iPhone SE (1st G) proximity sensor broken? Display not dark during call

[AppleMango]

Hi guys,

my mum is on a 1st Gen-iPhone SE and is kept in a tough case with screen protector. She absolutely loves that thing and looked well after her little machine. Her first iPhone, you get it...

For a while now she complained about accidentally muting during a phone call.

If I cover those sensors without any pressure, the display stays on.
If I press down my finger on those sensors, the display turns off.
If I press NEXT to the sensors with some pressure, the display turns off AS WELL during a phone call.

So my fear is, the proximity sensor might be faulty or some other kind of defect. Would you come to the same conclusion?

Is that fixable and would that be a display repair with Apple or do you have to go for the nasty more expensive repair?


At the moment I can't bring it in for repair due to lockdown, but I would like to hear your opinions or experiences...

Many thanks and all the best
AM

 

[Wando64]

I have a feeling that the proximity sensor is part of the camera component (I could be wrong).
In any case these phones are very easy to repair (go to the ifixit website).
If you arte not comfortable doing it yourself, compare any quote for the repair with the price of buying a ‘new’ second hand phone from eBa or similar. These phones are now extremely cheap.

Before you decide to do anything, you might want to do a hard reset of the phone. Sometimes it can fix all sort of issues.

 

[AppleMango]

I have a feeling that the proximity sensor is part of the camera component (I could be wrong).
In any case these phones are very easy to repair (go to the ifixit website).
If you arte not comfortable doing it yourself, compare any quote for the repair with the price of buying a ‘new’ second hand phone from eBa or similar. These phones are now extremely cheap.

Before you decide to do anything, you might want to do a hard reset of the phone. Sometimes it can fix all sort of issues.

Thank you very much.

Just to be clear: soft reset means restart and hard reset means erase and reinstall, ie from a backup, right?

I will certainly try that first. Very intrigued by those ifixit-guides, never saw that before but also never opened an iPhone before.

I will give an update later after the reset!