It is apparently disturbingly easy on iphone 12s to unintentionally separate the display glass from the display metal bracket that clips into the phone frame when you're peeling the glass up and over. I just shredded a face ID sensor cluster as a result of this () because the flood illuminator is adhered to the glass independently from the metal bracket. I'm not 100% sure whether this was a fluke and the glass<>bracket adhesive was exceptionally weak and/or the bracket<>frame adhesive was exceptionally strong, or if this is more widespread.
I predict I'll make it about 2 weeks without face ID before I cave and buy a new one.
Only other report of this I can find online https://old.reddit.com/r/mobilerepair/comments/xx7519/metal_frame_over_internals_of_iphone_12_did_i/
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
? it's an apple
the answer is they don't want you servicing it because it's more money if you need to buy a new one
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
I used to believe apple was uniquely bad about this but after dozens of repairs on both iphones and androids I'd rate them about equal. IME the displays of most androids are so brittle that they're almost impossible to remove without breaking them, so unless the display is the thing you're replacing you're going to have to factor that into the repair. Ironically most of the androids I've worked on are supposed to come apart the way my iphone did, where their glass is adhered directly to the frame with no intermediary bracket.
I will say that apple's practice of tying the fragile biometric daughterboards to the mainboard is uniquely annoying verging on shitty. I know it's done this way for security but the implementation essentially makes it so that only apple can guarantee a clean repair, as they are the only ones that can economically swap the mainboard if there's a hiccup with the biometric sensors. They could at least make the daughterboards less fricking fragile. The face ID models are actually a lot better about this compared to the touch ID ones, except in the specific failure mode I encountered.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
My fav example of this are pixels, super repairable minus the screens which are so fragile there's a 50/50 chance you'll break it opening the phone
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
I had pixels in mind when I wrote that lol
Ran into the same problem on a samsung and a HTC years ago but I have no frickin clue what the models were
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context