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

[Chris.J]

Truetone doesn't necessarily make the screen appear more yellow in colour. Yesterday was an overcast day and when I went outside, Truetone made my 12P screen appear quite blue-ish, which is what you would expect.

I think most people are comparing Truetone in an indoor setting, and I gather most of us have quite warm colours/lighting in their homes, hence the shift to yellow. Then of course, a warmer tint ontop of an already yellow screen looks like a disaster.

Comparing it to my 2020 MBP screen in various conditions, it's clear that Truetone is also too aggressive, which is a shame, as I do really like Truetone and have it switched on all the time on my MBP.

My solution was to use the Colour Tint. It took me a while to get it right, but working in an iterative process, alternating between the Hue & Intensity setting, I've now managed to get a near identical appearance between my MBP and 12P with Truetone on.

Given that I would have done this anyway to match my MBP screen, I'm happy for now. I can share my process / results if interested, but I still expect a fix/repair from Apple at some point.

 

[Daiken]

It seems that 14.2.1 fixed yellow tint for me, so now if I disable true tone then I get yellow tint like I had before the update, If I enable true tone than it looks good!

Did not fix mine. Just updated it and tested with TT on and off, same contrast.

Compared it to my work phone (iphone 8+) as this is the only one i have access to now.

However the 8+ is close to my wifes iphone 11 in screen color so i use this as reference for now.

The 12 PM is still a little warmer. Not sure if they made the TT a little less aggressive as it doesn't seem as yellow as before compared to the 8+. STILL more yellow/warm though.

Most noticeable if you edit photos with white background on your phone. or compare it to white background.

 

[1222394]

I think we should compare apples to apples (badum-ts). LED displays will always be cooler, which doesn't mean that better. A valid reference should be any OLED iPhone out there. Warmer whites seem to be more realistic. If we keep comparing LEDs to OLEDs we are going to become crazy

 

[Significant1]

Where is this information shown on 3utools?

From memory. Under info (default start page), there are two buttons, verify and details. It is under verify, where screen serial number is buttom left.

 

[alexballvideos]

3 iPhone 12 128Gb in black over the past month, all the same.
Green/yellow tint. No dark black issue.
True Tone is horridly yellow VS iPad Air 3, MacBook Pro.

if your not happy, fill this 2min form out and give Apple the message.

Feedback - iPhone

Apple wants to hear from you. Send us your comments and feedback about iPhone.

www.apple.com

So below is some mucking around I did.
True Tone off, night-shift off, auto brightness off.
Measurements using i1 Display spectrometer configured for OLED Samsung in DisplayCAL on the most recent unit I have. I also checked the last one, which was similar but no so comprehensively as this. I can only do a measure of a white screen as I don't have sophisticated software to talk to the phone.

note: Delta E 1 or less is considered an accurate display (not possible to tell difference side by side with human eye)

ColorWiki - Delta E: The Color Difference

www.colorwiki.com

iPhone 12
100% Brightness (625cd/m) Delta E 1.8 - 6550K

50% Brightness (150cd/m) Delta E 2.6 - 6550K

25% Brightness (55cd/m) Delta E 2.8 - 6550K

For reference > 2018 MacBook Pro ~No Calibration.
100% Brightness (500cd/m) Delta E 0.1 - 7000K

 

[1222394]

3 iPhone 12 128Gb in black over the past month, all the same.
Green/yellow tint. No dark black issue.
True Tone is horridly yellow VS iPad Air 3, MacBook Pro.

if your not happy, fill this 2min form out and give Apple the message.

Feedback - iPhone

Apple wants to hear from you. Send us your comments and feedback about iPhone.

www.apple.com

So below is some mucking around I did.
True Tone off, night-shift off, auto brightness off.
Measurements using i1 Display spectrometer configured for OLED Samsung in DisplayCAL on the most recent unit I have. I also checked the last one, which was similar but no so comprehensively as this. I can only do a measure of a white screen as I don't have sophisticated software to talk to the phone.

note: Delta E 1 or less is considered an accurate display (not possible to tell difference side by side with human eye)

ColorWiki - Delta E: The Color Difference

www.colorwiki.com

iPhone 12
100% Brightness (625cd/m) Delta E 1.8 - 6550K
View attachment 1674684
50% Brightness (150cd/m) Delta E 2.6 - 6550K
View attachment 1674685
25% Brightness (55cd/m) Delta E 2.8 - 6550K
View attachment 1674682
For reference > 2018 MacBook Pro ~No Calibration.
100% Brightness (500cd/m) Delta E 0.1 - 7000K
View attachment 1674683

Wasn't 6500K the standard ?

 

[dejw]

Truetone doesn't necessarily make the screen appear more yellow in colour. Yesterday was an overcast day and when I went outside, Truetone made my 12P screen appear quite blue-ish, which is what you would expect.

I think most people are comparing Truetone in an indoor setting, and I gather most of us have quite warm colours/lighting in their homes, hence the shift to yellow. Then of course, a warmer tint ontop of an already yellow screen looks like a disaster.

Comparing it to my 2020 MBP screen in various conditions, it's clear that Truetone is also too aggressive, which is a shame, as I do really like Truetone and have it switched on all the time on my MBP.

My solution was to use the Colour Tint. It took me a while to get it right, but working in an iterative process, alternating between the Hue & Intensity setting, I've now managed to get a near identical appearance between my MBP and 12P with Truetone on.

Given that I would have done this anyway to match my MBP screen, I'm happy for now. I can share my process / results if interested, but I still expect a fix/repair from Apple at some point.

Could You share your process/ results ?

 

[Jutah]

Truetone doesn't necessarily make the screen appear more yellow in colour. Yesterday was an overcast day and when I went outside, Truetone made my 12P screen appear quite blue-ish, which is what you would expect.

I think most people are comparing Truetone in an indoor setting, and I gather most of us have quite warm colours/lighting in their homes, hence the shift to yellow. Then of course, a warmer tint ontop of an already yellow screen looks like a disaster.

Comparing it to my 2020 MBP screen in various conditions, it's clear that Truetone is also too aggressive, which is a shame, as I do really like Truetone and have it switched on all the time on my MBP.

My solution was to use the Colour Tint. It took me a while to get it right, but working in an iterative process, alternating between the Hue & Intensity setting, I've now managed to get a near identical appearance between my MBP and 12P with Truetone on.

Given that I would have done this anyway to match my MBP screen, I'm happy for now. I can share my process / results if interested, but I still expect a fix/repair from Apple at some point.

Totally agree.
TT perform in the opposite way when you’re outside.

Please share your process, appreciate it.

 

[highn0r]

I was just in contact with apple support online (Germany). They offered me a repair for my device. I asked for replacement and they also agreed on it. I asked if they are aware of that problem for the 12 series. Answer was yes they are. Furthermore I asked wether it's only possible to fix it with repair or replacement and not software. They confirmed that.

Not sure what I will do now... Replace it or repair?!? I am still able to return it until 8th January.

 

[Wayward]

Wasn't 6500K the standard ?

Color temp is fine. Look at the prevalence of green.

 

[alexballvideos]

Wasn't 6500K the standard ?

6500K is considered standard for doing accurate colour work yes.
The panels just seem universally a little bit green. That combined with a calibration to 6500K makes them look *really* warm beside an LCD which is very cool. And it gets worse as brightness lowers, where we mostly use our phones for comfortable viewing, say 50-75%.

 

[1222394]

6500K is considered standard for doing accurate colour work yes.
The panels just seem universally a little bit green. That combined with a calibration to 6500K makes them look *really* warm beside an LCD which is very cool. And it gets worse as brightness lowers, where we mostly use our phones for comfortable viewing, say 50-75%.

If I understand correctly, then calibration is not the issue?
But still, a hardware issue?

 

[tomtad]

So it's looking like there's too much green in the screen

 

[Stewdza]

25% Brightness (55cd/m) Delta E 2.8 - 6550K
View attachment 1674682
For reference > 2018 MacBook Pro ~No Calibration.
100% Brightness (500cd/m) Delta E 0.1 - 7000K
View attachment 1674683

Sir, thank you very much for this. It shows everything now. Reference is MBP, great accuracy.
iPhone 25% brightness = disaster !

 

[alexballvideos]

24mth old iPhone 7 256GB.

100% Brightness (640cd/m) Delta E 0.7 - 7250K


The iPhone 12 at 100% brightness really isn't "terrible", but this performance ~ attached to the highest price devices on the market, it doesn't look good.
I think they'll fix the wonky True Tone, not so sure about the minor colour shift. Time will tell!

 

[Stewdza]

The iPhone 12 at 100% brightness really isn't "terrible", but this performance ~ attached to the highest price devices on the market, it doesn't look good.
I think they'll fix the wonky True Tone, not so sure about the minor colour shift. Time will tell!

You dont think that this yellow screens will be fixed in software update?

 

[1222394]

24mth old iPhone 7 256GB.

100% Brightness (640cd/m) Delta E 0.7 - 7250K
View attachment 1674705

The iPhone 12 at 100% brightness really isn't "terrible", but this performance ~ attached to the highest price devices on the market, it doesn't look good.
I think they'll fix the wonky True Tone, not so sure about the minor colour shift. Time will tell!

Can the color shift be fixed with software?

 

[myllian]

It seems that 14.2.1 fixed yellow tint for me, so now if I disable true tone then I get yellow tint like I had before the update, If I enable true tone than it looks good!

Or you're just in different light now..

 

[moabal]

I’ve used then color tint trick for a while on my 11 (that was warmer than X) then I gave up because it make the the screen less brighter and crip.

the condo of filter plus night shift could be a good idea.

are you noticing the same drop of brightness?

After adding the night shift into the mix, the brightness problem goes away in my opinion.

 

[spcdust]

I previously posted that I fortunately am not seeing any of the issues of yellow screen (apart from a perceived overtly aggressive application of TrueTone) or raised blacks / green tint / green flashing and am perfectly happy with my display. However, just for curiosities sake and also to feed into this thread I used the 3uTools application to check what screen I have installed on my iPhone 12 Pro Max and it came up that I have the G9N - "Good Samsung Screen" which may back up the assertion that this is a better screen?. Also manufacture week date was 18/10/20.

 

[klasma]

Can the color shift be fixed with software?

Only by trading off peak brightness, I think, and it wouldn’t be able to account for differences between individual displays, unless Apple adds controls so that users can perform color calibration themselves.

 

[Bstephens]

I downloaded 3utools from 3u.com. It is in english and a quick google seemed positive. Mine starts with G9P and according to the video is a Samsung Poor grade panel :-(. No wonder it didn't impress, though I am getting used to it and doesn't seem to have uneven colouring. Just glow, yellow tint and not as vibrant as a Iphone 7 LCD.

Ive got a G9N Samsung panel (good) and it is very uniform on 1% gray and close to the white point of my 11 pro max which seems close to 6500k.

 

[Pixels7]

So below is some mucking around I did.
True Tone off, night-shift off, auto brightness off.
Measurements using i1 Display spectrometer configured for OLED Samsung in DisplayCAL on the most recent unit I have. I also checked the last one, which was similar but no so comprehensively as this. I can only do a measure of a white screen as I don't have sophisticated software to talk to the phone.

Thank you for this!! Now I know I’m not crazy. I did send one 12 mini back because of a green tint on the screen and my replacement has the same problem.

Apple support (in the Netherlands) did tell me they’re aware of this particular problem. I had a few very long conversations with them about the green tint on the displays, explaining that I’m experiencing it in all apps and on all brightness levels etc And that I compared to my calibrated monitor. First they thought I was talking about a warmer whitepoint, but finally they got what I meant; That the screen just has too much green. (So thank you for proving it!) They took it seriously, so that’s good. Now I’m hoping it’s fixable in the software.

 

[Bstephens]

I previously posted that I fortunately am not seeing any of the issues of yellow screen (apart from a perceived overtly aggressive application of TrueTone) or raised blacks / green tint / green flashing and am perfectly happy with my display. However, just for curiosities sake and also to feed into this thread I used the 3uTools application to check what screen I have installed on my iPhone 12 Pro Max and it came up that I have the G9N - "Good Samsung Screen" which may back up the assertion that this is a better screen?. Also manufacture week date was 18/10/20.

same here

 

[superloco831]

Hey can one of you please check my display if you don’t mind do you need the whole serial numbers?