5 ms·

I think that ifixit misrepresent the actual repairability of the iphone with a 7 out of 10. It doesn't take into account the economy part. For instance, Iphon

I think that ifixit misrepresent the actual repairability of the iphone with a 7 out of 10. It doesn't take into account the economy part. For instance, Iphone 15 display price 350€, s23 108€. They are mostly similar, s23 has 120hz OLED, iphone has 60hz OLED. The phone sell for similar price in Europe (800 vs 869€) The difference is I can buy s23 display from third party manufacturer, apple you can't or you loose feature you paid for like true tone.

ksec 2y ago
>price 350€, s23 108€. S23 is way too cheap. I was expecting it to be 150. On the other hand Apple is way too expensive. Even accounting for their "tax" I was expecting 250.
galaxys 2y ago
Not to mention Galaxy A55 which IMO offers superior value for money. I prefer it to even an S24 anyway.
- naikrovek 2y ago
  but it's a samsung... all the preinstalled apps that you can't remove, all of the just straight-up dumb samsung apps that are bundled and can't be removed. pass. everything samsung is doing lately makes them a company that I will no longer buy from. apple isn't perfect, no one is, but any company that puts ads on top of my content that i paid for with money on my own tv that i paid for with money is getting kicked out of my house hastily and permanently.
  - nikau 2y ago
    [flagged]
  - galaxys 2y ago
    Why am I downvoted -4 (worst possible, usually reserved for torrid comments) just because Samsung? I was replying to a post about Samsung.
    - naikrovek 2y ago
      Votes are a fickle thing. I’ll upvote ya
givinguflac 2y ago
Regardless of oem display cost, the new parts pairing feature in iOS 18 means no more loss of True Tone etc.
kolinko 2y ago
Both have 120 hz, but iPhone has slightly higher pixel density, more nits, arguably better colors and stronger glass ("ceramic shield" vs guerilla glass). The price of the phones is similar - good point there, but it's entirely possible that Apple has other components that are cheaper (especially electronics)
- hnuser123456 2y ago
  The iPhone 15 is 60hz. https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/youre-wrong-60hz-on-the-iphone-is-fine/ https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/youre-wrong-60hz-on-the...
- strunz 2y ago
  gorilla* glass
- ensignavenger 2y ago
  Where do you get those specs from? Everything I am seeing says that only the iPhone 15 Pro has the 120hz display.
  - 1-6 2y ago
    Even the iPhone 16 isn’t 120 Hz, only the Pro and the Pro Max are.
multimoon 2y ago
Can we just be happy that Apple is slowly changing, and stop constantly moving on to the next thing to complain about? If you never look behind you you’ll lose sight of how much progress has been made. I’d also disagree that they’re the same screen as another user pointed out, the iPhone has a better screen. Even if Apple decided to charge more for parts, that’s their choice. True Tone can now be used with 3rd party screens, so go buy the cheaper knockoff screen if you so choose. Apple has done more to make this phone repairable in the last 3yrs than I think any OEM has done since waterproofing started and phones became sealed. The electrically released metal covered battery is going to be a huge thing for self repair. You or I might find it easy to just yank a battery out, but someone somewhere will follow the instructions and then puncture it and sue the OEM for the battery fire, and this hugely reduces that liability.
- RandomThoughts3 2y ago
  > Can we just be happy that Apple is slowly changing, and stop constantly moving on to the next thing to complain about? No? Why should we stop comparing Apple to its main competitors because they took a minor step in the right direction but still miss the mark by a wide margin? It's only fair to keep them on the hook for things where they do worse. I don't want Apple to progress. Apple is not a kid to coddle. It's the most profitable company in the world. Being best in class in repearability is the bare minimum we should expect for them, not something we should hope for. > The electrically released metal covered battery is going to be a huge thing for self repair. They could just stop gluing battery entirely. It's not like it's an impossible engineering challenge. It's soon to be mandatory in the EU anyway.
  - multimoon 2y ago
    > Why should we stop comparing Apple to its main competitors because they took a minor step in the right direction but still miss the mark by a wide margin? It's only fair to keep them on the hook for things where they do worse. As someone who has repaired numerous cell phones over the last decade, I firmly believe the new iPhone is now far easier to repair than the new Samsung Galaxy, and I challenge you to prove me wrong. It might now be the most repairable mass market phone. You’re welcome to whine on the internet if you think that that is “holding them accountable”, but at the same time appreciate the change. > They could just stop gluing battery entirely. It's not like it's an impossible engineering challenge. It's soon to be mandatory in the EU anyway Disagreements over that not being the place of a government aside, while I suppose they could screw it down like a laptop, this is my point, they made it better and you’re still complaining. If it isn’t good enough for you then don’t buy the product and buy something else. If the entire market wanted repairable phones (instead of a maybe 1% that I myself am a part of) then they would make phones that fit together like legos. This grandstanding that there is a moral requirement of companies to design products in the way you want is silly.
Kirby64 2y ago
Why would repairability and cost of parts have any relation? Also, checking eBay, it looks like an oem display (not from apple) for the iPhone 15 is only $150-170. From apple directly it’s $235. By comparison, I can’t find any way to actually buy an OEM display for Samsung phones. They just offer repair services.
- beeboobaa3 2y ago
  Both impact accessibility. If the device can only be repaired by having extremely specialist tools, skills, etc. then it's still repairable, you just need to invest in those things which costs $$$. But it's hardly worth doing, because by the time you've done so the next iphone rolls around and the skills/tools lose most of their value. If the device can easily be repaired but the replacement components cost so much it's hardly worth doing the end result is the same: Devices won't be repaired because it's not financially attractive. Which is exactly what Apple wants, they're only doing this because the EU is practically forcing them to.
  - Kirby64 2y ago
    If the physical part itself just costs a lot of money, it will have a high cost. And if it doesn’t, then the third party markets will thrive and solve this issue if the OEM is charging “too much” for it. Neither impacts a repairability score unless you want repairability to just be corresponding to how cheap something is, which would be nonsense. This isn’t Apple being evil, it’s just basic cost of goods. It’s like complaining that a 10 yr old car is too expensive to repair cause the parts cost too much. Yeah… at some point they do, relative to the value of the car.
    - shuntress 2y ago
      It's not about the OEM charging "too much". It's about the OEM sandbagging the market. If that 10 year old car was designed with a non-standard shape battery, it would get a lower repairablity score. If additionally the OEM sued anyone who made batteries in that shape it would get an even lower repairability score. If on top of that the car was designed to turn on the check engine light if its battery was made by anyone other than the OEM then it would get an even lower score.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
deleted 2y ago
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smugma 2y ago
“mostly a good offering with a few omissions… a display assembly that’s too pricey to be an attractive repair option for most people.”
GeekyBear 2y ago
> The difference is I can buy s23 display from third party manufacturer, apple you can't or you loose feature you paid for like true tone. This iFixIt article made it fairly clear that the new version of iOS allows you to pair and calibrate first or third party parts after making a repair at home. > it worked impressively smoothly on our vanilla iPhone 16: one click to pair and calibrate all components at once, and no bugs to be found.
- Kirby64 2y ago
  One nit: Apple makes no claims about third party (ie not Apple Original parts) having the ability to be calibrated. Nor should they, since who knows what these third party parts are doing. I’ve seen displays for iPhones that are LCD panels. I’ve seen aftermarket OLED panels, that are not of the same quality… but actually OLED.
  - fennecfoxy 2y ago
    Nice pun <3
  - GeekyBear 2y ago
    Looking at the linked article, used parts are callibrated, third party parts don't have functionality blocked. > with iOS 18, they would stop disabling True Tone and battery health for third-party parts. https://www.ifixit.com/News/100266/the-end-of-parts-pairing-almost https://www.ifixit.com/News/100266/the-end-of-parts-pairing-...
    - Kirby64 2y ago
      Skeptically, "if the parts can handle it" would be key in my view. How do I know true tone and battery health would be in any way accurate, if they're using who knows what display, and who knows what battery/BMS?
      - GeekyBear 2y ago
        There is never a guarantee that a third party part works identically to a first party part regardless of what device you are repairing. You're saving money, but taking a chance.
cruffle_duffle 2y ago
Lots of repairs are like that though. The sum of the replacement parts can vastly exceed the price of just buying a new one (which is often a newer model). We even have terminology for that in the auto world where you can “total” a car because it costs more to fix than replace. There are other hidden costs to repairs too. One is you’ve “broken the seal” and now your device isn’t “stock” anymore. The water seal might not work as well. The display connector might be slightly loose and tweak out. The screws might not be factory torqued down. For a car it’s similar too… maybe after that accident the frame is now just slightly off kilter. Maybe there was that proverbial “extra mystery bolt” left over. Then there is opportunity costs. Is repairing it really the best use of your time and money? What other things could you have done instead of repair? I dunno… All I’m saying is, repeatability isn’t the end all be all. It’s yet another set of trade offs factored into product design like security, user experience, quality, cost, time to market, size and weight, durability, etc. I think the score is fine. But there is a second score not mentioned that is “is it worth repairing”?
- ghostpepper 2y ago
  > We even have terminology for that in the auto world where you can “total” a car because it costs more to fix than replace. It blows my mind that I never made this connection before.
- grues-dinner 2y ago
  It's also very common now for even superficially fairly minor danger to total a car because there's so much custom electronics all over a car that replacing the parts and wiring costs thousands in parts and days of labour, even if you can get the parts. Repairing aggressively unibody pressed frames with their aluminium and composite construction that can't just be welded is almost impossible. And even if it is, the insurers won't touch it because the manufacturers can't, won't and don't want to know how to agree that it's safe. Phones and other electronics are not a lot different in that manufacturers don't really want you to fix them and any sop towards repairable phones is under duress from legislation or . Hell, good luck even finding a genuine battery, I can't even get one for a ThinkPad and they're supposed to be good for that. To be honest I'm fairly cool on repairability for phones as they're so tightly engineered, it's genuinely hard to engineer and they cycle so fast the parts go out of production in weeks.
gorkish 2y ago
Strong agree; 7/10 is a ludicrous score for a device that takes a heat gun and a proprietary screwdriver to open. It is my opinion that iFixit is starting to turn from being actually hacker friendly into something of a mouthpiece for too-little-too-late corporate-sponsored initiatives designed to curb right-to-repair efforts. The money coming into their business from corporate programs is evident, and it's evident they are strongly perusing that market. I'm not convinced it's going to be a win for consumers though. I found the recent release of their soldering station at $300 to be particularly distasteful. If you want to spend that kind of money on soldering tools, go for Metcal. Otherwise a Pinecil and a USB-C power bank give you exactly the same quality and control for 1/4 the price. The electro-release adhesive is cool as hell though; no denying that.
tomaskafka 2y ago
I did buy a cheap 3rd party iPhone X screen. It’s bad beyond redemption. Imprecise touch, worse colors, asymmetric bottom lip. You can also get even cheaper LCD to replace the OLED, that sticks out 2 mm out of front case. Not worth it at all.

ksec 2y ago

>price 350€, s23 108€. S23 is way too cheap. I was expecting it to be 150. On the other hand Apple is way too expensive. Even accounting for their "tax" I was expecting 250.

galaxys 2y ago

Not to mention Galaxy A55 which IMO offers superior value for money. I prefer it to even an S24 anyway.

naikrovek 2y ago
but it's a samsung... all the preinstalled apps that you can't remove, all of the just straight-up dumb samsung apps that are bundled and can't be removed. pass. everything samsung is doing lately makes them a company that I will no longer buy from. apple isn't perfect, no one is, but any company that puts ads on top of my content that i paid for with money on my own tv that i paid for with money is getting kicked out of my house hastily and permanently.
- nikau 2y ago
  [flagged]
- galaxys 2y ago
  Why am I downvoted -4 (worst possible, usually reserved for torrid comments) just because Samsung? I was replying to a post about Samsung.
  - naikrovek 2y ago
    Votes are a fickle thing. I’ll upvote ya

givinguflac 2y ago

Regardless of oem display cost, the new parts pairing feature in iOS 18 means no more loss of True Tone etc.

kolinko 2y ago

Both have 120 hz, but iPhone has slightly higher pixel density, more nits, arguably better colors and stronger glass ("ceramic shield" vs guerilla glass). The price of the phones is similar - good point there, but it's entirely possible that Apple has other components that are cheaper (especially electronics)

hnuser123456 2y ago
The iPhone 15 is 60hz. https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/youre-wrong-60hz-on-the-iphone-is-fine/ https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/youre-wrong-60hz-on-the...
strunz 2y ago
gorilla* glass
ensignavenger 2y ago
Where do you get those specs from? Everything I am seeing says that only the iPhone 15 Pro has the 120hz display.
- 1-6 2y ago
  Even the iPhone 16 isn’t 120 Hz, only the Pro and the Pro Max are.

multimoon 2y ago

Can we just be happy that Apple is slowly changing, and stop constantly moving on to the next thing to complain about? If you never look behind you you’ll lose sight of how much progress has been made. I’d also disagree that they’re the same screen as another user pointed out, the iPhone has a better screen. Even if Apple decided to charge more for parts, that’s their choice. True Tone can now be used with 3rd party screens, so go buy the cheaper knockoff screen if you so choose. Apple has done more to make this phone repairable in the last 3yrs than I think any OEM has done since waterproofing started and phones became sealed. The electrically released metal covered battery is going to be a huge thing for self repair. You or I might find it easy to just yank a battery out, but someone somewhere will follow the instructions and then puncture it and sue the OEM for the battery fire, and this hugely reduces that liability.

RandomThoughts3 2y ago
> Can we just be happy that Apple is slowly changing, and stop constantly moving on to the next thing to complain about? No? Why should we stop comparing Apple to its main competitors because they took a minor step in the right direction but still miss the mark by a wide margin? It's only fair to keep them on the hook for things where they do worse. I don't want Apple to progress. Apple is not a kid to coddle. It's the most profitable company in the world. Being best in class in repearability is the bare minimum we should expect for them, not something we should hope for. > The electrically released metal covered battery is going to be a huge thing for self repair. They could just stop gluing battery entirely. It's not like it's an impossible engineering challenge. It's soon to be mandatory in the EU anyway.
- multimoon 2y ago
  > Why should we stop comparing Apple to its main competitors because they took a minor step in the right direction but still miss the mark by a wide margin? It's only fair to keep them on the hook for things where they do worse. As someone who has repaired numerous cell phones over the last decade, I firmly believe the new iPhone is now far easier to repair than the new Samsung Galaxy, and I challenge you to prove me wrong. It might now be the most repairable mass market phone. You’re welcome to whine on the internet if you think that that is “holding them accountable”, but at the same time appreciate the change. > They could just stop gluing battery entirely. It's not like it's an impossible engineering challenge. It's soon to be mandatory in the EU anyway Disagreements over that not being the place of a government aside, while I suppose they could screw it down like a laptop, this is my point, they made it better and you’re still complaining. If it isn’t good enough for you then don’t buy the product and buy something else. If the entire market wanted repairable phones (instead of a maybe 1% that I myself am a part of) then they would make phones that fit together like legos. This grandstanding that there is a moral requirement of companies to design products in the way you want is silly.

Kirby64 2y ago

Why would repairability and cost of parts have any relation? Also, checking eBay, it looks like an oem display (not from apple) for the iPhone 15 is only $150-170. From apple directly it’s $235. By comparison, I can’t find any way to actually buy an OEM display for Samsung phones. They just offer repair services.

beeboobaa3 2y ago
Both impact accessibility. If the device can only be repaired by having extremely specialist tools, skills, etc. then it's still repairable, you just need to invest in those things which costs $$$. But it's hardly worth doing, because by the time you've done so the next iphone rolls around and the skills/tools lose most of their value. If the device can easily be repaired but the replacement components cost so much it's hardly worth doing the end result is the same: Devices won't be repaired because it's not financially attractive. Which is exactly what Apple wants, they're only doing this because the EU is practically forcing them to.
- Kirby64 2y ago
  If the physical part itself just costs a lot of money, it will have a high cost. And if it doesn’t, then the third party markets will thrive and solve this issue if the OEM is charging “too much” for it. Neither impacts a repairability score unless you want repairability to just be corresponding to how cheap something is, which would be nonsense. This isn’t Apple being evil, it’s just basic cost of goods. It’s like complaining that a 10 yr old car is too expensive to repair cause the parts cost too much. Yeah… at some point they do, relative to the value of the car.
  - shuntress 2y ago
    It's not about the OEM charging "too much". It's about the OEM sandbagging the market. If that 10 year old car was designed with a non-standard shape battery, it would get a lower repairablity score. If additionally the OEM sued anyone who made batteries in that shape it would get an even lower repairability score. If on top of that the car was designed to turn on the check engine light if its battery was made by anyone other than the OEM then it would get an even lower score.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

smugma 2y ago

“mostly a good offering with a few omissions… a display assembly that’s too pricey to be an attractive repair option for most people.”

GeekyBear 2y ago

> The difference is I can buy s23 display from third party manufacturer, apple you can't or you loose feature you paid for like true tone. This iFixIt article made it fairly clear that the new version of iOS allows you to pair and calibrate first or third party parts after making a repair at home. > it worked impressively smoothly on our vanilla iPhone 16: one click to pair and calibrate all components at once, and no bugs to be found.

Kirby64 2y ago
One nit: Apple makes no claims about third party (ie not Apple Original parts) having the ability to be calibrated. Nor should they, since who knows what these third party parts are doing. I’ve seen displays for iPhones that are LCD panels. I’ve seen aftermarket OLED panels, that are not of the same quality… but actually OLED.
- fennecfoxy 2y ago
  Nice pun <3
- GeekyBear 2y ago
  Looking at the linked article, used parts are callibrated, third party parts don't have functionality blocked. > with iOS 18, they would stop disabling True Tone and battery health for third-party parts. https://www.ifixit.com/News/100266/the-end-of-parts-pairing-almost https://www.ifixit.com/News/100266/the-end-of-parts-pairing-...
  - Kirby64 2y ago
    Skeptically, "if the parts can handle it" would be key in my view. How do I know true tone and battery health would be in any way accurate, if they're using who knows what display, and who knows what battery/BMS?
    - GeekyBear 2y ago
      There is never a guarantee that a third party part works identically to a first party part regardless of what device you are repairing. You're saving money, but taking a chance.

cruffle_duffle 2y ago

Lots of repairs are like that though. The sum of the replacement parts can vastly exceed the price of just buying a new one (which is often a newer model). We even have terminology for that in the auto world where you can “total” a car because it costs more to fix than replace. There are other hidden costs to repairs too. One is you’ve “broken the seal” and now your device isn’t “stock” anymore. The water seal might not work as well. The display connector might be slightly loose and tweak out. The screws might not be factory torqued down. For a car it’s similar too… maybe after that accident the frame is now just slightly off kilter. Maybe there was that proverbial “extra mystery bolt” left over. Then there is opportunity costs. Is repairing it really the best use of your time and money? What other things could you have done instead of repair? I dunno… All I’m saying is, repeatability isn’t the end all be all. It’s yet another set of trade offs factored into product design like security, user experience, quality, cost, time to market, size and weight, durability, etc. I think the score is fine. But there is a second score not mentioned that is “is it worth repairing”?

ghostpepper 2y ago
> We even have terminology for that in the auto world where you can “total” a car because it costs more to fix than replace. It blows my mind that I never made this connection before.
grues-dinner 2y ago
It's also very common now for even superficially fairly minor danger to total a car because there's so much custom electronics all over a car that replacing the parts and wiring costs thousands in parts and days of labour, even if you can get the parts. Repairing aggressively unibody pressed frames with their aluminium and composite construction that can't just be welded is almost impossible. And even if it is, the insurers won't touch it because the manufacturers can't, won't and don't want to know how to agree that it's safe. Phones and other electronics are not a lot different in that manufacturers don't really want you to fix them and any sop towards repairable phones is under duress from legislation or . Hell, good luck even finding a genuine battery, I can't even get one for a ThinkPad and they're supposed to be good for that. To be honest I'm fairly cool on repairability for phones as they're so tightly engineered, it's genuinely hard to engineer and they cycle so fast the parts go out of production in weeks.

gorkish 2y ago

Strong agree; 7/10 is a ludicrous score for a device that takes a heat gun and a proprietary screwdriver to open. It is my opinion that iFixit is starting to turn from being actually hacker friendly into something of a mouthpiece for too-little-too-late corporate-sponsored initiatives designed to curb right-to-repair efforts. The money coming into their business from corporate programs is evident, and it's evident they are strongly perusing that market. I'm not convinced it's going to be a win for consumers though. I found the recent release of their soldering station at $300 to be particularly distasteful. If you want to spend that kind of money on soldering tools, go for Metcal. Otherwise a Pinecil and a USB-C power bank give you exactly the same quality and control for 1/4 the price. The electro-release adhesive is cool as hell though; no denying that.

tomaskafka 2y ago

I did buy a cheap 3rd party iPhone X screen. It’s bad beyond redemption. Imprecise touch, worse colors, asymmetric bottom lip. You can also get even cheaper LCD to replace the OLED, that sticks out 2 mm out of front case. Not worth it at all.