The standard teardown by restore website iFixit has given the iPhone 16 lineup the best repairability rating of any earlier iPhone, thanks to a few key modifications within the design and internals that make it simpler to entry elements.
The score, which is provisional pending Apple’s launch of elements, is predicated on what iFixit identifies as three main modifications. As famous in an earlier teardown, rumors of Apple encasing the iPhone 16 Professional battery in arduous metal case have confirmed to be true.
“Onerous cell batteries as an alternative of soppy pouch batteries will not get by chance punctured by a slip of a screwdriver, and they also’re manner much less more likely to catch hearth,” iFixit famous on its weblog, tremendously lowering the chance of battery harm. The corporate additionally praised Apple’s change to a brand new adhesive that secures that battery, which may now be debonded when one passes an small electrical present by means of it.
The third issue famous was the enlargement of the flexibility to disassemble the iPhone both from the entrance or again, rising the benefit of attending to the particular elements that want repairing. This function truly debuted on the bottom mannequin iPhone 14, however it has now come to the iPhone 16’s Professional fashions as nicely.
The iFixit weblog referred to those modifications as “huge leaps for repairkind,” which allowed for a extra constant and easily-repeatable restore course of. Apple’s personal battery restore information offered to AASP technicians exhibits that the debonding will be accomplished with two leads from a family 9v battery.
Harvesting OEM elements made simpler additionally
The iFixit weblog additionally praised Apple’s new “Restore Assistant” program to help AASP technicians and DIY-ers alike to have the ability to calibrate and ensure correct “elements pairing” when utilizing new or harvested OEM elements to restore an Apple machine.
“After we examined it out with the iPhone 15 collection earlier this week, we thought it was promising, if not fairly prepared for prime time,” the corporate famous. “However it labored impressively easily on our vanilla iPhone 16: one click on to pair and calibrate all elements directly, and no bugs to be discovered.”
The Restore Assistant function in iOS 18 might or might not work with some compliant however third-party restore elements, nonetheless. The software program may additionally change into a nuisance to consumers of used iPhones who had been unaware of earlier repairs, or any use of third-party elements.
Apple’s personal restore information notes that utilizing a 9v battery can debond the battery casing within the iPhone 16 in a few 90 seconds. iFixit’s comparability used a 12v battery, and was capable of debond in 60 seconds.
The complete iFixit teardown additionally revealed that there is extra to the brand new Digital camera Management activator than meets the attention. The corporate was happy to improve the repairability rating of the iPhone 16 line to a seven out of 10; the iPhone 15, by comparability, scored a 4 out of 10.