In a new viral video, the YouTube channel PBKreviews takes apart and reassembles an iPhone 15 Pro – sadly, that’s not the iPhone 15 Pro Max variant. It would’ve been extremely interesting to see the brand-new periscope camera that gives the 15 Pro Max superb 5x zoom capabilities (the regular-sized 15 Pro gets 3x zoom).
At the Wonderlust September 12 event, Apple highlighted the fact that the chassis design on the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max is altered, giving the device the option for an easier repair with a back glass that’s to be “easily replaced” (via 9to5Mac).
The 10-minute video is a standard teardown that begins with the screen removal, cable detachments and then proceeds on to disassembling the rest of the insides – earpiece, camera setup, battery (the reviewer confirms it’s slightly more potent at 3,274 mAh compared to the one in the iPhone 14 Pro which offers 3,200 mAh), various sensors and motors.
Here’s the whole video:
Overall, the reviewer gives the iPhone 15 Pro a 7/10 repairability score, which is two points higher than that of the Huawei Mate 60 Pro. The device that got US officials bewildered got 5/10 because of the screen – it was brutally glued and separating it from the chassis easily led to irreparable damages.
7/10 is an overall nice score for the iPhone 15 Pro, but that’s almost double what iFixit now gives iPhones. In a lengthy blog post, they reveal why they’ve retroactively dropped the iPhone’s Repairability Score from a “recommend 7/10” to a “do-not-recommend 4/10”.
Overall, they’re unhappy with the way Apple has decided to conduct things – yes, it’s now technically easier for newer iPhones to be self-repaired by a simplified interior design, but there are software limitations on repairs. One needs what iFixit calls “a software handshake” through Apple’s System Configuration tool. It contacts Apple’s servers to “authenticate” the repair, then “pairs” the new part to your system so it works as expected.
Defenders of that decision point out that’s how one can be sure that he/she’s getting genuine Apple parts and that scamming threats are minimized.
