One of the lesser known hardware features of the new iPhone 14 is the fact that the rear glass is now easier to repair. Although the casing was taken from last year’s iPhone 13, the regular iPhone 14 can be opened from the front and Backwards while all the other iPhones from the iPhone 5 days required to remove the screen first and made cracked repairs a nightmare. The team above iFixit they revealed all the details about opening the new iPhone 14 in their teardown and that’s a pretty cool aspect.
Apple did not mention that they completely redesigned the iPhone 14 internally and the most interesting thing is that the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max still use the old architectural style which is more difficult to repair. The iFixit team also notes that the aluminum midframe and antenna design required careful rethinking. Apple also had to use a lot more adhesive to seal both sides of the phone and reposition the internal components.
Opening the phone from the front reveals the shield connector cables and a sheet metal that protects the rest of the components. Removing the back requires some heat, a suction cup and a prying tool to loosen the adhesive.
iPhone 14 open front and rear (images: iFixit)
The back opens to the right and we can finally see the internal components as well as the metal brackets that help keep the back in place. The rest of the disassembly goes as expected with the key components held in place by brackets, screws and cables
Interestingly, Apple is still pairing individual parts to each iPhone, so you still need to check the rear glass part after swapping, for example, which is a shame. Software locked repairs are one of the only downsides and thus earn the iPhone 14 an iFixit repairability score of 7/10. Watch the video below for more details.
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