[Nexus 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] alsheron:
So the Nexus 4’s potentially quality screen has crappy screen issues. There. I said it.

What I mean is that it’s a GREAT screen in some ways (resolution mainly) but it’s let down by what seems to be noticeably poor quality/manufacturing.

Why do I say this? Well, it’s been my experience that the Nexus 4 (in general) has a chronic problem with significantly poor screen uniformity for both colour and brightness. I ordered my first phone on the 13th December 2012 and as soon as it arrived I was pretty excited at finally getting a new phone (upgrading from Galaxy S1 the N4 is a beautiful beast).

When I booted it up and started using it I immediately got a sinking feeling as I realised that the bottom third of the phone had a slight but easily noticeable yellow gradient tint to it along with the left edge and the right edge was grey/dingy about a half a centimetre in. The left side and bottom third were also noticeably brighter than the right side of the phone. I’ve illustrated this in the attached pic. It’s all fairly subtle – but it’s definitely there and is easy to see.

Since I use (like most people I guess) quite a few apps that have white or solid colour backgrounds (gmail, currents, google books, email, messaging, chrome etc) – this lack of uniformity really made things look crappy in a not spectacular but just “sub-par” way unless I was viewing something which was a picture or video or filled the screen where it wasn’t noticeable.

So I called Google Play and told them about the problem and they arranged for a return.

When I got my replacement I booted it up and immediately, even before getting past the X logo animation noticed a big spot of light bleed at the top right. *Very* easy to see and my heart sank.

There on in I opened up the Mail app and closed the keyboard so I got a nice, mainly white screen. Again I noticed the same issue with the yellowing tint to the bottom and left but this time it was *more* noticeable.

To cut this long story short I’ve now sent back 3 devices for this issue, about to send back my 4th and my 5th should arrive tomorrow. I’m not holding out much hope.

I’ve seen this exact same issue on about 4 other Nexus 4’s in shops in the UK (Carphone Warehouse, O2) and while there looked at the HTC One X, iPhone 5 and the new Lumia phones from Nokia running Windows Phone 8. Those phones in particular (with LCD screen tech too) didn’t have these issues *at all* as far as I could tell. In fact the HTC One X screen looked to me to be flawless, as did the Lumia 820 and 920. If I could put the screen from the One X into the N4, I would. Sadly, not gonna happen. Sadly I don’t want the One X but do want an N4. P.S. I know LG manufacture their own displays.

Now I’m NOT claiming to speak for ALL N4’s (why I’ve started this thread) but I do believe that it cannot be a coincidence that ALL the N4’s *except one* showed this issue. I believe that LG simply manufacture the screens in such a way that they invariably have these tinting and brightness uniformity inconsistencies and that because most people don’t care, they don’t care.

********What I’d like is to ask if people with an N4 they’re happy with could do the following and provide the following info:

*Open the Mail app and close the keyboard (press down arrow at bottom). Look at the white of the screen and see if there is any edge or part of the screen that is noticeably *brighter* or *more yellow*. Are there any areas of the screen that are noticeably darker or duller? Do this for different brightnesses (low and fairly high). What do you see? Any yellow tint? Any inconsistency in brightness? All ok? Perfectly even?********

TL;DR: I’ve had 4 Nexus 4’s from Google Play all with the same yellow tint and brightness uniformity issues. Very noticeable. Not acceptable to me for a device that displays a lot of white “pages” and solid colours. Other phones (that I don’t want) do not have this issue (annoying). Please can you give feedback from your phone.

PLEASE NOTE:

Other threads discussing the “yellow tint” issue invariably attract trolls in their varying forms.

DO NOT reply to this thread if you simply want to say any of the following:

1) I don’t see a problem with mine therefore I don’t understand what you’re talking about.

2) I don’t see a problem with mine therefore you’re imagining a problem with yours.

3) I don’t see a problem with mine therefore you’re expecting a “perfect” screen and they don’t exist.

4) There are more important things in life to worry about. (A: I’m not “worried”, screen uniformity is important to me, get over it.)

5) I see a slight yellowing but I don’t care therefore you shouldn’t care. There are more important things in life to worry about.) [see above]

The attached illustration is slightly "exaggerated" to make sure the effect is reproduced for all screens. Not by all that much though.

UPDATE: 31/01/2013: Well I've received *another* N4 replacement today and lo and behold the exact *same issue*. With this one I'm going to wait it out at least a week and see if it improves. I *really* want an N4 as in every other way it's truly a great piece of tech. Pray for me guys!