Apple recently said owners should expect iPhone X burn-in and color tint problems, arguing both are normal behaviors of OLED displays. What about a green line? Is that normal, too?
Several users have reported another problem with the iPhone X's display amid its still-fresh issue regarding touchscreen unresponsiveness when exposed in cold weather. This new problem sees a green line running vertical on the screen, and it has even earned a nickname — the "green line of death."
iPhone X Suffering From Green Line Of Death
A limited but increasing number of iPhone X owners have encountered the problem, as MacRumors reports. At least 25 people have shared photos of their phone plagued by the green line of death, speculating that it might be a potential hardware defect.
Photos have been shared on the Apple Support Communities, Twitter, Reddit, and the MacRumors forums showing iPhone X units all exhibiting the issue. Collectively, the reports represent an extremely low number of affected devices against a production run of millions, but how widespread the issue is still to be determined as more people come forward.
The green line of death wasn't visible when the owners first took their iPhone X out of the box, but developed after some period of usage under normal conditions. It's not certain, however, whether some of the devices have been dropped or damaged in any way, but MacRumors says that doesn't seem to be the case.
Tech times previously reported the iPhone X cold weather issue, in which the touchscreen temporarily decreases its responsiveness when taken outside in cold weather. But locking and unlocking the phone restored the responsiveness of the screen. This is different. Restarting or even fully restoring the phone doesn't erase the green line of death.
Is Samsung to Blame?
It's a definite eyesore, especially considering the iPhone X sports one of this year's best displays on a smartphone. Apple tasked Samsung to produce the iPhone X's OLED screen, but it's not clear yet whether this is an assembly defect on Apple's end or a manufacturing issue on Samsung's end. The latter case seems more unlikely, though, as Samsung's own Galaxy line of phones have never suffered from widespread green line of death problems in the past, only a few cases.
The issue doesn't seem to be affecting only a specific iPhone X model. There are green line of death reports coming from owners of both 64 GB and 256 GB in either Silver or Space Gray colors.
Apple has yet to officially address the issue, but the Apple Support Communities Twitter account did respond to Twitter user mix0mat0sis after he posted a photo showing the green line of death problem on his iPhone X.
Generally, 2017 has been a great year for flagships thus far — though it's quite concerning that Apple and Google, two of the biggest names in tech, released phones found to be suffering from quality problems. Google's Pixel 2 XL, for instance, has been riddled with display problems since its launch, with several reports of burn-in, color tint, and grain.
What do you make of the green line of death problem? Do you think it's a more widespread issue than initially reported? Feel free to sound off in the comments section below!
