Owners Of Apple’s iPhone 12 Series Report Being Plagued With Odd Quirks in Devices’ Screens

NEWS: 11.25.20 – No, the OLED display on that new iPhone which has been displaying a greenish, or, in other cases, a grayish or yellowish, hue isn’t the result of the phone being on LSD (nor is the person who owns it… phew!).

According to a report last Wednesday from the website, MacRumors, Apple has acknowledged a display issue with its new iPhone 12 models. The problem appears to be either a green or gray glow — or other unintended lighting variations under specific conditions — as well as flickering of the screen.

Based on iPhone 12 owners’ reports in the Apple Communities discussion threads and the MacRumors reader forums, the quirk appears to occur when the screen brightness is set to approximately 90% or lower. The glowing or flickering is not always persistent, disappearing after a short time for some individuals. According to MacRumors, many have been experiencing the display issue on iOS 14.1, iOS 14.2, and even the first two beta versions of iOS 14.3.

MacRumors reported that the display issue can affect all iPhone 12 models from the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini to the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max. But, how does one know if their brand new iPhone is affected by this quirk?

According to a report last Friday from the website, Lifehacker, iPhone 12 owners shouldn’t panic just yet, and, before taking any action, should do the following steps first to confirm signs that their screen is exhibiting the display issue:

• turn off the lights in the room and restart the iPhone
• view a darker image or pull up an all-black background on the screen
• if the display has a strange green glow, it will be evident

After determining that one’s iPhone exhibits the display issue, the recommendation from Lifehacker was to contact Apple — which might send owners of affected devices a replacement (per a claim by one user on the Apple Communities discussion threads) — however, as was duly noted in the report, there is no guarantee that what one receives will actually fix whatever problem has been plaguing some of these iPhone 12 models.

In an internal document that was circulated last week among Apple Authorized Service Providers (AASPs), which was shared with MacRumors, Apple said that it was aware of customer reports related to the display issue and is investigating. The Cupertino, California-based company has advised technicians, for the time being, to avoid servicing affected iPhone 12 models and instead to inform customers that they should keep their iPhone up to date with the latest version of iOS.

That directive, according to MacRumors, would suggest that Apple may be confident that it can fix the display issue in a future iOS software update (such as what the company did earlier this year when some owners of older iPhone models experienced a similar problem with their OLED displays).

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The green glow found in the devices’ displays is the latest in a series of quirks that have been plaguing iPhone 12 owners and is not the only issue affecting this year’s flagship iPhones.

Just days after the iPhone 12 was released, Macwelt, the German language version of Macworld magazine, reported that — as translated into English by the publication’s UK edition — it started hearing isolated complaints about damage to the new phones’ chassis and camera. A week later, owners complained that texts were disappearing. And earlier this month, the publication heard about a third problem, this time around, a display issue with the devices.

However, rather than a greenish or grayish hue, this particular display issue was of a different color altogether.

According to Macwelt,Reddit users and members of the MacRumors reader forums were reporting that the displays on their iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro models had a yellow tint on its screens. The magazine was quick to warn its readers that if one suspects they are experiencing something similar, to check the Settings app first before rushing to the nearest Apple retail store as the effect could be caused by the “Night Shift” or “True Tone” settings. If the device still exhibits the display issue after disabling each setting, it was recommended by the publication that owners of the affected devices contact Apple Support as soon as possible to exchange the phone for one with a more accurate screen output.

In the report last Friday from Lifehacker, the website reported that one can check for this particular display issue by turning off “True Tone” — which can be done by navigating to the “Display & Brightness” section — and pulling up screens with white backgrounds (e.g., webpages): if one’s iPhone looks unnaturally yellow, the device is affected.

Macwelt reported that the good news was that, so far, the complaints from iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro owners appear to be isolated cases. The magazine added that it was difficult to assess whether or not Apple is looking at a consistent production error with the OLED displays on its iPhone 12 models (and it remains to be seen if the display issue can be resolved with an iOS software update as suggested by MacRumors in its report regarding the green glow exhibited by the screens on these new iPhones).

Additionally, per Macwelt, there also have been reports of the lock screen on the iPhone 12 mini being unresponsive.

Related Reading: from the PowerBook Central archives (October 2006) – “Apple Officially Acknowledges MacBook’s New Blue Hue”