Apple is looking into reports of iPhone X glitch that causes an up-to-10 second delay before incoming calls show up on display after the phone starts ringing
Some owners of Apple's new iPhone X are finding an unusual bug in their $1,000 piece of kit — answering the phone.
Context & Ripple Effects
The iPhone X arrived in late 2017 as Apple's $1,000 flagship, and its launch quality has been uneven from the start: Wired's first look flagged Face ID that didn't always work, and weeks earlier Apple had confirmed the iPhone 8 crackling earpiece with a promised fix. Now comes a defect on the most basic function of all — a delay of up to 10 seconds between the ring and the caller appearing on screen.
For a device priced at four figures, each confirmed glitch lands harder than it would on a mid-tier phone, and Apple's response pattern — investigate, then confirm and patch — is becoming a recurring story across its recent hardware launches.
First-order effects
- Affected iPhone X owners face missed or awkwardly answered calls during the delay window, on the most expensive phone Apple sells.
- Apple's support and engineering teams take on another open investigation alongside existing complaints about Face ID reliability and the iPhone 8 earpiece.
Second-order effects
- The precedent set by the iPhone 8 earpiece — acknowledge, then ship a fix — puts pressure on Apple to resolve this in software quickly rather than let a $1,000 device's core function stay unreliable.
- Each new defect gives rivals and critics a concrete talking point against premium pricing, sharpening scrutiny of whether flagship hardware quality justifies the cost.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — a string of confirmed defects across the iPhone 8 and iPhone X generations — Apple's 'it just works' reputation becomes a liability it must actively defend through faster fixes and, where needed, repair programs rather than something customers assume.
- Recurring launch-window bugs at rising price points invite closer attention from reviewers and regulators to pre-release testing standards for flagship phones.
The trend: Flagship smartphones are crossing the $1,000 line while their launch quality stumbles, turning post-release bug fixes and repair programs into a routine part of Apple's product cycle.