Is your iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus living on death row? Here’s what you you need to know about Touch Disease, the mysterious and potentially fatal new fault that’s killing iPhones everywhere.
First Bendgate, now Touch Disease. It seems like every time there’s a problem with the iPhone, the collective imagination is inspired and a catchy tag is slapped on the issue.
Just weeks before Apple is due to unveil the iPhone 7, an investigation by destruction specialists iFixit has revealed the worrying truth behind a problem plaguing iPhone 6 and 6 Plus owners all over the world.
Touch Disease, as it has been dubbed, first manifests itself as a flickering grey bar at the top of your phone’s display. Thereafter, the touchscreen starts to behave erratically and, sooner rather than later, becomes completely unresponsive – rendering your phone entire useless.
iFixit notes that the issue has been widely reported on Apple’s support forums and by third-party iPhone repair experts. According to iFixit, one repair shop in New Orleans reports up to 100 phones a month show signs of Touch Disease.
But there’s no easy fix and, so far, Apple fails to recognise the problem at its Genius Bars. That’s because the fault lies at the hardware level with the touchscreen controllers, or Touch IC chips, that sit under your display, so replacing your screen only temporarily fixes the problem according to iFixit.
In other words, if your iPhone is affected by Touch Disease the only long-term solution is to replace the handset’s entire logic board. You’ll have to get this done on the sly though, as Apple won’t officially carry out the repair on your behalf.
Indeed, it’s being speculated that the microcontroller failure is down to a structural flaw in the phone’s design – Bendgate, anyone? Or is that now Bendgate 2.0?
Watch: iPhone 7 – What we know so far
Has your phone come down with the Touch Disease illness? Let us know in the comments below.
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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.
