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Touch Screen Issues - We're Listening Nov 24, 2014

Cat H, Nov 24, 2014 :

A few months ago, we became aware that some users were experiencing problems with their touch screen and immediately investigated the possible cause. After multiple hardware tests at our factory and troubleshooting with our partners at Synaptics and Cyanogen, we determined the best solution would be a software update. While a recent update proved a successful fix for a vast majority of affected users, some of our fans are still having trouble.

We’ve seen a thread from a user who appeared to fix his device by insulating the digitizer flex. Our engineers attempted to recreate the problem as described in the forum post (on both older and newer devices) by removing the glue that was insulating the flex and making sure that it was in contact with metal parts of the phone. But, tests showed that even with this alteration, the touch screen continued to register all touches successfully. We are working on further testing to prove this user’s hypothesis true or false, and we will publish a video to show our tests and results. We strongly advise against other users attempting the same procedure. Dismantling the phone in this manner will void your warranty and could cause injuries to yourself or damage your phone.

For anyone still experiencing trouble with their touch screen, we assure you that we are actively looking into this matter. If we find the problem to be hardware-related, we will have a plan to help those users.

We believe that transparency and honesty are at the foundation of innovation, and we are honored when our fans work to make us better. We are listening, and we are serious about coming to a resolution.

We will keep you in the loop with live updates to this thread.

UPDATE 1:

The general concern is this: if the digitizer flex makes direct contact with the metallic chassis, a ground fault occurs leading to touchscreen abnormalities.

Theoretically, this shouldn’t be an issue as preventative measures were engineered into the design of the OnePlus One. There is a piece of plastic overlayed on the metal casing which insures uniform spacing and prevents ground issues. Additionally, there is insulation PI around the flexible printed circuit (FPC) and sealant at the bottom of the bonding. So, even if the digitizer flex makes direct contact with the metallic chassis, no undesirable touchscreen effects should occur.

However, we’ve gone into the lab to test the OnePlus One in an attempt to re-create the proposed issue. In order to test a worst case scenario, our engineers have overlaid the area with highly-conductive metal to ensure that potential ground issues will be apparent. Please note that we tested both older and newer models of the OnePlus One with the latest Synaptics firmware.

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As you can see, we were unable to reproduce the touchscreen issues on a hardware level, in regards to the suggested problem.

We believe that the user who managed to solve his issues by adding insulation to the area represents a very small minority of affected users, as we weren’t able to re-create the problem in a lab environment.

That said, we are still taking this issue very seriously, and we are currently running further tests involving static electricity. We will keep everyone updated along the way.

Update: https://forums.oneplus.net/threads/touchscreen-issues-we-hear-you.309395/

Last updated: 8th of May 2015 at 7:50am EST