[ifixit] We Are Retroactively Dropping the iPhone’s Repairability Score::We need to have a serious chat about iPhone repairability. We judged the phones of yesteryear by how easy they were to take apart—screws, glues, how hard it was…
That score of 4 is still very high… I feel, it should be closer to 1…
Mate, don’t get your knickers in a twist… You’re getting riled up over nothing here…
The iPhone 14 getting a repairability score of 4 shouldn’t affect you or your life… Neither should some random person online thinking it deserves a much lower score…
I’m not doubting this is true given the source, but there are phone repair shops all over my town that repair cracked iPhone screens all the time. How do they make that business work if they have to register something like a screen replacement?
- It’s not talking about screens
- Those people are licensed and using parts directly from Apple, which Apple allows
Read the damned post.
I work as a repair tech for Batteries Plus, on the X and above what usually happens is a notification in the settings app about being unable to verify whatever part is an OEM part and that the service log for the device has been updated. If it’s the battery that is being changed and it’s not paired, it will lock you out of viewing Battery Health information, and if the repair shop doesn’t copy over some data from the original screen then the replacement screen can cause the loss of True Tone. Haven’t experienced a phone completely brick itself because of third party repairs but Apple certainly forces a loss of functionality simply because they want all repairs funneled through them.
They can pony up the exorbitant fee to get access to the Apple repair kit that lets you work on Apple devices.
Then they register the screen replacement with their privileged access.
It was possible with older phones to just swap out the screen but starting with 10 (iirc) it is no longer possible to do without the tools.
for now, we are only rescoring the iPhone 14. We are not retroactively rescoring earlier iPhones at this time. If we did, their scores would also likely decline.
I don’t get it. They finally recognized that the score does not reflect reality, leads to wasted money and frustration, and then they don’t apply there newfound insight to products already affected? To me that seems somewhat dishonest.
And consumers “punish” Apple for these unrepairable devices by buying new iphones in record numbers.
Until consumers hurt Apple in the ONE place it cares - it’s pocketbook - hope is lost on changing them.
But consumers are like lemmings. We see this in pre-orders for videogames and folks who proudly are buying the latest crop of obnoxiously priced videocards, or in the car industry where some consumers paying way over sticker just so they can have the latest new model.
And then we wonder why companies seem to have us bent over.
Everything is bundled, and you have to choose the bundle that works the best for you. For many people, that’s Apple devices.
I’ve owned Apple laptops for the last 10 years or so, because I find that they work for my needs. Do I wish they’d open source (or at least document) their non-standard hardware choices, so that their hardware would have easy Linux compatibility? Sure, that’d be nice.
But in the meantime, I like their trackpads, their audio hardware can’t be beat (at least on MacOS, I wish we could get this stuff working right in Linux), and I like their HiDPI displays, low-power CPUs/GPUs, and form factor. Yes, I have to trade off a lot of things to get here. But going with another device would involve other tradeoffs. So I think Apple is worth the tradeoffs for my laptops, not worth the tradeoffs for a phone (although every year I get more and more dissatisfied by the Android offerings).
When other consumers don’t weight the same tradeoffs the same way you do, it’s not because they’re “lemmings” or whatever.
I’m all for breaking up some of these bundles by law (requiring greater interoperability/repair, etc.). But until they do, consumers will need to make their decisions in the circumstances that exist, not the ones that they wish existed.
They’re actually quite easily repairable, with the right tools and knowledge. I quite enjoyed working on them while I worked in that industry. You don’t need all the heavy tools Apple send you as part of their odd program, you can use a regular spudge to get the phone open, IPA to dissolve the adhesives, and there are third party suppliers from which you can source parts.
And if you don’t want to go through all of that, that’s entirely understandable. That’s why you can also go to third-party repair shops that have these tools and supplies to be able to perform these repairs.
There are plenty of legitimate reasons to criticize these things and Apple proper without stretching the truth. “Unrepairable” is not an applicable term here.
Edit: you’ll have to forgive me. I’m used to people in my life bitching that the things they don’t understand being “unrepairable”, everything from smartphones to Volkswagens, when in reality it just requires some know-how and the right tools. The VIN locking is new to me, and it’s really shitty.
Except they VIN lock everything. If you execute a screen swap on 2 brand new phones perfectly, the result is a crippled phone.
There’s plenty of underhanded tactics Apple employs.
Check out Hugh Jeffreys’ content on this.
Your two options are a repair ability nightmare with worrying privacy problems, and another repairability nightmare that may be slightly more repairable but is still a nightmare. Oh, and it is a privacy hellhole. The Fairphone is great, though, & seems to check all boxes
I really wanted to use the Fairphone to replace my old model, but unfortunately eOS doesn’t play well with the corporate apps I need to run for a daily driver phone. I tried Lineage just to see what I could do with it and had similar issues, all due to Google “security”. Not at all unexpected but I was hoping I could work around it all. Ended up having to send it back at the end of my return window and settle on having all my data harvested on a phone that while not as bad as Apple isn’t super easy to get parts for or get into the thing (Zenfone 10). Which sucks.
Maybe when I don’t need to rely on work stuff in my personal phone I can find a solution here, but until then I’m just the loud annoying guy yelling at clouds.
apple people buy every new phone because they have massive FOMO and don’t want to be “shamed” by appearing poor by having an “old” phone.
Apple has created a cult of weirdos obsessed with spending thousands in service of their company for imaginary status and clout.
That might be true for some.
I genuinely just love iOS.
I got the 2nd iPhone, then the 5, got a 6 plus used, then got an SE2, gave that to my daughter, now I’m rocking a 12. This 12 was a gift from a friend or I wouldn’t be using it.
I won’t upgrade until I absolutely have to.
I honestly just genuinely prefer iOS to android.
And then their computers. If you were using a Mac with system 7, you can use a Mac today. Old folks suffer with change. Every new windows they move stuff around and make it impossible for old people (like my poor uncle who is still looking for “my computer” constantly).
My daily driver is Linux, but I love MacOS as well. I still use my 2012 power mac to record music because it’s what I know and love. If I needed to do more I’d get a newer used Mac.
Some people just like how it works and the fact that it’s been consistent for decades.
It’s the new keeping up with the Joneses. We can’t afford houses or new cars so what’s next?
To be fair, I’d have no idea why you’d want a brand new car anyways. They are inferior to older cars and just help with creating more waste.
