iPhone 7 touch screen not responding intermittently and slow boot

Hi all,

My iPhone 7 is behaving very weirdly after being dropped face-down last week.

History

• I dropped it (in a Speck Candyshell case) a LOT - sometimes multiple times a day. I’m clumsy; the Speck is great.
• Dropped it face down onto concrete and the screen smashed under the hard screen protector.
• After the drop, the left side of the screen seemed to be intermittent - assumed touchscreen damage
• I tried rebooting it and it sat on the Apple logo for a LONG time - maybe 5-10 mins
• I took it for a third party screen replacement today (apparently refurbished Apple official screen), but the behaviour problems persist.

Current State

However, now the screen is replaced, the weirdness persists:

• Somewhere between 5 and 120 seconds after waking the phone with the Home button, the screen will not respond to touch input. I can press, swipe… nothing. The app on-screen still runs normally, WiFi access icon swirls, cursor flashes, etc. But I can’t do anything.
  • If I leave it long enough (30-120s?), then it will start responding again

Some further testing shows the bounds of this behaviour:

• While hung, apps continue running on the screen fine
• There are no unusual visual indicators on the screen at all
• There’s no apparent physical pressure, orientation, etc. where the touchscreen will hang
• Also no particular app that’s running, system load, etc. that triggers it.
• While hung, pressing the Home button shows no response
• While hung, pressing the Sleep/Wake button does sleep the screen
• If I press the sleep/wake button, then wake it again with that or the Home Button, then the screen is immediately responsive again:
  • I can log in using a PIN code and it responds fine, or log in using TouchID
  • I can open the last app and continue working on it
  • I can open other apps, swipe around Springboard, swipe up for control centre, down for Notification centre, etc.
• However, after the 5-120s, the screen hangs again, and again I have to sleep/wake it. And then again, it’s immediately responsive again.

I of course would assume it’s due to some physical damage on the phone logic board. I’m aware of the blurring of hardware and software on the iPhone, but this is really weird. I’m struggling with why, if it’s a hardware issue, I can kick it with a sleep/wake cycle and it acts as if nothing had happened.

There is also other weirdness that would imply hardware issues.

• Also, again, if I soft-reset the phone, the Apple logo will stay onscreen for a LONG time - 3-5 minutes. Evidently it has issued.
• Also, I’m unsure if the mic works. I can neither hear or be heard on a phone call on the handset, unless I use a bluetooth headset. I get a greyed-out speaker/headset icon on phone calls. But the speaker does work with music.
• I also have FaceTime audio calls fail soon after I make them. The call goes through and the receiving party phone’s ring, then it stops ringing.

I’ve not tried factory-resetting yet, as that needs some time to put in motion.

I would love any feedback on what might be the issue here - whether it is software, or definitely hardware?

Many thanks

D