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iPhone 13 Screen Replacements Can Break Face ID, a Repair Restriction iFixit Calls 'Completely Unprecedented'

JimmyHook said:
Financing your home means you can’t afford it, so you should rent. Using a credit card means you can’t afford what you charged. Got a student loan? You shouldn’t be in college because you can’t afford it.

I personally enjoy battery replacements right before AC Plus expires. I also enjoy priority repair/replacements. Walk in, 15 minutes later walk out with a replacement device or a screen repair in 30 minutes. But that’s just me. I can afford AC Plus, and it’s an expensive device. I insure all my valuables.
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Umm..no. A home is a form of wealth storage, and appreciates in value. Also, it's meant to last a lifetime. An iPhone is meant to last 4 years.

I'm guessing you're one of those people who buy a $30 screen protector from the Verizon store (or any other store where you buy your phone), because the salesperson pressures you into "Woah, you're gonna buy a $1000 phone but not a screen protector with it!?!?!?".

If you have a credit card you pay your phone bill from, it already covers accidental coverage in most cases. If you bought the phone outright from a credit card, it would double the warranty to 2 years by default (depending on the card)
 
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HughRR said:
I used to rework stuff on a larger scale admittedly.

This is rubbish. Reworking BGA packages on that scale has a massive failure rate of around 30% which makes it unrealistic. Those failures aren’t always evident immediately until the device has been thermal cycled a few tens of times.

Just because when you walk out of a repair shop your device looks like it works doesn’t mean that it is fit for purpose.

Buy insurance (AppleCare) and get proper FRU replacements. If you can’t afford it walk away if this is a problem and sit in your own mire/hellscape (been there with Samsung and Motorola myself).

As for Levi’s there aren’t any high integration microcomputer systems in any of my pairs. Second worst straw man of the year I’ve seen that.

Honestly the repair industry is mostly predatory these days. I’ve been poor and that’s when it hurts you which is why right to repair can go to hell and we should concentrate on forcing manufacturers to support their hardware instead. See my other post on this.

Right to repair is the dying gasp of a dying industry being replaced with the recycling industry.
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Well I do rework at this level, and have done for many years. From repairing the broken track on iPhone 7 audio ICs, common Tristar issues on earlier models through to swapping the IC and IR emitter on iPhone 11 Pro earpiece flexes to keep FaceID working after replacing the earpiece. The failure rate is nowhere near 30%. The return rate in my shop is less than 2% for all rework jobs. This isn't the days of lead solder with dry joints and massive BGA chips on logic boards. When a job is done right, it stays right. And in cases like the iPhone 7 audio ICs, we permanently repair a design flaw that forced Apple to issue a Repair Program due to how widespread it was.

Replacing the display IC on the iPhone 13 screens is a job that can be done in under 5 minutes, and that's being extremely conservative. Realistically all it does is stop small stalls in shopping centres from replacing screens, it doesn't stop any stores with a repair centre and a technician that is in any way competent with a hot air station.

You talk about the Levis argument being the second worst you've seen, but it is highlighting how ridiculous it is that for a basic task (replacing a screen or battery which is a very basic and quick task), Apple are doing all they can to stop the end user getting it done somewhere that isn't Apple. There is no reason for this other than to shaft the end user.

You obviously have your views on right to repair. Personally I think it's pathetic that you feel it's right that people shouldn't have the option to get their products repaired where they want, when they want, and be beholden to the manufacturer who may or may not want to help, and if they do, at whatever extortionate cost they decide.
 
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varsity said:
The screen is seperate from the Face ID sensor. So how does this make any sense. There is no security issues with swapping the screen. If changing the sensor was the question then you'd be correct. The only way to preserve Face ID & Touch ID is to recycle the original part, which is what 3rd party repair shops currently do.
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Exactly. The parts relating to FaceID are completely separate that stay within the handset when the screen is removed. The earpice flex that previously used to house the IR emitter (a requirement for FaceID) is now also kept within the handset when the screen is removed, whereas previously it had to be migrated across to a new screen.

The screen has absolutely no link with the performance of FaceID, as evidenced by the multiple generations of iPhone with FaceID that allowed the screen to be changed and allow FaceID to work.

This is up there with Apple bricking iPhone 6 that had the home button flex replaced via an iTunes error 53 when it came to updating the iOS. Apple backed down after much backlash and allowed phones that had the home buttons replaced be updated, but the TouchID capabilities would never work again, a pattern that continued through to the iPhone 8 series.

Later phones could have the FaceID or earpiece flexes replaced, but lose FaceID function. That makes complete sense because the parts relating to the security of the device had been changed, and potentially compromised. Changing the screen does nothing of the sort, and should not cause FaceID to stop working.

This is completely the wrong way to go about things.
 
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KindJamz said:
It’s about apple locking down expensive repairs for themselves.
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This is blatantly false and has been debunked many times over.

Most of Apple devices are becoming so dynamic and intricate with technological changes, most of these third-party stores don’t have the necessary training to repair these devices. I mean, look at the demographics of people that they hire. It’s basically someone that doesn’t require any type of background in tech repair.

uBreakiFix is a perfect example, that hires mostly incompetent people that are not trained through Apples Genius repair program that Apple coordinates. I’ve talked to the general manager at the uBreakiFix store years ago, he openly admitted that as phones become more advanced, the limitations grow further.

Additionally, third-party repair stores do not have access to OEM Apple parts, thus they’re using probably a lesser degree of quality parts. I would only would allow Apple to make repairs on my devices, and no one else.
 
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Shock horror….Apple is doing what’s best to drive its revenue.

Personally speaking I have know issues with it.

I have had bad experiences with third party repairs, I took my MacBook Pro in to be fixed, was working albeit slowly and then they claimed it died. Apple authorised place said it had been soldered..I would not trust them again
 
Eventually, what all this means is that for such an expensive phone you will not be able to avoid apple care charges because if something happens, Apple will ask at least half it's price.
Im not sure if Amazon can fill this gap.
 
iFixit says that Apple's decision to disable Face ID with a screen repair could cause small repair outlets to shut down, spend thousands on new equipment, or lose out on Apple repairs. The site also does not believe that the Face ID repair issue is an accident, as Apple has previously introduced similar repair restrictions for Touch ID, True Tone functionality with display repairs, and iPhone 12 cameras.
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Does anyone believe this? I mean every corner shop has a 20$ heat gun or hakko clone, what else would you need on "new equipment"?
 
One has to have a unique perspective to take their luxury car to a street mechanic. Reality any new technology car (Tesla). The same applies to modern technology devices. There are phones that can be repaired more easily. Plenty of good choices out there. I prefer to have Apple put genuine parts and repairs. Will pay the price. Let the free market work. Want outside repairs, buy a phone that meets your needs. If enough decided to buy other than Apple iPhones. The market will decide. Simple as that.
 
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JCCL said:
Tim is that you? Because literally I don't know why any consumer with common sense would support this....and you might want to look into consumer protection laws in many countries, you would find out that everything you said is completely wrong.
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Sorry it's common sense.
 
GrumpyCoder said:
Because receiving ads is not about security, it's about privacy.
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Really? Well I don’t want them listening in on my family. To me when a microphone is recording and listening to every world I say this is a matter of security. Selling products that I may be interested in is one thing another thing is knowing personal things about my family. Do you like that they are in your home listening to you? I bet if people knew they were recording every word they say they would not buy an iphone.
 
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jlc1978 said:
It's a risk / reward trade off. If something goes wrong I know I can get it fixed, and if I damage it I know what the repair cost will be.



Another way of looking at it is Apple could offer a 3 year warranty out of the box but would have to raise prices to cover the repair liability. Offering it a la carte means consumers get to decide if the value the extra warranty or not. I am generally not a fan of extended warranties as they are really just a profit center; but in the case of my Macs I get them. For phones? No.

For me, who uses my Mac for work, the ability to get a repair or replacement is worth the extra cost. When a power supply dies in Dubai all I have to do is go to the Apple store for a replacement. In addition, now that Apple allows you to extend AppleCare I can extend the replacement time for my Macs accordingly.



In the e90 series BMW's, replacing a battery required reregistering it with a special tool to get the charge profile correct.
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And you're happy that they are doing this?
 
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Mockletoy said:
Someone else earlier in the thread listed out the official Apple UK prices, and they were the textbook definition of exorbitant compared to what typical repair shops charge.

Here in Sweden Apple would charge me a little over 5200kr (about $608) to replace the screen in my 10.5” iPad Pro. That’s not much less than I paid for it new 4 years ago. I think that meets the definition of exorbitant, don’t you?

For comparison I had the screen replaced in another iPad in Kansas City a few years back for something like $80 at a local store. My parents still use that device to this day.

If Apple had been my only repair option I’d have just recycled it, because it wouldn’t have been worth the cost of the repair.

That’s neither consumer friendly nor environmentally conscious.
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Yeah, Apple is trying to let you pay for Apple care
 
avatuar99 said:
Security of their devices? Then how come whenever I tell my wife we need new shoes or diapers for the kids hours later I get ads for shoes and diapers on my iphone and mac? Apple tells you they care about privacy but for them as long as it’s not a human listening but a computer that’s fine. I think if Steve Jobs were with us today he would not like it at all what they did with his company.
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I think you are forgetting that Apple, a consumer-electronic company can do nothing about advertising companies like Facebook and Google within their own apps, so that is why you're getting those ads. So, Apple still has a stance on privacy, hence why I still stayed at Apple devices like iPhone's
 
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