iFixit shares iPhone 13 Pro disassembly report: repairability is only 5/10 points

iFixit has just shared a teardown report of the iPhone 13 Pro model, letting us know about the merged Face ID components, but also pointing out the troubles that will be encountered when replacing the screen. Before taking it apart, iFixit first showed the built-in L-shaped battery, MagSafe magnetic suction components, and the anti-shake magnetic ring of the image sensor and logic board through X-rays.

For repair personnel, the iPhone 13 Pro models have a sensor cable near the top that is very easy to tear, and iFixit emphasizes that it is somewhat frighteningly thin.

Secondly, visually, the Taptic Engine component seems to have become smaller, but its actual weight has also increased from 4.8g to 6.3g.

Compared with the iPhone 12 Pro, the iPhone 13 Pro finally gave up on pushing the earpiece speaker against the screen, so replacing the display assembly will become relatively easy.

iFixit speculates that Apple is using OLED panels with an integrated touch layer, which reduces cost, thickness, and the number of cables required.

It is worth mentioning that the iPhone 13 combines the floodlight and dot projector into one module, but the Face ID hardware is now independent of the screen assembly, and the earpiece speaker separated from the screen has been rearranged between the front camera and Face ID module.

These are the main reasons why the new phone was able to narrow the notch by 20%. Embarrassingly, according to iFixit - even if the Face ID module has been decoupled from the screen, any operation involving screen replacement will cause the Face ID component to be locked.

In terms of battery, as revealed last week, the iPhone 13 Pro‌ has increased to 3095 mAh (11.97 Wh), higher than the 2815 mAh of the iPhone 12 Pro model.

However, compared with the square battery used in last year's iPhone 12 Pro model, the iPhone 13 Pro has adopted an L-shaped design. Although iFixit said it had successfully attempted to replace the battery, there are still rumors that Apple will prevent users from replacing it themselves.

In addition, the iPhone 13 Pro uses 6GB LPDDR4X RAM + Kioxia NAND flash memory from SK Hynix, and several Apple-designed power management/ultra-wideband (UWB) chips.

It is supplemented by Qualcomm SDX60M modem (presumably DRR868 5G baseband), Broadcom front-end module, and NXP Semiconductors (NXP) near-field contact (NFC) controller.

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo once pointed out that the Qualcomm baseband used in this year's iPhone also integrates satellite communication capabilities, but iFixit obviously did not discover this, after all, Apple has not officially announced it.

Bloomberg clarified that Apple is developing a satellite feature that would allow people to send text messages using satellite connections in emergencies, but that feature may not be available until 2022.

Finally, taking into account factors such as Face ID, screen replacement, double-layer glass, and waterproof features, iFixit ultimately only gave the iPhone 13 Pro a score of 5/10 for repairability.