iPhone XS Freezing Issue

I received a new XS on release day (9/21) and the next day started to experience intermittent freezing. The iPhone would freeze a few times a day and it happened while performing a variety of tasks, texting, surfing, emailing and using apps. The phone would freeze for several minutes where no screen touching or button pushing would any effect. The phone would either eventually go back to normal after several minutes by itself or require a hard restart from me.

I took the phone to my local Genius Bar exactly 6 days after receiving the XS and they gave me a brand new phone right away. Actually, they wanted my “freezing phone” so they could examine it in more detail to figure out why the freezing was occurring. I was happy and thought the issue was solved.

The next day after receiving new replacement XS, it started freezing again with the same frequency and symptoms. I went back to the same Genius Bar less than 48 hours after receiving the replacement phone and they did a few diagnostics on the unit and said it looked to be hardware based, but they couldn’t be sure. They again gave me another brand new phone and wanted to do an autopsy on my first replacement. I joked with the Apple Rep that was helping me that I might be “Patient 0” with this freezing issue. He told me to come back if it happened again and they would have to do a more exhaustive test to figure out the cause.

I got the second replacement yesterday and I have had one Freeze since obtains the phone, but that is better than the first two. I had an iPhone X previously with the same apps on it and it never froze one time in the year I used it. I thought I’d write my story here incase someone else is having the same issue.

By the way, Apple has been great with trying to help resolve this issue and I really appreciate their help. I’ll update this post if the freezing continues.