Nexus S Gingerbread update messes up screen colors

Google pushed out an update to the Nexus S earlier this month and made it the most up-to-date Android phone on the market, but one of its features in the update is having an unfortunate backlash.

Nexus S users began reporting problems with their displays after installing the latest update. Specifically, it makes images appear “yellower” than before, leaving some users frustrated and wanting their old settings back.

What’s ironic, though, is that this change was intentional. Google said the problem was actually before the update, because darker colors were not being displayed properly. Some shades of gray actually showed up as red. So in the 2.3.3 update, it changed what’s known as the color “temperature” on the device.

In so doing, however, it managed to mess up other color tones, leaving a yellowish effect in place, although the gray-red problem has been resolved.

In other words, it’s a complicated issue, but there seem to be more users disappointed with the new display than the “problematic” version of before.

As Google’s official, fully-backed Android phone, the Nexus S is somewhat of a guinea pig. It was the first to receive Android 2.3 pre-installed and it gets updates more regularly than other Android devices.

It will be interesting if Google decides to just go back to the old color temperature, if it expects users to adjust to the new style, or if it manages to find a better, all-around fix.