Apple is notorious for its non-repairable product design. Yet the iPhone 16 Pro may be the most repair-friendly Apple handset since the iPhone 3G. At least, that’s what I’ve gleaned from iFixit’s iPhone 16 Pro teardown video and its accompanying repairability score.
This iFixit teardown is, with few exceptions, an endless list of repairability improvements. Apple is now taking full advantage of the iPhone Pro’s “open from the back and front” design, meaning that fewer repairs require screen removal. Several of the iPhone 16 Pro’s components are modular, including the LiDAR sensor and the USB-C port (though Apple is yet to sell replacement USB-C modules), and there’s less glue in the iPhone Pro than ever before.
Curiously, the iPhone 16’s electrically-released battery adhesive is absent from the 16 Pro and Pro Max. These “Pro” phones stick with Apple’s old-fashioned pull-tab battery adhesive, though the 16 Pro—not the Pro Max—has its battery encased in a metal shell. A metal-encased battery is puncture-resistant and provides a safer repair experience, though other potential benefits are unclear.
Apple hasn’t provided a reason for these differing battery designs. Our best guess, as of now, is that Apple wants to see which design will provide the fastest or safest repairs at authorized service centers.
It seems that Apple is finally catering to the Right to Repair movement. The latest iPhones are relatively easy to disassemble and use more modular components than ever before. iOS 18’s Repair Assist feature removes some of the third-party parts restrictions on iPhone, and Apple chose to publish iPhone 16 repair manuals on day one, rather than waiting a year to give us the goods.
Yeah, iPhone repairs still require a bit of elbow grease, but they’re far less of an impossibility than they were just one year ago. So, iFixit has granted the iPhone 16 lineup a 7/10 repairability score—an insane improvement over the iPhone 15’s score of 4/10.
Source: iFixit
