It’s natural that the users and the repair business see the launched devices a little differently. It’s worth to noting that the only difference between the shape of the first and the last iPhones is the latest one is thinner than the original, but the repairability of the phones has changed entirely.
Some 10 years ago Steve Jobs presented the first iPhone which has changed the wold of mobile phones. Although the first iPhone wasn’t flawless (it was not able to use 3G connection, or to record videos, and only a few apps were available for it), though the iPhone became the benchmark for all newly launched phones.
Since the appearence of the first iPhone the iFixit teams have been looking deep inside the devices and scoring them. To mark the 10th anniversary they’ve graded these scores , of course, from their own opinion.
They highlighted that the first iPhone had the fewest numbers sold, so that was the most difficult to repair, it got only 2 points from 10. The reason for this bad rating was its soldered battery which went always got damaged during the repair. The iPhone 3G radically progressed and reached 7 points.
As seen in the list below, since the 3G model, iPhones have kept up their ratings, this looks good compared with the other phones’ ratings. For example the Samsung Galaxy S7 EDGE got only 3 points, the HTC M9 only 2. It seems quite interesting that the Apple’s new wireless headset, the AirPods got the worst rate, 0, which means it’s not repairable at all.
In our repair business we are pleased with the repairability of iPhones, and other manufacturers could take them as an example, so we agree with the ratings of the iFixit report. Of course, all repairs have different challenges, and it’s not the same to change the battery of an iPhone 6S or to replace the display of an iPhone 7 Plus.
But insted of more words, lets look at the numbers:
- First generation iPhone – 2/10
- iPhone 3G – 7/10
- iPhone 3GS – 7/10
- iPhone 4 – 6/10
- iPhone 4S – 6/10
- iPhone 5– 7/10
- iPhone 5C – 6/10
- iPhone 5S – 6/10
- iPhone 6 – 7/10
- iPhone 6 Plus – 7/10
- iPhone 6 S – 7/10
- iPhone 6 S Plus – 7/10
- iPhone SE – 6/10
- iPhone 7 – 7/10
- iPhone 7 Plus – 7/10
