Apple’s first foldable is also the most repairable one yet. The iFixit team tore down the iPhone Duo, revealing its internals and assessing its repairability.
Surprisingly, the Duo sets a new standard for repairability in the foldable category, earning a provisional repairability score of 5 out of 10.
With the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max now on store shelves, iFixit put Apple’s latest flagship phones under the knife. The teardown gives us an up-close look at the devices’ new variable-aperture camera, larger cooling systems and a possible repair challenge.
It also reveals how Apple shrunk the Dynamic Island on the iPhone 18 Pro without affecting Face ID’s functionality.
A decade after getting banned from the App Store, iFixit is back with a free DIY repair app that uses AI to diagnose problems and guide users as they fix their Apple devices.
iFixit trained the app’s AI-powered FixBot on 20 years of the company’s highly regarded repair guides. Now the iFixit app, released Tuesday, promises to make fixing broken iPhones and MacBooks a breeze (as long as you don’t have clumsy sausage fingers).
Plus, the iFixit app features a built-in real-time battery monitor that will prompt you when to replace a failing battery (with iFixit parts, of course).
iFixit performed teardowns on the new AirPods 4 and AirPods Max with USB-C on Wednesday, issuing repairability scores of 0 out of 10 for the tricky earbuds and 6 out of 10 for nearly unchanged headphones — and utterly destroying AirPods 4 in the process.
“AirPods have historically been a nightmare to take apart, consistently earning 0 out of 10 on our repairability scale, but their bigger and more expensive sibling the AirPods Max are bordering on repairable with the first version earning a 6 our of 10, thanks to a relatively easy disassembly process,” iFixit said.
iFixit says the iPhone 16 is “Apple’s most-repairable iPhone yet. ” This is thanks to Apple making several internal changes, including using a new glue to hold the battery in place.
On the flip side, you’ll need a new tool to debond the glue from the battery and chassis.
iFixit brought in a new toy for its iPhone 15 teardown video Friday — an Olympus DSX1000 digital microscope. That enabled magnification of up to 7,000x on the tiny bits inside Apple’s newest base handset.
Watch the video below and see some shots from it above and below.
While most people know iFixit for its brilliant teardown videos of Apple gear, its primary business is selling repair tools and other accessories. And that now includes a new 65W wall charger with a 6-foot cable.
As one might expect from a company known for looking inside devices, part of the housing for the new iFixit Fast Charger USB-C AC Adapter is transparent, showing off the internal components.
Apple now offers the parts and tools to fix several MacBook models. This is a hassle but lowers the cost, right? Not necessarily.
The total cost of one of the most-common DIY repairs is more than double what is to have Apple do it.
Apple has made iPad Air battery replacements slightly easier with a small but welcome change to the newest model. While it’s still difficult to get inside the device, removing its large battery pack is a simpler task for repairers.
It’s just one of many improvements you get with the fifth-generation iPad Air.
iFixit showed people the interior of the new Apple Studio Display next to a partially disassembled iMac and asked them to pick which is which. You can play along at home by looking at the image above.
Most people got it wrong. Apple’s latest external monitor (on the left) is packed with features, and that’s reflected in its surprisingly complex internal design.
iFixit put the device through a full teardown and found that many of the most important components of the new external monitor showed up in previous Apple devices.
The gadget butchers at iFixit have finally gotten their hands on Mac Studio. After many hours on the operating table, Apple’s newest desktop has been pulled apart to give us a detailed look at its compact yet powerful insides.
You may be surprised to learn that many of Mac Studio’s components — including its SSDs and connectivity ports — are modular, which means they can be replaced if things go wrong. But user upgrades are out of the question.
Your Apple Watch is surprisingly pretty on the inside. Take a peek behind the screen with this awesome wallpaper from the fine folks over at iFixit.
The photo is a real X-ray image of Apple Watch Series 7. It clearly shows off a number of important components, including its Taptic Engine, intricate chipset, and the wireless charging coil. And it works great as a watch face.
The teardown experts at iFixit have confirmed that unauthorized display replacements break Face ID on iPhone 13. They also warn that Apple’s rather unscrupulous move has “huge implications for the professional repair industry.”
The only way around the change is to employ incredibly complicated micro soldering practices to transfer the display chip from the original screen over to the new one. It is “the strongest case yet for right to repair laws,” iFixit says.
When the time comes to replace the battery inside your 2021 MacBook Pro, you can avoid the pricey repair shops. Apple has made this particular process significantly easier than it was on earlier MacBook models.
All six battery cells inside the new machines are easily accessible — with no need to remove the logic board first — and much easier to remove. The changes make for a fairly simply at-home repair for those who are brave enough.
Apple Watch Series 7 just got its customary teardown by iFixit, revealing some small but significant changes to its internals — including slightly larger batteries — and a somewhat surprising repairability score.
It looks like Apple’s newest wearable now uses more advanced display technology, which could explain why it faced such a lengthy delay.
Apple beefed up the batteries in all four models in the new iPhone 13 series. There are significant increases in capacity in all of them, especially the iPhone 13 Pro Max.
Teardowns of the iPhone 13 models are starting to appear, including ones from iFixit, revealing these battery sizes.
Not everyone has the nerve to crack open their 2021 iPad Pro, but an iFixit teardown reveals the interesting bits inside.
It’s not just for fun — taking the tablet apart is necessary to find out the exact battery capacity because Apple doesn’t share that detail.
Plus, iFixit took a magnifying glass to the mini-LED display in the 12.9-inch version.
Apple’s awesome new M1 iMac finally received its obligatory teardown by the fine folks over at iFixit. You may not be surprised to learn there’s very little packed into the computer’s slender aluminum shell.
That doesn’t mean it’s not exciting. The M1 iMac is, as we’ve come to expect from Apple, an engineering marvel. It’s rather astonishing that the brilliant minds in Cupertino can squeeze so much power out of so little.
iFixit took a deep dive into AirPods Max, fully disassembling Apple’s over-the-ear headphones. What they found in the teardown was a startling number of different types of screws. But also a craftsmanship that helps justify the hefty price tag.
The new AirPods Max headphones have plenty going for them. But “easy to take apart” apparently isn’t among their positive attributes.
Our friends over at iFixit have published the first installment of their AirPods Max teardown and — while it’s too early to know for certain whether these are going to any more repairable than the significantly tinier AirPods and AirPods Pro — the early signs show that they’re not particularly easy to gain access to.
Open up the standard iPhone 12 and and you’d be hard pressed to find a difference between it and the iPhone 12 Pro. An iFixit teardown shows these handsets so similar internally that they can share many parts.
But the news isn’t all good. Another tidbit revealed by cracking open Apple’s latest is that that have smaller batteries than their predecessors.
Apple’s Magic Keyboard add-on for the iPad Pro looks amazing. And it appears even more spectacular when iFixit X-rayed this accessory to see the inner details of the scissor-switch keys, the trackpad and the hinges that make an iPad seem to float.
A 2020 iPhone SE teardown shows just how similar the new phone is to the iPhone 8. Many — but not all — components of the new handset are totally swappable with the 2017 iPhone, according to a weekend report from iFixit.
The iPhone SE’s cameras, SIM tray, Taptic Engine and display assembly can be directly swapped out with the iPhone 8. However, not all parts are so switchable. The iPhone SE’s battery might look the same, but it won’t work on the earlier iPhone due to a different logic board connector.
A LiDAR scanner is the highlight of the 2020 iPad Pro. So iFixit disassembled this just-released tablet to see how this 3D sensor works. And the company demonstrates why this scanner is not meant to be as accurate as Face ID.
The 2020 MacBook Air has been put under the knife by the folks at iFixit, revealing some subtle and important changes that make Apple’s thinnest laptop more repairable.
Headlining the list of changes is the new Magic Keyboard with scissor-switch keys. iFixit found that the new keys don’t need a silicone barrier to keep dust out like the previous generation. The butterfly keyboards were supposed to enable MacBooks to be thinner, however, iFixit says going back to old scissor switches only adds .5mm to the device’s thickness.