iPhone 16 Pro touchscreen issues: Users face lags and delayed responses

iPhone 16 Pro touchscreen issues, like delayed responses and unregistered taps, have been appearing for several users. The issue appears to stem from a software bug, rather than a hardware fault.

In Short

• iPhone 16 series was launched on September 9
• The touchscreen issues are being reported mostly for iPhone 16 Pro models
• Apple's iOS has developed a hypersensitivity issue

A week after the iPhone 16 series hit the market, users started facing some issues with the flagship device, iPhone 16 Pro. According to the report, published by 9to5Mac, a surge in user complaints suggests that many smartphone owners are experiencing intermittent difficulties with their device's touchscreen, including delayed responses and unregistered taps. The report indicated that the issue appears to stem from a software bug, rather than a hardware fault. Apple's iOS has developed a hypersensitivity issue, where its touch rejection algorithm is overly eager to dismiss genuine interactions, leading to lost touches and user dissatisfaction.

One of these complaints on Reddit explained the issues faced by iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max users. It stated that if the user touches the screen next to the camera control button first, the entire display becomes unresponsive until released, except the home bar. It looks like this unintended screen contact is causing iOS to mistakenly reject touches, leading to frustrating user experiences.

The iPhone 16 Pro's ultra-slim screen bezels may be contributing to the issue, increasing the likelihood of accidental edge contact and triggering unwanted touch rejections. With only a slight brush of skin required to initiate touch rejection, users may remain oblivious to the underlying cause. When holding the phone naturally, with fingers wrapped around its edges, users may inadvertently trigger touch rejection, especially when using the device without a protective case.

Notably, the problem does not seem to happen when the device is sitting idle on the lock screen. It only manifests when the phone is unlocked, such as when scrolling through apps or swiping between home screen pages. This further suggests that the issue is software-related, not hardware-based.

iPhone 16 Pro Max Processor

With the advanced iPhone 16 Pro, the processor is an A18 Pro chipset. Both iterations have 6-core CPUs with two performance and four efficiency cores. The regular has a 5-core, the Pro has a 6-core GPU, the same as last year's Apple A17 Pro. Apart from these, nothing has changed. Both the iPhone 16 Pro models will get the Apple Intelligence at the same time, with the same set of features.

With a 17 per cent increase in memory bandwidth, Apple says Apple Intelligence runs 15 per cent faster compared to the iPhone 15 Pro that uses the A17 Pro chip.

According to Apple, the A18 Pro also delivers double the ray tracing performance of the A17 Pro due to its enhanced processing capabilities. It includes two performance cores and four efficiency cores, offering a 15 per cent overall speed boost over the previous generation.

Unique to the Pro models, the A18 Pro enables advanced media features, including ProRes video recording and faster USB 3 transfer speeds. The camera system is further enhanced by a blend of hardware, software, and intelligence, that are powered by the new chipset.