3 iPhone Models Lack Their ‘Advertised’ Resolutions, Screen Sizes, Says Complaint

The iPhone X, XS and XS Max smartphones lack Apple's “advertised” screen resolutions and screen sizes in violation of consumer protection laws in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, alleged a complaint (in Pacer) Friday in U.S. District Court in San Jose that seeks class-action status. Apple's "nominal screen pixel resolution counts misleadingly count false pixels as if they were true pixels," said the complaint. The screens omit half of the red and half of the blue subpixels in a display, leaving the screen with half of the advertised number of pixels and two-thirds of the advertised number of subpixels, it said. The screen-size "deception" is "simply based on Apple cutting corners," it said. The iPhone screens have rounded-off corners with "notches" at the top containing no pixels, yet Apple "calculates the screen size" by including "non-screen areas such as the corners and the cut-out notch at the top of the screen," it said. The "missing screen areas" also further reduce the iPhones' "false pixel counts," it said. Apple’s “conduct in employing these unfair and deceptive trade practices [was] malicious, willful, wanton and outrageous such as to shock the conscience of the community and warrant the imposition of punitive damages,” it said. California resident Christian Sponchiado paid $1,149 for his iPhone X at an AT&T store in San Francisco, and his co-plaintiff Brooklynite Courtney Davis bought her iPhone XS Max for $1,099 from Apple online, the complaint said. Sponchiado and Davis “suffered injury in fact and lost money” because the iPhones they bought “did not provide the advertised screen quality, resolution, or size and was worth less than the phone she had bargained for,” it said. The company didn’t comment.