Multiple iPhone 16 Pro users report touchscreen freezing issues, possibly linked to palm rejection sensitivity

If you've already gotten your hands on a device from the Apple's iPhone 16 lineup — more specifically, the 16 Pro/Pro Max — chances are you've recently faced some kind of issue with the touchscreen. The silver lining is that you're not alone—reports are surfacing across various online forums, mainly Reddit, with many iPhone 16 Pro owners complaining about the same issue.

The unresponsiveness seems to be tied to accidental touches, specifically on the right-hand side of the display, where the newly introduced camera button is located (more on the camera button in our magazine piece here). Users are reporting that any contact in this sensitive area causes the entire screen to freeze temporarily, with only the home bar remaining functional. Although, please note that 9to5Mac has explicitly mentioned that'the problem seems to affect all four screen edges equally'.

More specifically, the issue appears when users accidentally rest their skin on the aforementioned areas that seem prone to the bug. It causes system delays or complete unresponsiveness. Users are unable to swipe or tap, making it nearly impossible to navigate the device.

According to Reddit users, the problem is easier to reproduce when the phone is used without a case. However, even with a case, some users report that the issue lingers but becomes harder to replicate. Others suggest that the software may have been designed to function this way, most likely to prevent any unintended screen touches while using the camera button.

All this info points towards an overly sensitive palm rejection algorithm, which could be the likely culprit in this case, as also indicated by Khaos Tian on Mastodon. He shared a demonstration, showing that once palm rejection kicks in, it locks up all touch inputs on the iPhone 16. He even compared it to an iPhone 13 mini, where the palm rejection does not cause the same freezing, which hints that the issue could be specific to the iPhone 16 generation. Here's another interesting bit — users like u/cl0ugh stated that they couldn't replicate the issue on his iPhone 16 Pro running iOS 18.1 beta, while some other iPhone 16 lineup users reported not facing any such issues at all.

For now, users are relying on temporary workarounds, such as avoiding the affected area or using their left hand instead (which can be very, very inconvenient). Apple is yet to provide an official response to this issue, though scouring the forums will tell you that most users are just hopeful for a quick software patch to address the said bug ASAP.

You can test if your iPhone 16 Pro is affected by the issue via a touch screen test, like this one.

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