This is the breakdown the most common for our smartphones: their screen often breaks. On iPhones, repairs have always been possible, for a small shop as well as for a private handyman who is skilled with his fingers. But that is changing with the iPhone 13, Apple’s newest smartphone, according to an article published on November 4 by iFixit. According to this site specializing in repair instructions, when you change the screen of the iPhone 13, you lose facial recognition, Face ID.
Consequently, it becomes impossible to unlock the iPhone by presenting its face to it, which is however one of the main assets of the high-end mobile phones of the Apple brand. According to iFixit, authorized repairers can fix this problem with just a few clicks, but independent repairers are left with a complicated choice: give the customer back an iPhone without this key feature or reactivate Face ID with a delicate maneuver.
Microsoldering
The latter consists of unsoldering a tiny electronic chip from the old screen to solder it on the new one. It requires a microscope and microweld skills that individuals do not have, with very rare exceptions. As for the few independent repair shops that have this know-how, they will have to invoice for this complex work, which will penalize their prices.
This price difference could then push some iPhone owners to turn away from their neighborhood repairers to choose Apple authorized stores, which angered the repair community and independent shops. Some even fear for their future, according to iFixit.
There is a solution: Apple could go back and allow Face ID to work on mobiles whose screen has been replaced. The brand would then simply display a message saying that the part has been changed, and that it has not been able to verify its origin. A message that is already displayed when replacing the iPhone 12 camera.
The incident confirms that Apple is keen to closely control the repair of its smartphones, even if it means pushing back the “right to repair” dear to the French state. This preference is already evident quite clearly in the repairability index obtained by recent iPhones, around 6/10, compared to scores of around 8/10 obtained by high-end phones from Samsung and Xiaomi.