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

[Scottsm124]

I just purchased the IPhone 12 Pro after having the IPhone X for 3 and a half years. I was hesitant to do so after all the “yellow tint” rumors but had no option after breaking the screen of my X.

While the phone is fantastic (especially the camera) I’m afraid to report that the screen display issues are very real even after all of the software updates. I’ve compared my 12 pro to my brothers X and my dads regular 12 and my phone is significantly more yellow while using the exact same settings as the other two phones.

It doesn’t matter if I turn off the auto-brightness or mess with the color filters…it still yields the same result. The worst part is if I turn off the True Tone it goes from being far too yellow to too blue.

I can’t watch videos at night without strange flickering…I struggle to read articles as words often get “lost” in the background as I scroll (this part is hard to describe but it’s almost like I lose focus of the words as I’m reading) and the display is either too warm or too cold no matter what I do.

I’m a pretty low maintenance person, especially when it comes to tech…and I only upgraded my phone out of sheer necessity. I can handle the new squared off design and the extra weight…but I can’t accept display issues. This also can’t just simply be chalked up to “you’re just not used to OLED screens” considering I’m coming from an OLED phone that had True Tone on the entire time.

Anyone defending Apple on this one….or just shrugging it off to “this happens every time Apple comes out with a new phone” should probably just sit this one out. This phone debuted forever ago and there are tons of people who are still not simply “getting used to it”. This is my fifth iPhone (IPhone 4, 6, 6S, X, 12 pro) and this is the first time I’ve had issues with the display. I shouldn’t have to tinker with all my settings to make a $1,000 phone useable.

 

[astrovanallen]

The other issue with the 12 series is Jesus Christ is it uncomfortable. That sharp edge just digs in to my hands like a knife after a while. It's just got progressively worse month after month to the point that I don't even like using it anymore. I've pretty much owned every iPhone skipping a year since the 3g and also a bunch of iPod touches, never had this issue with any of them and have for the first time ever even bought a pop socket to deal with it. Not sure if its really helping so far. I'd love to just return the phone at this point and downgrade to an 11, but I bought it last year so I'm guessing even with AppleCare, there's probably no chance of that.

 

[IceStormNG]

The other issue with the 12 series is Jesus Christ is it uncomfortable. That sharp edge just digs in to my hands like a knife after a while. It's just got progressively worse month after month to the point that I don't even like using it anymore. I've pretty much owned every iPhone skipping a year since the 3g and also a bunch of iPod touches, never had this issue with any of them and have for the first time ever even bought a pop socket to deal with it. Not sure if its really helping so far. I'd love to just return the phone at this point and downgrade to an 11, but I bought it last year so I'm guessing even with AppleCare, there's probably no chance of that.

There is another one.. it overheats like an Intel MacBook Air after just 5-10 minutes. I measured temperatures (49°C) on the back of the chassis that are hot enough to literally burn your skin. Together that performance is heavily reduced and it still gets hotter and hotter.
Wasn't Apple pissed about Intel that their CPUs did that? The irony.....

 

[thadoggfather]

There is another one.. it overheats like an Intel MacBook Air after just 5-10 minutes. I measured temperatures (49°C) on the back of the chassis that are hot enough to literally burn your skin. Together that performance is heavily reduced and it still gets hotter and hotter.
Wasn't Apple pissed about Intel that their CPUs did that? The irony.....

That doesn't seem right?

 

[fat jez]

That doesn't seem right?

It’s not. That’s a support call needed.

 

[DontSweatIt]

I just tested my phone watching a youtube video on full brightness and volume for 2 hours and it got a little warm, like 5 degrees above room temperature, it that normal?

 

[deevey]

There is another one.. it overheats like an Intel MacBook Air after just 5-10 minutes. I measured temperatures (49°C) on the back of the chassis that are hot enough to literally burn your skin. Together that performance is heavily reduced and it still gets hotter and hotter.
Wasn't Apple pissed about Intel that their CPUs did that? The irony.....

Had overheating issues with a 5s before ... left it into the service center for a couple of hours and their "engineers" couldn't replicate the overheating issue and wanted to send it for further analysis (30 days!)

The girl at the counter relayed the message from the engineer and while my wife was complaining I started playing RR3 ... 5 minutes later and a firm "push" into her hand, she dropped it due to the heat and the phone was replaced 15 minutes later

You get bad ones, and that's what the warranty is for.

I just tested my phone watching a youtube video on full brightness and volume for 2 hours and it got a little warm, like 5 degrees above room temperature, it that normal?

Only 5 degrees I wouldn't complain about.

 

[one more thing]

Been reading this since launch day for 12 pro max as I had a pro max with an unacceptable yellow screen even with TT off. Also the blue shift was drastic slightly off axis which made everything look green at a slight angle.

Anyway since then I returned that one and had tried 4 others up until end of November and just gave up. Few weeks ago I wanted to try again as I was convinced any COVID manufacturing issues would be resolved by now. Tried out iPhone 12 mini and same awful screens maybe even worse than last November!

Then thankfully I decided to go into Apple store (uk) and look at display models and found only a few that had proper white balance, long story short I bought 4 one after the other and got refunds until they brought out a phone that matched the one on display. Finally 6 months later I had an iPhone 12 Pro with perfect whites, blacks, hardly any colour shift on angle and a proper OLED punchy high contrast screen. All others before that were so washed out and was not prepared to accept for that amount of money.

So just wanted to share my experience to confirm there are good panels out there but are definitely in the minority.

Cheers and good luck!

 

[one more]

So just wanted to share my experience to confirm there are good panels out there but are definitely in the minority.

How is this possible? Are Apple sourcing their panels from different suppliers for the same device or have too loose quality controls in place? Even then, if one manufacturer manages to come up with, say, 10% of “perfect panels”, why would they screw up the other 90%? With the process being highly automated and all and Apple turning down “bad panel makers” in the past?

 

[one more thing]

How is this possible? Are Apple sourcing their panels from different suppliers for the same device or have too loose quality controls in place? Even then, if one manufacturer manages to come up with, say, 10% of “perfect panels”, why would they screw up the other 90%? With the process being highly automated and all and Apple turning down “bad panel makers” in the past?

I don’t know. Can only assume the pandemic has had a massive effect. All I know is the majority I have seen have been terrible.

 

[IceStormNG]

How is this possible? Are Apple sourcing their panels from different suppliers for the same device or have too loose quality controls in place? Even then, if one manufacturer manages to come up with, say, 10% of “perfect panels”, why would they screw up the other 90%? With the process being highly automated and all and Apple turning down “bad panel makers” in the past?

Well, OLED is organic. So it naturally degrades through certain influences.

I also assume Apple has lowered the quality standard to ship more phones du to shortages.
And yeah, they do source from multiple suppliers. The same thing happened already to the first gens of the retina MacBooks. There where Samsung and LG panels. And LG Panels had some issues. So it was a lottery which one you got.

Looks like buying Apple products becomes more and more a gamble...

 

[Phone Junky]

Looks like buying Apple products becomes more and more a gamble...

It is...







...if you're looking for perfection. 😐

 

[IceStormNG]

It is...







...if you're looking for perfection. 😐

So.. buying the like most expensive phone on the market, and I shall accept low quality standards? I don't think so...

Doesn't Apple always blare how high quality all their stuff is and how it "just works"?

 

[Phone Junky]

So.. buying the like most expensive phone on the market, and I shall accept low quality standards? I don't think so...

Doesn't Apple always blare how high quality all their stuff is and how it "just works"?

I get what you're saying and agree, to a certain point. The new phones come out and you read countless threads of happy new owners. Discussions go on for months after the new phones are released with a majority of people happy with their phone. Then you come into one thread where there are a limited number of people posting over and over. Some, such as the one a few posts up, buy and return multiple devices describing how 'bad' some were. How is it that, for the most part, most posters on these forums don't have the display 'problems' that some in this thread have? Most people buy one iPhone and it is fine, yet some in this thread will go through multiples. I find it hard to believe one person could have that much bad luck. Maybe some people have super sensitive Superman vision and can discern subtle variations that most can't. I don't know. It just seems odd.

 

[IceStormNG]

I get what you're saying and agree, to a certain point. The new phones come out and you read countless threads of happy new owners. Discussions go on for months after the new phones are released with a majority of people happy with their phone. Then you come into one thread where there are a limited number of people posting over and over. Some, such as the one a few posts up, buy and return multiple devices describing how 'bad' some were. How is it that, for the most part, most posters on these forums don't have the display 'problems' that some in this thread have? Most people buy one iPhone and it is fine, yet some in this thread will go through multiples. I find it hard to believe one person could have that much bad luck. Maybe some people have super sensitive Superman vision and can discern subtle variations that most can't. I don't know. It just seems odd.

I know.. I also don't really have this issue. It's just in general that it became more and more a lottery in some regards.

I had big issues with other Apple devices that needed multiple replacements. And it feels like crap that you get a lemon while others apparently get perfectly working devices. Or just don't notice it.

Especially when everything is supposed to be "highest quality" (whatever that means for Apple).

 

[Fred Zed]

Been reading this since launch day for 12 pro max as I had a pro max with an unacceptable yellow screen even with TT off. Also the blue shift was drastic slightly off axis which made everything look green at a slight angle.

Anyway since then I returned that one and had tried 4 others up until end of November and just gave up. Few weeks ago I wanted to try again as I was convinced any COVID manufacturing issues would be resolved by now. Tried out iPhone 12 mini and same awful screens maybe even worse than last November!

Then thankfully I decided to go into Apple store (uk) and look at display models and found only a few that had proper white balance, long story short I bought 4 one after the other and got refunds until they brought out a phone that matched the one on display. Finally 6 months later I had an iPhone 12 Pro with perfect whites, blacks, hardly any colour shift on angle and a proper OLED punchy high contrast screen. All others before that were so washed out and was not prepared to accept for that amount of money.

So just wanted to share my experience to confirm there are good panels out there but are definitely in the minority.

Cheers and good luck!

And you’ll be the doing the same again when the 13 comes out ? 😂😂

 

[Fred Zed]

PS you think off axis color shift on the 12 Pro Max was bad, check out the S21 Ultra I bought and immediately returned within 24 hours. Whites turn magenta with a slight off axis angle.

Second one is also a video

https://imgur.com/a/PSIiNUq

 

[one more thing]

Think the OLED screens have more downsides than I originally had anticipated. Also I am in minority to an extent as I work in colour on screen as a retoucher, so I am less likely to settle for yellow biased white balance. Most people would not even question it. Whereas I cannot settle for a display that is dull, lacks punch and contrast after spending £1k on a phone. Hopefully mini led tech will reach phone displays soon.

 

[one more thing]

And you’ll be the doing the same again when the 13 comes out ? 😂😂

No doubt.

 

[Madness837]

Just got my iPhone 12 mini completely replaced (again) and i'm still experiencing a yellow tint. This is the third model so far.. Serial number starts with C7C for anyone that is curious. Checked out some display models and those are affected by it as well. My friends iPhone 12 does not seem to be affected by this.

In the screenshot I'm comparing my iPhone 11 (left) to my iPhone 12 mini (right). My other iDevices all have a cool temperature as well.

 

[IceStormNG]

It's either quality control issues, or the fact that OLED changes color based on brightness. The 12 OLED is brighter than the previous versions. Do you have True Tone disabled on both?

When my new colorimeter for my monitor arrives, I might go and check what it thinks about the iPhone 12 display. Lets get some numbers (I hope I can actually get it to work on the iPhone).

 

[Madness837]

It's either quality control issues, or the fact that OLED changes color based on brightness. The 12 OLED is brighter than the previous versions. Do you have True Tone disabled on both?

When my new colorimeter for my monitor arrives, I might go and check what it thinks about the iPhone 12 display. Lets get some numbers (I hope I can actually get it to work on the iPhone).

Whenever I disable True Tone on the 12 mini the display gets a greenish tint. The three models I've had are less bright than the iPhone 11 and even iPad air 2019.

The white balance, albeit a lot more on the yellow/green side, does seem to match my white table a bit better than my other devices.

 

[deevey]

Some, such as the one a few posts up, buy and return multiple devices describing how 'bad' some were. How is it that, for the most part, most posters on these forums don't have the display 'problems' that some in this thread have? Most people buy one iPhone and it is fine, yet some in this thread will go through multiples. I find it hard to believe one person could have that much bad luck.

If you buy bread from the store and its stale, bring it back to be replaced and the next loaf is also stale. Check the date.

It's possible that the bad ones are from the same batch.

Just got my iPhone 12 mini completely replaced (again) and i'm still experiencing a yellow tint. This is the third model so far.. Serial number starts with C7C for anyone that is curious. Checked out some display models and those are affected by it as well. My friends iPhone 12 does not seem to be affected by this.

In the screenshot I'm comparing my iPhone 11 (left) to my iPhone 12 mini (right). My other iDevices all have a cool temperature as well.

View attachment 1781312

Ugh - identical as my wife's 12. There's warm and there's Cookin', thats the latter for sure.

When my new colorimeter for my monitor arrives, I might go and check what it thinks about the iPhone 12 display. Lets get some numbers (I hope I can actually get it to work on the iPhone).

It'd be pretty cool to see the numbers from one of these very warm displays on the actual hardware that they should be testing with in-store.

Maybe some people have super sensitive Superman vision and can discern subtle variations that most can't. I don't know. It just seems odd.

If you are used to using Nightshift / TT you are already used to a phone screen being yellow tinged.

If you are someone who works with color on a day to day basis, you are going to notice when whites are displayed as light yellow.

Even if you don't, when you place two identical phones side by side and one is very much yellower than the other something is amiss in quality control land.

 

[DontSweatIt]

I dont know if I have a yellow tint because when I turn off night shift it looks very white.

 

[Scottsm124]

Can someone explain to me what is going on here? This is with my IPhone 12 Pro with full brightness on in the dark. Is this a PWM flickering issue or is this normal? When I did the same exercise with my dads IPhone 12 this did not happen. I’m not a tech guy by any stretch of the imagination but I’ve been having some issues with my display and would like to know if something is genuinely faulty so I can properly address the situation. Thanks.