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Sam in SoCal

macrumors 6502a
Oct 13, 2019
762
1,031
It seems like I will stick to my original one, after all. This new one has very pronounced purple tint at the top of the screen and green at the bottom when using in dark mode with gray background on lowest brightness settings. I use it this way almost every evening, so it’s a deal breaker for me.

Today is the last day I can return my original, so I’m done playing screen lottery. As much as I wanted more storage, the original one still has the best screen of them all.
Good luck man. I hope you can live with it. When it comes time to sell or trade your device one can pray that the private buyer or the Apple store won’t call you out on screen uniformity issues and reject your phone.
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Sorry but if I’m paying upwards of 1K for my phone there is no way I’m applying a half ass’d filter to make the display look normal or kinda acceptable. Quality control on these OLED displays is shocking. Many devices that would usually be sin binned on the factory floor are making it to apple store shelves. That’s not cool. Sort yourself out Apple.
I know you’ve heard this countless times but I’ll add one more; don’t buy it
 

Eugr

macrumors regular
Dec 3, 2018
175
136
Good luck man. I hope you can live with it. When it comes time to sell or trade your device one can pray that the private buyer or the Apple store won’t call you out on screen uniformity issues and reject your phone.

Well, the screen shows uniformity issues only in dim light, and out of the ones I tested, it's not the worst one, probably the best (although #2 was slightly more uniform, but more yellow too). It's not uniform in terms of pixel brightness when displaying dark gray on lowest brightness setting, so it appears blotchy. But at least it is uniform in terms of color without that purple tint.

I prefer to trade-in in Apple Store, so I don't think it will be an issue since it's well lit. Also, they are not very picky.

BTW, here is a photo I took of the latest unit and my original one in a dark room at lowest brightness setting, displaying ~10% gray background. The bottom one is my original unit, the top one is the one I got yesterday. The purple tint is very noticeable (better view it on LCD monitor at normal brightness as it looks different on OLEDs).

EDIT: actually that was slightly brighter shade of gray, not 5%. The screen is less uniform at darker gray, but it's hard to take a picture of it.

Screen Shot 2019-11-01 at 11.14.32 AM.png
 

Sam in SoCal

macrumors 6502a
Oct 13, 2019
762
1,031
Well, the screen shows uniformity issues only in dim light, and out of the ones I tested, it's not the worst one, probably the best (although #2 was slightly more uniform, but more yellow too). It's not uniform in terms of pixel brightness when displaying dark gray on lowest brightness setting, so it appears blotchy. But at least it is uniform in terms of color without that purple tint.

I prefer to trade-in in Apple Store, so I don't think it will be an issue since it's well lit. Also, they are not very picky.

BTW, here is a photo I took of the latest unit and my original one in a dark room at lowest brightness setting, displaying ~10% gray background. The bottom one is my original unit, the top one is the one I got yesterday. The purple tint is very noticeable (better view it on LCD monitor at normal brightness as it looks different on OLEDs).

EDIT: actually that was slightly brighter shade of gray, not 5%. The screen is less uniform at darker gray, but it's hard to take a picture of it.

View attachment 874287
I did that test last night on my 11 pro max. Mine looks the same as either of those with some variation. I’m ok with it. We are at the extreme to do these kind of tests to look for screen uniformity. I wish I had done this test with my xs max that I sold a couple of months ago just to see what it was. I can tell you one thing, when the kid who bought it handed me 750$(he was about 19-20) screen uniformity wasn’t even a mention. lol. As long as it didn’t have any visible deep scratches or dents he was pleased as peaches
 

Eugr

macrumors regular
Dec 3, 2018
175
136
I did that test last night on my 11 pro max. Mine looks the same as either of those with some variation. I’m ok with it. We are at the extreme to do these kind of tests to look for screen uniformity. I wish I had done this test with my xs max that I sold a couple of months ago just to see what it was. I can tell you one thing, when the kid who bought it handed me 750$(he was about 19-20) screen uniformity wasn’t even a mention. lol. As long as it didn’t have any visible deep scratches or dents he was pleased as peaches

While this is a bit extreme, that purple tint is really noticeable and makes reading white or gray text harder in dark room. I often read on my phone when I wait until my toddler falls asleep at night and I know this purple tint will annoy me. I have to look hard to notice uniformity issues on my original unit outside of this test.

Yeah, I traded in my X too soon - would be interesting to compare. I did have issues with purple tint in the dark, but it was more or less uniform. One thing I know - the white balance on it was just perfect!
 

Sam in SoCal

macrumors 6502a
Oct 13, 2019
762
1,031
Here’s a photo of my 11 pro max taken with an iPhone 7 Plus. 50% brightness no color filters on, no True Tone, no nightshift. Is mine yellowish?
 

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Eugr

macrumors regular
Dec 3, 2018
175
136
Here’s a photo of my 11 pro max taken with an iPhone 7 Plus. 50% brightness no color filters on, no True Tone, no nightshift. Is mine yellowish?

You can't really tell, as there is no reference object and your iPhone 7 camera has its own auto white balance. The only way to tell is to find a sheet of good quality white paper and go outside. With true tone it should also match indoors (or at least be close enough).

It looks like your screen does suffer from uniformity issues, but it could be because you are holding it at an angle. Top part is noticeably whiter than bottom.
 

JonBonJoey

macrumors newbie
Oct 25, 2019
4
1
Here’s a photo of my 11 pro max taken with an iPhone 7 Plus. 50% brightness no color filters on, no True Tone, no nightshift. Is mine yellowish?

Yours has very slight pinkish tones on the top to middle right edge, similar to the one I returned but that one was worse than yours.
 

Bradleyone

macrumors regular
Jul 7, 2015
232
262
Sydney, Australia
Anyone been (silently) playing the screen lottery?

What is the feeling on the current production batch and has the QC seemed to be getting more consistent?

I'm considering jumping back in around Black Friday. Even though historically Apple has never offered iPhone discounts, at least that is around the time they start offering the long return period.

In the meantime I actually bought a Pixel 4 so that I have a state of the art smartphone camera. Impressive device, but screen-wise, the grass isn't greener: it's whiter than my returned lemon iPhone 11 Pro(s), but my eyes subconsciously see color fringing around text while reading. Inferior OLED diamond pattern.
 

Eugr

macrumors regular
Dec 3, 2018
175
136
Well, I played briefly and out of 3 units my original one was still the best screen wise.

#1: a bit yellow, but got better in time. The screen is not perfectly uniform on minimum brightness but not bad either. There is a small scratch or speck of dust under the back glass, but it doesn’t bother me at all, plus it’s not always visible. One other thing I found is that camera sometimes doesn’t focus properly. Not too bad, you can notice it only when pixel peeping, but images from other 2 phones were consistently sharper. However if I focus manually (off-center works better, I guess there is something about Focus Pixels in the center), I get equally sharp shots.

#2: Yellower screen than #1, but fairly uniform. scratch on the inside of the lens cover. Doesn’t affect the quality of the pictures, and they are sharper than #1. In retrospect I should’ve kept this one despite the scratch. It may give some lens flare under certain conditions though.

#3: Screen is similar to #1, no scratches (only a tiny nick on the outer rim of wide lens), however the screen is pretty bad at low brightness. The top part is visibly purple while the bottom part is green. Also there is dust on the wide camera sensor resulting in a dark spot on all photos and live preview (those who ever used a DSLR know what I’m talking about). What’s interesting I only noticed it the next day. Maybe it wasn’t on the sensor at first but landed there after some use.

So I ended up keeping #1.
 
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Bstephens

macrumors 6502
Jul 31, 2010
311
175
My work phone which is a S8 has a very uniform screen at min brightness and min gray but it has burn in from the soft keys at the bottom. My 11 pro has a very nice screen but is brighter at the top with min gray and brightness. Anyone know how the note 10+ is with min gray and brightness?
 

Rik_90

macrumors newbie
Nov 4, 2019
3
0
Spain
Hello!
my girlfriend has just bought an iPhone XS Max and I noticed that the screen of her phone seems brighter and with more contrast. My 11PM seems yellower and the colours change if I rotate the phone. I has also a very bad screen uniformity especially whit grey images at low brightness. I’m out of 14 days return window but I’ve Apple Care+. What do you suggest?
 

Sam in SoCal

macrumors 6502a
Oct 13, 2019
762
1,031
Hello!
my girlfriend has just bought an iPhone XS Max and I noticed that the screen of her phone seems brighter and with more contrast. My 11PM seems yellower and the colours change if I rotate the phone. I has also a very bad screen uniformity especially whit grey images at low brightness. I’m out of 14 days return window but I’ve Apple Care+. What do you suggest?
Sometimes the yellowing settles down after a couple months. Since you have AppleCare you can wait to see what happens. There’s no rush or alarm. this didn’t even bother you until you made the comparison and now magically it’s an issue. Lol. But seriously wait until January to see if the screen changes or it still bothers you. By the way, you’re in good company. Most people here have yellow in their screens. That’s why you have this mega thread
 
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AndrewR23

Contributor
Jun 24, 2010
4,548
1,721
Sometimes the yellowing settles down after a couple months. Since you have AppleCare you can wait to see what happens. There’s no rush or alarm. this didn’t even bother you until you made the comparison and now magically it’s an issue. Lol. But seriously wait until January to see if the screen changes or it still bothers you. By the way, you’re in good company. Most people here have yellow in their screens. That’s why you have this mega thread
It does not settle. This is completely false. You just good used to it
 

Nipommu

macrumors regular
Jan 15, 2011
221
112
I can't do yellow screens. I don't care if its naturally calibrated in manufacturing process I want a cool bluish tone one. I rather get a screen thats more pinkish than yellow...I cannot do yellow. did I mention I cannot do yellow?
 

m0sher

macrumors 6502a
Mar 4, 2018
815
783
I say for most users, test it out during “real world usage”.

Watch movies, surf the net, take a look at your display while doing day to day tasks.

Are you noticing any black crush in areas where the black aren’t as dark as the others?

Do you see discoloration while using Notes, reading Apple Books or News, etc?

If not, then keep it.

I checked for display brightness uniformity which was good for me and haven’t looked back except this thread every now and again. Lol.

As for the warmer displays, as you can see.....it’s just this years calibration on all of them. I hope we shed some light on this to Apple and I hope they can re-calibrate it with just a simple iOS update.

I kept ‘true tone’ off for most of the time until one night it was just a little bit too bright so I turned TT on for warmer display. I forgot to turn it back off afterward. As other have said, you become so used to seeing the screen that eventually the warmer display isn’t noticeable even though calibration hasn’t changed.

I notice under sunlight, when I step outside, turn tone seems to get whiter (less warm) as the environment gets brighter.

I prefer TT on at night, so left it alone. TT on doesn’t effect watching movies, TV etc...so why turn it off I figured. My eyes adjusted and it doesn’t effect functionality or viewing.

My sisters Samsung S10 I compared recently had a deep blueish - red tone on the display when I compared mine to hers. Both Samsung displays, but with different 6500k white points. So to each his own, good luck finding one from any company that has a ‘Perfect’ calibrated white point. Maybe an S10 is your bag of tea if Apple’s 11 series is not.
 

Rik_90

macrumors newbie
Nov 4, 2019
3
0
Spain
I noticed some uniformity issue in Maps using dark mode and low brightness for example. Also reading this forum I noticed that the lower part of the display shows different colours compared to the top of the screen.
The question is, if I go to an Apple Store they will give me a new phone or they can tell me ”We cannot se any problem, the phone is perfect”?
 

thelead

macrumors 6502a
Apr 30, 2010
571
229
As much as I don’t like it, I can tolerate it. I just wish Apple gave us simple calibration settings like Samsung provides. It can’t be that difficult.
 
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Sam in SoCal

macrumors 6502a
Oct 13, 2019
762
1,031
As much as I don’t like it, I can tolerate it. I just wish Apple gave us simple calibration settings like Samsung provides. It can’t be that difficult.
They have an adjustment you can use right now although yes it’s not the same as calibrating the white point. go to color filters and move the hue towards 75%
 

Jim McN

macrumors regular
Nov 14, 2017
200
118
Not sure if someone has this: a colleague got an iPhone 11 pro where the screen is shifting blue very quickly when tilting the phone. So if you look straight at the screen this is fine and it looks uniform but if you tilt it, move it slightly you see immediately the color shifting which makes the screen color not uniform anymore (if you move the top of the phone down when looking at it, the top of the phone is looking whiter and the bottom looks warmer, etc.). I am not sure if this is an issue but it is quite disturbing.
 
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Rik_90

macrumors newbie
Nov 4, 2019
3
0
Spain
Not sure if someone has this: a colleague got an iPhone 11 pro where the screen is shifting blue very quickly when tilting the phone. So if you look straight at the screen this is fine and it looks uniform but if you tilt it, move it slightly you see immediately the color shifting which makes the screen color not uniform anymore (if you move the top of the phone down when looking at it, the top of the phone is looking whiter and the bottom looks warmer, etc.). I am not sure if this is an issue but it is quite disturbing.
I’ve the same “problem” on my iPhone. My girlfriend’s XS Max screen is perfect, so I think I will go to an Apple store and ask for a replacemen.
 

BR4DOKYBrazil

macrumors 6502a
Jan 25, 2018
812
1,972
Londrina - PR / Brazil
I noticed that when I turn on Night Shift, the top of my Pro Max's display turns redder than the bottom. I'm keen to say that only the notch side is redder than the rest of the display, especially in apps with Dark Mode enabled and dark gray or similar backgrounds. Disabling Night Shift I can not notice this difference. Has anyone else noticed this?
 
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