Apple accused of ‘disguising’ iPhone XS and XS Max notch in adverts

Apple is facing a lawsuit for allegedly disguising the screen “notch” on its iPhone XS and XS Max smartphones.

While the notch – the small indent at the top of the screen that houses the device’s camera and sensors – is visible when the handsets are unlocked, the lawsuit claims it cannot be seen in the images Apple uses to advertise the phones.

These promotional images have now come under fire from Courtney Davis and Christian Sponchiado, who claim in a lawsuit that the pictures “disguise” the notch by cleverly using a black background.

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The lawsuit claims that Davis believed the device she pre-ordered would not come with a notch, Business Insider reports.

Along with the notch cover-up accusation, the lawsuit also argues that the iPhone X has a lower screen resolution than the advertised 2436x1125 pixel count, says CNet.

According to the plaintiffs, the pixel density is false because the device “doesn’t contain true pixels with red, green and blue subpixels in each pixel”, the tech site reports. Instead, the iPhone X reportedly “only has two subpixels per pixel, which is less than advertised”.

The lawsuit was filed in the Northern District of California and is currently pending class-action status, The Sun notes.

It’s not the only lawsuit Apple is facing. Last week, it told Reuters that it would launch a software update to avert a sales ban in China after chipmaker Qualcomm accused the tech giant of using its patents without permission.