The only part that is using any significant adhesive is the battery, it can’t be fit because it needs to be able to grow, so it is fit into a too large space using a piece of adhesive tape to not move around.
The phone is built to be quickly servicable by Apple technicians, so obviously no cables are soldered, everything is using easy to fit ribbon connectors.
I’d have no training and found it easy to replace many parts in iPhones such as e.g the screen.
There are parts that Apple have made harder to user replace such as the fingerprint/home button module but that at least has good reason.
I recommend the ifixit step by step repair guides that also make it obvious that repairing a modern smartphone is not much different if it says google or Apple or Samsung on the back. The only major difference is a user accessible battery in some models.
There have also been rumors that some parts would not be replaceable unless you used original parts but I have never had any problems with “original” parts (eg refurb screen with new 3rd party glass), obviously if a phone required parts one could not buy it can’t be considered user serviceable at all.
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/08/14/inside-the-iphone-repai...
They have tried to pull this stunt multiple times already. But have been forced to revert due to the amount of negative press it was getting. It's astounding that they tried it more than once.
I know that modifies the engineering (aka, the phone must be thicker) but it's not clear to me that there's much a of a real benefit to a phone being especially thin?
Over the lifespan (ownership) of e.g 3 years I usually replace the screen at least once, usually also some other component. Having the battery user replaceable wouldn’t make much difference, it would be 2 services instead of 3 in case the battery died.
I never replaced a battery on any of my 3 smartphones nor on any of the 4 dumbphones before them.
The option to repair exists in theory but in reality it may as well not.
Example 3 years ago the Iphone 6S was released. The 64GB was priced initially at $750 US. You can now find them for 235.
This is aprox 1/3 the original price.
Since labor is a relatively stable price, replacement parts don't tend to get much cheaper, and the cost of a used model is constantly going down its not shocking that devices that aren't cheap to repair rapidly become trash.
You already see this on everything from cars to fridges.
You would do well not to assume bad faith and call people liars without good cause.
$235 is 78% of the price. As you can see, nothing of my words is a lie, so yes, try to do well and don't call me a liar.
Who is to blame for letting it get so far? I think its not just Apples fault, its governments fault not regulating them and consumers fault for still buying and even defending their practices (which you can very well observe in this thread).
Another interesting aspect in electronics is that things like memory can run faster if you solder it down -- connectors eat into your signal margin.
Just imagine the chaos if the technique that Apple and everyone else uses to marry the SOC and RAM is outlawed because it's less repairable than the way it used to be done?
I'm a fan of repairability, and low prices, high reliability, and high performance. It's not a one-dimensional problem.
Apple being the magnitude that it is now, cannot afford to make choices to attract folks like me with their 'reimagined' and 'breakthrough' innovations (?!).
This opens up an interesting segment for products that can afford to make design choices/offerings orthogonal to Apple.
Can you imagine a phone with 3000 mAh removable battery, an external memory card support for upto 128 Gb, a proper 3.5mm headphone jack and a proper rectangle screen capable of > 500ppi under 5 inches to fit your palm ? Let me sweeten the deal and price it at about $499 USD for this 'dated' tech.
Now, look around and tell me there isn't a market for this phone.
India manufacturers will be the next to look for, unless Apple changed gears.
I always buy the max storage iPhone, and every time I fill up maybe a third of it - after years of use.
The vast majority of people really don't care about this.
Apple's solution is to go sync those gigs on Apple's cloud and keep paying a monthly fee for it.
No thanks.
I paid Apple for making choices for me and building products for my wants and needs. Now, its made for the 'vast majority'.
I know more people like me and I see a niche market emerging that I hope someone addresses.
It's like an extra $150. Stretched out over 24 monthly payments. Big whoop.
> Apple's solution is to go sync those gigs on Apple's cloud and keep paying a monthly fee for it.
This is exactly what I do. Totally worth it.
> You can't swap it and if the phone dies, you've probably lost everything or it's going to cost you dear to get that data out.
You can download and back up your cloud data onto physical drives. All of my photos and music are stored on multiple redundant drives. And because it's also on the cloud, when I get a new phone all of my data is available instantly. It's seamless.
> I know more people like me and I see a niche market emerging that I hope someone addresses.
I see commercials for Android phones with SD card slots, so it's already being addressed.
No. Why then? Lock-in, that's why.
Like someone else on this thread rightly said, Impracticality is the feature here and clearly intentional.
Apple may have gained customers like yourself. They sure have lost customers like me.
And to the best of my knowledge, the main reason wasn't lock-in or planned obsolescence: it was Steve Jobs' desire for as little as possible to get in the way of the aesthetic and design of the iPhone.
Sure, you may find that to be a dumb reason, but it's a far cry from the cartoon villain a lot of people seem to enjoy making Apple out to be, rubbing its hands together with a cackling laugh as it sits on its mountain of money. (...Well, the mountain of money part is true, actually.)
So I think the new tech can be a pain in the ass for regular users to repair. Their authorized shops have all the tools to do so. I bet the unauthorized shops have all the same tools required too.
> And the S6 doesn't have a removable battery, so what does that tell you about how Samsung felt about the engineering compromises they had to make with the S5 and all the rubber grommet-ing around its removable battery?
And I haven't bought a Samsung (or other mobile phone) since the S5, so what does that tell you about the quality of the recent mobile phone offerings?
If you are willing to make it a bit thicker than current phones...about 10% thicker than the original iPhone, you could use 5 NiMH AA batteries [1].
3000 mAh is about what the iPhone XS Max has. If you can get by with around 1900 mAh (about what an iPhone 7 has) you could get that down to 3 AA batteries, or 7 AAAs.
For people who are already using a lot of AA and AAA rechargeable batteries, this gives them a phone that easily fits right in, and as a bonus in an emergency you can use non-rechargeable batteries that you can buy from any convenience store.
[1] 3000 mAh x 3.7 V = 11100 mWh. 11000 mWh / (2000 mAh x 1.1 V / NiMH AA) = 5 NiMH AA.
So, no. There is no market for this phone.
If no one is making the products you'd want them to make, it's probably because no one is buying them, after all.
Contacts/calendar/email can easily be synced to a new device and all the big utility apps are on both phone OSs.
With closing off everything they have more control and can cut out third party competition. It looks like they are successful with IBM's Micro Channel architecture strategy of the 80s.
User upgradeable, no planned obsolescence
Solid aluminum with regular screws—not screws designed to screw you and prevent user servicing, repairs or experimentation [0]
[0] https://puri.sm/learn/why-purism-computers-are-better-than-p...
Popularity is not strongly correlated with "sensible and good"
- Yes in the sense that the glass needs to be glued (or rather taped as a double-sided tape is used) to create a waterproof seal as the small size of these devices does not allow for a more traditional clamp fit using a rubber gasket.
- No because it does not have to be the main body of the device to which the glass is glued/taped. I use the Motorola Defy+ [1], an 8 year old water/dust/shockproof Android device which shows a phone can be both waterproof as well as repair-friendly: the glass is glued to a frame which in turn is attached to the phone using screws. Disassembling the device is easy and quick, all it takes is a small Torx driver and a guitar pick. Assembling it is just as easy, the result will still be waterproof as long as all the rubber gaskets are fitted. I have 5 of these devices in use for different purposes ranging from 'dangerous work phone' to trailer camera and remote-controlled media player (using MPD for Android).
In short, it is possible to create waterproof devices which can be repaired without needing to break one-time seals.
I think it would be tragic if the iPhone looked like those Motorola devices. That thing looks hideous. This is strictly against Apple's design philosophy, and for good reason.
I always thought modern smart phones should have started as a black slab like the 2001 monoliths and just stopped there.
(* Technically I guess it's the iPhone 4 that came out same year as Defy, but arguably close enough)
There is no other manufacturer of computer equipment that comes close to maintaining service and usability on older devices than Apple at this point, and this has been shown over and over again by the resale value that their older devices still command. Many Android phones, even Nexus and Pixel devices only received updates for 1.5-2 years after their last sell date.
You’ll find very few companies that focus as much on environmental impact, and Apple recycles any product they have ever manufactured at their own expense. See here: https://www.apple.com/ca/environment/
More generally, I'm not sure 1.5 years vs 6 years is the correct order of magnitude when talking about environmental impact. Call me back when I can use a phone for 20 years.
As an avid tinkerer, it is shocking and disheartening to see the most popular products on both lists with the least scores !
What is the next generation of tinkerers going to muck their teens around ?
Fortunately IDA 7 Free and a Buspirate fixed that. Would be a shame if any PCIe cards would be accepted, wouldn‘t it...
FYI, the patch was less than ten bytes long. Inconvenient non the less.
With AppleCare+, that's $99 plus tax. Without, it's $549 plus tax—half the cost of the phone.
It also had a sealed case, voiding warranty.
The iPod was "sleek", and being able to open the case to replace the battery "would have made it less sleek".
Not only is a modern phone impossible to open, everything is glued in. Even laptops are like this. I have even seen other manufacturers stop using underfill in their phones, just like apple. Probably to make broken phones useful as refurbs. This is leads to phones where chips come off easier (remember apples touch-ic issues and bend gate. That chip didn't have underfill, no proper soldering materials) and an increase in flexion damage.
A right to repair doesn't mean much if everything is glued and soldered into place anyway, and with everyone following apple I doubt anything will get better in that regard.