Not All iPhone 14 Smartphones Are Alike

Apple recently released its new line of iPhone 14 smartphones, and while the devices tout a number of new features, one of the most important advantages was something the electronics maker didn’t openly discuss: repairability. An iFixit teardown video released after the phones’ introduction stated that the volume iPhone 14 and 14 Plus models were substantially redesigned from the predecessor 13 smartphone models, with the result being easier access to key components such as the battery and display.

While one might think that the same design improvements were made to the costlier iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max smartphones, two recent videos appear to disprove that assumption.

In one video, Hugh Jeffreys did a teardown on two iPhone 14 Pros, trying to test how receptive the devices were to third-party repair by swapping out some of the phone’s internal parts. Jeffreys encountered issues trying to remove the phone’s battery, with some of the adhesive breaking off. When Jeffreys tried to swap out the displays and other internal parts between the two Pros, he received all types of error messages and encountered disabling of some key phone functions, such as Face ID and auto brightness. These issues emerged despite Apple itself pushing its Self-Service Repair program, the reviewer says.

Related:iPhone 14 Teardown: You Can More Easily Access Key Components

You can watch the video here.

Apple’s flagship iPhone 14 Pro Max didn’t fare much better. In this iFixit video, the reviewer did not perform the thorough parts swapping of Jeffreys iPhone 14 Pro video. However, the reviewer noted that this top-of-the-line phone retained the design of the iPhone 13, which wasn’t exactly a joy to repair. The reviewer rated the phone’s repairability a middling 6 out of a possible 10.

You can watch the video here.

Spencer Chin is a Senior Editor for Design News covering the electronics beat. He has many years of experience covering developments in components, semiconductors, subsystems, power, and other facets of electronics from both a business/supply-chain and technology perspective. He can be reached at [email protected].