Is The Capacitive Touchscreen on My Phone Wearing out?

My phone is approx 5 year old Redmi 5 plus. The phone is undamaged and still in good condition. Running Android 8 with necessary vendor updates regularly applied.

During the last week, it seems to be registering numerous "false taps". Basically, whenever I am scrolling on my phone, for example, reading a news article on ABC, if I happen to hover over a link with my finger depressed on the screen, it will annoyingly open the link/picture/item/component that is visible on the page. This issue is happening with multiple apps and webpages, so I am constantly having to go 'back' or 'home' to resume where I was.

At first, I thought I was being clumsy and pressing on links but due to the frequency of this happening I am convinced there may be a problem with the digitizer or screen itself. It's a strange, intermittent issue that google does not yield many results for.

Comments

  • Does it have a screen protector?

    • +1

      ^This is a good first check, secondly, is it just a software bug and you need to Factory Reset? (annoying, but when was the last time you gave it a nice fresh "coat" of clean software?)

      If it's still exhibiting issues after these troubleshots, then yeah, maybe.

      • No screen protector. Will try factory reset when i can be bothered.

  • Android 8?

    Really?

    • Security Software Version

      September 2018

      • just checked my moto e5
        android 8.0.0, security patch level 1 May 2020
        .

    • Yes, im old fashioned.

  • My last iPhone's touchscreen started playing up at around the 5 year mark. Factory reset etc did nothing to fix the issue, apparently can be caused by repeated drops over the lifetime of the phone.

    • Interesting. Not many knocks or drops but something to consider.

  • LCD is about $25 on Aliexpress. I just got a screen replaced $50 labor. So if you really want to keep it rolling then give it a go!

    • Probably not worth it as battery is otw out and software is dated. Good to know spare parts are available for future phones.

  • Might be a faulty finger.

    • +1

      Lol hilarious. My middle one still works but i can't show you.

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