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Apple’s iPhone 14 Redesign for Repair

ifixit.com

471–480 of 590 posts

Re: Apple’s iPhone 14 Redesign for Repair

#471

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is about speed, not cost of repair. The selling point of Apple Care is that it takes the stress out of your phone breaking. When my sister's iPhone's screen broke, she took it to the Apple Store at the mall to use her Apple Care benefits. When they gave her some enormous time estimate, she marched to the iFixUrPhone stand and they did it in an hour. I believe Apple knows that this is a problem and is taking some…

Yeah, you kind of need to make an appointment through their app. When you do that, you walk in, they find you a person, then it takes about the same hour. I'm honestly surprised they even accepted you as a walk-in

This still follows my point that when you buy Apple Care, you are paying for your phone breaking to be a non-stressful event. Having to find a working device, make an appointment, wait for your appointment (while your anxiety about being phoneless builds up), remember the appointment, and be on time is not nearly as nice an experience as walking up to a table at the mall you've never talked to before and getting it fixed right there for cash.

Side note: I don't remember saying she was a walk-in. I don't know if she was; I'll have to ask her.

Re: Apple’s iPhone 14 Redesign for Repair

#473

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's cool and all, but what you've built is not a phone and doesn't need to be IP67-rated for water resistance at 1 meter depth.

Yes it's probably easier to design but there are no reasons why a phone needs so many glued parts inside and the latest iPhone demonstrates that there are ways to design for maintainability.

> there are no reasons why a phone needs so many glued parts

There are numerous reasons (some very good reasons) why adhesives are used in smartphone assembly. Sometimes these reasons can sometimes come into conflict with repairability, but that doesn't render their usage completely devoid of any valid reason.

For example, many uses of adhesive are to improve water resistance. And improved water resistance reduces the likelihood of a product needing repair, which is equally virtuous (in my opinion) as repairability.

Re: Apple’s iPhone 14 Redesign for Repair

#474
post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much are they, and where can I buy one? I don't typically follow through on "contact for pricing".

We focus on b2b and prices start at USD200. We also have an open source kit with very similar sensors starting at around USD70. More information here: https://www.airgradient.com/open-airgradient/kits/

This is a really cool idea.

As a business owner I would never buy the DIY kit, I would want it fully assembled and have an appropriate warranty, factory testing/calibration and fast replacement - doubly so if I needed the sensor data for compliance or safety reasons.

However as a tinkerer I probably wouldn't buy a $200 air sensor... but $70 and get a bit of a project out of it? Sure!

Perfect example of broadening reach without cannibalising core business IMO.

Re: Apple’s iPhone 14 Redesign for Repair

#475
post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any modern iPhone has its battery held by pull tabs (double sided tape that lets go when you pull on it sideways). They are sometimes PITA to remove but you just need tweezers, fingers and bit of luck to remove it :-) Adhering the battery is the same - just press in place. Heat is only needed for opening/closing the phone.

Are they water tight after repair? Can you re-open with the same ease?

I got my iPhone X’s battery replaced by an authorized repair center. You can’t tell whether the phone has opened or not. They worked that cleanly (no, it’s my phone. The serial number is the same). It’s waterproof and has no witness marks telling about the repair.

Moreover, they changed my speaker for free, because it was defective or damaged. I didn’t know that. I only learned after getting my phone with service summary report.

Re: Apple’s iPhone 14 Redesign for Repair

#476

On our product (air quality monitor[1]) we made the concious decision to design it for long life and repairability by e.g.: - using no glue or snaps - all components on one PCB, no thin cables that can break - standard philips/torx screws - four screws to open the enclosure, four screws to take out the pcb - expensive sensor modules on pin sockets for easy reaplacement - only using components that are certified for l…

Your scrutiny stopped at the hardware. Your first link showed a white page for 31 seconds while it was running javascript and using up to 50% of my M1 Mac's power. All that, for a page 2 MB page.

They are hardware guys, they probably wrote some good firmware but their expertise falls short of cutting edge web stuff. I would cut them some slack and hope they are successful enough they can pay someone else to do web stuff at some stage. :)

Re: Apple’s iPhone 14 Redesign for Repair

#477

On our product (air quality monitor[1]) we made the concious decision to design it for long life and repairability by e.g.: - using no glue or snaps - all components on one PCB, no thin cables that can break - standard philips/torx screws - four screws to open the enclosure, four screws to take out the pcb - expensive sensor modules on pin sockets for easy reaplacement - only using components that are certified for l…

tbh, products/services named "one" are so cliche these days. At least it makes sense if the next product is called AG 2 or something.

I think it should be illegal to have product names containing "One" or "Plus" in them, unless there is another product offered in the same product line containing "Zero" (or "Two" I suppose) or "Minus".

Re: Apple’s iPhone 14 Redesign for Repair

#478

On our product (air quality monitor[1]) we made the concious decision to design it for long life and repairability by e.g.: - using no glue or snaps - all components on one PCB, no thin cables that can break - standard philips/torx screws - four screws to open the enclosure, four screws to take out the pcb - expensive sensor modules on pin sockets for easy reaplacement - only using components that are certified for l…

Imagine if, after criticising the panel gaps on a Tesla, a representative from Lego points out that Lego cars don't have this problem and that Lego has a steadfast commitment to precise tolerances. As someone who uses (and is continually appreciative of) multiple AirGradient-derived devices throughout my house, my immediate reaction was one of confusion given how monstrously incomparable your product is to an iPhone.…

> Apple devices weren't made difficult to repair because Apple actively despised repairers.

IIRC the front panel uses DRM to stop unauthorized screen replacement.

Re: Apple’s iPhone 14 Redesign for Repair

#479

> Forget satellite SOS and the larger camera, the headline is this: Apple has completely redesigned the internals of the iPhone 14 to make it easier to repair. This made me chuckle. I'm willing to bet that the overwhelming majority of users care far more about the camera than the repairability. The latter is hardly even something they consider. It will probably help them in unseen ways, like improving resale value.

ifixit is a repair site after all and thats their primary concern :)

Ofcourse it's not a primary concern for us... but having upgraded my Samsung Galaxy, it feels good that I can easily service the phone and replace components. It's so simple inside once you learn how to unglue the back glass.

Re: Apple’s iPhone 14 Redesign for Repair

#480

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you honestly think Apple does not want you to repair your own device? They would absolutely sh*t kittens to have you buy replacement parts from them! The problem is that smartphones are super complex devices, able to withstand dust, rain, drops, and more. In order to do that, they have complex internals, which AMONG OTHER THINGS (like heat dissipation and RF I/O) are designed to support mentioned goals. Current ge…

> I feel like some folks downplay the amount of engineering that goes into the iPhone, There's a huge amount of engineering that goes into making cars as well, but independent mechanic can and do thankfully exist. The automobile market is going a similar direction to Apple and it's considered a bad thing by many. Apple do not want to sell you spare parts if they can sell you a new yearly model phone instead. Imagine…

> independent mechanic can and do thankfully exist.

Yet they can’t and are not expected to do anything when the engine itself fails, which can more realistically be compared to a mobile phone in terms of (useful) miniaturization, increase of precision, etc. This is the price of the orders of magnitude more efficient operation compared to the first engines, increased complexity. It’s a tradeoff (and I would say it is worth it in both cases).

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