Will the iPhone 5 Be Repairable?
Apple just announced the brand new iPhone 5, which will be released September 21st. As we expected, the thinner-and-lighter trend has continued: It’s 18% thinner and 20% lighter than the iPhone 4S, despite a screen that’s half an inch longer on the diagonal. It’s also got a new “Lightning” connector, the first new Apple mobile device connector in 9 years.
Some aspects of the announcement seemed to bode well for durability and repairability:
- The iPhone rear panels will be aluminum rather than glass, like older models, decreasing the chances that you’ll damage the panel beyond repair.
- New iPod Nanos will have a built-in wrist strap connector, which might mean fewer dropped iPods.
- The iPhone still has visible screws—Apple has not locked us out completely.
But the phone will have in-cell touch screen technology, which will likely bind the digitizer to the front glass. So the iPhone 5 may join the growing list of Apple devices with fused display assemblies, including the new iPad and the MacBook Pro with Retina display. A fused display makes replacing a broken front panel a much more expensive and intensive process.
Apple also claims that each phone is unique to the micron. In a video, Jony Ive described how Apple is manufacturing 725 minutely different-sized rear panels, photographing each device and matching it with a panel that fits perfectly.
Will this make a difference for repairability? Will generic-sized third-party rear panels be unable to fit an iPhone 5? Unlikely: A few dozen microns of difference between a panel and a phone would not be easily perceptible. After all, the diameter of a human hair is generally between 50 and 100 microns.
Yet the ideological claim is powerful. Just like you, your phone is unique—it’s different from all other phones. You are unequipped to detect or manage these differences. If you try to repair a broken rear panel yourself, you’ll never be able to get it matched as perfectly as if you sent it back to Apple.
More complete analysis to come with the teardown: T-minus 9 days.
Comments
“If you try to repair a broken rear panel yourself, you’ll never be able to get it matched as perfectly as if you sent it back to Apple.” BS
And any word on the teardown date? Looking forward to see some more innards.
I like the way the phone looks, but I can’t wait until you guys have a teardown video for us. Really excited to see that since I repair phones.
“it’s different from all other phones.”
Well, different from 724 other iPhones, anyway.
■”New iPod Nanos will have a built-in wrist strap connector, which might mean fewer dropped iPods.”
I just bought an iPod classic that now has case damage from a drop – I wish Apple would do this to all their models (sell them with a decent carrying case). Those pleather cases from Griffin don’t protect against a thing.
The iPhone 5 is released on September 14th for the UK
It still has the 2 screws on the bottom, should be just as easy to open as the older version
oh that is
i think….
I think… Will Be Repairable!!!
i Hope so…
Looks like the front glass/LCD might be as easy to replace as on the old 3G/3GS. That would rock!
I like the new touch and I love the idea of unibody design, that should make all of them more rugged. I hope the iPad goes to a unibody design in the next gen. Soooooooo tired of these glued on front panels.
iPhone 5 Parts are selling on the website etradesupply.com, such as iPhone 5 Rear Housing, battery and other small parts. The Rear Housing is longer than iPhone 4S
http://www.etradesupply.com/apple/iphone/apple-iphone-5.html
I’m more curious about the real innovative new Apple Phone: the new iPod Touch. It is roughly the same as the iPhone, costs less than half, looks sexier, is thinner, weighs less, and comes in 6 colours.
But NO SCREWS on that one!
I don’t see how the in-cell tech makes any difference. The digitiser and glass has been fused together in every iPhone to date. I’m more interested in finding out of the LCD and digitiser are glued together. And it looks like we go in from the front once again, hooray!
The lightning connector puts me off from buying this phone. Like everybody else, I have a bunch of accessories. I also like to build my own accessories, like using eBay cables and modifying them to use as I want (mostly for charging/analog audio inputs). I will NOT be buying an adapter, even after buying this phone. It’s ridiculous (both in cost and aesthetics).
Does anybody know if it’s possible to use any iPhone’s DIGITAL audio output without using some kind of authentication chip? Like if I were to just use a micro or D/A converter…?
Unless I am wrong, the new iPod touch, not the new nano, is the one with wrist strap connector.
Darren,
What’s new is that the LCD and digitizer are now combined in 1 piece. The digitizer is ‘in-cell’ with the LCD display. And as with the iPhone 4 the LCD is completely adhered to the glass…
got mine earlier today beginning teardown now
PLEASE SEND FOR ME IPHONE 5 NEWS AND IMAGES
@132ashford99
Post pics online or email pics to me! I want to see the logic board and the connector placement without EMI shields on.
Oh boo hoo iFixit. Stop your bitching. You just hate that Apple are stopping YOU from making money selling parts. Which Apple then have to fix due to bodged installations from users.
Cool. like iPhone 3G/3GS
I think that certainly
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