Bizarre iPhone X screen defect/black smudge

[Sereeena]

Hello Everyone,

I have encountered a bizarre screen defect with my 4 month old iPhone X and have found nothing similar online. The best way to describe the defect:

When my screen is off/black, there is a smudge towards the bottom right corner that looks similar to a fingerprint smudge. Its the same size as a fingerprint. It’s only visible when the screen is black. Upon trying to clean it off, I realized it’s on the internal side of the screen and cannot be wiped off. There is no distortion to the screen when it’s on. Phone has not been dropped and no water exposure. It almost looks like an adhesive coming apart, but who knows?

Took it to the Apple store today and they had no appointments at the Genius Bar until next week. The guy who scheduled my appointment seemed concerned and told me he’s never seen this defect on an iPhone, but he’s seen similar things on iPads and the macs. I won’t have any answers until my appointment next week.

Has anyone here experienced anything similar? It’s so bizarre because it appeared out of nowhere today. I cleaned my screen just a couple days ago, so I know for a fact it wasn’t there then.

 

[chscag]

If it is the adhesive beginning to loosen or coming apart, the genius bar will likely replace your phone rather than repair it. Make sure you keep your backups up to date both to iTunes and iCloud.

 

[akash.nu]

OLED panels can show various such defects due to burn in. Without a picture it’s hard to even guess.

 

[Sereeena]

OLED panels can show various such defects due to burn in. Without a picture it’s hard to even guess.

Extremely difficult to capture in a photo, but I will try later. Just picture a fingerprint smudge that doesn’t go away, but under the screen.

 

[Sereeena]

Update: took the phone into Apple yesterday. The technician said that he’s only seen this issue once or twice, but that “it has already been escalated to engineering and they are aware of it”.

They took my phone, replaced the entire display at no charge, and sent me on my way.