The six-year-old battle over iPhone 7 speaker issues has finally come to an end, with Apple agreeing to settle the class-action lawsuit. According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs experienced "grayed out" speaker buttons, loss of Siri voice command functionality, inoperability of the Voice Memos app, reduced microphone fidelity, and other audio-related issues during calls. The defective phones being sued were sold between early 2017 and late 2018.

Users eligible for compensation must have owned an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus between September 16, 2016 and January 3, 2023. In addition, users must have complained to Apple about the speaker problem or have paid Apple to repair or replace the device.

The Settlement Administrator is mailing postcards to users it believes are included in the settlement. Regardless of how you respond, the deadline is June 3, 2024.

Users who meet the conditions of the settlement will receive at least US$50 and no more than US$349 in compensation. Settlement class members who report a "covered issue" to Apple but fail to pay Apple to repair or replace the "covered issue" will receive up to $125 in damages.

It's unclear when the payments will be released. The so-called "batterygate" damages were not deposited until about a year after the settlement. The complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois alleges that Apple knew about and concealed a hardware defect that caused certain audio functions in the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus smartphones to fail.

Each plaintiff saw an "audio IC defect" in their iPhone 7. The symptoms of this apparent hardware problem are exactly the same as those described by users who have previously suffered from a known issue that some in the repair industry has dubbed "LoopDisease."

The lawsuit blames the defects on poor design. Specifically, the iPhone 7's aluminum body is said to be made of "substandard materials" that bend the audio controller that connects to the phone's motherboard.

The lawsuit alleges that over time, the solder connecting the audio IC chip to the logic board failed, causing a series of problems, including the "LoopDisease" defect.

Apple has a repair program in place for iPhone 7 affected by this issue. The program has now been discontinued.

It's unclear how many products are affected by the flaw, nor are there commonalities between affected products other than model numbers.

https://smartphoneaudiosettlement.com