iPhone 15 Pro Max Screen uniformity and cast

[Al Rukh]

Has this Pic been taken with true tone off?

They’re both on True Tone, auto brightness on but I set the slider to match and were taken under the same lighting conditions.

 

[sdante]

They’re both on True Tone, auto brightness on but I set the slider to match and were taken under the same lighting conditions.

Probably non Pro has either G9P or G9Q and Pro G9N which tend to look different. Also TT acts very differently between the units, so that might make difference too. For example, we have 2 pcs 15PM's in our family and TT acts totally different way under the same light, one goes cooler and the other goes warmer under 2700K artificial light, then again the same happens during natural daylight, so they are completely opposite. But they also have different panels.

 

[barry.wiestling]

I’ve attached a couple of photos for comparison. What do you guys think?

15:

15 Pro:

This looks like the 4 different 15 Pro's I have. If you checked the display manufacturer I bet it would be LG. My 15 pro has the warm orange tint (especially noticeable off-axis like the picture you provided).

Samsung displays tend to be more blue while the LG displays have the orange/reddish tint to them. It's really the luck of the draw.

 

[Al Rukh]

This looks like the 4 different 15 Pro's I have. If you checked the display manufacturer I bet it would be LG. My 15 pro has the warm orange tint (especially noticeable off-axis like the picture you provided).

Samsung displays tend to be more blue while the LG displays have the orange/reddish tint to them. It's really the luck of the draw.

Thanks, how do I check the make of the display?

 

[sdante]

This looks like the 4 different 15 Pro's I have. If you checked the display manufacturer I bet it would be LG. My 15 pro has the warm orange tint (especially noticeable off-axis like the picture you provided).

Samsung displays tend to be more blue while the LG displays have the orange/reddish tint to them. It's really the luck of the draw.

That could be it too, I guess. I've never seen iPhone with LG OLED myself and in my previous comment I was considering if that difference was the same viewing straight angle too, which I think is not the case here(?).

 

[barry.wiestling]

You can run sysdiagnose on your phone (press volume up, volume down, and lock button) all together for around a second. You will feel the phone vibrate. Wait a couple of minutes and then go to Settings -> Privacy and Security -> Analytics and Improvements -> Analytics Data.

You will then scroll down and look for a file titled: sysdiagnose_XXXXXXXX

You will click on that file and then click the arrow in the upper right hand corner and scroll down and click "Save to Files"

Once it is saved you will go into your files and click the file to unpack it. Within the folder that is unpacked you will click on the folder "ioreg" and then click the file "IODeviceTree". You will then use the magnifying search glass in the bottom right hand corner to search "raw-panel". It will then give you a serial number.

I have an LG display which has the beginning letters of GVC.

 

[barry.wiestling]

That could be it too, I guess. I've never seen iPhone with LG OLED myself and in my previous comment I was considering if that difference was the same viewing straight angle too, which I think is not the case here(?).

Yeah I never had an LG display until the 15 pro and I must say it is inferior to any of the Samsung displays. I keep trying to get a 15 pro with a Samsung display and I'm currently on my 5th attempt.

 

[Scott M]

I’ve attached a couple of photos for comparison. What do you guys think?

15:

15 Pro:

Woah.

Could you do me a favour and post a head-on pic of them side by side with a predominantly white screen displayed (settings app, calendar app, etc). Could you also turn TT and NS off?

 

[Jutah]

They’re both on True Tone, auto brightness on but I set the slider to match and were taken under the same lighting conditions.

For a real test you have to disable true tone, it really changes the tint/temperature.

 

[Jutah]

Have you ever actually tried to use NS the way it is supposed to use? Meaning use NS only before going to sleep, like the last couple to few hours before. Surely it look terrible orange or yellow if you just test it during daytime, the difference is incredible and anyone sees it then. But if you naturally let is turn into that mode and start using it later before going to sleep, I bet your eyes will be tricked very quickly to see it looking natural. Thing is that using NS before going to sleep will cut blue light from the screen because blue light is very bad and will make you sleep much worse. I'm very picky with the screens myself and I require D65 screens for my normal use but even I can very well tolerate NS when using it as it is intended.

It makes sense. I activate Night Shift a couple of hours before going to bed, but since I always have Dark Mode enabled, I find it less useful in my case. Perhaps it's more beneficial for those who don't use Dark Mode.

 

[Al Rukh]

@Jutah and @Scott M

Sure I’ll do that when I get home later.

 

[Al Rukh]

This was taken using a 15. Not sure why there’s a green tone to this photo. But anyway, the left is the 15 and the right is 15 Pro. True Tone, night shift off and brightness is at 30% thereabouts.

 

[Jutah]

This was taken using a 15. Not sure why there’s a green tone to this photo. But anyway, the left is the 15 and the right is 15 Pro. True Tone, night shift off and brightness is at 30% thereabouts.

The pro is definitely cooler and more natural white in comparison to the 15. It looks great.

 

[cableguy84]

Little off topic. I have a 13 pro max how do i know if my display is lg or samsung?

 

[Luke_atb]

I find the normal 15 somehow brighter. My wife has the 12 mini which is yellowish but somehow lighter. I think you can have a brighter display because of the yellow tint

 

[sdante]

It makes sense. I activate Night Shift a couple of hours before going to bed, but since I always have Dark Mode enabled, I find it less useful in my case. Perhaps it's more beneficial for those who don't use Dark Mode.

You still get the intended benefit of NS in Dark Mode but it is true that it is not as noticeable as with white screen. Also depending on content you use there still can be bright white screens even in Dark Mode, like many websites.

 

[sdante]

This was taken using a 15. Not sure why there’s a green tone to this photo. But anyway, the left is the 15 and the right is 15 Pro. True Tone, night shift off and brightness is at 30% thereabouts.

Probably the left one is actually more natural warm and one on the right has this cool undertone with red push to make it warm enough. Also left one seems to have better uniformity. Very much like the difference between our two 15PM's where one has G9N and the other one G9P.
It would be interesting to hear what panel model is in your iPhones?

 

[Al Rukh]

Probably the left one is actually more natural warm and one on the right has this cool undertone with red push to make it warm enough. Also left one seems to have better uniformity. Very much like the difference between our two 15PM's where one has G9N and the other one G9P.
It would be interesting to hear what panel model is in your iPhones?

I’m not too sure how to check them. I’ve returned the 15 Pro (right) back to Apple.

 

[sdante]

There seems to be instruction for that in this page, just about dozen posts before.

 

[Scott M]

This was taken using a 15. Not sure why there’s a green tone to this photo. But anyway, the left is the 15 and the right is 15 Pro. True Tone, night shift off and brightness is at 30% thereabouts.

That's quite a significant difference!

It surprises me because I've compared my iPhone 15 Pro side by side with my Dad's 15 Pro, my brother's 15, my girlfriend's 12 Pro Max, my stepbrother's 13 Pro and my Stepmum's 14 Pro and head on, they all look close to identical when it comes to the whites. It made me think Apple may have really cleaned up their consistency in recent years.

They did all have differences when viewed at an angle though...

Mine = green tint
Dad's 15 Pro = pink/white tint
Brother's 15 = blue tint
Girlfriend's 12 Pro Max = green tint
Stepbrother's 13 Pro = blue tint
Stepmum's 14 Pro = green tint.

 

[Al Rukh]

That's quite a significant difference!

It surprises me because I've compared my iPhone 15 Pro side by side with my Dad's 15 Pro, my brother's 15, my girlfriend's 12 Pro Max, my stepbrother's 13 Pro and my Stepmum's 14 Pro and head on, they all look close to identical when it comes to the whites. It made me think Apple may have really cleaned up their consistency in recent years.

They did all have differences when viewed at an angle though...

Mine = green tint
Dad's 15 Pro = pink/white tint
Brother's 15 = blue tint
Girlfriend's 12 Pro Max = green tint
Stepbrother's 13 Pro = blue tint
Stepmum's 14 Pro = green tint.

I’m quite accepting to the fact that there are differences between displays even in the same model of iPhones. My eyes are more comfortable with the slight green tint. But washed out grays and pinkish tints are not acceptable for me.

 

[sdante]

I’m quite accepting to the fact that there are differences between displays even in the same model of iPhones. My eyes are more comfortable with the slight green tint. But washed out grays and pinkish tints are not acceptable for me.

Yeah, the one on the left in your photo was better. It would be interesting to know which panel model it is?
I bet is G9N, or maybe LG.

 

[Luke_atb]

Mine is a G9N and the display is more yellow, especially in the right area, but only when nightshift is active and the brightness is between 0-10%. Otherwise the display is nice and even.

 

[rattrapante23]

So it’s been a few months since I posted - thought I’d share my brief thoughts on my experience to date since making my decision to stick / live with my G9N 15 PM after several unit changes/playing the display lottery.
I thought by now I wouldn’t care about the display imperfections, but disappointingly I still notice them nearly every day, and they still suck! While I certainly don’t dwell on this stuff on a daily or weekly basis, every now and then it irritates me.
It's disappointing, because it really takes away from what you expect to be a premium experience given how mature the technology is and how expensive these things are.

I have used several other units (all PM's) in the last few months (friend's phones, display units, etc), and they all have disappointing sub-par displays. For me, this is the worst iPhone display of all iPhones I have owned when it comes to contrast (particularly text), low light legibility, and in particular uniformity and colour shift. This is not OLED as a technology limitations thing, this really does seem like Apple lowering the bar to what is just acceptable and banking on nobody noticing/caring. I have compared these newer iPhones to flagships from the competition and IMO the competition are producing better more consistent displays. Apple have really dropped the ball regarding quality, and need to do something next time around. In any case, I will certainly be strongly considering switching to the competition next time.

 

[sdante]

So it’s been a few months since I posted - thought I’d share my brief thoughts on my experience to date since making my decision to stick / live with my G9N 15 PM after several unit changes/playing the display lottery.
I thought by now I wouldn’t care about the display imperfections, but disappointingly I still notice them nearly every day, and they still suck! While I certainly don’t dwell on this stuff on a daily or weekly basis, every now and then it irritates me.
It's disappointing, because it really takes away from what you expect to be a premium experience given how mature the technology is and how expensive these things are.

I have used several other units (all PM's) in the last few months (friend's phones, display units, etc), and they all have disappointing sub-par displays. For me, this is the worst iPhone display of all iPhones I have owned when it comes to contrast (particularly text), low light legibility, and in particular uniformity and colour shift. This is not OLED as a technology limitations thing, this really does seem like Apple lowering the bar to what is just acceptable and banking on nobody noticing/caring. I have compared these newer iPhones to flagships from the competition and IMO the competition are producing better more consistent displays. Apple have really dropped the ball regarding quality, and need to do something next time around. In any case, I will certainly be strongly considering switching to the competition next time.

Sounds so familiar to my experience. I thought that I could get accustomed to not so good uniformity of my 15PM but no, I can't help seeing it daily because I keep looking for it which is what I do with every display device. I selected G9P for myself but not so sure it was a good choice because while this appears cooler tone than G9N was and even more uniform I think it might actually show issues even stronger in everyday use (not really sure, as I initially tested our both phones a good while and did choose mine based on my tests). I don't know why Android phones I've seen have perfect panels.