The iPhone 12 mini already has a big problem

With its great cameras and blazing A14 Bionic chip, the iPhone 12 mini is one of the most advanced flagship phones you can buy in a compact size. But it appears to be failing at a very basic task. 

Large numbers of people are reporting that they’ve been suffering from issues with touchscreen sensitivity on the iPhone 12 mini’s lockscreen. That’s not a good look for any iPhone, let alone the best small phone we’ve seen in years.

Users have been reporting the problem on Reddit, MacRumors, and Apple’s own community forum. As for the problem itself, it seems to stem from users who are trying to either swipe up from the bottom of the lockscreen with their thumb, or when pressing the flashlight and camera buttons.

Fortunately, while the phone might struggle to register thumb inputs, other fingers don’t seem to have the same issues. Likewise, the sensitivity issues disappear once you’ve passed the lockscreen.

Reports also claim that the problem also resolves itself if you plug the phone into a wall charger, or touch the frame without a case. This has lead some users to speculate it’s a conductivity or grounding issue.

There’s been no official word from Apple about the problem at the time of writing, which isn’t going to be much help to people who are affected by the problem. As easy as the issue is to circumvent, it is still not a think you’d expect from the latest iPhone flagship. 

We did not experience this lock screen sensitivity flaw in our own iPhone 12 mini review, but we will conduct additional testing to see if we can recreate the issue.

Hopefully, someone can get to the bottom of this and figure it out, and if possible Apple can release a software update to solve the issue. Assuming, of course, that it is a software issue and not some fault in the iPhone 12 mini’s design or the manufacturing process.