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Apple has acknowledged a future software fix, so maybe the color profile they used for the display is a bit off, and some panels show it more than others. Let's see if they fix it. I do know one thing though. I don't want to be looking at a display that goes the other way and is too cool. Then it's too bright and hurts my eyes.
It will never be fixed via software. This has been going on since iPhone 4 / 4s. Apple simply doesn’t care, because 99.9% of their users don’t care.

my iPhone X was amazing. Been thru 5 12 pro and have decided to “settle” for the least yellow.
 
It will never be fixed via software. This has been going on since iPhone 4 / 4s. Apple simply doesn’t care, because 99.9% of their users don’t care.

my iPhone X was amazing. Been thru 5 12 pro and have decided to “settle” for the least yellow.
That I didn't realize. I've used the iPhone since the 4 when verizon first got it. Then I went to the 5, 6, 7 Plus, and now 12 Pro Max. So I've not had experience with some of the newer models until now. The others people are using to compare. I can tell you though, I have had training, and some experience in Television and professional video. While I haven't done much since I got out of school, I have tried to keep up with at least basic calibration so my content looks right. I think I'm the opposite of the majority making an issue here, or my particular phone is working correctly. Either way, for me the whiter displays hurt my eyes, especially when bright, and the warmer display is more comfortable on my eyes. Not saying there aren't issues. Experience also tells me though, Apple isn't the same company they used to be and there are less and less true professionals who I come across in the Apple communities these days. (Professional content creators that is). My mind pretty much has gone back to myself when I wasn't used to looking at warmer calibrated displays so when a accurate display was viewed, it really bothered me. Now I can't look at a cool display.

With all this said, I'm not trying to minimize people's concerns as mentioned. I just feel part of this is average users not being used to warmer displays, and part of it is faulty displays that show the defects more than others. My main point is, the majority of people I have seen review the new phones who are creators don't make an issue out of the color. Most of them, if not all are also genuine people so I feel if there were real issues to be concerned about, they would speak up. As mentioned most of those I see raising issues are just average people who don't like the new look. Out of curiosity though, and to settle it for myself, I would if possible, if i still could go into the TV studio where i had my classes and see if they have tools to look at the display so i could see for myself in a professional setting whether or not my phone at least was off or not.
 
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That I didn't realize. I've used the iPhone since the 4 when verizon first got it. Then I went to the 5, 6, 7 Plus, and now 12 Pro Max. So I've not had experience with some of the newer models until now. The others people are using to compare. I can tell you though, I have had training, and some experience in Television and professional video. While I haven't done much since I got out of school, I have tried to keep up with at least basic calibration so my content looks right. I think I'm the opposite of the majority making an issue here, or my particular phone is working correctly. Either way, for me the whiter displays hurt my eyes, especially when bright, and the warmer display is more comfortable on my eyes. Not saying there aren't issues. Experience also tells me though, Apple isn't the same company they used to be and there are less and less true professionals who I come across in the Apple communities these days. (Professional content creators that is). My mind pretty much has gone back to myself when I wasn't used to looking at warmer calibrated displays so when a accurate display was viewed, it really bothered me. Now I can't look at a cool display.

With all this said, I'm not trying to minimize people's concerns as mentioned. I just feel part of this is average users not being used to warmer displays, and part of it is faulty displays that show the defects more than others. My main point is, the majority of people I have seen review the new phones who are creators don't make an issue out of the color. Most of them, if not all are also genuine people so I feel if there were real issues to be concerned about, they would speak up. As mentioned most of those I see raising issues are just average people who don't like the new look. Out of curiosity though, and to settle it for myself, I would if possible, if i still could go into the TV studio where i had my classes and see if they have tools to look at the display so i could see for myself in a professional setting whether or not my phone at least was off or not.
I'm Ok with everything that you said but in the end, the white should be white not warm not yellowish, and that why there is a true tone to make white less, but if it's already yellow and true tone on you can't accept that at all
 
I'm Ok with everything that you said but in the end, the white should be white not warm not yellowish, and that why there is a true tone to make white less, but if it's already yellow and true tone on you can't accept that at all
That has been my experience, turning off True tone has removed the extra yellow from the display. Turning true tone is only really yellow in low light. If i move to sunlight, or daylight lighting, or cool white, the display turns white to match the lighting as it's supposed to.
 
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The iPhone 12 screens across all models definitely seem to suffer from greater variability than in prior years, but good screens are out there. Albeit, the four 12 models I have purchased all tend warmer than my X or my wife’s 11.

First I bought a 12...screen was very yellow and color shifted from warmer at the top to cooler at the bottom. That was an immediate exchange for a 12 Mini, with a slightly warm but very uniform beautiful screen. That one is a keeper.

Last week, I decided I wanted to try a 12 Pro for my work phone. Had one delivered locally and it was the same deal as the 12. Super yellow and shifted from warm at the top to cool at the bottom. True Tone was completely unusable. So, this morning I exchanged it for another 12 Pro and got a little Christmas miracle. A perfectly uniform albeit slightly warm screen that looks great! If the second Pro was bad, I was going to cut my losses. So happy to have one the is pleasing to the eye. It is a 256GB Graphite if that matters. Good luck everyone!
 
The iPhone 12 screens across all models definitely seem to suffer from greater variability than in prior years, but good screens are out there. Albeit, the four 12 models I have purchased all tend warmer than my X or my wife’s 11.

First I bought a 12...screen was very yellow and color shifted from warmer at the top to cooler at the bottom. That was an immediate exchange for a 12 Mini, with a slightly warm but very uniform beautiful screen. That one is a keeper.

Last week, I decided I wanted to try a 12 Pro for my work phone. Had one delivered locally and it was the same deal as the 12. Super yellow and shifted from warm at the top to cool at the bottom. True Tone was completely unusable. So, this morning I exchanged it for another 12 Pro and got a little Christmas miracle. A perfectly uniform albeit slightly warm screen that looks great! If the second Pro was bad, I was going to cut my losses. So happy to have one the is pleasing to the eye. It is a 256GB Graphite if that matters. Good luck everyone!
Mine is a gold 128 GB pro max, and it's the same as your good screens warm but uniform and looks more white the brighter the screen is. True tone also works well in brighter conditions while low lighting, or warm lighting increases the overall warmness of the screen similar to night shift. As I've mentioned a few times on different threads. I find having True tone on while either in sunlight, or daylight, or cool white lighting reduces the warm appearance of the screen as well. My thoughts are for me, the screen is fine while the true tone sensor may be a bit off, or Apple intentionally made true tone warmer on the 12 models. One thing I've noticed is as I've used the screen more, especially in brighter conditions the warmer look has balanced out. Also a note to add, I got my phone from Best Buy, and not apple, or carrier store. Not sure if that makes a difference either, but thought I'd mention it.
 
Mine is a gold 128 GB pro max, and it's the same as your good screens warm but uniform and looks more white the brighter the screen is. True tone also works well in brighter conditions while low lighting, or warm lighting increases the overall warmness of the screen similar to night shift. As I've mentioned a few times on different threads. I find having True tone on while either in sunlight, or daylight, or cool white lighting reduces the warm appearance of the screen as well. My thoughts are for me, the screen is fine while the true tone sensor may be a bit off, or Apple intentionally made true tone warmer on the 12 models. One thing I've noticed is as I've used the screen more, especially in brighter conditions the warmer look has balanced out. Also a note to add, I got my phone from Best Buy, and not apple, or carrier store. Not sure if that makes a difference either, but thought I'd mention it.
I agree 100%...exactly my experience as well. I think the True Tone is being applied too strongly from either software or the sensor is different. With True Tone off, the screen is quite cool. As long as the screen is uniform, I am happy.
 
When I was looking up this issue after seeing the warmer tint on my 12 pro max, I stumbled on an article talking about either the X, or the XS Max, one of the two and how the OLED panels used aren't pure RGB like LCDs, and therefore having more green pixels. They were referred to as Diamond gird or similar term. I'm wondering while my particular phone looks and works fine, if people complaining about the overly warm tint are seeing the affects of having more green pixels vs pure RGB. I think they termed what i'm saying here as RGBG.
Erica Griffin said it perfectly and I'll try to paraphrase

If u look at 2 iPhones 12 pro max together chances are one will look too red and one will look too green.

The red will end up looking darker and dingy and the green with the True Tone matching warm light will go too yellow

Her point was that despite the screens being colour calibrated to D65 properly they haven't brought the blue pixel count up and the red and green dominates. The 10 didn't have this issue as the RGB was in the right ratios.

More importantly is if you displays have good colour balance between left and right top and bottom because when and if they try to mask this with a software update one side is still going to look brighter or darker or warmer or cooler.
 
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Apple has acknowledged a future software fix, so maybe the color profile they used for the display is a bit off, and some panels show it more than others. Let's see if they fix it. I do know one thing though. I don't want to be looking at a display that goes the other way and is too cool. Then it's too bright and hurts my eyes.

So what happens to the devices that have now have good displays? They become worse? The software update has no way of determining how the screen is showing off "white"
 
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Anyone seeing some bleeding?

On the left side of the screen i see a yellower line on dark gray backgrounds
 
Almost ready to give up on the 12 Pro. Left is my third replacement, right is my second. Compared to each other, the phone on the right is much better but compared to my 11, they are both awful.

the one on the right looks pretty decent unless it looks way worse in person than this photo ?

Got a comparison of the right one with the 11? I'd be curious
 
Erica Griffin said it perfectly and I'll try to paraphrase

If u look at 2 iPhones 12 pro max together chances are one will look too red and one will look too green.

The red will end up looking darker and dingy and the green with the True Tone matching warm light will go too yellow

Her point was that despite the screens being colour calibrated to D65 properly they haven't brought the blue pixel count up and the red and green dominates. The 10 didn't have this issue as the RGB was in the right ratios.

More importantly is if you displays have good colour balance between left and right top and bottom because when and if they try to mask this with a software update one side is still going to look brighter or darker or warmer or cooler.

- I got the 12 mini first- awful yellow display. Returned.
- Got another one, much better - but still yellowish compared to my wife's 11. Then yesterday I compared to a 12 Pro and it's whites were as milky white as the 11 of my wife so 12 mini number 2 also goes back. Not sure what to do at this point. Frustrating as I love the 12s for what they are.
 
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- I got the 12 mini first- awful yellow display. Returned.
- Got another one, much better - but still yellowish compared to my wife's 11. Then yesterday I compared to a 12 Pro and it's whites were as milky white as the 11 of my wife so 12 mini number 2 also goes back. Not sure what to do at this point. Frustrating as I love the 12s for what they are.
iPhone this year really stressful and exhaust. where are going to enter 2021, a firm like Apple can't find till this day a good company to make panels look great, what a shame.
I can't understand is it so hard to calibrate the panels. Why should the white look yellowish and gray slightly look greenish why
 
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This has already been explained several times. With TT OFF, whites WILL look different depending on the external light, this is normal. It's actually the purpose of TT to make the white look as natural as possible depending on ambient light. TT is supposed to counter act the change in ambient light temperature.
You mean TT on adapts to ambient light. With TT off it shouldn’t do this which is the point the original poster was trying to make.
 
Erica Griffin said it perfectly and I'll try to paraphrase

If u look at 2 iPhones 12 pro max together chances are one will look too red and one will look too green.

The red will end up looking darker and dingy and the green with the True Tone matching warm light will go too yellow

Her point was that despite the screens being colour calibrated to D65 properly they haven't brought the blue pixel count up and the red and green dominates. The 10 didn't have this issue as the RGB was in the right ratios.

More importantly is if you displays have good colour balance between left and right top and bottom because when and if they try to mask this with a software update one side is still going to look brighter or darker or warmer or cooler.
I'm going to reply to both of your responses in one post using this one. I did watch the video by her and yes I did see her comments on the lack of blue. However, I had come away with the conclusion she was saying the warmer calibration was both the direction Apple was going, and the lack of more blue was an issue with all Samsung OLED panels manufactured this year. So to separate the two arguments: If it's the panel manufacturing, but variation between panels is enough to make some panels perform worse than others would have to be addressed on a device by device set of circumstances. If on the other hand, Apple's color profile is a bit off, that would be easier to address in software.

The biggest drawbacks here are:
1. I'm not dealing with people in person here, so not being able to see individual devices and the problems people are having for myself make it difficult. Going by what someone says and pictures alone is harder because the pictures are only going to be as accurate as the current display, and also be affected by lighting and the person's ability to take good pictures.
2. The average consumer isn't always the brightest when it comes to understanding tech and how things are supposed to work. So, for someone like myself who has both education and experience to a degree with displays, repair, and various other tech related topics. When it comes to forums and trying to help people sort things out, sometimes it's hard to pick through what's just pointless whining, and what's actually a genuine problem.

With all this said, I only initially got involved in the topic because I've never owned anything with an OLED panel before, so I was checking on correct behavior of OLEDs, since I did notice the warmer tone. However, after doing my own testing, I have concluded my particular phone is working as expected. I really stayed connected with these thread to see if i could help others untangle their problems, if possible since I have good display to go by and the tests I did gave me the kind of results expected.
 
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I’m just very surprised the smearing issue isn’t discussed more, especially in those screens that do it more, like mine.
a simple slow scroll up and down Shows it very clearly

again other people don’t use the phone in those conditions or not sure why they arent bothered by it
All OLED panels do it. A simple google search will tell you the reason why. Just search “OLED black smearing” it’s an inherent negative trait of the technology. Hopefully microLED will solve it.
 
All OLED panels do it. A simple google search will tell you the reason why. Just search “OLED black smearing” it’s an inherent negative trait of the technology. Hopefully microLED will solve it.
Hi,
Thanks. Since discovering this I’ve read a lot on this topic, it’s clear it’s an issue with the technology.

However, I did notice that my screen - with slightly better whites and not too bad colour shifting - is more badly affected by the black smearing than other ones I saw, which I noticed had slightly yellow tinge and much worse colour shifting when tilted.
Perhaps my iPhone has an LGD panel and others have Samsung panels?
 
Apple has acknowledged a future software fix, so maybe the color profile they used for the display is a bit off, and some panels show it more than others. Let's see if they fix it. I do know one thing though. I don't want to be looking at a display that goes the other way and is too cool. Then it's too bright and hurts my eyes.
Sure it is possible for them to tweak white balance in firmware if they want but I don't think they can fix these "rainbow" panels where upper and bottom half of the screen have different hue white (other half reddish/pinkish and other greenish/bluish). Or fix brightness difference between upper and lower half. Sure that could be tweaked in firmware but there is no way to know which individual panels need that correction and which don't, so blindly making some correction table and upload it to every unit simply causes some go off then and improve some... Only what could work is that if certain OLED panel models have the same issue and some other panel model is fine, I'm pretty sure they can make individual calibration data to each panel model, possibly even if some serial number range is affected that too but it would take a lot of work and to analyse huge number of phones showing these issues to see if all are incorrect the same way to see if one correction table would work in all of them. Again I seriously doubt that will be done.
 
iPhone 12 Pro Max 512 GM Sim Free Pacific Blue. The screen is no longer yellow anymore 🤩
 

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Hi,
Thanks. Since discovering this I’ve read a lot on this topic, it’s clear it’s an issue with the technology.

However, I did notice that my screen - with slightly better whites and not too bad colour shifting - is more badly affected by the black smearing than other ones I saw, which I noticed had slightly yellow tinge and much worse colour shifting when tilted.
Perhaps my iPhone has an LGD panel and others have Samsung panels?
I have a funny feeling that the panels that have less black smearing are the panels that suffer from the raised blacks problem where the pixels don’t turn off properly. My 12PM suffers from the raised black issue but has hardly any black smearing compared to my iPhone X.
 
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