Panel ID.

I don't know who makes the two LCD panels, but one starts with a 7 and one with a 5.

Mine is, 7455232.

List yours and vote on which you have.

I had a version 5 panel and found it to be way more crisp and even before I had to exchange out my iPhone.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that these were for the original iPhone, so the LCD panel numbers may be different.
 
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