iPhone 14 is the most repairable iPhone since iPhone 7, according to iFixit

The brand new iPhone 14 has delivered a couple of new high-profile options, such because the emergency satellite tv for pc message characteristic and the Dynamic Island. However maybe probably the most intriguing updates is one which’s not seen on the surface. 

In response to device-repair knowledgeable and ‘proper to restore’ advocate iFixit, a more in-depth take a look at the iPhone 14 reveals it has truly been by a serious inside redesign that makes it considerably simpler to restore than its predecessors. 

As such, iFixit has given the iPhone 14 a repairability rating of seven out of 10 — the iPhone’s finest rating because the iPhone 7. 

Additionally: iPhone 14 Professional vs. iPhone 13 Professional: Is the most recent iPhone definitely worth the improve?

So, what’s modified? The again panel can now be simply eliminated by repairers along with the display screen, that means the machine might be opened from the back and front.           

As iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens details in a blogpost, the again glass is secured with simply “two screws and a single connector” that give repairers entry to each the display screen and again glass. Additionally, Apple seems to have used a “barely much less aggressive adhesive, making opening it up a tad simpler than screens of yore.”

The flexibility to take away each the display screen and the again panel addresses one of many key repairability challenges with the iPhone. For the reason that iPhone 5, Apple has made the again optimized for battery and display screen replacements, iFixit explains in a YouTube teardown demo. 

“This benefit of the entrance optimized design after all is that it is more durable to exchange the again glass panel. This new design solves that drawback but it surely wasn’t straightforward. Attaining the excessive ranges of sturdiness that we have all come to count on, together with drop resistance and torsional rigidity, is an unimaginable engineering problem.”

The extra simply replaceable glass again panel is a giant deal. As iFixit explains in its iPhone 11 and 11 Pro Max repairability scores, if the again glass breaks on these fashions, you must take away each part and change all the chassis.

iFixit rightly asks why Apple did not announce iPhone 14’s improved repairability. In spite of everything, Apple just lately introduced its Self Service Restore program, which provides folks restore manuals and real Apple elements and instruments to repair their iPhones and Macs. (Apple has but to launch manuals and elements for the iPhone 14 line.) 

Extra: This is all the things Apple introduced throughout its ‘Far Out’ occasion

iFixit does be aware one draw back to Apple’s repairability enhancements for the iPhone 14’s again panel. After putting in a changed again glass, Apple may require software-based activation.    

“We’re listening to experiences that Apple is constant their hostile path of pairing elements to the telephone, requiring activation of the again glass after set up. You actually should not want Apple’s permission to put in a sheet of glass on a telephone that you simply already personal,” writes iFixit’s Wiens. 

“Utilizing software program to forestall the usage of aftermarket elements will get a giant thumbs down from us. These locks are irritating and in the end futile – Apple merely cannot management all of the repairs that occur with their merchandise, regardless of how exhausting they fight. We’ll be reporting on elements compatibility a bit extra after we end our lab assessments, except Apple miraculously posts their service manuals.”

Nonetheless, iFixit calls the iPhone the “most substantial iPhone redesign because the 10”.