Testing Finds Inaccurate Touch Sensing on iPhone 5s/5c, But Neglects Perspective Compensation

[MacRumors]

New touch screen testing conducted by Finnish technology company OptoFidelity has suggested [PDF] the touch displays of Apple's iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c are less accurate than the display of the Samsung Galaxy S3, but the testing has failed to take into account that Apple has designed its iPhones to compensate for different usage angles.

Using its proprietary OptoFidelity Touch Panel Performance Tester, which compares the coordinates of touches by a robot with an artificial finger to coordinates from a touch device, the company measured the accuracy of both the iPhone 5s, the iPhone 5c, and the Galaxy S3. The video below demonstrates how the testing was carried out.

The test assigned a PASS/FAIL score when the actual touch position registered greater than ±1 mm off from the reported coordinates from the artificial finger, marking passes with green dots and fails with red dots. According to the test, both of Apple's iPhones demonstrated "extremely bad" performance near the edges and the top of the screen.

OptoFidelity suggests that this impacts both top and edge screen functionality, making it more difficult to perform tasks like accessing the Q and P keys on the virtual keyboard as they are located towards the edges of the display, but machine testing does not replicate real world usage, where the phone is held at and viewed from various angles.

iOS is designed to compensate for the angle that it expects a phone to be held at, which suggests that some of the discrepancies between screen accuracy between the iPhone 5s/5c and the Galaxy S3 may be intentional on Apple's part, in order to provide a better experience for users that are not holding their phones in static positions.

In addition to testing touch screen accuracy, OptoFidelity also took a look at touch screen latency, which was previously examined by Agawi. As with those initial tests that showed the iPhone 5 to be far more accurate than its Android counterparts, OptoFidelity had similar results with the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c.

Testing functionality such as web browsing opening time and camera application opening time revealed that the iPhones were more responsive than the Galaxy S3, with the iPhone 5s registering slightly faster response times.

Article Link: Testing Finds Inaccurate Touch Sensing on iPhone 5s/5c, But Neglects Perspective Compensation

 

[Ropie]

Touchy!

 

[Ironduke]

Thats a ****in outrage!

 

[nazaar]

ahhh... this explains a lot!

 

[H2SO4]

Shouldn't they be testing against a GS4?

 

[mungo2k]

I don't remember it ever taking 6 seconds to open Safari. And I'm on a iPhone 5. What are they measuring?

 

[mathcolo]

I don't remember it ever taking 6 seconds to open Safari. And I'm on a iPhone 5. What are they measuring?

Perhaps the time it takes for the application to open + loading the home page?

 

[iSee]

Once again Apple thumbs its nose at the robot market

 

[sundog925]

the touch latency of any android device is ****.
apple always will have the upper hand.

 

[polterbyte]

Yes, because that's EXACTLY how everybody uses their phones: with an artificial finger dangling from a robot arm. /s

Prepare for touchscreenprecisiongate, about which absolutely nobody is complaining.

Obligatory endnote: Apple is doomed. DOOMED!

 

[Carlanga]

Just an observation: There is a thread here in the forum since A.M. about it (not mine), maybe ~4 hours before this front page post. Lately MR keeps taking thread subjects from the sub forums and then making it a new rumor w/out mentions.

Either way, the test is interesting.

 

[wiz329]

Very interesting. If this is indeed intentional, I am again amazed at the level of care that goes into Apple products.

They may charge an arm and a leg for them, and be be infuriatingly controlling over the ecosystem, but you can't deny their quality. Down to the last detail.

 

[diddl14]

They might consider calibrating their software a bit as this obviously does not match iPhone user experience..

 

[violaboy]

It's not right because their measuring computer is running WINDOZE! haha

 

[blackhand1001]

There is not way the browser takes 9 seconds to respond on a galaxy s3. On my galaxy nexus its less than 2 seconds and its immediately ready for touch input.

The iOS times look too slow as well.

 

[TheNipponese]

We've officially moved into the era of the tech lobbyist. disgusting people.

 

[imerc08]

This test is completely ridiculous. Perspective compensation is what makes iOS easy and not frustrating to use!

 

[204353]

These tests mean nothing because the iPhone actually registers touches slightly above the centre of where you put your fingertip, an intentional compensation to make it prefer the 'tip' of your finger, rather than the middle of the contact area.

Try tapping buttons with your iOS upside-down (with orientation lock on) and you'll see how different it is. I know the article kinda mentions this feature, but I thought I'd make it clear how it actually works.

 

[atzeX]

It is intentional by Apple.

Try to touch some buttons if the UI is upside down... difficult, isn’t it?

Guess why

(Apple offsets the touch so that your eye-finger-button line is straight on the target)

 

[kremer4]

Install Candy Crush, good test for this. Getting anything to register at the edge is very hit or miss.

 

[\-V-/]

There is not way the browser takes 9 seconds to respond on a galaxy s3. On my galaxy nexus its less than 2 seconds and its immediately ready for touch input.

The iOS times look too slow as well.

Yep... maybe they were smoking something potent and the loads times just appeared slower.

 

[Konrad9]

Yes, because that's EXACTLY how everybody uses their phones: with an artificial finger dangling from a robot arm. /s

Prepare for touchscreenprecisiongate, about which absolutely nobody is complaining.

Obligatory endnote: Apple is doomed. DOOMED!

No one is saying Apple is doomed, not even this article. They made what appears to be an objective review of the hardware as a whole.

----------

It is intentional by Apple.

Try to touch some buttons if the UI is upside down... difficult, isn’t it?

Guess why

(Apple offsets the touch so that your eye-finger-button line is straight on the target)

They intentionally made their product difficult to use?

 

[PlainviewX]

You're touching it wrong?

 

[schenz]

Looking at the pattern of "aberration" in the iPhone - this is no error. I would expect errors to be distributed randomly, but they look like being very dependent on the portion of screen they were testing.

Therefore, this strongly hints at a systematic bias intentionally programmed into the device, imho.

 

[yourtoys7]

the funny thing is I just returned to iPhone 5 because galaxy S4 was not responding in comparison to iPhone 5, I did have to hit 2, 3, 4 times to open thing in the browser.