I think it's very user dependent on the use case failures and may be rapid interaction and touch pressure/surface area.
- I have three of these phones, one power/gamer user, one social lurker and texter, and one for an older user.
- All three phones are on Verizon, SD chipset and on the "latest" BTJ5 build.
- All three users have had the phone slightly over a month.
- All three phones fail the alternating swiping test and close touch test in the Touch Screen Test app.
- The older user claims the phone works perfect and has had no issues. who really just uses the basic functions and is a single finger typer. She still "presses" on her touchscreen like it were a button rather than lightly tapping it.
- The social user has had one time when the center of her screen became unresponsive and had to reboot. She also mentioned a couple times she had issues typing, but wasn't a consistent issue and doesn't remember rebooting to fix the problem.
- The power user (myself) has experienced misregistered fast typing, swype typing, random deadzones, pinch to zoom stutter (maps and photos), scrolling stutter, and large sections of the screen becoming unresponsive (mainly the bottom half sometimes and most of the entire middle of the screen other times), along with one issue where the lower media speaker/speakerphone just stopped working (earpiece worked fine). However, I will say these issues occur maybe once a day during an average of 4hrs SOT.
- All these issues resolve temporarily with a reboot for the most part. Although I have had to reboot a couple times in a row a couple of times.
- A couple of times when I wasn't in a rush, I decided to see if the problem would just "go away" over time and they did. However, I am usually trying to do something in these moments and decide to reboot pretty much every time. So I don't have much data on the "run it's course" approach.
- On my phone personally, I have tried messing with increased touch sensitivity, 60hz vs 120hz, block accidental touches, and reduce animations. No changes have
I have also observed that when large sections of the screen become partially or totally unresponsive, I can actually get them to register full swipes in the Touch Screen Test app if I flatten out my thumb and drag. Would be interesting to see if other have this phenomena.
Personally, I think these varying opinions and use case of the device but an across the board failure on the app explain the mixed results we see in these threads on Reddit and XDA. Slow typers, people who have large surface area fingers/touches vs those who touch with the tips of their finger with the lightest pressure, people who interact with their phone in a more complicated manner etc.
Given the difference in anecdotal opinion above I would like to focus on empirical results. The three things I'm interested in are:
1. Has anyone ever got a clean result with the Touch Screen Test app while swiping at high speeds? I feel like users claiming they passed are not swiping fast, consistent, and long enough swipes. Would you be willing to post a video of the successful test?
2. Is anyone else able to verify large surface area swipes work correctly while the screen is malfunctioning in the Touch Screen Test app? Maybe give it a shot next time it fails.
3. Has anyone else just kept their phone on to see if it resolves itself after a period of time?
Personally, we will be keeping the phones because while the faults are there, they were a good deal at $350 and all users are content with the device even with it's shortcomings.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts or feedback!
UPDATE 1: Adding some new info from some questions I got in another thread.
> Have you seen one post of a person who said they don't have an issue post a video or screen shots of them preforming the tests?
I have not. I updated my post to request this.
> Have you tried the App on dot mode?
Not before your request. I have now tested it and observing the same pairs of evenly spaced close dots from the link you posted on two of the phones I have with me currently.
Dot Test Link
> Lastly could you check what Hardware version your phones are on.
I only have two phones at the moment and both are on REV1.0. I suspect they are all three REV1.0 as they were bought within the same week.
Also, I just got the BTK1 update on Verizon.
- Of the two devices I have on site, they both still fail the Touch Screen Test alternating swipes and the dot mode test you mentioned previously.
- I checked zooming on maps and photos, that has been improved. There is a single "jerk" when fingers are as close as I can get them and move apart, but the scrolling after the jerk is a useable smooth.
- I scrolled through Twitter and Relay since they both hide the navigation bars when scrolling. The liftoff jerk seems to be better in a way but worse in another. When I use my thumb, it's fairly unnoticeable and doesn't reveal the navigation bars. But when I sit the phone on a table and use my index finger, there is a consistent jerk in the opposite direction I'm scrolling when I lift my finger which causes the navigation bar to reveal. I naturally scroll with the tip of my index finger, but if I intentionally start at the tip of my index finger and purposefully flatten by index finger out at the peak of my swipe, the jerk does not occur. I think this further adds to my theory about it being surface contact related and also explains why I don't see as much failure when I navigate using my thumbs.
I will spend some time with BTK1 and report any new data.
