iPhone 12 Pro Yellow Screen/Tint? Display seem "Warm"? Check here first!

[javisan]

I think you’re probably right. Even though most people describe this problem as screens being overly warm or yellow, I think most screens actually don’t have an overly warm color temperature. I think it’s possible people are perceiving the green tilt in RGB balance as yellow or warm. My iPhone X actually had slightly too much red in RGB balance charts, but for whatever reason, even though its color temperature measured almost the same as my iPhone 12s, my brain perceived the X as looking whiter and cooler. I find it a bit concerning that Notebook Check, DXO, Erica Griffin, and everyone in this thread with a colorimeter has found the RGB grey balance of the various 12s to be tilted green, but Anandtech found BOTH of the models they tested to tilt red, kind of like my iPhone X. I would be interested to know if Anandtech bought those retail or if they were provided by Apple . Anandtech is usually my go to for display reviews, but their data not aligning with everyone else’s has me skeptical. And DisplayMate ran about a million tests, yet managed to not include a basic RGB balance chart, but I already didn’t trust DisplayMate, so that’s less surprising. So now we have the two most referenced display review sites, Anandtech and DisplayMate, neither mentioning the green tint issue. So there’s pretty much no hope of any news sites taking this seriously.

I continue to think looking at the graphs posted here and elsewhere that the issue is not necessarily the greens being too strong. I see the blue color too low in lower end of the grayscale. Red is also lower but a bit better in some cases. If red and blue are too low your getting a more greenish tint. If the red is doing better, then you’re going to perceive a yellowish tint as the blue is too low and green and red make yellow.

While everyone is focusing on the slightly higher greens, what catches my attention is the significantly lower red and blue, especially blue, at the lower end of the grayscale. Had blues been higher, this would not such a big problem on the 12s.

 

[MacGiver]

Exactly what I feel too...

If this video can help anyone even this is an XR LCD vs 12PM OLED. Give me your thoughts if any...I am getting very confused about all this.

 

[xochiquetzal15]

On the IPhone 12s with yellowish display, have you also noticed that the contrast, the brightness, and especially the sharpness are all worse comparing to earlier phones?

When I put it next to my IPhone 8, the look is just better with 8 than 12.

 

[Mack Roomers]

Has anyone received an unaffected/non-yellow 12 Mini at this point, either as a replacement or as a first purchase? I was at BB yesterday and 1 of the 2 display minis had a nice, cool white screen (F4GDM). In comparison, my 12 mini and the other display model looked yellow and dingy. I hadn’t yet seen a non-yellowed mini screen, but I was planning to hold-off on replacement until good screens are consistently being produced.

 

[javisan]

On the IPhone 12s with yellowish display, have you also noticed that the contrast, the brightness, and especially the sharpness are all worse comparing to earlier phones?

When I put it next to my IPhone 8, the look is just better with 8 than 12.

When I visited 2 Apple stores on launch week, I found that all had varying degrees of yellow (all were unacceptable), but not all had brightness and contrast issues. The 12 Pro I returned, as an example, had the best brightness of all 6 plus 12 Pros I compared it too, and had no issues with contrast and sharpness, but the yellow tint was too distracting.

Maybe panels like on the 12 Pro I returned could have been re-calibrated and would have been perfect. Looks like other panels have more quality issues than mere calibration.

 

[javisan]

Has anyone received an unaffected/non-yellow 12 Mini at this point, either as a replacement or as a first purchase? I was at BB yesterday and 1 of the 2 display minis had a nice, cool white screen (F4GDM). In comparison, my 12 mini and the other display model looked yellow and dingy. I hadn’t yet seen a non-yellowed mini screen, but I was planning to hold-off on replacement until good screens are consistently being produced.

They exist (see the last 3 days on this thread) but still not consistent. I can tell you big name reviewers received unaffected units for review, DisplayMate reviewed an unaffected iPhone, MacRumors staff were apparently all lucky to buy units with unaffected displays, etc. 😁

 

[gtg465x]

I continue to think looking at the graphs posted here and elsewhere that the issue is not necessarily the greens being too strong. I see the blue color too low in lower end of the grayscale. Red is also lower but a bit better in some cases. If red and blue are too low your getting a more greenish tint. If the red is doing better, then you’re going to perceive a yellowish tint as the blue is too low and green and red make yellow.

While everyone is focusing on the slightly higher greens, what catches my attention is the significantly lower red and blue, especially blue, at the lower end of the grayscale. Had blues been higher, this would not such a big problem on the 12s.

I had one 12 PM with basically perfect red and blue all the way down the grayscale... they were pretty much right on the target. I can post the RGB gray balance chart for it later. But it still had too much green and still had a slight green tint compared to all of my other screens. Some screens do have both too much green and too little blue and / or red though, and those are worse.

 

[RelaxPls]

They exist (see the last 3 days on this thread) but still not consistent. I can tell you big name reviewers received unaffected units for review, DisplayMate reviewed an unaffected iPhone, MacRumors staff were apparently all lucky to buy units with unaffected displays, etc. 😁

Maybe Apple is the one who send them good displays so they dont make this problem a big hit.

 

[netnative]

Last year many Apple customers faced the same iPhone display fiasco. If having iPhones manufactured with display issues will not diminish profits or hurt the Apple brand, we can expect a repeat next year. The story needs to transcend this forum and get the attention of tech journalists who will not dismiss it as an issue for OCD nerds with colorimeters.

 

[RelaxPls]

On the IPhone 12s with yellowish display, have you also noticed that the contrast, the brightness, and especially the sharpness are all worse comparing to earlier phones?

When I put it next to my IPhone 8, the look is just better with 8 than 12.

I noticed that when i browse instagram on my Mini next to Iphone 7 the photos looks better on the 7 and more sharper than on mi Mini. Watching youtube its the same the 7 looks better and a bit smoother. The only time i see a huge favor in image quality in Mini is when i watch HDR content, but this is normal as Iphone 7 doesnt have HDR.

 

[gtg465x]

Last year many Apple customers faced the same iPhone display fiasco. If having iPhones manufactured with display issues will not diminish profits or hurt the Apple brand, we can expect a repeat next year. The story needs to transcend this forum and get the attention of tech journalists who will not dismiss it as an issue for OCD nerds with colorimeters.

Unfortunately, I think it will always be an issue for OCD nerds. The average person doesn’t give a crap about display quality and can’t notice a bad display if it smacks them in the face. I see so many average people with crappy Windows laptops with TN screens, crappy $300 Black Friday special TVs, and improperly configured cable boxes set to the wrong aspect ratio, etc. They don’t care. They might recognize when they see an especially nice display, but they probably won’t recognize or care when they’re using a bad display. And even with all of these issues, these iPhone screens are still better than a lot of other displays.

 

[javisan]

Last year many Apple customers faced the same iPhone display fiasco. If having iPhones manufactured with display issues will not diminish profits or hurt the Apple brand, we can expect a repeat next year. The story needs to transcend this forum and get the attention of tech journalists who will not dismiss it as an issue for OCD nerds with colorimeters.

Agree but that ship sailed. Apple will likely tighten their tolerances in future batches and it will be the end of this. And like you said, we’ll have a repeat next year.

Not even MacRumors on a slow day will give attention to this, which says a lot on the chances of this getting more attention. I emailed them when this all began to suggest they read their forums and do a story and never received a response.

I wonder what is behind the silence. I see so many non-news worthy things get reported on the site on a weekly basis that I’m honestly dumbfounded they have not done a story in this. I guess that maybe finding out that "App Store Best of 2020 Winners Began Receiving their Physical Award" is a much more important news story than there being an issue with the displays on the $700 - $1,000+ new iPhones Apple is selling.

 

[netnative]

Unfortunately, I think it will always be an issue for OCD nerds. The average person doesn’t give a crap about display quality and can’t notice a bad display if it smacks them in the face. I see so many average people with crappy Windows laptops with TN screens, crappy $300 Black Friday special TVs, and improperly configured cable boxes set to the wrong aspect ratio, etc. They don’t care. They might recognize when they see an especially nice display, but they probably won’t recognize or care when they’re using a bad display. And even with all of these issues, these iPhone screens are still better than a lot of other displays.

You may be right. However, there still a story to be reported. The story should be Apple’s marketing dishonesty about its Super Retina XDR displays that supposedly are “the best OLED displays that have ever shipped in a smartphone while offering the best color accuracy in the industry” because they are “precisely calibrated [at the factory] to deliver an optimal viewing experience”.

While some customers may not care, many may not notice. I have seen many customers at carrier stores allow salespersons to install screen protectors on their new iPhones before they are turned on, and then transfer or restore data. By that time they have already agreed to trade-in their old iPhones. Those customers did not have an opportunity to compare displays.

 

[netnative]

Agree but that ship sailed. Apple will likely tighten their tolerances in future batches and it will be the end of this. And like you said, we’ll have a repeat next year.

Not even MacRumors on a slow day will give attention to this, which says a lot on the chances of this getting reported. I emailed them when this all began to suggest they read their forums and do a story and never received a response.

I wonder what is behind the silence. I see so many non-news worthy things get reported on the site on a weekly basis that I’m honestly dumbfounded they have not done a story in this.

What would happen to MacRumors if its editors stopped getting invitations to Apple events and their sources at Apple stopped answering and returning calls?

 

[SSD-GUY]

3x iPhone 12 Minis here. All really bad yellow tinted displays (with True Tone also off). Compared to my iPhone 7, they look very, very yellow and also not as clear (the colours don't "pop" like the iPhone 7).

Quite a sad set of affairs. 2x have been returned to carrier and 1x has been returned to Amazon. Hopefully in a month or two when I re-order, they'll be better quality panels.

 

[RelaxPls]

3x iPhone 12 Minis here. All really bad yellow tinted displays (with True Tone also off). Compared to my iPhone 7, they look very, very yellow and also not as clear (the colours don't "pop" like the iPhone 7).

Quite a sad set of affairs. 2x have been returned to carrier and 1x has been returned to Amazon. Hopefully in a month or two when I re-order, they'll be better quality panels.

I’m comparing my Mini to the 7 also and as you I notice that photos in Instagram look more sharper and better looking than on the Mini. Also the brightness with AB-On the Mini is dimmer than the 7. Also did you noticed that when watching movie on PrimeVideo or Netflix the 7 looks smoother than the Mini?

 

[Squall FR]

Dear All, for all of you who have a TV oled or amoled, and i'm sure lot of you ( I wish ).
Please put the " cinema mode " on your screen, and you will get the same white as on your 12.
It's to say : yellow.
This is only due to the colour accurancy.
I think Apple should let us adjust : green red and blue individually as on other android phone.
We could definitely close our case.
Concerning viewing angle, yes there is a little tint that begins at 45°.
for this i think we can't do nothing. Some screens are little better than other for this.
My second one is really better in this respect.

 

[xochiquetzal15]

Here are the pictures (12vs 8). It looks even more bright and sharp IRL on IPhone 8

 

[secretanchitman]

Congratulations, you mind posting the first 5 letter/numbers of the serial number or the production week?

TIA

You got it! It’s DNPDP - I don’t know how to check the production week unfortunately.

Phone was also bought direct from Apple.com and is factory unlocked if that makes a difference.

 

[418608]

I went to the Apple store today and another retailer that sells Apple phones. All the phones I checked - about 12 in total, across minis, standard 12s, pros and pro max’s - were as yellow as my 12. Maybe one looked slightly better. None of them were anywhere as close to white as my XR.

One of the staff working at the Apple store agreed that they were significantly more yellow than mine but din’t have any explanation, other than “they have more pixels”.
A second person at the Apple store agreed they were more yellow and mentioned “but they are more modern and better, it’s maybe because Apple made them better for watching videos but on a white background it is more yellow”. 🙄

My conclusion is that the issue is a lot more widespread than one would think. I have a replacement coming in next week, but unless it’s from a completely different batch, it’s hard to imagine it will be any better than the one I’ve got.

 

[aakshey]

Even the 11 Pros were yellow if you find some of these 12s in this thread yellow. That’s the new norm.

 

[aakshey]

Here are the pictures (12vs 8). It looks even more bright and sharp IRL on IPhone 8

This is a defect. Unrelated to the yellow problem. A 12 PM (if not defective) will be a lot brighter.

 

[KennyJr]

Even the 11 Pros were yellow if you find some of these 12s in this thread yellow. That’s the new norm.

I returned my 12 Pro Max because, compared to my white screen (not even the slightest hit of yellow) 11 Pro Max, the 12 Pro Max's screen was yellow.

 

[Tibits]

I feel like I have this issue too.

Reading this thread has the effect on people.

 

[Merman123]

I returned my 12 Pro Max because, compared to my white screen (not even the slightest hit of yellow) 11 Pro Max, the 12 Pro Max's screen was yellow.

It may be because you are used to the 11 Pro Max. I remember the 11 Pro Max looking yellow next to the XS Max too.