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iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus Feature Removable Back Glass for Easier Repairs
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Never mind the pros, what about the cons?
The article clearly states the pros are this will be less expensive for Apple and more environ... oh wait. 🤔
I’m really curious how this will actually work without ruining the MagSafe or wireless charging capabilities
No worries, it's Gorilla Glass and doesn't break anyway.
“More environmentally friendly …”
How about design the back out of something else that won’t easily shatter?
How about design the back out of something else that won’t easily shatter?
The good old-times Apple, when they delayed the white iPhone until they got the color “right”. Fast forward and you get the butterfly keyboard approved for release 🤷🏻♂️
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That’s great but I’ve dropped my 13 Pro at least 30 times in the last year with no case and the back glass is perfect. You’d really have to intentionally want to break it to do some damage, it’s much stronger and scratch proof compared to the metal sides.
MagSafe will be in the way but I guess that's a part of the internals that you want to look at.
Glass is more environmentally friendly to produce and recycle than metals (generally; I cannot say that with 100% certainty for the glass Apple uses). It's much more friendly than plastic. It can break but the number of broken glass backs that are replaced is far lower than the total number of phones made.
No, it doesn't need to be 1mm across the entire device. You can see that some components are slightly taller than the others. There's room over the battery for MagSafe and it's possible that there'll be room along the bottom or top for an RFID fob antenna and chip.
It worked perfectly with my iPhone 4. I spliced the fob open and inside is just a very thin spooled wire and a tiny chip. Most of the 1mm comes from the tape used to isolate it from the other components. I didn't want to risk shorting anything.
Cool, this should open the way for custom back panels, maybe even the ones with lit up Apple logos like the old days! I wonder what the process will be, guitar picks and a heat gun?
From another photo I saw, magsafe is attached to the rear housing and just unplugs. So it will be rear glass, in a frame with the magsafe coil stuck to it. My question now is, what does the battery stick to? Maybe an internal frame like the iphone 4/4s?
I dropped my iPhone 12 Pro a few weeks ago....an extremely rare occurrence for me and cracked the back glass. Thought I would get it replaced but Apple were charging £640 ($740) I changed my mind and purchased an iPhone 14 Pro! 
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More likely to get out ahead of more impending regulation
That's nice. I cracked an iPhone once and the back glass was like $400 without a Apple Care, and with it they would just replace the entire phone.
So you're saying Tim's now playing 4D Chess with himself on how to maximize profits even more... Great...
In all seriousness though I'd love to have been in the meetings(s) where someone laid out the case for (and hashed out how) more easily repairable devices will actually help Apple make MORE money despite the increase in repairs they won't get a cut on.
A less conspiratorial take would be that Apple as a company has decided that right to repair legislation is here to stay and its easier to just give in to the trend and cut their costs on each repair rather than fight a losing legal battle across multiple states/countries/continents.
I don't know why it feels so bittersweet when Apple finally does the right thing on stuff like this... oh wait it's because they knew how to do it all along.
