The right to repair has become one of the great pillars in the fight against planned obsolescence, and also against the high prices that some manufacturers place on the repairs of different technological devices. Apple is, in this sense, one of the best examples, since doing something as simple as repairing the iPhone 14 Pro Max screen it would cost us in Spain 799 euros if we don’t have the AppleCare+ plan.
Paying 799 euros is almost half of what a new iPhone 14 Pro Max costs, and with that money we could buy a brand new high-end smartphone, provided that we resort to another manufacturer. With this in mind, I think it’s quite easy to understand why the right to repair carries so much weight, and why in the end it’s inevitable to see official repair services as another way to make money, at least in the case of certain manufacturers.
However, we must be clear that having the right to repair something does not mean that we are really going to be able to do it, much less that it will be within the reach of anyone. In Europe, the Union wants to extend the right to repair smartphones and tablets, and so that this right does not remain useless, the imposition on manufacturers to use designs that are more affordable for the user, that is, that are easier to repair, is proposed.
There are already smartphones that are, by themselves, a clear commitment to the right to repair, such as the Nokia G22, but at the same time also there are terminals that are the opposite, such as the iPhone 14 Pro Max. In the attached video we can see the repair process of an iPhone 14 Pro Max that suffered severe damage to the front and rear glass layers. Repairing that smartphone in an official Apple service would have cost the user 703 euros to change.
From the beginning it is clear that to face the repair of this Apple terminal with guarantees we need specialized machinery, and that when the smartphone has been folded it is not possible to use the official module to extract the screen. To repair the rear glass layer, it is necessary to completely disassemble the interior of the iPhone 14 Pro and transfer it to the new chassis, something that is obviously not within everyone’s reach, and which is an extremely complicated repair.
As if all this were not enough, once the cutting, repair and reassembly process is finished, the iPhone 14 Pro Max does not recognize the screen as original, which causes iOS to disable True Tone and the auto-brightness feature. In total, the repair process took the author of the video four and a half hours, knowing at all times what he was doing and having the appropriate tools.
Talking about the right to repair, and filling our mouths with it, is something that is very good, but as long as manufacturers continue to create models with designs that are so difficult to repair, this will be nothing more than a mirage. At least Apple has done better with the iPhone 14, since in this case the rear glass can be removed and changed individually and easily. The savings with this repair has been 348 euros compared to the cost of the official Apple service.
