iPhone 18 Pro owners are reporting a magenta tint on their screens next to the iPhone 17 Pro, and Apple did change how the display is calibrated this year. Users are sharing the experiences on Reddit and some say that the display on the new iPhone 18 Pro has a significant magenta tint compared with an iPhone 17 Pro.
In photos of the two phones put side by side, there is a definite difference. The tint stays the same with True Tone off on both phones, according to the Reddit poster, and a second iPhone 18 Pro they compared shows the same look. The phone is the international model A3714.
iPhone 18 Pro screens have a magenta tint vs 17 Pro.
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Apple Changed the iPhone 18 Pro Display Calibration This Year
Photographer Austin Mann mentioned a change to the display calibration in his iPhone 18 Pro camera review. He wrote that the new displays have new color calibration with Apple Color Matching Functions, or CMF, for more accurate and consistent colors. He also quoted Apple as saying the advancement “bridges the gap between display color capability and true perceptual quality.”
Color matching functions are curves used in color science to describe how the human eye responds to different wavelengths of light. Engineers use them to predict how the red, green and blue output of a screen will look to a person. Apple has not published details on how its version works, and its launch press release does not mention it.
A separate iPhone 18 Pro review from Man of Many also describes color rendition as managed through Apple Color Matching Functions. Apart from that and the smaller Dynamic Island, the panel specs are close to last year. Our iPhone 18 Pro vs iPhone 17 Pro comparison covers the rest, and an iPhone 18 Pro teardown shows how Apple shrunk the cutout.
Owners in the Reddit Thread Report Pink, Purple and Magenta Screens
Plenty of commenters say they see the same thing on their iPhone 18 Pro or iPhone 18 Pro Max. The comparison phones vary, and so do the descriptions.
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Other owners say their phones look fine, one iPhone 18 Pro Max owner with an LG panel coded GH3 calls the screen outstanding, and another says the whites look better than on an iPhone 17 Pro Max. Several owners say their GVC panel is fantastic, with an accurate white point and no color shift off axis.
Some commenters also point out that the iPhone 17 Pro has a warmer white. One owner says the iPhone 17 Pro looked like it had a yellow filter once both phones were at the same brightness, and another says the iPhone 18 Pro Max is much cooler with a less pronounced True Tone effect. That would mean part of the gap comes from the older phone leaning warm.
Some Owners Blame Panel Variation and Others Blame the New Calibration
This seems to be a discussion that happens every year. Apple screens are slightly differently calibrated from one generation to the next. Apple uses more than one display supplier, and units from different suppliers and production lots can look different side by side. Panel codes for both LG and Samsung came up in the Reddit disucssion, and tint reports came from more than one of them.
It is also important to note that Apple keeps very tight white point specs and that normal aging of an OLED can make an older phone drift from a new one.
One Redditor also said that the tint is not a precision problem and believes Apple deliberately moved the iPhone white point as part of its new CMF standard, which they say pulls it away from paper white when True Tone is on. That is one owner’s theory which is not confirmed by Apple, and no reviewer has published measurements that back it up.
How to Compare an iPhone 18 Pro Screen With an Older iPhone
A side by side check that removes automatic adjustments is the best way to find out:
- Turn off True Tone on both phones in Settings, then Display & Brightness
- Turn off Night Shift on both phones in the same menu
- Turn off Auto-Brightness under Settings, Accessibility, then Display & Text Size, and set both phones to the same brightness
- Remove any screen protector, and check that no color filter is switched on in Accessibility
- Open the same plain white image and the same neutral gray image on both phones and hold them side by side in the same room
For owners who want to adjust the look, they can use Color Filters setting under Settings, Accessibility, then Display & Text Size. A Color Tint filter with a hue of about 25 to 33 percent gets it closer to an iPhone 17 Pro Max, and a Blue/Yellow filter at around 10 percent intensity also helps. A filter changes how everything on the screen looks, so it is a personal fix for taste and not a route to accurate color.
Anyone who finds the difference unacceptable can also contact Apple or visit an Apple Store about an exchange during the return window.
