Apple’s iPhone 14 is now available. Here’s what’s new, how to use the new features, and whether you should acquire an iPhone 14.
Apple didn’t inform you about the coolest feature of the iPhone 14. Forget about satellite SOS and the larger camera; the main point is this: Apple has entirely overhauled the iPhone 14’s internals to make them easier to repair. It is not visible from the outside, yet it is significant. It’s the iPhone’s most major design change in a long time. The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max models retain the original architecture, so if you’re in the market for a new phone and want an iPhone that can outlast the one in your pocket, keep reading.
You’re not the only one if this surprises you. It shocked all of the phone repair shops in Newcastle!
iPhone 14 should have been called the iPhone 13S because it is practically identical to the iPhone 13, which was released a year ago and is still being sold by Apple. This is because the new features and outward modifications to the iPhone 14 are so minor.
Though nearly nobody has any means of knowing, that is untrue. In their keynote, Apple omitted any reference to the covert redesign. If reviewers had taken the phone apart, they would have found both the front and back of the iPhone 14 open.
The Design
With a midframe in the center, an accessible screen on the left, and a removable rear glass on the right, this iPhone 14 reincarnated as a lovely butterfly.
That requires some effort. It was necessary to completely restructure the interior of the new aluminum midframe that supports the structure, reevaluate RF, and effectively double the ingress protection perimeter.
In other words, Apple returned to the drawing board and changed the internals of the iPhone to facilitate repairs. Even the top technology critics worldwide failed to notice the improvement since it was so flawless.
A Brief History of Phones
Our phone repair shop in Newcastle repaired thousands of cell phones, so before we go into the specifics of the 14, let’s take a broad look at the mechanical development of smartphones. Over the years, the iPhone’s architecture has undergone a few significant changes.
Because the original phones opened the screen first, switching screens on 3G devices was a breeze. Other components, such as the battery and charge port, were far more difficult to access.
With the iPhone 4, Apple reversed its strategy to address this problem by first having the phone open from the back. This facilitated a ton of awesome aftermarket alternatives, such as our translucent rear panel (which, to this day, I believe is quite badass), but regrettably made screen replacements a complete hassle. For the 5, Apple switched back to a front entry and has maintained it ever since. Opening the phone screen first made screen repairs much simpler and has generally worked out well, except for one significant issue we’ll cover in a moment.
The iPhone 8 Ushered in an Era of Pain
Apple did a great job with the iPhone’s design to make it easy to replace the screen and battery at an Apple store quickly. The obvious drawback to this front-focused design is the difficulty of replacing the back. Before the iPhone 8, when radio-transparent glass was used to enable wireless charging and NFC payments, this wasn’t much of a problem. The X then fused a cumbersome camera lens cover onto the exposed glass.
Compared to changing the rear glass on an iPhone X (or 11, 12, or 13), replacing the screen on a Galaxy phone is difficult. The simple part is taking the phone apart from the inside out. Seriously, because the process is so taxing on the hardware, you don’t want to leave any bits inside.
The adhesive holding the back glass in place is so strong that none of our standard methods of prying, heating, or chemically dissolving it were able to move it. The glass is removed by iPhone repair businesses using a range of forceful breaking and scraping procedures while carefully avoiding the welded camera bezels.
The “easiest” method shatters and scrapes the glass shards off using razor blades and cutting tools after using a laser to methodically raster-vaporize the glue. If you don’t want to sever your hands, thick-duty gloves are a minimum requirement. As a result, DIYers cannot fully use this procedure.
A Bold New Approach: 14th Times’ the Charm
Introducing the iPhone 14 Two screws and a single connector are all used to keep the back glass in place. Apple employed a somewhat less forceful adhesive, making it slightly simpler to open than older displays. Additionally, you may reach the screen by unscrewing the same screws holding the back glass. The screen and the rear glass are easily removable with just two screws. Incredible.
This is a fundamental redesign of the phone, affecting most design elements. A completely new opening surface brings with it a host of engineering difficulties. There are many radio frequency issues, two times as much perimeter to seal against water, and numerous part adjustments.
It is simpler to hit targets for thinness and durability whenever something is glued or welded together. We’ve long maintained that if designers just made a little more effort to stay away from the glue, they could achieve all the aesthetic qualities, functionality, and repairability they desire. Apple did make an effort this time, though.
The high standards of durability we all demand are formidable engineering problems. When you drop an iPhone 13, its metal frame absorbs the impact and distributes the force across the securely fastened rear glass and glued-in battery. The iPhone 14 solves the same problem in a different method to attain the necessary torsional rigidity. A redesigned midframe absorbs the majority of stress distribution over the frame and battery while sitting between the display and the phone’s internals.
The quantity of components integrated within the display assembly presents another design problem. These have traditionally included the speaker, the ambient light sensor, and the Face ID sensor. We observed that Apple had moved the front-facing camera and earpiece speaker from the display to the mainframe in the 13 Pro. At the time, we valued the change as an incremental boost in modularity, although we weren’t entirely sure why. It now sets the stage for a significantly better design.
The Bottom Line
Since the X, this is the biggest overhaul of the iPhone. The magnitude of the transformation here is difficult to emphasize. As a point of comparison, Samsung’s phone architecture hasn’t changed since 2015.
Therefore, we’re giving the iPhone 14 a repairability score of 7 out of 10, which is the biggest update in years. Since the iPhone 7, that is the highest rating we have given an iPhone. The most repairable iPhone in years is this one.
Nano Repairs is dedicated to offering top-notch repair services to the Newcastle community. We know how upsetting it might be to be separated from your daily life without your smart device. We still provide all electronic repair services in Newcastle at Nano Repairs.
