iPhone X owners irate over cracking camera lenses

House lawmakers have asked Apple to answer more questions about the battery performance of its smartphones. (Reuters)

An increasing number of people are complaining of problems with their iPhone X camera lens, according to a new report.

Affected iPhone users are taking to Apple's support forums and Reddit and saying that their camera lenses are cracking and Apple isn't replacing the cameras with new units. Instead, Apple is reportedly charging to replace the entire device, which is a $549 fee if you do not have AppleCare+.

The reason Apple can't just fix the lens is because of the way the iPhone X is designed. Screen repairs cost $279, but a cracked lens would fall under "Other Damage," which is $549.

According to the reports, the cameras are reportedly cracking on their own. Users are saying that they haven't dropped their iPhone X cameras to cause the cracking and wonder whether cold or warm temperatures are causing problems. 9to5Mac, which earlier reported on the problems, pointed to a few reports that said the crack appeared to have happened in cold weather and others said it happened in warm weather in Hawaii.

The iPhone X's camera is reinforced with sapphire, a technology that Apple and other major tech companies say is harder than glass and not nearly as easy to scratch. But there have been some complaints in the past that perhaps sapphire doesn't provide the kind of protection claimed.

But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, it's worth noting that we don't know how widespread the iPhone X camera problem is. And while there's a chance that Apple might find a problem that it'll need to address, the issue doesn't seem to be widespread.

We'll keep an eye on the support pages and fill you in if Apple decides to comment on the issue.