Apple to repair iPhone 12 models with faulty audio functions

Apple said a “very small percentage” of iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro devices have an audio problem and pledged to repair the products.

The phones in question, manufactured between October 2020 and April 2021, have a defect with a component on the receiver module, Apple said. The repair will be free of charge and the problem doesn’t affect the iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max.

“If your iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro does not emit sound from the receiver when you make or receive calls, it may be eligible for service,” the Cupertino, California-based company said.

Apple launched the iPhone 12 series, the company’s first 5G-enabled phones, in October last year. The new models – the iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max – were released at an event held online due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The company sold more than 100 million iPhone 12 series iPhones within seven months of its launch, according to a report by Singapore-based Counterpoint Research.

The addition of the “5G capability and a full OLED” (organic light-emitting diode) screen – offering improved image quality, better contrast and higher brightness – attracted a greater number of customers to iPhone's latest series, it added.

“The series was able to achieve this feat in the seventh month after its launch [April], which is two months earlier than the iPhone 11 series and almost the same as the iPhone 6 series [launched in 2014] that helped Apple achieve its first volume super-cycle at the cusp of 4G transition,” Varun Mishra, a research analyst at Counterpoint Research, said.