There’s a new issue affecting plenty of iPhone users, one that Apple is still keeping a tight lid on. Specifically, the “Touch Disease” is an iPhone 6 Plus condition that affects the phone’s TouchID sensor and the screen. Users report a flickering gray bar along the top of the screen and a faulty TouchID sensor. Apple doesn’t have a repair plan for the issue, which seems to be widespread and affecting mostly 5.5-inch devices. But third-party repair shops can fix the problem, and a report explains why it all happened. It appears that Bendgate problem Apple had to deal with soon after the iPhone 6 launched is back.
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This “Touchgate” is related to Bendgate according to iPad Rehab’s Jessa Jones, who told Cult of Mac that the problem might be caused by the fact that bigger iPhone 6 units do tend to bend when a certain force is applied.
“Nearly 90 percent of devices with Touch IC Disease are iPhone 6 Pluses,” Jones said. And it’s all because of Apple’s design choices. In the iPhone 6, instead of using a metal shield to protect the board like on the iPhone 5s, Apple reverted to a sticker shield. The sticker doesn’t protect the chips as good when the board bends and the Touch IC chip is especially susceptible to damage when the phone bends.
“This is a signature failure,” said Jones. “Every phone has one, but this one is a signature failure that got to epic proportions.”
The iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus are unaffected by the issue, as the touch chips were moved to the display to power the 3D Touch screen, the blog notes. Not to mention that the iPhone 6s units do not bend.
Meanwhile, to prevent Touch Disease, you should use a case for your phone, and prevent any bending. For many users, that might be too late.
