Yesterday, a Reddit user named Darus 214 started a thread complaining about his iPhone X screen becoming unresponsive in cold weather. From the thread:

I’ve noticed that my iPhone X screen becomes very unresponsive as soon as I step outside. It literally takes 2 seconds from going inside to the cold outdoors and my screen stops being very responsive. I try swiping on websites and it doesn’t register my finger. It’s very noticeable. Is anyone else having this problem? Edit: possible other explanation might be the drastic changes in light that are causing problems. Edit2: looks like some people are having issues while others are not. Might be different colors/sizes of iPhones that were affected. Can we get Apple to investigate?

First things first, this thread caused a number of people to go outside and try their iPhones in relatively cold weather. Every result I saw (small sample size, so take with grain of salt) was that the phone worked fine.

At the core of this issue is, how cold is cold?

Apple has some guidance on this issue:

Use iOS devices where the ambient temperature is between 0º and 35º C (32º to 95º F). Low- or high-temperature conditions might cause the device to change its behavior to regulate its temperature. Using an iOS device in very cold conditions outside of its operating range might temporarily shorten battery life and could cause the device to turn off. Battery life will return to normal when you bring the device back to higher ambient temperatures.

This guidance goes back quite a ways, and is in line with typical guidance on these sorts of devices.

We asked Apple about this situation and they sent us this response:

“We are aware of instances where the iPhone X screen will become temporarily unresponsive to touch after a rapid change to a cold environment. After several seconds the screen will become fully responsive again. This will be addressed in an upcoming software update.”

Interesting situation. Sounds like Apple is on top of it.