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Numerous owners of the new iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max have discovered display issues, including unresponsiveness, just days after purchase.
The iPhone 16 Pro is Apple’s latest top-of-the-line iPhone model, which went on sale last Friday. Despite conflicting reports, with one claiming pre-orders being short of expectations to T-Mobile’s CEO noting higher demand for the Pro models than last year, the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max are set to be among the most popular models sold at the end of this year and early next year. But widespread display issues could hamper sales of the iPhone 16 Pro models, as several reports about random unresponsiveness crop up within days of the phones going on sale.
New buyers have taken to online forums, from Apple’s own discussion threads to Reddit, to report the displays on the iPhone 16 Pro series turning unresponsive in certain scenarios. Although Apple has yet to acknowledge the issue, owners echo common grounds for the unresponsive screen.
Usually, the left part of the display stops responding in certain scenarios, as per the reports. The issue typically surfaces when a portion of the user’s palm touches that part of the screen. Those troubled believe it happens when the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s palm rejection kicks in, leading to unresponsiveness.
The vastness of the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s new 6.9in display possibly adds to the issue. While the majority of the reports highlight the issue with the larger model, a few also confirm the smaller iPhone 16 Pro succumbing to it.
The screen glitch, according to people experiencing it, unexpectedly happens while gaming, typing, or watching videos. It also affects functions that require multitouch, especially while gaming.
A user with the alias Khaos Tian (via 9to5Google) demonstrated the issue in a video posted to decentralized social media, Mastodon.
The iPhone 16 Pro Max uses a new 6.9in OLED panel, up from the 6.7in on the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Despite the incremental size increase, there aren’t significant changes to the display’s brightness, color space, or refresh rate, suggesting these might use the same underlying tech as the previous generation.
One change is LG’s larger share in manufacturing, which now seems to be delivering an estimated 30% of the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s displays. However, there has yet to be an established link between LG and the malfunctioning displays.
Another less likely source of the issue is the new capacitive Camera Control button that sits closer to the bottom-right corner on the iPhone 16 series. The capacitive button may be registering interaction with the palm as a gesture, which may be rendering part of the display impossible to use.
Meanwhile, a few iPhone 15 Pro Max owners also appear to be dealing with displays turning unresponsive momentarily after the iOS 18 update that rolled out last week. This indicates the issue may be software-based and should be easy to fix.
Notably, iOS 18.1 will be here in the coming weeks, which could also resolve these issues on the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
