iPhone 16 dubbed Apple's most repairable model in years

A low bar, for sure, but a move in the right direction

Apple's iPhone 16 has arrived, and the teardown crew at iFixit has wasted no time in pulling apart the latest device and found its repairability... rather good, relatively speaking.

While for some the iPhone 16 may be a little underwhelming in the features department, it goes a bit faster and has a nicer camera – although the physical camera button might be a bit odd for a number of users - and Apple Intelligence could be a handy addition when it turns up. However, the internals are where the company has worked some long overdue magic.

First up is how the battery is kept in place. Apple has shifted to a glue in the 16 and 16 Plus that debonds when an electrical current is passed through it, making fiddling with adhesive strips a thing of the past. Obviously, some care needs to be taken with the voltage – the iFixit team started with 12V, waited a minute, and then lifted the battery from the opened case with no drama.

We note a little bit of residue was left behind. The iFixit team said of this: "You'll probably still want to take a pass with isopropyl alcohol before you put a new battery in, but you won't have to scrape out adhesive strip remnants like in iPhones of yore."

The process isn't particularly reversible, although if you're pulling out the battery, you'll probably be replacing it anyway. It's also unlikely to win the company any prizes from Right to Repair regulators, as having to prise open the phone pretty much derails any hopes of compliance – but it'll be a boon for repairers.

The other battery-related change is a move to a hard case from a soft pouch. Ditching the soft pouch removes much of the risk from an accidental screwdriver slip puncturing a lithium-ion power pack. As the iFixit team observed: "Since the Pro doesn't feature the new adhesive, getting the battery out may sometimes require prying, and a hard case will make that process safer."

There is more good news on the parts pairing front – historically a black mark for Apple where the device would not accept replacement components without the blessing of Tim Cook & co. The situation led iFixit to downgrade the repairability score for the iPhone 14 to 4/10. Similarly, the iPhone 15 also scored 4/10 due to the pain caused by parts pairing. However, the iFixit team reported that iOS 18's new "Repair Assistant" worked "impressively smoothly on our vanilla iPhone 16."

"One click to pair and calibrate all components at once, and no bugs to be found."

It all meant that iFixit awarded the iPhone 16 a healthier seven out of ten. The device is still a bit fiddly, yet Apple is clearly moving in the right direction in terms of making its phones more serviceable.

There is still a long way to go, however, until device makers get back to the point where a battery – which is the part of a device most likely to need replacing – can be switched with the aid of a fingernail or a household screwdriver.

We can imagine the team from Fairphone, for example, taking a look at Apple's improvements and saying: "Oh, they've changed the battery glue. That's cute," before switching out the power unit in their device in a matter of seconds. ®