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Released September 24th, Apple's 2021 flagship smartphone features a 6.1" ProMotion OLED display, a new triple-lens rear camera system, and 5G. Successor to the iPhone 12 Pro.

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iPhone 13 pro won't connect to cellular

My brother-in-law ran over his phone with a front end loader. Broke the back glass pretty good, but everything works fine except cellular.

I've been searching the internet for awhile trying to find out what to replace in the phone to get this working again. I have fixed many phones before but never anything newer than an iPhone 11. I know there used to be small antenna cables that connected to the lightning flex etc. but I don't see this in the newer phones.

What might need to be replaced in this phone to restore the cellular antenna functionality?

FYI I don't have access to the phone at the moment, just trying to price out a repair for him.

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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So, more than likely this is not so much a “replace” as a repair. Nearly all iPhones starting with the iPhones X make use of a dual board design. The logic board is actually two separate boards stacked on top of each other sandwich style, with an interconnecting board between.

The bottom of the two boards is where cellular components are located. In cases of damage, especially with glass shatter, or when the housing might bend, a separation between the top and bottom may occur, or the solder pads holding them to the interconnect board tear off, severing the connection in some places. Are you able to see things like the device IMEI, or modem firmware in settings? (Would be under General > About). If not, this sounds like a dead ringer for a board issue.

This can be repaired, but it requires lots of soldering know how. You would have to split the boards and repair any damage by running micro jumpers, or building new pads. If you cannot do this yourself, I recommend seeking a shop who does board repairs to assist.

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2 Comments:

Thank you for your reply. Yes the frame did get bent and when he bent it back is when it lost the ability to connect to cellular. This would make complete sense with your explanation of the board design. Thanks again.

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@rcheney Not a problem. Wish I had better news as an answer, but this is a fairly common fault on most iPhones these days.

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Robert Cheney will be eternally grateful.
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