Pavilion x360 screen is yellowish/dull

[Kceyleb]

I just bought my laptop yesterday but noticed the screen does not look bright like other laptops when placed side by side; I mean, none!

The screen appears dull, yellowish, not bright, and just odd for me.

I took it back to the store and so far, Two other laptops they set up have the same screen display. So, its kind of difficult for me to reject the product as this appears to be a HP problem.

I have also seen similar problem posted online but no solution has worked for me, including downloading Intel Graphics Driver. The night light setting is also off.

Please help.

[sandytechy20]

@Kceyleb

Thank you for posting on HP Forums,

As I understand the color does not appear as it normally should,

However, I will need a few details to provide an accurate solution,

• Have you attempted to check if this issue appears on an alternate/external monitor?
• Did you attempt to calibrate the color settings on your windows?

If not, We'll use the Windows Color Management settings to walk through the steps of calibrating your display. The steps below are for Windows 10.

Before you start, make sure your monitor has been on for at least half an hour, so it's warmed up properly, and clean your monitor.
 

1. Right-click on the desktop and select Display settings


 

2. Click "Advanced display settings" at the bottom of the settings window.
 

3. Verify that your monitor is set to the recommended, native resolution. If it's not, set it to the recommended resolution at least for this calibration process.
 

4. Click "Color calibration" at the bottom of the advanced display settings window.
 

5. Click Next to start the color calibration.
 

 

The wizard will walk you through adjusting your color settings. You'll:

• Set the display to the factory default color settings, if your monitor allows you to do that
• Adjust your display's gamma to match a sample image
  
  
   
• Adjust the brightness and contrast
  
  

Adjust the color balance



6. At the end of the wizard, click Finish to save your settings.
 

You'll then be able to calibrate ClearType for sharper text.

Let me know if that helps.

Cheers.

[Kceyleb]

Thank you for the very detailed response.

I have tried the settings suggested but it makes no difference and I think I figured out why.

I have attached an image so you can review the two screens in it.

The one on the right is my kind of x360, and as I have now compared both screens even without display, it is obvious my screen looks yellow-ish. It appears this laptop screen was sort of "tinted". This explains why my laptop display can never be bright like that of other laptops.

I have never seen anything like this before and need to be sure just what is going on. Is this how HP designed it? Or have "my people" once again demonstrated their dishonesty by "adjusting" laptops to sell as new.

I would be glad if this dilema can be sorted for me.The screen on Left looks like that of most laptops, the one on the Right appears to have been "Tinted"

[sandytechy20]

@Kceyleb

Thank you for replying to my post on the HP Support Forums,

I have brought your issue to the attention of an appropriate team within HP.

They will contact you shortly and likely request information from you in order to look up your case details or product serial number.

Please look for a private message from an identified HP contact.

Additionally, keep in mind not to publicly post personal information (such as serial numbers and case details).

Cheers.

[alsisson51]

I need some type of resolution to the yellowing of the screen on a Pavillion I purchased yesterday. My settings are on the reccommended setting, but the discoloration of the screen is troublesome to my eyes. I really don't want to return the product because I love other things about the device, but this isn't something I can work with.

[David_J_W]

The right hand photo in @Kceyleb's second post appears to show a screen with a factory applied anti-glare coating - note the more diffuse light sources. This coating may impart a degree of colour cast.

I'm going to give two explanations. First is the technical one, then a non-technical one that might be easier to understand if you are not familiar with the terminology of colour management and profiling.

Ideally, HP will have provided and installed an ICC colour profile that will allow Windows' colour management to correct for any colour cast imparted by the film but this is often not done, especially for consumer grade laptops. With the film applied, the native white point may well be more to the yellow end of the colour temperature range (low Kelvin value) - in other words a 'yellow' white or 'warm' white. The vast majority of computer screens have a native white point towards the blue end (high Kelvin value) - in other words, a 'blue' white or 'cold' white.

If you're used to seeing uncalibrated displays, the Pavilion screen may well look rather yellow - but the eye can adjust remarkably quickly to differing white points so long as it is not being confronted with different white points at the same time.

A hardware calibration setup will allow you to adjust the screen to a chosen white point and calibrate its response - but these systems are not cheap (a popular one is X-Rite's i1 Display Pro). Manufacturers often calibrate to the native white point rather than to a specified white point such as D65 for the sRGB standard because calibrating to a non-native white point cuts down on brightness.

That's a pretty technical explanation; unfortunately colour management is a rather complex area. Here's the non-technical summary:

Manufacturers often quote three parameters for screens - resolution, refresh rate and maximum brightness. They may also quote a contrast ratio. They will be loath to do anything that cuts down on the often eye-searing maximum brightness of modern displays (they're often way too bright at maximum brightness for comfortable use indoors), so if they do provide a "colour profile" as part of a "monitor driver" to get the screen reasonably accurate, they probably won't take advantage of the ability of that profile to shift the white point of the screen to a "standard white" - they'll leave it at the native white point of the screen which is probably rather blue.

Unfortunately impressive numbers sell, even when those numbers act against the consumer's interests. A classic example here is the way that megapixels are used to sell cameras. On all but the most expensive setups, the resolution of a market leading high megapixel sensor is far beyond the resolving capacity of the lens - but the consumer believes more megapixels means more quality and manufacturers go along with that consumer belief. In many cases a lower megapixel sensor paired with the same lens would provide images with just as much information in them but with smaller file sizes and lower noise (or higher sensitivity in low light situations). Meanwhile, there are few consumer applications where all those megapixels are needed even if they contained extra information - a 4K screen is just over 8 megapixels and 8 megapixels is likely to be more than enough for prints up to A4 / US letter size. There are good reasons why pros who need ultimate image quality still use expensive and often heavy lenses - those lenses are the only way to get the resolving capacity needed at the desired focal length and aperture.

This Pavilion model appears to have an anti-glare film on the display, which likely makes the display more useful in a lot of scenarios, but seems to have shifted the white point towards yellow. Your best bet if you really don't like it is to return the laptop for another model that doesn't have the anti-glare film. If you want to keep the Pavilion, you could get hold of a hardware calibration setup to see if you can profile the screen to your liking - but this is probably not worthwhile on most laptop screens, as the calibration kit is expensive and the screen simply doesn't meet the technical parameters for colour critical work.

The one option I cannot recommend is attempting to remove the film if the factory anti-glare treatment is a film. Unlike a screen protector film, factory applied anti-glare film was likely intended to remain in place for the life of the product and is likely held down with strong adhesive. You could easily cause irreparable damage to the screen by attempting to remove any factory installed anti-glare film - and such damage will not be covered by warranty.

[KMA19sp]

Hi 

I have just bought this laptop and I am so annoyed by the screen quality. It yellowish/dull even my old laptop is brighter than this screen.  I have followed your instructions to correct the screen resolutions to make it bright but nothing changed. Its like I am working in night mode. I have checked everything night mode is off screen resolutions all set to recommended settings but nothing working. I have no idea what else to do?

[David_J_W]

I would return the device if you can, @KMA19sp. The display choices made by the design team behind the Pavilion x360 do not appear to make sense for you.

If you hate the screen of a device, nothing is likely to change your view in the future if you keep the device. If you used a hardware profiling setup to adjust the white point to a less yellow white, that profile will almost certainly result in an even duller display than you have now and may well further restrict a likely already limited gamut.

The Pavilion x360 is HP's budget x360 device. The consumer x360s are the Pavilion x360, Envy x360 and Spectre x360, ordered from budget to premium. In the business range, there is the EliteBook x360 and the ZBook Studio x360; the latter being the higher performance device. Each of these devices has a particular set of compromises to reach a given segment of the market.

The other end of the display range to the Pavilion x360 is the DreamColor version of the ZBook Studio x360 - 4K, 600 nits, 100% Adobe RGB, 10 bit color (which is actually 8+2 FRC). It is a beautiful display, but it is expensive, heavy and has a significant battery life penalty over the more modest display options available on the ZBook Studio x360.

[lor_2019]

there is no brightness and contrast controls for the display, so you have always to skip, and the rest does not work, still yellowish