One of the more controversial features of the more recent iPhones is the notch — the bar at the top of the device which houses hardware like the camera, microphone, speaker, and sensors. This protrudes into the iPhone screen and some users find it distracting; enough that Apple is looking for ways to remove the notch in the future.
Now a lawsuit alleges that Apple was dishonest in the way that it marketed the iPhone X, with two plaintiffs seeking class action status against the company. The lawsuit, as revealed by CNET, alleges that despite Apple’s marketing campaign, the new iPhone is not in fact “all screen” because of the notch. In addition, they allege that Apple was misleading about the size of the screen because the measurements do not take into account the rounded corners of the device. The screen on the iPhone X is advertised as being 5.8 inches, but the plaintiffs claim that the screen is actually “only about 5.6875 inches.”
Another issue regards screen resolution. The iPhone X advertises a screen resolution of 2436×1125 pixels, but because of the way the screen works it does not contain the typical pixels which have three subpixels of red, green, and blue. Instead, the plaintiffs allege that the screen only has two subpixels per pixel, meaning there are fewer pixels than advertised.
This might all seem like nitpicking, but as the lawsuit points out, screen size is a key factor for users when considering which phone to buy. “One of the most important factors in the value and price of a phone is its screen quality, the most important factor of which is screen resolution. For this reason, Defendant’s phones, including the Products, are advertised and marketed based on their screen resolution,” the lawsuit claims. They go on to say that Apple uses screen size on their website to advertise their phones and to offer comparisons between different phone models: “These comparisons are misleading because the Products have false screen pixel counts that dramatically overrepresent the number of subpixels in the phones.”
This is not the only lawsuit that Apple is currently dealing with, as they are also in a legal battle with Qualcomm in China over patents.
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