One year after its release, iFixit, specializing in autonomous repair, lowered the repairability rating of the iPhone 14. It went from 7/10 to 4/10. In question, what is called the matching of parts. Explanations.
Unless you’re rich enough not to worry about it, you probably don’t want to have to change your smartphone every year because it broke. In recent years, there has been an increasing emphasis on repair of our devices. Last year, this took concrete form with the appearance in France of a mandatory repairability index for Tech products.
Long before that, the site iFixit has made a specialty of independent repair. He himself also gives a repairability rating to the devices that pass through the hands of its teams. When it was released in 2022, the iPhone 14 got 7/10. A very honorable score which coincides with the launch of Apple’s repair program. The firm seemed to want to assert its desire to make its smartphones more repairable. But a year later, iFixit decides to lower its rating to 4/10.
iFixit lowers iPhone 14 repairability rating to 4/10 from 7/10
The decision has a simple reason:matching parts. This involves using a chip system to “associate serial and device numbers with that of an iPhone” explains iFixit. When you install a new part, the smartphone asks for a authentication system so that the component is pair to iOS. Otherwise, you will see an error message and will have to cross out certain functions like the Face ID or theautomatic brightness adjustmentwhich will be deactivated.
This therefore strongly limits the possibility of repair your iPhone outside the Apple network. You can’t either recover original parts from other iPhonesnot to mention the non-approved components which will also be refused. These findings have a direct consequence on the iPhone 14 repairability rating, but not only. Sandra Auboy, in charge of French development at iFixit, specifies that the site took the opportunity to “update [son] evaluation criterion for the repairability of a device which no longer only concerns dismantling but also the software aspect”.