iPhone 13 Pro iPhone 13 Pro screen uniformity issue

[woolypants]

Btw, has anyone tried to keep using it for weeks and months, did it get better over time?

Had my iPhone 13 Pro Max for nearly 1.5 years now. It's still the same. Still marginally darker in the top half, rather than the bottom half. The one I sent back before this one was the opposite—brighter at bottom, and a more extreme and jarring effect.

Of course, what has got better is my ability to care about it. I don't see it at all. It's only when I get reminded of it that I see it, or it pops into my head and I take a critical look to see if it's still there.

It reminds me that buying a new iPhone is a nightmare if you care even slightly about screen quality. Apple knowingly sends out sub-standard models, lowering the quality assurance. And somehow it also trains its staff at the Apple Store to be unable to see any faults at all... Incredible, when you think about it.

But given that the headline new features on iPhones are getting smaller and smaller in magnitude, I will not be upgrading for some time outside of damage (and even then I might just pay for a repair). I mean, last year's big feature was a notch. Wow. And it wasn't even implemented optimally in software.

If anything, iPhones seem to be getting worse with each new version in my humble opinion. I prefer the image quality from my iPhone 8's sensor to the iPhone 13 Pro Max's ML-assisted smoothed crap. But I had to upgrade...

And I bought the iPhone 13 Pro Max because it had a huge battery, and more RAM, that should future-proof it for a few more years. I've never once got below 50% battery, for example. Literally never, no matter how much I've used the phone during the day (although I don't play games, which is a notorious battery killer).

 

[Infernoqt]

Had my iPhone 13 Pro Max for nearly 1.5 years now. It's still the same...

Well said. I was hoping to think the same way, but it's like these issues on the phone force you to always switch to a new version.

 

[woolypants]

Well said

Right now the only reason I use an iPhone is negative reasons:

1. I'm tied into the Apple ecosystem because I also use Macs (and have for decades).
2. I don't want to give Google all my data via Android.

This isn't how it should be. Apple should be attracting me with quality products and features. And it just isn't doing that. It hasn't for years. I'm effective coerced into using an iPhone. Don't get me wrong. It isn't bad. But it could be a lot better.

 

[Admwitchy]

Got the regular 13, have the same issue too but it's not as bad as the OP.
I first noticed this when I was scrolling though dark mode YouTube in a dark room and noticed that the edges of the panel was darker than the middle. It was both darker and had a red tint.

It's only noticeable if the display is under <10% brightness (Lower the worse so noticeable at 0%), with blue light filter, when grey background. Displaying other colours have no issues at all. The moment any of the three conditions aren't met then it's not as noticeable (if at all).

I'm not sure if it is normal or not, doing a google OLED panel uniformity has never been perfect, so I thought perhaps it's just a byproduct of OLED technology and not worth replacing. I suspect the people who claim they don't have any issues are either really lucky or don't meet one of the three conditions mentioned above.

I would exchange it for another, but fear the 2nd unit might be worse than the first, have heard of many horror stories regarding panel lottery haha.

hi how it is going?

 

[Admwitchy]

This

You all should you this image instead

 

[Clamjuice65]

I love the 120hz, but have noticed after a few days that the screen uniformity of my 13Pro is significantly worse than my outgoing 11Pro. This is especially evident at night with low brightness (say 10% or so). For example, in Apollo the left to right, green to red tint is extremely noticeable and irritating. I am going to return this unit but may wait a few weeks (months) for the factory to improve on this. Unless this is within tolerance for OLED displays and you have to just live with it, which would really suck since I'm not looking forward to playing the panel lotto.

You might have to upgrade to the new 15promax this fall to solve the screen issue

 

[snyp1193]

I found this thread after noticing uniformity issues on my replacement iPhone 13PM. Im wondering if it’s worth trying to get the display replaced, with the risk of getting a worse display?


It’s not really noticeable in daytime or brightness above 50%. It’s just annoying in dark mode and in a dim room. How bad is this uniformity wise?

 

[Infernoqt]

It’s not really noticeable in daytime or brightness above 50%. It’s just annoying in dark mode and in a dim room. How bad is this uniformity wise?

As I use my phone mostly in "dark room" with brightness between 15-30 % I'd be very disturbed. Gotta say I had this issue on my previous phone, too.

There is not much you can do now. I'd try to replace it.

 

[thadoggfather]

that would absolutely annoy me, if that's what youre inquiring about

 

[snyp1193]

I have a call with Apple senior advisor today and I’ll see what they suggest. I may do a screen replacement after my trip that’s coming up soon.

 

[snyp1193]

The senior advisor said they can send another express replacement but I think I am going to the store to see if they can just replace the display. I don’t want to set up another phone and get other issues besides the display. I’ll report back what they say.

 

[snyp1193]

Store is useless. They’re like “we can see it but can’t do anything since it doesn’t fail our diagnostics, so just take the AppleCare replacement if they offer it” 🙄

I’ll probably end up doing another express replacement after my trip.

 

[snyp1193]

I decided to try another replacement and the new one isn’t much better. It’s less noticeable than the previous one but there’s still a good amount of red tint at the top. This is with True Tone and night mode + grey screen at 5%

 

[Bstephens]

I decided to try another replacement and the new one isn’t much better. It’s less noticeable than the previous one but there’s still a good amount of red tint at the top. This is with True Tone and night mode + grey screen at 5% View attachment 2298867

Just get a 14 or 15 PM. The screens are way better.

 

[snyp1193]

Just get a 14 or 15 PM. The screens are way better.

I’m holding out for a 16 next year as the 14 and 15 aren’t big upgrades.

 

[sdante]

I decided to try another replacement and the new one isn’t much better. It’s less noticeable than the previous one but there’s still a good amount of red tint at the top. This is with True Tone and night mode + grey screen at 5%

Just get a 14 or 15 PM. The screens are way better.

I'm afraid it is a total lottery with 15 PM too. I got 2 x 15 PM and the screens aren't any better than pictures snyp1193 posted here. Actually the last photo looks maybe even better than in better unit I have here. Problem is that especially in bright image with TT and NS on, our both 15 PM's are pretty awful despite the fact that they each have even different panel (one with G9P and the other G9N).

 

[snyp1193]

I'm afraid it is a total lottery with 15 PM too. I got 2 x 15 PM and the screens aren't any better than pictures snyp1193 posted here. Actually the last photo looks maybe even better than in better unit I have here. Problem is that especially in bright image with TT and NS on, our both 15 PM's are pretty awful despite the fact that they each have even different panel (one with G9P and the other G9N).

That’s interesting. My sister has a regular 15 and the uniformity on it is perfect. I think the uniformity gets worse as the size of the screen gets larger. I am hoping the uniformity on the 16 Pro Max will be better than the 13 Pro Max. I can live with my current replacement as it’s really only notice at very low light and grey backgrounds which are 2% of my use cases. I can’t keep playing the screen lottery forever.

 

[Jutah]

That’s interesting. My sister has a regular 15 and the uniformity on it is perfect. I think the uniformity gets worse as the size of the screen gets larger. I am hoping the uniformity on the 16 Pro Max will be better than the 13 Pro Max. I can live with my current replacement as it’s really only notice at very low light and grey backgrounds which are 2% of my use cases. I can’t keep playing the screen lottery forever.

You got the point.
The larger the screen the highest rate of uneven screen.

In my experience the regular units have a very low rate of defective panels, the “max” are very prone to be uneven.

 

[sdante]

That’s interesting. My sister has a regular 15 and the uniformity on it is perfect. I think the uniformity gets worse as the size of the screen gets larger.

Hard to say what causes the difference but I remember my agony with 12 Pro I had to replace several times due to bad screen. Basically these panels are cut from the large sheet and since PPI is the same, they both could come from the same glass, just cut in different size. Then what makes the big difference, is that from which part of the large sheet panel is cut, ones from the middle are usually the best while ones closer to edges are worse. Not sure what part of the big sheet is considered the high quality but lets assume it is like diagonally half of the big sheet, then it would mathematically mean that 1/4 for panels are good and 3/4 no so good... Again, I don't know what sized is that part considered the best but I'd say that sounds about right considering how hard it is to get one with perfect panel when you enter the endless screen lottery by getting replacement after replacement...
In the end, add that panels are made in few different factories and that gives another variable. Like our new 15 PM's they both have different panel (G9P and G9N) and they look different in many ways. BTW, what panel is in your latest?

I am hoping the uniformity on the 16 Pro Max will be better than the 13 Pro Max.

I doubt that. That would require some big changes in panel manufacturing yield with perfect panels or that panels used in phones are more tightly binned but that would likely cause the panel price to go up. For example if about 6" notch type panel production cost is around 30 bucks (that is just rough estimate I saw on the oled-info dot com site from early 2019, not sure what the cost is now). Then how much it would cost if you want only those close to 100% perfect panels and what you do with the rest of the panels and is there even production capacity to meet that, I dunno?

I can live with my current replacement as it’s really only notice at very low light and grey backgrounds which are 2% of my use cases. I can’t keep playing the screen lottery forever.

I agree. Issues you see only about 2% of the time is not so bad, you could easily end up with the panel that shows issues in double digit percentage of the time.

 

[snyp1193]

Hard to say what causes the difference but I remember my agony with 12 Pro I had to replace several times due to bad screen. Basically these panels are cut from the large sheet and since PPI is the same, they both could come from the same glass, just cut in different size. Then what makes the big difference, is that from which part of the large sheet panel is cut, ones from the middle are usually the best while ones closer to edges are worse. Not sure what part of the big sheet is considered the high quality but lets assume it is like diagonally half of the big sheet, then it would mathematically mean that 1/4 for panels are good and 3/4 no so good... Again, I don't know what sized is that part considered the best but I'd say that sounds about right considering how hard it is to get one with perfect panel when you enter the endless screen lottery by getting replacement after replacement...
In the end, add that panels are made in few different factories and that gives another variable. Like our new 15 PM's they both have different panel (G9P and G9N) and they look different in many ways. BTW, what panel is in your latest?



I doubt that. That would require some big changes in panel manufacturing yield with perfect panels or that panels used in phones are more tightly binned but that would likely cause the panel price to go up. For example if about 6" notch type panel production cost is around 30 bucks (that is just rough estimate I saw on the oled-info dot com site from early 2019, not sure what the cost is now). Then how much it would cost if you want only those close to 100% perfect panels and what you do with the rest of the panels and is there even production capacity to meet that, I dunno?


I agree. Issues you see only about 2% of the time is not so bad, you could easily end up with the panel that shows issues in double digit percentage of the time.

How do I check the panel manufacturer?

 

[sdante]

How do I check the panel manufacturer?

Many people seem to suggest 3utools software but I have only used iPhone built in Sysdiagnose function and then read log file "iodevicetree" (located in ioreg folder) and use the search word "panel", it only finds couple hits, it's the one starting with G9....

 

[FunkyTang]

Old threads are the best threads

 

[Chynonyno]

How do you see my 15 Pro Max? The photo is taken with the brightness at 10% Truetone activated and Night Sifht active.

 

[PegasusTenma]

View attachment 2300058

How do you see my 15 Pro Max? The photo is taken with the brightness at 10% Truetone activated and Night Sifht active.

Don’t do this to yourself man. Just enjoy the phone, don’t fall into the trap of looking for perfection

 

[snyp1193]

View attachment 2300058

How do you see my 15 Pro Max? The photo is taken with the brightness at 10% Truetone activated and Night Sifht active.

I would consider that close to “perfect” in my eyes. I wouldn’t notice this in normal usage.