iPhone 16 dubbed Apple's most repairable model in years Apple's iPhone 16 has arrived, and the teardown crew at iFixit has wasted no time in pulling apart the latest device and found its repairability... rather good, relatively speaking. iPhone 16 teardown (pic: iFixit) iPhone 16 teardown Pic courtesy of iFixit While for some the iPhone 16 may be a little underwhelming in the …
They're only replaced every 3-5 years, a slightly more involved process is fine. The majority of people buying new iPhones will NEVER replace their battery, they'll trade in the phone before it needs it and leave that to the company handling the trade-in refurbishment.
It would be nice to have them easily replaceable, but if you also want it to be waterproof there will have to be a compromise on size to allow for the fixings and seals that would be needed to replace the "glue" that currently serves this purpose.
<quote>We can imagine the team from Fairphone, for example, taking a look at Apple's improvements and saying: "Oh, they've changed the battery glue. That's cute," before switching out the power unit in their device in a matter of seconds.</quote>
Indeed, Fairphone have a promotion were you get a free battery with your phone going at the moment. My Fairphone 3 is on it's third battery and second USB port at the moment.
Batteries generally need replacing every two years and that port lasted for almost five years with daily use. When I had similar issues with my S6 then S9 I had to get a new phone as repairing it wasn't an option without equipment and experience I don't have. In contrast I've been able to do what ever needed doing to my Fairphone. Replacing the battery takes seconds, replacing the USB port took minutes. I could even upgrade the camera if I really wanted to. Instead hoping to keep this going until the Fairphone 6 comes out in a year or two and realistically I can keep it going for that long.
... As long as you purchase the parts from Apple and are happy with the 'phone subsequently noting "used" next to any components which have been replaced.
If it is saying "used" next to NEW parts that's a bug that needs to be fixed.
But what Apple has done allows using used parts from other iPhones - you don't need to get them from Apple (so long as they aren't locked to another iPhone, to prevent use of parts from stolen iPhones) Such parts would be "used" and I don't think it is anything nefarious to mark them as such. As a consumer I would want to know if something I'm buying has had parts replaced with used parts. If you were buying a car wouldn't you want to know if its engine had been replaced by one salvaged from a wrecked car? The engine might be in perfect shape and just as good as the original one in cars manufactured at the same time, but it is not original equipment and it is only fair to notify the consumer of that fact.
Apple has a goal of locking down parts so that people aren't getting held at gunpoint for an unbroken display panel. Especially for the Apple employees.
Always travel overseas with a not-my-main phone (current - 1) for walking about while my US daily use phone rests in my hotel room.
Never in my life will you get me to carry a phone opened by some rando in a mall kiosk onto an aircraft.
I work with these batteries. I will not make the news. My coworkers will never let it go.
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