I’m having the same issue and I just got my 16 Pro last week. First, I got a screen protector with a black border by mistake, and it was really distracting, especially while typing. Now I switched to a cheap one without borders, but I see air bubbles around the edges. Maybe the protector itself isn’t good enough… but this is interesting info.
@Teal
Yeah, good luck… so far, I’ve only seen this happen with the Pro Max.
@Teal
Same thing happened to me with my 15 Pro Max. First, I had one with a black border, then I switched to a regular one… but it had air bubbles all over.
This happened to me after Apple replaced my battery. They admitted the screen wasn’t installed properly, so bubbles showed up when I applied tempered glass.
Quincy said:
This happened to me after Apple replaced my battery. They admitted the screen wasn’t installed properly, so bubbles showed up when I applied tempered glass.
Which iPhone was this on? Same model?
@Chen
It was an iPhone 14 Pro. They checked it twice, tried fixing it, but eventually told me that was just how the phone was. Makes me hesitate about replacing my battery on my 15 Pro Max in the future.
I used to apply screen protectors at an Apple Store back when the XS Max was new. We had a problem where Belkin would send them bundled with an elastic band, and that slight pressure caused them to bend. This led to bubbles across an entire batch. My only fix was grabbing from a different batch, but if there weren’t any, I had to tell customers to come back later. Sounds like your issue is different… or maybe it’s a mix of both.
I had the same issue and mentioned it on this forum. People told me it was my phone case… but it wasn’t. I went through 11 screen protectors and swapped my 16 Pro Max 3 times before I finally got one without a bent screen. The screen protector applied by Apple finally worked.
I’ve never liked Belkin because of this. Spigen is decent and cheaper, but if you want a brand that applies smoothly with no issues and comes with a good warranty, go for Nimaso. Costs about $6 per protector.
I tried a few Belkin ones too, but they all had bubbles. Ended up going with a different brand and had no issues.
Tan said:
I tried a few Belkin ones too, but they all had bubbles. Ended up going with a different brand and had no issues.
Did you even read my post?
Tan said:
I tried a few Belkin ones too, but they all had bubbles. Ended up going with a different brand and had no issues.
Did you even read my post?
No, I just saw the title.
Apple’s quality has really gone downhill lately.
Sounds like you got a bad batch of phones. These protectors have quality issues too. I had to use the warranty after three weeks because it was too thin and broke easily. The replacement was fine though.
@Zariah
It wasn’t the screen protector, read my post.
Just buy cheaper screen protectors 
Avery said:
Just buy cheaper screen protectors
Did you even read the post? How would that solve anything? You new kids are wild lol.
Avery said:
Just buy cheaper screen protectors
What do you mean?
Screen protectors are a waste of money. Total scam in my opinion.