Apple Class Action Alleges iPhone XR Antenna Defects

UPDATE: On Nov. 16, 2020, a federal judge partially granted and partially denied Apple’s motion to dismiss the iPhone XR class action lawsuit.

Apple has been hit with a class action lawsuit by numerous customers who claim that the tech company’s iPhone XR contains an inferior antenna which causes the phones to have half the signal connectivity and 4G speed of their predecessor phones, the iPhone XS and the iPhone XS Max.

The plaintiffs say that the XR is equipped with a 2×2 MIMO antenna array instead of a 4×4 MIMO antenna array which Apple used on its iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max. The 2×2 antenna allegedly causes decreased performance on the iPhone XR.

The Apple class action lawsuit states that, in January 2020, Apple admitted that the iPhone XR has connectivity issues on a major cell network in the United Kingdom and the company has yet to offer a solution to consumers in the UK or the United States.

Even now, the tech company has reportedly not found a fix to the iPhone XR connectivity defect. Instead, when approached by customers, Apple allegedly replaces the iPhone XR with a new iPhone XR with the same connectivity system, “leaving consumers caught in a cycle of use, malfunction, and replacement.”

One plaintiff in this case, Alison Coleman, says that she purchased four iPhone XRs around January 2019. Soon after purchasing the iPhone XR, Coleman explains that she started having trouble with connectivity issues.

She alleges that she would be unable to hear callers voices or they would be unable to hear hers. In addition, she argues that she sometimes would be unable to send text messages and would have intermittent or inoperable data connections.

Coleman states that she complained to Apple about the issues that she was having with her iPhone XR and was told by an authorized dealer to reset her phones to the factory default. She maintains that she performed this task but her iPhone XR continues to have the same issues.

The plaintiff reportedly found out via the press that her iPhone XR was designed and manufactured with the inferior 2×2 MIMO antenna array instead of the 4×4 antenna array that was used on the iPhone XS and the iPhone XS Max as well as other phones from competitors that are in the same price point of the iPhone XR.

Coleman argues that she was not aware of any features on the phones that would make it less capable of internet and voice capability than other iPhone models. 

Specifically, the Apple class action states that she was not made aware that the iPhone XR was equipped with an inferior 2×2 antenna array that would prevent her from connecting with voice and data networks.

If she had known that the iPhone XR had an inferior 2×2 antenna array, Coleman claims that she would not have purchased the phone or would have paid less money for it.

Like Coleman, the other plaintiffs in the Apple iPhone class action state that they had no knowledge of the defects when they purchased the phones.

They claim that the defects in the phone are latent because they are not obvious upon reasonable examination of the iPhone XR and the defects were not disclosed in advertising and marketing materials.

Apple should have known about the inadequacy of the iPhone XR antenna array from numerous sources, including pre-release design, manufacturing, and testing data as well as consumer complaints made to the company, according to the plaintiffs.

The Apple iPhone XR class action alleges that consumers started posting on internet forums about the connectivity issues soon after the iPhone XR was released to the public. In addition, the plaintiffs say that the press also started writing about the connectivity issues that the iPhone XR was having.

Despite knowing about the defect, the plaintiffs argue that Apple failed to disclose the defect in the iPhone XR and instead actively concealed the issue from the public. Apple allegedly continues to market and sell the iPhone XR with the lesser quality antenna array.

“Despite several reports that Apple would attempt to resolve the iPhone XR connectivity issues by switching the phone to a 4×4 MIMO antenna array for its fall 2019 product release, there is no evidence that it has done that, and even recent purchasers report the same connectivity issues as day-one purchasers,” according to the Apple class action lawsuit.

Prospective nationwide Class Members include individuals “who presented their phone to Apple, an authorized Apple reseller, or an authorized Apple service center for repair of connectivity issues, whose iPhone XRs were not fixed, or were replaced with iPhone XRs.”

Did you purchase an Apple iPhone XR and experience connectivity issues? Leave a message in the comments section below.

The plaintiffs are represented by Shana E. Scarlett, Ben Harrington Steve W. Berman, and Thomas E. Loeser of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP.

The iPhone XR Class Action Lawsuit is Elaine Anderson, et al. v. Apple Inc., Case No. 5:20-cv-02328, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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