iFixit Shares iPhone 14 Teardown, Praises New Design With Easily Removable Display and Back Glass

[MacRumors]

Repair website iFixit today shared a video teardown of the standard iPhone 14. In a blog post, iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens praised the device's more repairable internal design, calling it the most substantial iPhone redesign since the iPhone X.

As was mentioned in a few reviews, the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus are the first iPhone models that can be opened from the back side of the device since the iPhone 4S. iFixit says the display and back glass panel are secured with simply two screws and one or two connectors, making both components easier to remove and replace.

"This is such a big deal that it should have been Apple's big announcement—the iPhone has been redesigned from the inside out to make it easier to repair," said Wiens.

iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus models are essentially a sandwich consisting of the display, a mid frame housing most of the internal components, and the back glass panel. According to internal documentation seen by MacRumors, Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers can replace the mid frame by affixing a new one to a customer's existing display, back glass, and rear camera, so long as those parts are not damaged.

iFixit​

"The new metal midframe that supports the structure required an entire internal redesign, as well as an RF rethink and an effective doubling of their ingress protection perimeter," added Wiens. "In other words, Apple has gone back to the drawing board and reworked the iPhone's internals to make repair easier."

The new internal design results in significantly lower $169 to $199 repair fees for iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus models with cracked back glass.

Apple's documentation indicates that a software calibration process known as System Configuration is required after back glass is replaced on the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus. It's unclear what happens if System Configuration is not completed, but possibilities could range from a non-genuine part warning being displayed on the device to issues with wireless charging, the LED camera flash, and/or rear-facing microphone.

iFixit​

iFixit said it is still working on a teardown of the iPhone 14 Pro Max. Other teardowns have already shown that both iPhone 14 Pro models continue to open from the front side as usual, as the internal redesign does not extend to those devices.

Beyond improved repairability, iFixit noted that U.S. models of both the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro have a "large gap" where the SIM card tray slot used to be located (and still is on international models). The teardown also provides a close-up shot of the standard iPhone 14's logic board with components like the A15 Bionic chip and Qualcomm's Snapdragon X65 modem for both 5G and satellite connectivity via a new n53 band.

Article Link: iFixit Shares iPhone 14 Teardown, Praises New Design With Easily Removable Display and Back Glass

 

[IsaacM]

And 14 Pro?

 

[adamw]

Good to they made the iPhone 14 easier to fix. A good step forward by Apple.

 

[yossi]

So they could have done this all these years, but now are forced to do it due to "right to fix" laws

 

[Macalway]

Problem is, if the phone came disassembled, it would get the highest praise form these freaks LOL

(just kidding, obviously)

 

[Concorde105]

And 14 Pro?

The iPhone 14 Feature Apple Didn’t Tell You About | iFixit News

The best feature of the iPhone 14 is one that Apple didn’t tell you about. Turns out this isn’t the iPhone 13S reviewers have been panning—take a look!

www.ifixit.com

Apple has completely redesigned the internals of the iPhone 14 to make it easier to repair. It is not at all visible from the outside, but this is a big deal. It’s the most significant design change to the iPhone in a long time. The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max models still have the old architecture, so if you’re thinking about buying a new phone, and you want an iPhone that really lasts, you should keep reading.

 

[BugeyeSTI]

And 14 Pro?

Well in the video the 14 Pro Max looks like it comes apart like the 13 Pro Max so I guess the Pro's get no repair love

 

[macduke]

It’s like they’re slowly starting to realize that making devices that are easier to assemble and disassemble saves them time and therefore money in manufacturing and during Genius Bar and remote service repair. WHAT?!??

As they continue to remove things like SIM card ports and eventually the lightning connector there should be less crap to remove internally and fewer failure points. I hope they take this as a moment of opportunity to make more internal components snap together like legos. Make them more like self-contained units that you can pop in and out easily, especially for the parts that are most prone to failure. Like the pull tabs for the batteries are awful. Should be able to pop a battery in and out in minutes. Also shouldn’t have to wreck the waterproof gaskets when taking it apart.

 

[rick987611]

So they could have done this all these years, but now are forced to do it due to "right to fix" laws

What laws require it to be easy?

 

[anshuvorty]

So they could have done this all these years, but now are forced to do it due to "right to fix" laws

It's amazing what companies will do when the govt thinks about jumping in and regulating their industry...

Sometimes the threat of regulation, nay, regulation, is needed. It's the yin to the free market yang...You need both to have a healthy economy, IMHO.

 

[nvmls]

Problem is, if the phone came disassembled, it would get the highest praise form these freaks LOL

(just kidding, obviously)

Your sense of humor is a little rusty, but here's your cookie good man!

 

[Shirasaki]

This dude begs to differ. While it is good to see the most common repair easier to do than before, Apple’s anti repair stance is still strong. One can bet without right to repair and global pressure, apple would just glue more components onto the chassis to an extent that the phone literally is unrepairable once broken since none of the parts could be removed.

 

[Graphikos]

Very cool. As iFixit mentions, dealing with repairability and maintaining a durable phone is an incredible engineering challenge. Consider an "egg drop challenge". Your first design is probably something where the egg is packed deep in the center of an elaborate outer shell of tape, padding, and structure. To see if the egg survived a drop you'd have to practically destroy the container to check. Can you build a container where you can quickly and easily retrieve an unbroken egg? It's not too dissimilar.

The iteration cycle on these phones is so quick it's nice they were able to spend the time to tackle these challenges. Was it prompted by outside influence? Probably. But it's a win either way.

 

[JM]

Bravo Apple. Good job

I still wish they would just have one iPhone, though. Why spread your team out? Have ‘em all focus on ONE iPhone to make it awesome.

Man I miss the ol’ new iPhone is one price, and last year’s is $100 less.

Hit all price points, blah blah blah, I know. I still miss simplicity though.

 

[JM]

And 14 Pro?

Right, it’s strange they did the 14 first? I would expect them to do the pro.

They never did a 13mini tear down (and if they did they did it waaaay after it’s release)

 

[mansplains]

Problem is, if the phone came disassembled, it would get the highest praise form these freaks LOL

(just kidding, obviously)

Everyone loves Legos, why not get an iPhone kit to put together yourself? There's some enthusiasts in other areas where I've seen a company release a DIY version. Sometimes the price is reduced, may not be by a lot.

Black Corporation has kits for a few of their synthesizers.

 

[Graphikos]

Everyone loves Legos, why not get an iPhone kit to put together yourself? There's some enthusiasts in other areas where I've seen a company release a DIY version. Sometimes the price is reduced, may not be by a lot.

Black Corporation has kits for a few of their synthesizers.

Google tried it... https://www.cnet.com/pictures/googles-project-ara-lets-you-build-your-own-phone-photos/

 

[Larabee119]

This dude begs to differ. While it is good to see the most common repair easier to do than before, Apple’s anti repair stance is still strong. One can bet without right to repair and global pressure, apple would just glue more components onto the chassis to an extent that the phone literally is unrepairable once broken since none of the parts could be removed.

It makes a lot of sense for business like Apple to control the experience of their products if they are able to.

Let's take a step back and look at my hypothetical example:

The year is 2030 and iFixit has become the world's leader in repair parts. Other smaller suppliers of non-OEM repair parts are either die off or swallowed by iFixit. There are a lot of fake iFixit kits floating around and that affects the image of the company. The fakes are identical in look but far inferior in terms of quality. iFixit legendary battery replacement part is now being cheaply made by Chinese manufacturers and there's no way to stop them. Battery are exploding and people are not very happy with the brand.
What should iFixit leadership do in this case? The only sensible way is to make each of their parts available in a database with a unique codes to check for genuine parts. iFixit has worked hard with OEM to build up the database and if the parts are fake, users should be notified by the phone OS. The company believes that anything that's not theirs are inferior in terms of quality, so users should not be buying fake parts because that's not the experience they want the users to have.

Back to reality, does that scenario makes sense to you that any big company with a large enough market share will try their best to protect their backyard and makes it harder for other manufacturers to enter? Profits from selling parts aren't that important. They are just trying to protect the experience of the product.
Imagine if users can just replace the iPhone backplate with whatever they want. It's great for the users but it's damaging for the product itself because it's no longer the product the engineer designed. Therefore, one of the product segmentation strategy based on color will fail. Imagine you can just take a 100MP camera module and slap onto an iPhone SE... so what's the point of making flagship products anymore?

 

[mansplains]

Google tried it... https://www.cnet.com/pictures/googles-project-ara-lets-you-build-your-own-phone-photos/

I remember that, but that wasn't component-level assembly, more like modular. Several other phones have failed to capture wide use with modular systems, think LG G5. The link I noted is for buying synth PCBs, you buy all of the transistors etc and solder yourself. Although, I doubt anyone but hardcore enthusiasts would buy an iPhone you assemble most of, or entirely.

 

[FightTheFuture]

Everyone loves Legos, why not get an iPhone kit to put together yourself? There's some enthusiasts in other areas where I've seen a company release a DIY version. Sometimes the price is reduced, may not be by a lot.

Black Corporation has kits for a few of their synthesizers.

Reduced pricing on DIY devices would remind me of the textbooks you can buy that are loose leaf and you bind it yourself.

By the way, the plural of Lego is Lego or Lego bricks/blocks

 

[mansplains]

By the way, the plural of Lego is Lego or Lego bricks/blocks

I've just always used the -s, but I guess as a Technic builder bricks don't usually come to mind

 

[Yebubbleman]

Extra room, you say? Mayhaps we get our beloved headphone jack back? They've proved that they're...courageous...now let's go back to normal where things that you'd ordinarily use with headphones can be used with headphones that don't cost $130 to start.

 

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

What laws require it to be easy?

Moral laws and common sense.

 

[Larabee119]

Moral laws and common sense.

Which varies wildly depending on who you're mentioning. Moral laws in corporate are different.

 

[Shirasaki]

It makes a lot of sense for business like Apple to control the experience of their products if they are able to.

Let's take a step back and look at my hypothetical example:

The year is 2030 and iFixit has become the world's leader in repair parts. Other smaller suppliers of non-OEM repair parts are either die off or swallowed by iFixit. There are a lot of fake iFixit kits floating around and that affects the image of the company. The fakes are identical in look but far inferior in terms of quality. iFixit legendary battery replacement part is now being cheaply made by Chinese manufacturers and there's no way to stop them. Battery are exploding and people are not very happy with the brand.
What should iFixit leadership do in this case? The only sensible way is to make each of their parts available in a database with a unique codes to check for genuine parts. iFixit has worked hard with OEM to build up the database and if the parts are fake, users should be notified by the phone OS. The company believes that anything that's not theirs are inferior in terms of quality, so users should not be buying fake parts because that's not the experience they want the users to have.

Back to reality, does that scenario makes sense to you that any big company with a large enough market share will try their best to protect their backyard and makes it harder for other manufacturers to enter? Profits from selling parts aren't that important. They are just trying to protect the experience of the product.
Imagine if users can just replace the iPhone backplate with whatever they want. It's great for the users but it's damaging for the product itself because it's no longer the product the engineer designed. Therefore, one of the product segmentation strategy based on color will fail. Imagine you can just take a 100MP camera module and slap onto an iPhone SE... so what's the point of making flagship products anymore?

Wow…
Apple is doing just that, and has been doing so for years. And what’s the result? Face ID swap scandal (face id disabled if display is swapped). Now iPhone 14 camera module can’t be changed. Id argue user complacency tells apple most people don’t care about repairability, device longevity and eventually, the environment.

Think about it this way, a very hypothetical scenario: one day, apple has successfully lobbied governments around the world That make any sort of third party repair illegal. In addition, all parts are serialised so it can be traced throughout its lifetime. The result? Users are forced to send their phone to Apple for even the tiniest repair, and if repair cost is not accepted, what’s left of the device would only be thrown as trash since parts are not interchangeable, and without authorised parts (even internal cables), the device would not work anyways.

I don’t care how Apple protects their brand. What I do know is people will attempt to do some sort of repair anyways to avoid buying a brand new stuff. Apple can serialise screws if they want to, and charge $100 per screw replacement. Users would still gonna try to repair so those devices last a bit longer. The bottom line is, replacing parts of a device is generally cheaper than replacing the whole thing. Besides, if your scenario comes true, what could also happen is manufacturers start to extensively delay service requests for any reason because they can, since users are unable to do anything if the equipment breaks down.