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iPhone 7 Plus pentalobe screws have water seal?

C

c98928

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 22, 2008
55
1
I took out the bottom pentalobe screws of my iPhone 7 Plus to have a close look, only to find out the screws are identical to those of the 6s.

I thought they would have had at least some kind of water seal but found nothing. Anyone know how the 7 prevents water from coming in from the screw holes?
 
c98928 said:
I took out the bottom pentalobe screws of my iPhone 7 Plus to have a close look, only to find out the screws are identical to those of the 6s.

I thought they would have had at least some kind of water seal but found nothing. Anyone know how the 7 prevents water from coming in from the screw holes?
Click to expand...
The screw holes are filled with the screws. So unless they are loose, or like you, someone takes them out they continue to be water resistant. Water coming in through screw holes has never been an issue when thread to thread contact is made with a tight screw.

Now my Rolex Sea Dweller is water proof to depth of 3,000 ft. With the pressure at that depth the bezel screw does need and have a seal.

Perhaps if you didn't have a screw loose you and your iPhone would be OK.
 
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c98928 said:
I took out the bottom pentalobe screws of my iPhone 7 Plus to have a close look, only to find out the screws are identical to those of the 6s.

I thought they would have had at least some kind of water seal but found nothing. Anyone know how the 7 prevents water from coming in from the screw holes?
Click to expand...

I think the iPhone 7 is more water resistant with the additional adhesive and seals internally. A screw would not contribute to the waterproofing in this instance.
 
Yes, normally screws would have some sort of o-ring. However, never dealt with a water proof iPhone. Maybe the seal is inside the hole the screw came out of and is permanently there.
 
So I went to great lengths to further examine the 7's screws and found that they seem to have a ring of black thing near the top.

The thing looks like the residue of double sided duct tape. Perhaps this is the screw hole seal?

Anyone?
 
Perhaps. And perhaps you weakened the phones water proofing by removing.

Not trying to judge. Maybe ask the Apple Store and see what they say.
 
More than likely they just use some sort of loctite or thread seal on the screw to seal up the hole and keep the screw from undoing itself. Most every screw I've ever taken out of a computer or iphone has some blue stuff on it's tip (blu loctite I assume)
 
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I wouldn't think the bottom screws would need a seal or gasket to be rated to IP67, but maybe Apple put some gummy substance between the threads and screw head for good measure.

Edit: there is a YouTuber called JerryRigEverhthing that did a tear down of an iPhone 7 to demonstrate how each part of it has been protected. He didn't show how the screws are protected but there is a black, sticky adhesive substance around the edges where the display meets the shell. That might be what you're seeing.
 
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The latest iterations of the MacBooks which came out in the spring? were rumored to have tamper-evident screws. It turns out that it was simply loctite. I wouldn't be surprised if the same were true here.
 
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