iPhone 13 Pro Max The later the iPhone is manufactured, the better the screen - myth or a sprinkle of truth?

[BeatCrazy]

Yes, the change in the middle of production is done via Engineering Change Notifications. It's a process by which new revisions of components are done to current manufacturing end devices.

Right so tell for certain that this happened with the iPhone 12/13 display in particular. Not just a change, but a user-noticeable improvement. The point of this thread.

 

[jav6454]

Right so tell for certain that this happened with the iPhone 12/13 display in particular. Not just a change, but a user-noticeable improvement. The point of this thread.

That can happen if manufacturers were switched and yes, if there was an improvement to the process.

 

[BeatCrazy]

That can happen if manufacturers were switched and yes, if there was an improvement to the process.

You’ve been talking about generalized manufacturing processes and a bunch of “ifs”. None of which I disagree with.

But until we have physical proof, the answer to the OP’s question is still “myth”. And it’s equally as likely that perceived display quality got worse, or stayed exactly the same over the production period.

 

[Mark Stone]

With Apple and within a single iPhone generation, no.

Apple and their suppliers have their design and QC methods very locked in.

"Correcting flaws" if needed, is part of their QC process before the production cycles kick off. Again, I'm only talking about how Apple does it, not just any (especially smaller) manufacturer.

When you're making/shipping nearly 1,000,000 iPhones per day, you don't tweak the manufacturing run across several different suppliers, just to make a small change. Those wait for the next generation. There might be exceptions, but not something like "my screen looked better on the one from last month" situations.

If you notice differences, they're within manufacturing tolerances, not intentional.

Thanks for the well thought out answer.

 

[eyoungren]

Maybe not the same thing, but I'll mention it anyway.

In the printing business you have the start of a run, the middle and the end. Whatever it is you're printing you throw out the first few hundred to 1000 or so items because the press is not fully up to speed. Those are called 'waste copies'. The pressmen are busy adjusting the run based on what they see with the waste copies. So by the middle of the run you've got the press fully up to speed and are generating the majority of what's going to come off the press.

As the pressmen continue to monitor the run they're going to make small tweaks over time so they get the best color output possible. By the end of the run the stuff coming off the press is the best it's going to get. And it's going to be better than the stuff in the middle of the run because of those adjustments.

That is the analogy I've always seen and ascribed to manufacturing. Only the run spans a series of years from when first started for a product and ends when the product is discontinued. It seems natural to me. Car manufacturers do it, parts are redesigned, etc.

Maybe I'm way off base, IDK, but it seems logical to me for the manufacturers that Apple contracts with to do the same.

 

[ctjack]

Only the run spans a series of years from when first started for a product and ends when the product is discontinued. It seems natural to me. Car manufacturers do it,

It sounds logical and quite natural. But for some reason not always the case.
Toyota - had a great engines in 90s. From 00s, they are known to screw up the thing that worked well. For example 2.4 liter engine was used in 2002-2006 is flawless, but then they messed it up by tweaking in 2007-2009.
Other car producers started using aluminum, instead of cast iron in the engine. Result? We have disposable cars. In the meantime, UN guys have drown whole Toyota Land Cruiser in Mongolia - that thing was under the water 2 days. Towed away and fixed with duct tape and etc at the local handy man mechanic's shop in the middle of nowhere.

There was another story with German kitchen grinder (meat, smoothie and etc). Those things had lifetime warranty and never broke. Producer started getting poor because of no new sales. It was indeed indestructible and nobody bought replacements. Then they came up with a plan: you had to disassemble and wash it after each use with a raw meat or fruits(sticky). So there was one main very crucial piece - the thing which holds together it and it was small. To prevent it from losing, they colored it in a bright orange.
Without thinking a lot, they repainted it in gray or the same color as other details. In the end, lots of people ended up buying more and more cause they kept losing this non-orange thing and manufacturer didn't sell parts.

 

[ian87w]

I think it’s a bit of both. An iPhone is made up from many different components, and they’re all made by 3rd parties. And there are bad batches here and there, that might get improved later (by the component maker) or not. Things like design, however, is fixed. So any defects in design will only be fixed on the next version of the product (antennagate, bendgate, flexgate, butterfly keyboard, etc).

My issue with Apple is, their current stance in any defects is to deny any wrongdoings and set their own customers into expensive repairs that will take them to the same spot (due to bad component or design). And much later on, if we’re lucky, they will quietly run a limited repair program (which may not include the problematic model you have despite using the same components) for a short time (only up to the extend of Apple care). It’s really pathetic for such a premium company that bragged about its customer service to behave this way. Of course, it’s worse in countries where there’s no official presence with more inflated Apple prices.

I can understand how mass production is not 100% perfect. So support your own customers if things go south, not nickel and dime them further with extended insurance just because you do a lousy decision in design or component selection.

 

[eyoungren]

My issue with Apple is, their current stance in any defects is to deny any wrongdoings and set their own customers into expensive repairs that will take them to the same spot (due to bad component or design). And much later on, if we’re lucky, they will quietly run a limited repair program (which may not include the problematic model you have despite using the same components) for a short time (only up to the extend of Apple care). It’s really pathetic for such a premium company that bragged about its customer service to behave this way. Of course, it’s worse in countries where there’s no official presence with more inflated Apple prices.

Apple has always been this way though.

One example…there was a screen manufacturer back when the 17" PowerBook G4 was selling that made a bad batch of screens. These screens started developing lines of bad pixels early on. Customers complained and started discussions in the Apple forums. This problem happened early in the warranty period.

Apple did not hear its customers and every time a new thread was started on the Apple forums about this problem it was deleted. This forced Apple customers to open their own website which didn't last for long. Ultimately, the customer got screwed, Apple admitted nothing and took no responsibility for the bad screens. To this day Apple will deny there was ever a problem.

And you can't find it on the Apple forums because they sanitized it.