iFixit awards iPhone 11 Pro Max a repairability score of 6

Last week, Apple announced the new iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max and iFixit jumped the gun and bought one to ensure users have repair guides available in case they drop your phone outside the Apple Store.

iFixit noted several points during their 30-minute long live teardown of the new iPhone Pro. The one good thing about the iPhones is easy access to the display. Considering the fact that displays are the single most broken part of a smartphone, it’s good to have easy access to the display in case it needs a replacement. Apart from that, iFixit also noticed the change in size and shape of the battery. They also noticed two battery connectors instead of one which is a new thing for Apple. They assume it had something to do with Apple trying to add bilateral wireless charging to the iPhone but it was later scrapped. Ever since the launch of the iPhone 11 lineup, there have been rumours going around that Apple actually added the hardware for bilateral wireless charging but didn’t enable it inside the software. Unfortunately for the conspiracy theorists, iFixit didn’t found any hard evidence suggesting iPhone 11 lineup had bilateral charging hardware.

iFixit also noted several small changes to the iPhone 11 Pro design and gave it a repairability score of 6 out of 10 (10 being the easiest to repair). They also listed down reasons for giving iPhone 11 Pro a 6 on the repairability test.

• Critical display and battery repairs remain a priority in the iPhone’s design.
• The battery procedure has been simplified and many components are accessible independently.
• Liberal use of screws is preferable to glue—but you’ll have to bring your Apple-specific drivers (pentalobe, tri-point, and standoff) in addition to a standard Phillips.
• Waterproofing measures complicate some repairs, but make difficult water damage repairs less likely.
• Glass on front and back doubles the likelihood of drop damage—and if the back glass breaks, you’ll be removing every component and replacing the entire chassis.

If you want to read the in-depth teardown then you can do so by going to the iFixit website.