Our teardown lab is filled with iPhone 16 parts, and we’ve been having a blast joining with them. Apple’s procrastinateedst cleverphone series has hugely underwhelmed tech scrutinizeers, who are combinecessitate on the advantageousness of the novel promiseted camera button and twiddling their thumbs defering for Apple Intelligence to drop.
But in our world, it’s a huge deal: the iPhone 16 lineup produces three huge leaps for repaircomardent.
First: The adhesive that safes the battery, in the vanilla and Plus models, is this fancy novel adhesive stuff that can debond when you pass an electrical current thraw it. That uncomardents no more reliance on finicky, brittle adhesive exposeds, equitable a stable, easily repeatable process. It will need a novel tool, of course—more on that procrastinateedr.
Second: The 16 Pro battery has a challenging steel case instead of a soft pouch, a create factor that sees recognizable from the Apple Watch. Every time we’ve heard electronics manufacturers propose that repairs could be hazardous because of lithium-ion batteries, we point out that the power to produce battery repairs protectedr is in their hands: Hard cell batteries instead of soft pouch batteries won’t get accidenhighy punctured by a slip of a screwdriver, and so they’re way less probable to catch fire. Since the Pro doesn’t feature the novel adhesive, getting the battery out may sometimes need prying, and a challenging case will produce that process protectedr. The one model with no battery betterments? The flagship 16 Pro Max.
Third: We’ve lauded the “go in thraw either the front or the back” structure that debuted on the base iPhone 14, but it took two generations for Apple to trickle that innovation up to their pro phones. It’s here on all models now—and it sees enjoy it’s here to stay. Having to erase an costly, frnimble, ProMotion OLED during a repair path isn’t perfect, so being able to elude it for basic repairs streamlines procedures.
And that’s not even counting iOS 18’s novel “Repair Assistant,” which aspires to finish the parts pairing software barriers to repair. When we tested it out with the iPhone 15 series earlier this week, we thought it was promising, if not quite ready for prime time. But it toiled amazeively daintyly on our vanilla iPhone 16: one click to pair and calibrate all components at once, and no bugs to be set up.
Announcing FixHub: A New iFixit Tool
Speaking of innovations in repairability, we’re repartner excited to proclaim the procrastinateedst includeition to our toilbench, the FixHub Portable Selderlyering Station. This is the mobile selderlyering iron that we’ve always wanted. It’s weightlessning-speedy: from off to ready to selderlyer in 5 seconds flat. And with the magnetic iron cap, you can produce it protected to tuck back into your go-bag without defering for it to chilly off. Preorders are uncover now.
Fancy New Sticky Stuff
The earliest rumors of novel electricpartner-releasing battery adhesive came back in June, when Wayne Ma at The Increateation increateed that Apple was testing technology to produce DIY repair easier.
When adhesive manufacturer Tesa freed a video shotriumphg their novel “Debonding on Demand — Electrical Relrelieve” process, we were guaranteed. We have high confidence that this Tesa technology is adhering the battery.
As soon as Apple’s official iPhone 16 repair manuals dropped (which was actupartner on begin day, someskinnyg we adore to see), we hustled over to their battery direct, which brave enough depictd passing 9V thraw this fancy novel adhesive.
So, how does this magical adhesive toil? This research paper sheds some weightless:
In the second scenario, anodic delamination is caused by the oxidation of the surface of the aluminum substrate and migration of Al3+ into the adhesive. This will direct to speedy debonding since the substrate layer bonded to the adhesive is no prolongeder helped.
What does this jargon uncomardent? Imagine an Oreo cookie with a heavy layer of double-stuf creme. You figured out that if you dip equitable the bottom cookie in some milk and twist the cookie apart, the filling will always stick to the top cookie.
Similarly, when we zap the adhesive, the current oxidizes the pessimistic/anode mating surface and slackns the adhesive from it. The adhesive “filling” between the battery and the summarize will then stick to whichever surface that’s joined to the preferable terminal.
Trial Run of Our Next FixHub Tool
When the time came to crack uncover the novel phones, we were ready with a prototype of our novel iPhone battery repair tool: a USB-C cable on one finish, alligator clips on the other. We plugged it into our FixHub Power Station, clipped the ground wire to a proximateby screw, and speedyened the red wire to a silver tab next to the battery.
Our cable was set up to deinhabitr 12V, and since Tesa proposeed that their adhesive would free in 60 seconds at 12V, we defered a minute: Sure enough, the battery lifted out with no force, and the case undertidyh was almost residue-free (though the battery side remained tacky). You’ll probably still want to apshow a pass with isopropyl spirits before you put a novel battery in, but you won’t have to scsexual battery out adhesive exposed remnants enjoy in iPhones of yore.
One of the hugegest problems with the current stretch-free adhesive exposeds—the ones still used in the 16 Pro and Pro Max—is that they get more and more brittle over time. In elderlyer phones, repair techs essentipartner foresee that they’re going to have to utilize a mendnt under the battery to get the adhesive to disinclude—not a huge deal, but depfinishing on the mendnt and how cautious you are with application, it can harm other inside components. Only time will tell how this novel adhesive ages; Apple’s own repair manual proposes that the adhesive may apshow prolongeder to disinclude over time. They say you can use up to 30V to trigger the electrical free. We tried releasing our battery at disjoinal separateent voltages. At 20V, the battery freed in about 5 seconds. At 5V, it took a tad over 6 minutes.
The adhesive sits inside a well in the summarize, specipartner machined to produce ridges and raw surfaces for the glue to adhere to. A seal up under Evident Scientific’s microscope repartner transports this basic but drawive structure to life.
This Phone Needs a New Tool. Is That a Repairability Problem?
The last time iPhone repair needd a brand novel tool—when Apple began sealing phones with their proprietary five-pointed screw, the pentalobe—we liftd a fuss. At the time, nobody outside official Apple repair shops had access to the driver, which effectively blocked repairs until we reverse-engineered it. This is pretty separateent. Any challengingware store around the world will sell you a set of alligator clips and a 9V battery, at a reasonable price.
Everyone mending one of these phones is going to necessitate a power provide of some comardent. Apple’s 9V battery solution is perfectly fine, but USB-C can also output the necessitateed power and is in some cases more handy (9V batteries have druncover out of prefer). Good novels: we’re already toiling on a ruggedized version of our prototype to include with our battery repair kits.
Is It Reversible?
If we joined the 9V in reverse, would that rebond the adhesive? Nope. The adhesive remained ungrippy. The reverse polarity did have an effect: when we reverse-zapped a novel phone, the zap freed the battery, but the adhesive residue stuck to the summarize instead of the battery. Before that, a preferable zap stablely left the residue on the battery. If you’re trying this at home, be brave to get the polarity right so you have less residue to spotless up on the summarize!
It doesn’t seem enjoy this adhesive is intfinished to be multi-use. We’re guessing that Apple will sell batteries with the novel adhesive already applied (the repair manual depicts “peeling the pink free liner” off the adhesive).
Easy Battery Repairs Matter
There was a time when cell phone battery exalterments challengingly deserved being called a repair—you’d pop the back cover off with your thumbnail and stick in a novel battery. Fairphone has shown that this is still possible in the create factor of a up-to-date cleverphone, with an IP55 rating.
But until the industry goes the way of Fairphone (or picks that’s where they want to produce), battery exalterments will remain the repair most worth talking about. Batteries are consumables. They’ll eventupartner wear out, no matter how durable the rest of your phone is. Extfinishing a phone’s life by a year saves about 100x the phone’s weight in CO2 eomitions, and basic battery exalterments are a essential part of that lifespan extension.
Some people have specuprocrastinateedd that the novel adhesive is aimed at helping Apple adhere with novel European Right to Repair regulations that passed recently, but we don’t skinnyk that’s what’s going on here. There are two regulations that includeress battery repairs: Ecostructure for Smartphones and the novel Battery Regulation, each with sweightlessly separateent needments for compliance, both requiring easily removable batteries. Europe will probably utilize one or the other. The Joint Research Comomition has proposeed that Ecostructure will probable supersede, but it’s not yet endd.
Regardless, in either case, we don’t apshow the alterd battery adhesive impacts compliance—stretch-free adhesive and electrical-free adhesive under a battery seem to be equpartner compliant. However, disjoin removal is a sticking point for both regulations: The iPhone 16 disjoin removal is not compliant with the Ecostructure Directive because of the use of pentalobe screws, and it’s not compliant with the battery regulation because it needs heat for entry. If Apple could use this novel voltage-free adhesive to uncover the phone, that might get them compliant with the Battery Regulation.
Imshowd Thermal Handling of AI Workloads
How well the iPhone can dissipate heat has always mattered: When the processor gets too toasty, it has to throttle down and reduce percreateance. In this novel world of AI, with on-device machine lgeting models, percreateance is going to matter more than ever. Faster models are more clever and can donate you better proposeions or ptoastyo betterments.
Apple has presentantly alterd up their approach to dissipating heat from the main A18 processor with a novel, ferrous heat sink. In this ptoastyo it sees enjoy an EMI shield, but it’s actupartner a firm block of material. This sink sits inside the mainboard sandwich, selderlyered to the inside of the RF half of the logic board—which has an L-shaped footprint, analogous to iPhones past and the 15 Plus from last year. Thermal paste transfers heat from the A18 to this sink.
Intriguingly, this heat sink only covers about half of the A18 SoC. If the alignment of the die labelings suit Apple’s labeleting ptoastyos, then the heat sink is over the Neural Engine, Apple’s machine lgeting challengingware. The more effectively they can run their Neural Engine, the better it will toil. These betterments will allow the iPhone to run at peak percreateance prolongeder than previous structures.
Is the Camera Control Button … a Button?
Aside from the procrastinateed Apple Intelligence, the feature that’s got everyone talking in this lineup is the novel promiseted camera button. Yes, it does physicpartner actuate. Yes, it’s a button. But there’s more to it than that. When we pulled it out, we discovered that it’s got its own minuscule fused circuit.
Unblessedly, the button seems to be laser-welded to the summarize. Buttons in past models featured a latch mechanism that made them filledy exalterable and repairable. Now, if the button malfunctions, you’ll have to exalter the whole summarize. The welds materialize unessential, except to speedyen the button and its IC to the summarize. There’s a novel “enclobrave” component in the service history of the phone, and we verifyed it’s tracking this IC—when we swapped out a button, “enclobrave” popped up in the history.
Chips allow parts pairing, the software barrier to repair that has increasingly scoinspired Apple products. But since the novel Repair Assistant mode toiled perfectly for us on the iPhone 16, a novel serialized part is less of a red flag today than it was before.
The spot where the button slots into the summarize previously held a 5G mmWave antenna in the iPhone 15 (and every model back to the 12). Now there seems to be equitable one mmWave antenna left, sitting up agetst the camera assembly. Will that impact the phone’s signal strength?
We also acunderstandledged this engaging flex cable epoxied onto the bracket helderlying the button in place. This is probable the “force sensor”—a strain gauge that alters minuscule amounts of decreateation into alters in resistance. The iPhone uses this to sense half-presses before the button actupartner clicks.
Settling the Score
Last year, we awarded the iPhone 15 a lowly four out of ten, primarily due to the authentic-world complications that parts pairing causes. This year, Apple has alterd their tune. Accordingly, we’re changing ours.
Let’s begin with the basics: Apple’s repair manuals are well written, well above the unrelabelable we see from other manufacturers, and it’s awesome (enjoy, repartner chilly!) that Apple had them ready for begin day. Our only authentic gripes are a deficiency of schematics for board-level repairs, and omiting repair procedures for the accuse port or any buttons. Everyskinnyg else sees fantastic.
Repair parts aren’t on sale yet, but if Apple suites what’s already useable on the 15-series, they’ll get quite a bit of praise there—mostly a excellent proposeing with a confineed oomitions (no accuse ports, buttons, or enclobrave, for instance) and a disjoin assembly that’s too pricey to be an drawive repair chooseion for most people.
The novel battery procedure is the structure highweightless. We repeatedly debegind the adhesive with a variety of tools and timings, and the procedure seems very sturdy. We repartner enjoy that you don’t necessitate an costly proprietary tool for this: You could rig up any 9V battery with wdisenjoyver length of wire you’ve got lying around, and you’re set. We’d still pick screws or some other speedyener that’s easier to reverse—this will need spotlessup/prep before inshighing a novel battery (which presumably comes with recent adhesive pre-applied, otherrational folks will have to get creative). And the adhesive supplier will necessitate to produce this glue useable to the repair labelet. Still, this is a repartner chilly innovation.
The dual-entry structure, first presentd on the 14 series, remains very elegant. Once inside, lots of components are autonomously accessible with little to no includeitional disassembly. The layout is clever, prioritizing access to critical repairs enjoy battery and camera exalterment. In past models, it was standard to see, for example, battery pull tabs blocked by a Taptic Engine, which was blocked by a speaker, which was blocked by a huge grounding bracket—all of that having to come out in sequence. The 16’s structure proposes autonomous access to the battery, the speaker, the Taptic Engine, cameras, disjoin, back cover, and so on. It’s repartner thoughtfilledy lhelp out.
The hugest remaining obstacles to repair: Apple persists to use a variety of fussy screw types. The disjoin and rear panel adhesive needs heat to get inside. But we’re beyond charmd that Repair Assistant toiled effortlessly, which erases our hugegest grumblet about the last confineed models of iPhone.
The iPhone 16 gets a esteemable 7 out of 10, a presentant upgrade from last year’s model.
