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A new discovery about the repairability of the standard iPhone 15 models has surfaced: their microphones can now be individually repaired without needing a whole mid-frame chassis replacement.
Apple’s iPhone 15 series holds tons of improvements and new features. The giant revealed most of these significant changes during the Wonderlust event and left some of them to be discovered by fans. As it turns out, one of them lies in the hardware repairability of the new models.
According to MacRumors, the Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers can separately fix the microphone at the bottom-right of the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus. This should be good news to everyone owning the standard iPhone 15 models since the microphone repairs (such as the ones placed next to the earpiece and rear camera) in earlier models will always require the replacement of the mid-frame. Such a system affects the repair cost for customers, not to mention the unnecessary removal of other parts.
With this change, however, the repair for standard iPhone 15 models is expected to lower. Interestingly, the report stresses that the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max still don’t have this same property, meaning mid-frame chassis replacement will still be performed just for simple microphone repairs.
On a positive note, all of the models in the new lineup now feature redesigned chassis and removable back glass, so you can easily access the insides of the devices. Yet, the general repair system of newer iPhone models is not free from other issues. As iFixit underlined in a recent report, Apple’s systematic parts pairing or serialization “undermines design improvements.”
Serialization is a process being observed now by Apple when its customers want to replace certain parts of their latest devices. To do it, Apple requires users to buy parts directly from it, and it will be followed by a chat for software validation for the repair. This, however, is a problem for repair shops that are harvesting parts from damaged phones.
With this, although the new discovery about the microphone repair of iPhone 15 is something to celebrate, the general repairability of the new iPhone models is another thing entirely.
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