Poll: is your iPhone 4 retina display seeing yellow spots? (update: losing bars in the hand?)
By Ross Miller 
posted June 23rd 2010 7:40PM
posted June 23rd 2010 7:40PM
Update: As a number of readers have pointed out, there seems to be an issue with how many bars are displayed on screen -- perhaps even a correlation to how it's being held in the hand. According to Walt Mossberg's review, Apple has acknowledged the issue as something that has to do with "the way the bars are presented, not the actual ability to make a call," and that a fix is forthcoming. Indeed, as noted in our review, we've had "far, far fewer dropped calls than we experienced on our 3GS." We're not seeing very many videos showing more dropped call, but the bar change is interesting. Still, to be sure, we're adding another poll.
Update 2: Our iPhone 4 purchased in Japan has a pale yellow bar along then entire bottom edge. Picture after the break.
| Yes, in the bottom right corner | |
|---|---|
| Yes, but somewhere else on the screen | |
| Nope, my iPhone 4 screen is fine | |
| Either my FedEx guy isn't so nice or I just remembered I hadn't ordered one anyway |
| Yes, but I don't seem to be dropping any more calls (than usual, at least) | |
|---|---|
| Yes, and I'm dropping more bars than usual | |
| Not seeing any difference in how reception is displayed | |
| ...nope, still don't have an iPhone 4 |
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
yikes
@wakeuplan
well, color me surprised.
@wakeuplan
Macbeth Win!
@wakeuplan
white iPhone turning yellow.
screen turning yellow.
and people turning red.
@wakeuplan its residue from where the unicorn touched the device to infuse it with magic
@wakeuplan inb4 Apple is still better than HTC even though it has flaws in quality control too
@shadowfix
No no no its the unicorn taking one last piss on all Apple fans.
@Ross Miller
Go to, go to; you have known what you should not.
@wakeuplan
this is obviously a feature, not a defect.
I think the manufacture workers left a few surprises on your iPhones.....
Enjoy M#%!@#$%^&ers!!!
I doubt that over half of the phones (as represented in the poll) have this problem. Probably a few fandroids skewing the results.
To many fanboys on both sides these days.
-Hero user
@wakeuplan All the apple haters are ofc going to vote for the problem although they don't even own an iPhone 4
@Plazmic Flame you mean like a yellow rain?
@MoonWalkerCTE
seriously, are you that much in denial?
this is what? the third problem with the iphone 4?
the worst being when you are holding the damn phone, it loses reception because you ground the antenna.
@wakeuplan
hope the people waiting in line have access to this article.
@tortuga07 Exactly what I was thinking.
I'll bet more most of those "Yes" answers are iPhone haters who are this very moment laughing a satisfied, evil laugh after poking the "Yes" button from their EVO. lol
@OSXleopard
yellow screen and no signal maketh the iPhone
http://gizmodo.com/5571171/iphone-4-loses-reception-when-you-hold-it-by-the-antenna-band
@MoonWalkerCTE
also, seriously, 1300 people said they have the problem, do you think all of them are lying?
even 50% lying, that's still a huge number who have this problem.
@wakeuplan
I wonder if JOSH will show this in the Jimmy Fallon show tonight .. hehe. .
@shadowfix I heart your comment. And so it begins..
@wakeuplan
Stop pissing on your screens, Apple.
@wakeuplan Lets be honest guys!!! No phone is perfect. Each phone has its little faults, but then they get exploded and over analyzed!!! Apple fanboys always have to put the EVO down with the battery life(which is great on my EVO) and now im pretty sure this is going to be brought up in future apple post, making fun of the yellow spots. So don't over analyze every little flaw on each phone. And remember DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS!!!!
I am sure there are 1300 Android owners who voted they have a problem with the iPhone. I'll be surprised if a SINGLE vote here for the defect is an actual owner.
@nickcraze Please show a bit of respect to the man's health. I don't always agree with him, but still he deserve some respect. Leave the man's health out of fanboysm, else you'll spoil the fun.
@MoonWalkerCTE just like all the evo haters incredible haters droid haters ect ect no poll is 100% accurate anyway
@jaffreywali Yeah, either that or you're a conspiracy theorist.
@wakeuplan and what about those iphone fanboys going that this screen was perfect and better than all androids becuase it was a higher res. TAKE THAT WHINNY THE POO i hated you anyway (kinda).
also didnt we all warn jobs that having an antenna along the body would damper the signal?
jobs needs to step down like gates did. hes gone from inovative to MAKE THIS LARGER I CANT READ IT. :/
@nickcraze
idiot. it's called jaundice. and making fun of someone's life threatening liver cancer is pretty f-ing childish.
go play in traffic.
@nickcraze bit too far there, kiddo.
@shadowfix
LMAO!
@Rampy
It's safe to say there are fanboys on both sides of the argument skewing the results of the poll. But if we look at just the percentages, about 4 out of every 7 iphone 4 owners are having screen issues. You can't put a total number to it because of the fanboys adding to the total, and not every iphone owner will see this post and vote.
By law of deduction I think that's the best we can do at this time until an official statement from cupertino.
@wakeuplan
Are you kidding me? More than 50% of IPhone owners of the poll report this problem? I don't believe it.
Never buy a product that you haven't seen or held or used in real life I say.
@SeeKo
This poll is a little dumb since the phone hasn't even come out yet. You're going to have a lot of people that don't even have the phone saying, "yes there is a spot." Just because they hate Apple and other people saying "No problems here." Just because they are Apple fanboys. The ones that actually have the phone though are probably like 10% of those that voted. Two thumbs down on the poll. Delete this poll and release it in like a week or so.......
@tortuga07 I concur. Can't we all just live in peace?
@wakeuplan *pats self on back for holding out on pre-ordering* :-)
@benthe1
Sure, there are fans of both sides at work. But there are thousands of mail order iPhones already out there. Don't forget that. And many of the owners are Engadget fans. There is some truth even in falsified polls.
You see! The white iphone will get yellow.. in a way.
@liftedngifted1 Yeah. No phone is perfect. That's true.
But then again, this is apple we are talking here. Steve Jobs... magical devices. These things can't have a problem. Shouldn't have, since they are magical.
Now, tell me. Do you think Apple is going to admit they have a problem in their screens or with the antenna reception? I don't think so....
Why? Cause that's part of their marketing campaign. Their products are magical and perfect.
Sad part of this? Apple fanboys actually think this is true :(
As they think Steve Jobs designs everything in Apple. LMAO
@rodolforfq
Really?
Hate to burst your bubble, but not all fanboys think that.
And I hate to tel ya, but there have worse mistakes in the past.
It's not like this is new to Apple. They usually are pretty good at getting things like that fixed... relatively soon. But that's if they acknowledge it, which they don't always do...
@wakeuplan
Thanks GOD!!!
@coolkams03 Now the hideous "bumper" is beginning to make sense. This is soo disappointing. Okay so what's the list at now? Iphone 4 can't make phone calls when you touch it, has a yellowing screen, tracks your gps location and sells it to whoever it feels like, pushes iAds on you even though you're paying around 2grand for the phone already. I seriously might cancel my preorder and just pick up the new droid or something instead.
@BrianH Here's the other thing, would haters prefer to taint the results or actually distance themselves and say "I didn't buy this". The fedex truck would take more steam out of the Engadget reporting/fanboys because it means while we might be interested in the news, we aren't all Apple consumers. The screens are more or less set in stone, someone smart with information will analyze data and be able to estimate how widespread this is.
@wakeuplan It's not the sinful fruit fault. It's the 3d party eyes are not properly set.
Please remove your pair of eyes or try to look at the phone from a mile away.
With my 3GS in my office 5 bars good quaility and no drops. iPhone4 on speaker or headset while on desk, clear call at 5 bars. As soon as I pick it up it goes to 1 or 2 bars and the call quality goes down and usually drops if I don't put it back down. If I put it down it goes back up. I may be selling my Apple stock tonite...
@wakeuplan
I'm always dropping cars.
@tortuga07 yeah I agree its probably not that bad.
Evo user
@wakeuplan Wow...its been out for just a day and it already has reception issues?? Great way to sell the bumpers. Way to go Steve.
@BrianH You can't ground a radio antenna, but you can block it somewhat.
Maybe he has lead hands?
@pple is poo
Hahahaha.
@wakeuplan Atleast the screen doesn't come off!!