Here's the OnePlus 7 Pro 'ghost touching' problem (Update: Fix incoming)

Update, June 3, 2019 (12:15 PM ET): The OnePlus 7 Pro “ghost touching” problem described below has earned the company some not-so-great PR. However, according to a statement sent to Android Police, a software fix for the issue is on the way.

Here’s the reprinted statement from OnePlus:

We have received limited reports from users describing their encounter of the “phantom taps” experience. Our team has worked hard to identify these cases, and we will release a firmware update in the upcoming weeks.

This statement suggests that the ghost touch issue is, in fact, a software problem and not a hardware deficiency as originally feared.

Interestingly, OnePlus admitted that a temporary workaround for the problem is to disable NFC. In this forum post, it described the problem as such but then altered the post to take away that statement. If the ghost touching problem is a severe annoyance for you, try to disable NFC in the meantime.

Original article, May 24, 2019 (12:47 PM ET): Now that early adopters have been able to use the OnePlus 7 Pro for about a week, real-world usage reports are arriving. Unfortunately, it appears many 7 Pro owners are facing an issue that can only be described as “ghost touching.”

In this thread on the official OnePlus forums, users describe ghost touching as a screen tap happening at the top of the display even though their fingers are nowhere near that area. If it happens enough, it could prevent you from doing other things on the phone as the ghost taps might prohibit additional taps in other areas.

Here at Android Authority, we were able to duplicate the ghost touching issue on two separate OnePlus 7 Pro devices. Check the GIF below to see it in action:

https://gfycat.com/PlasticBogusBluefintuna

To test out this for yourself on your own 7 Pro, download and install the free CPU-Z app. Open up the app and let the phone sit idle for a few minutes with the display on. If you notice that touch inputs happen even though you’re not touching the screen, those are the ghost inputs.

If you turn the display off and then on again, the taps will stop. However, they will likely randomly start up at some point shortly thereafter.

It’s unclear for now what is causing this issue. Most importantly, it’s also unclear whether this could be rectified with a software patch. If it’s a hardware problem, that could be a big issue for OnePlus.

We’ve reached out to OnePlus about this problem and will update this article should we hear back. In the meantime, let us know in the comments if you’re facing this issue on your OnePlus 7 Pro.

NEXT: OnePlus 7 Pro doesn’t have 3x optical zoom as advertised