Fix Your Stuff

Right to Repair

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Changes to Step #17

Edit by Jeff Suovanen —

Edit approved by Jeff Suovanen

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[* black] mmWave goodbye, high 5Gs all around! This teardown is a wrap.
[* black] It’s shaping up to be a 5G world, and Apple’s living in it. It seems like they had to makemade some serious design compromises to make way for shiny new 5G components. Case in point: gone are the logic board and battery gains of yore. They will be missed.
[* black] The new battery is gauntgaunt and relatively low-tech, no longer an elegant L. The logic board has ballooned in size, giving up the gains in miniaturization from recent years. The Taptic Engine isseems smaller, and the speakers are a new shape—maybe not diminished, but different.
[* black] Taken as a whole, it’s not quite a “death by a thousand cuts,” but it isIt's odd to see such concessions to this nascent technology. Of all the possible Apple innovations, this feels the least inventive.
[* black] But! At least the new 5G digsApple didn't mess with Apple'sgive up their tried-and-true screen and battery repair procedures.
[* icon_reminder] That said, the iPhone 12's repairability score comes with a huge, ugly asterisk. We've laid out some troubling findings in a followup article: [https://www.ifixit.com/News/45921/is-this-the-end-of-the-repairable-iphone|Is This the End of the Repairable iPhone?]
[* black] It’s shaping up to be a 5G world, and Apple’s living in it. It seems like they had to makemade some serious design compromises to make way for shiny new 5G components. Case in point: gone are the logic board and battery gains of yore. They will be missed.
[* black] The new battery is gauntgaunt and relatively low-tech, no longer an elegant L. The logic board has ballooned in size, giving up the gains in miniaturization from recent years. The Taptic Engine isseems smaller, and the speakers are a new shape—maybe not diminished, but different.
[* black] Taken as a whole, it’s not quite a “death by a thousand cuts,” but it isIt's odd to see such concessions to this nascent technology. Of all the possible Apple innovations, this feels the least inventive.
[* black] But! At least the new 5G digsApple didn't mess with Apple'sgive up their tried-and-true screen and battery repair procedures.
[* icon_reminder] That said, the iPhone 12's repairability score comes with a huge, ugly asterisk. We've laid out some troubling findings in a followup article: [https://www.ifixit.com/News/45921/is-this-the-end-of-the-repairable-iphone|Is This the End of the Repairable iPhone?]
[* black] Before we score it though, there's one more thing.