We Are Retroactively Dropping the iPhone’s Repairability Score
We Are Retroactively Dropping the iPhone’s Repairability Score | iFixit News
[ifixit] We Are Retroactively Dropping the iPhone’s Repairability Score::We need to have a serious chat about iPhone repairability. We judged the phones of yesteryear by how easy they were to take apart—screws, glues, how hard it was…
I can understand Apple refusing to do repairs under warranty, or even invalidating a warranty, if someone has broken their phone after digging around inside without knowing what they are doing, but bricking a phone the person owns through a software lock is absolutely insane and stinks of attempts at service capture and fighting right to repair laws.
Yet another reason I'll never give them a penny.
Fairphone gang rise up!
I can't even imagine that. Modifying your device DOES NOT void your warranty. The burden of proof is on the manufacturer to prove that the modification caused the failure.
I get that, and I don't want to use cars as a good example because they aren't, but even car manufacturers have less restrictive policies than Apple is pushing here.
It would still be wrong to invalidate the warranty for the reasons you give, but it's still better than this.
In EU, there's a separate warranty on software and hardware.
Completely understandable.
The way I often describe it is if I was wanting to buy a mid-range phone with the technical specs of a fairphone, I'd buy something cheaper with the same specs.
But if I'm happy to spend over £600 on a phone - which imo is absolutely at the luxury end of pricing - then I'm looking more at overal quality, and the combination of repairability, fair(er) sourced materials, etc, makes it better.
However why anyone would spend a grand plus on a phone is absolutely beyond me.
You're missing the point completely.
This hardware DRM shit is just plain evil. Was considering an Iphone next year for the first time, but going to nope right out of there.
Almost everything apple does nowadays is a marketing front, repairability, privacy, not including chargers, accessories and removing the headphone jack for the sake of the environment, and more to come.
I think it’s a bit dishonest to imply this is the only reason they do things.
Privacy? I’d like to think that’s more than a marketing front considering how much data is actually worth.
Otherwise I totally agree with you
Actually, the whole Privacy part is one of the biggest gimmicks Apple has ever pulled.
Sure, it doesn't allow Meta and Google to not allow data collection, but research indicates Apple continues to collect the same amount of data. In the long run, I'm sure that Apple would also use this data to serve ads in their own way, just that they'll call it "iAds", and fanboys would cream their pants
You don't think apple sells and uses your data?
That's why I used "Almost"
Privacy wise, Apple marketed its move as preventing apps from tracking you, when in reality what it did was make the Unique advertising id they have Made themselves Available to Apps Null if you opt out of tracking. It is like removing the harm they put in place by themselves .
(+) it doesn’t prevent app tracking as it can be done using other means and unique identifiers. They have lied about the scope and potency of this measure. while average Joe doesn’t care to verify their claims.
And consumers "punish" Apple for these unrepairable devices by buying new iphones in record numbers.
Until consumers hurt Apple in the ONE place it cares - it's pocketbook - hope is lost on changing them.
But consumers are like lemmings. We see this in pre-orders for videogames and folks who proudly are buying the latest crop of obnoxiously priced videocards, or in the car industry where some consumers paying way over sticker just so they can have the latest new model.
And then we wonder why companies seem to have us bent over.
apple people buy every new phone because they have massive FOMO and don't want to be "shamed" by appearing poor by having an "old" phone.
Apple has created a cult of weirdos obsessed with spending thousands in service of their company for imaginary status and clout.
The average person buys a new device every 3 years.
It's the new keeping up with the Joneses. We can't afford houses or new cars so what's next?
Your two options are a repair ability nightmare with worrying privacy problems, and another repairability nightmare that may be slightly more repairable but is still a nightmare. Oh, and it is a privacy hellhole. The Fairphone is great, though, & seems to check all boxes
I really wanted to use the Fairphone to replace my old model, but unfortunately eOS doesn't play well with the corporate apps I need to run for a daily driver phone. I tried Lineage just to see what I could do with it and had similar issues, all due to Google "security". Not at all unexpected but I was hoping I could work around it all. Ended up having to send it back at the end of my return window and settle on having all my data harvested on a phone that while not as bad as Apple isn't super easy to get parts for or get into the thing (Zenfone 10). Which sucks.
Maybe when I don't need to rely on work stuff in my personal phone I can find a solution here, but until then I'm just the loud annoying guy yelling at clouds.
Everything is bundled, and you have to choose the bundle that works the best for you. For many people, that's Apple devices.
I've owned Apple laptops for the last 10 years or so, because I find that they work for my needs. Do I wish they'd open source (or at least document) their non-standard hardware choices, so that their hardware would have easy Linux compatibility? Sure, that'd be nice.
But in the meantime, I like their trackpads, their audio hardware can't be beat (at least on MacOS, I wish we could get this stuff working right in Linux), and I like their HiDPI displays, low-power CPUs/GPUs, and form factor. Yes, I have to trade off a lot of things to get here. But going with another device would involve other tradeoffs. So I think Apple is worth the tradeoffs for my laptops, not worth the tradeoffs for a phone (although every year I get more and more dissatisfied by the Android offerings).
When other consumers don't weight the same tradeoffs the same way you do, it's not because they're "lemmings" or whatever.
I'm all for breaking up some of these bundles by law (requiring greater interoperability/repair, etc.). But until they do, consumers will need to make their decisions in the circumstances that exist, not the ones that they wish existed.
They’re actually quite easily repairable, with the right tools and knowledge. I quite enjoyed working on them while I worked in that industry. You don’t need all the heavy tools Apple send you as part of their odd program, you can use a regular spudge to get the phone open, IPA to dissolve the adhesives, and there are third party suppliers from which you can source parts.
And if you don’t want to go through all of that, that’s entirely understandable. That’s why you can also go to third-party repair shops that have these tools and supplies to be able to perform these repairs.
There are plenty of legitimate reasons to criticize these things and Apple proper without stretching the truth. “Unrepairable” is not an applicable term here.
Edit: you’ll have to forgive me. I’m used to people in my life bitching that the things they don’t understand being “unrepairable”, everything from smartphones to Volkswagens, when in reality it just requires some know-how and the right tools. The VIN locking is new to me, and it’s really shitty.
for now, we are only rescoring the iPhone 14. We are not retroactively rescoring earlier iPhones at this time. If we did, their scores would also likely decline.
I don't get it. They finally recognized that the score does not reflect reality, leads to wasted money and frustration, and then they don't apply there newfound insight to products already affected? To me that seems somewhat dishonest.
Seems to me that it took a huge amount of time and resources to reach the new score, and I'm guessing they don't have the budget to do the same for every model
I'm guessing they don't feel the time to do a fair re-review is worth it on older devices with less, but higher than 0, new users.
Most people who are interested in those devices already have them, so a change in score doesn't really make a difference.
This should be illegal. We legislation that force repairability and open repair methods (anti-drm).
So what’s the new solution in place of DRM to make sure that the things you make aren’t ripped off by China or any other rich competitor?
What’s to stop the big players that are already seated in their thrones from abusing and stealing shit from the peasants?
How does forcing a company like Apple or John Deere to allow their customers to repair their own products lead you to think China isn't already ripping off every bit of tech they come across?
DRM does not prevent them stealing the technology they are only there to maximize profit. Everything is basically manufactured in China so the know-how is already overseas. Copyright laws already exist to prevent complete rip-offs.
If a shock absorber of my car breaks I have the freedom to choose the quality/type of the spare part (Genuine/OEM/used or aftermarket supplier) and who performs the repair (Dealer/local repair shop or myself). That's healthy competition and it should be the same for electronics.
Uhhhh, it wasn't already zero?
It was at 7/10 because the iPhone 14 introduced a repair-friendly design that made it, in theory, easier to repair than most competing high-end smartphones. However, the fact that there is a software DRM on the parts you install makes this repairable design completely useless for the end user, it just makes repairs cheaper for Apple themselves, thus adding insult to injury.
That about wraps it up
Apple puts weird DRM on everything.
They even have DRM on the Hall Effect sensor that detects when the lids closed on their newer laptops, so you cant take one from one laptop and put it in another.
The fucking hall effect sensors.
Its nothing but a fancy magnet that turns your screen off when you close the lid, a thing that costs pennies, and they had to engineer their own version to have DRM and bullshit.
Honestly, Apples entire business model always meant they should rate a zero. It's been about making tech disposable for 20 years. Any "repairability" by them is at best a marketing strategy.
My wife used to complain about my green bubbles until I reminded her that I didn't choose that color for her. Apple did.
That score of 4 is still very high... I feel, it should be closer to 1...
If you looked at the scoring then you wouldnt spout such nonsense.
Should and will be illegal
I've been trying to convince myself now that the iPhone uses USB C to swap from Android since Google and the whole DRM bit. To be fair I'm a Firefox user and I know Apple uses a chromium wrapper for Safari or what have you but I am afraid of Graphene OS installation.
With this I just can't do Apple. Alright all you Lemmies telling me just to try it and so being a wimp, I'm gonna do it.
Why do people care about Apple's repairability? If you don't like that your phone is unrepairable - don't buy it?
Because there are a lot of people out there who don't know about or understand all this, and I don't think a regular consumer should be expected to know about weird software quirks to be protected from a company's rapaciously anti-consumer policies.
and we dont
But we have a problem in capitalistic markets now. We have dozens different flavors of same thing.
Because I love iPhones and iOs, I just wish the ones making them weren't such asses with their customers.
I'm not doubting this is true given the source, but there are phone repair shops all over my town that repair cracked iPhone screens all the time. How do they make that business work if they have to register something like a screen replacement?
Read the damned post.
I think you need to go see what Louis Rossman has to say about apples repair state at the moment. Right to repair kinda seems like its essential.
They can pony up the exorbitant fee to get access to the Apple repair kit that lets you work on Apple devices.
Then they register the screen replacement with their privileged access.
It was possible with older phones to just swap out the screen but starting with 10 (iirc) it is no longer possible to do without the tools.
I work as a repair tech for Batteries Plus, on the X and above what usually happens is a notification in the settings app about being unable to verify whatever part is an OEM part and that the service log for the device has been updated. If it's the battery that is being changed and it's not paired, it will lock you out of viewing Battery Health information, and if the repair shop doesn't copy over some data from the original screen then the replacement screen can cause the loss of True Tone. Haven't experienced a phone completely brick itself because of third party repairs but Apple certainly forces a loss of functionality simply because they want all repairs funneled through them.
"Why don't you buy Apple products?"
Me: Gestures broadly at this:
Ever the innovators. Just not how we the consumers envisioned it.
I think calling it DRM is incorrect. I think Apple and its audience belief you should be able to tell if a replacement part could be counterfeit, and possibly have a security vulnerability as a result. However, it should be a one-time notice that a user can dismiss and continue using the phone's complete functionality.
For example, if someone replaces a camera module, Face ID could technically be compromised. That said, the security for Face ID is on the device itself, and replacing the module with a third-party one, as long as they was made aware it may not be as secure as the original part, let them do what they want with their own device.
EDIT: If it were me, I would want to know a part in my phone is not directly from Apple, but I would still want the ability to determine if I want to continue using the phone like that or straight up replace it. It should be the user's decision.
Well at least now we get to feel the same way John Deere customers feel
Come on, say it with me
"You will own nothing,"