Back in August, destruction specialists iFixit revealed the truth behind the ‘touch disease’ problem affecting iPhone 6 and 6 Plus owners.
The problem starts as a flickering grey bar at the top of the iPhone’s screen, before the display starts behaving erratically and eventually becomes unresponsive.
iFixit revealed that the issue was at the hardware level, and was related to the touchscreen controllers, or Touch IC chips, that sit under the handset’s display, rendering a screen-change ineffective.
Related: iPhone 7 review
At the time, there was no word from Apple on the touch disease epidemic, but now the company has published a ‘Multi-Touch Repair Program for iPhone 6 Plus’ page, officially acknowledging the issue.
However, Apple seems to be saying the problem only arises after users drop or damage their phone, and doesn’t accept responsibility for the hardwarse issues.
The page reads: “Apple has determined that some iPhone 6 Plus devices may exhibit display flickering or Multi-Touch issues after being dropped multiple times on a hard surface and then incurring further stress on the device.”
As long as your phone is in working order, and the screen is not cracked or broken, Apple is offering to repair it – but it’ll cost you £146.44, while US customers will have to shell out $149.
Customers who have already paid for a service repair related to the issue can get a refund of the difference between the $149 service fee and whatever they paid to fix the problem.
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The new repair programme will run for five years “after the first retail sale of the unit”, so anyone affected by touch disease should be able to take advatange of the offer.
iPhone 6S models escaped the screen issue as the newer handsets moved the controller chips from the logic board onto the display itself.
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Let us know if you’ve been affected by touch disease in the comments.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.