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Iphone

iFixit's iPhone 16 Teardown Reveals Game-Changing Battery Removal Process 56

Posted by BeauHD from the repairability-wins dept.
iFixit's iPhone 16 teardown revealed a new battery removal process that does away with the usual pull tabs, instead opting for an adhesive that debonds when exposed to a low electrical current. "It only takes about a minute and a half for it to come unstuck," reports Engadget, citing Apple's repair guide. iFixit tech Shahram Mokhtari said, "I'm not sure we've ever had a battery removal process go so cleanly and smoothly." From the report: Only the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus have the new adhesive, and they've earned a 7/10 on iFixit's repairability scale. "Apple definitely seems to be leveling up on repairability," Mokhtari, adding Apple has "landed another repairability win" with this year's base iPhones thanks to the new battery removal procedure. Further reading: iPhone's 80% Charge Cap Barely Boosts Battery Life, Year-Long Test Reveals
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iFixit's iPhone 16 Teardown Reveals Game-Changing Battery Removal Process More

iFixit's iPhone 16 Teardown Reveals Game-Changing Battery Removal Process

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  • Electrical debonding (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Apparently this technology has been invented many years ago, I never knew it existed. Pretty cool I have to say.

    • Apparently this technology has been invented many years ago, I never knew it existed. Pretty cool I have to say.

      Years old technology that Apple suddenly decided to start using? Are they telling us something, using it on hardware that is perhaps expected to be replaced sooner? I’ll reserve my excitement until the Why is clarified. I hope we didn’t just see the beginning of a 12-15 month battery life.

    • Wow. I'd never heard about that. That's pretty cool.

  • I'm Not That Impressed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by organgtool ( 966989 ) on Friday September 27, 2024 @07:16PM (#64822971)

    It only takes about a minute and a half for it to come unstuck

    I'm old enough to remember mobile phones that could have their battery replaced by just sliding it out. No need to surgically remove the screen and apply electrical current to debond the battery. Of course, those phones were a little thicker at the time and manufacturers needed to make them thinner so that they aren't so chonky in their case. And the case is now necessary because newer phones are enclosed within glass, the only material available for housing smartphones. It's amazing how many incredible technologies have been invented or integrated to solve the problems created by phone manufacturers.

    • this argument again and again. why are people so obsessed with replacing the phone battery? my phone's are completely busted after 3 years.

      • Re: I'm Not That Impressed (Score:5, Insightful)

        by StormReaver ( 59959 ) on Friday September 27, 2024 @07:57PM (#64823049)

        ...my phone's are completely busted after 3 years.

        1) You need a better phone. If your phone is not lasting at LEAST five years, the phone was, is, and always will be trash.
        2) Lithium Ion batteries are known to be defective from time to time, and they need to be replaced.

        Snapping off the back cover, replacing the bad battery, and snapping on the back cover is the ONLY acceptable way to replace a battery. Apple gets no points at all in my book for this. It's like giving an abuser points for switching from a steel baton to a wooden baseball bat.

        • Agreed. I still have a 6 years old smartphone whose battery I can change in seconds. My newer one would need a visit to a store, and so would my iPhone. I use those much less, only when necessary.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by hjf ( 703092 )

            OK so your argument is that your phones last longer than mine, but it's because you have 3 of them?

            Are you serious?

      • Mine aren't. I still have my first smartphone in a drawer: a samsung A5. Phone is fine except for the battery. Personally I think smartphones should last longer. The tech is mature enough to do it.

    • Real innovation (Score:5, Insightful)

      by bussdriver ( 620565 ) on Friday September 27, 2024 @07:47PM (#64823033)

      Instead of a complex chemical process that takes energy... how about they finally make the phone CASE the battery? everybody puts a case on the phone and they make them stupidly thin knowing it'll go into a case. Why not remove the battery and make the phone even more thin by moving the battery into the phone's protective case?

      choose your own level of battery capacity along with the type and size of case.

      • People replace their cases more often than their batteries. The whole reason people put cases on their phones is to be sacrificial. Then there's also the question of how you can guarantee the water ingress protection of such aftermarket cases. It's not as easy as you think.

      • Most mobile phones are water resistant to some depth. That wouldn't happen if the case were the battery. There have been cases that served as auxiliary batteries but they weren't very popular.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by antdude ( 79039 )

        Everybody? A few users don't even use cases!

    • I've been prying out glued in phone batteries with a screwdriver for over a decade. Sometimes it catches fire, so what, no big deal. When I put it all back together it's sans glue, and works just fine, for years. I dont get why it's glued in to begin with, except to keep people from easily replacing them.

      • I've been prying out glued in phone batteries with a screwdriver for over a decade. Sometimes it catches fire, so what, no big deal. When I put it all back together it's sans glue, and works just fine, for years. I dont get why it's glued in to begin with, except to keep people from easily replacing them.

        It's to keep the battery from rattling around; which not only sounds like something's broken, but also could potentially cause actual damage inside the phone in a moderate drop! It would be particularly bad if the phone struck on an edge.

    • I'm old enough to remember mobile phones that could have their battery replaced by just sliding it out. No need to surgically remove the screen and apply electrical current to debond the battery. Of course, those phones were a little thicker at the time and manufacturers needed to make them thinner so that they aren't so chonky in their case. And the case is now necessary because newer phones are enclosed within glass, the only material available for housing smartphones. It's amazing how many incredible technologies have been invented or integrated to solve the problems created by phone manufacturers.

      Got my first cellular in 2000, and have never replaced a battery in a phone with a removable battery once in my life.

      Probably because we'd replace them every two years free* with a new two year contract.

      Every two years mobile phone technology improved leaped and bounds so there really was no reason to hang onto one long enough for the battery to age much. Thats what I remember.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by hawk ( 1151 )

        I've had all iPhones for myself, wife, and daughters since the 4, iirc (whatever it was the day before Siri came out).

        I've had to pay to replace one battery that whole time.

        Now, *screens* are another matter . . .

        oh, and as for making a case out of battery: puncture would be a serious issue!

    • I have a Fairphone FP5. A back that still unsnaps. Removeable battery. MicroSD slot. Modular design that unsnaps or unscrews. One small philips screwdriver will take my phone down to pieces, including the removable screen.

      Android, LineageOS, or /e/OS. Take your pick. Unlockable and re-lockable bootloader. Guaranteed for 5 major Android revisions.

      You can get the phone you want. Just insist on it.

      • You can get the phone you want. Just insist on it.

        Yea, right, now insist on getting the same but with a half-decent camera (let's say not even in top-10 at dxomark but even top-100). See where that gets you.

    • I'm old enough to remember mobile phones that could have their battery replaced by just sliding it out

      Yea, they still make phones (and surprisingly even tablets) with removable batteries but the other specs are abysmal. But iFixit needs to make money, and as they aren't anymore buddy-buddy with Samsung they turned to Apple and Microsoft. Saying Microsoft because they gave the new Surface Pros 8/10 score, where to do anything you need to go through a glued screen. And the problem isn't only to replace the ba

    • Removable batteries suffer from (a) reducing the water resistance of the device and (b) inadvertent removal. I would prefer a removable battery as well. But to say that the batteries are permanent only to make the device thinner is not an accurate statement.
    • My last phone with a battery you could just pop out was every bit as thin as every phone I've seen since. It's a bullshit myth you can't make a thin phone with a sane battery design. The last flagship class one I had owned with one was an LG V20: 7.6mm thick. iPhone 16 pro max: 8.6mm. iPhone 16 (base): 7.8mm. Everyone can fuck right the fuck off with blaming being too thick for the nonremovable battery scam. It's a lie their marketing departments came up with to justify the bullshit.

  • Change battery in this it's-not-a-game manner! (Score:4, Informative)

    by JamesTRexx ( 675890 ) on Friday September 27, 2024 @07:31PM (#64822999) Journal

    And all it takes is a few seconds! Unbelievable!

    1) detach back cover
    2) pull out old battery
    3) insert new battery
    4) attach back cover

    Courtesy of the Samsung Xcover 7. I fix it score 10/10.

    • And all it takes is a few seconds! Unbelievable!

      1) detach back cover
      2) pull out old battery
      3) insert new battery
      4) attach back cover

      Courtesy of the Samsung Xcover 7. I fix it score 10/10.

      Now, drop it in a puddle. . .

      • From the specification: IP68 30 minutes 1.5 m depth fresh water.

        • From the specification: IP68 30 minutes 1.5 m depth fresh water.

          With careful Engineering, there is No reason it couldn't. But it isn't a "given".

    • Yeah, and if I wanted to carry something in my pocket with a thickness measurable in centimetres without abusing a decimal point it would be a great device for me.

      But I prefer not to give up that specification in exchange for something I haven't needed to do in a decade (change a battery) and if I did need to actually do it I would just simply pay some kid at the local mall electronics shop to swap it out for me while I get a burger.

      So much easier than your 4 step process. Not everything needs to be doable

      • It's a rugged device, the case is built in. Nearly everyone I know with an iphone has an otterbox on it. Several mm thicker than a naked xcover 7.

        And Samsung ruggedized phones don't mess around.

        • Nearly everyone I know with an iphone has an otterbox on it. Several mm thicker than a naked xcover 7.

          Congrats? I don't have a rugged phone, and again I prefer my device to be thinner and smaller which it is even with a case on it than the xcover 7.

          To be clear I'm happy this device exists on the market. People's needs (like yours) should be met. But the reality is the vast majority of people don't actually care about removable batteries, since a) swapping batteries is something most people don't ever need to do, and b) when swapping a battery needs to be done it is already possible to have it done.

    • Removable battery, aux jack, AND MICRO SD slot? Can't order it from their site, though, just "contact us." I wonder if the bootloader is unlockable.

  • The aluminum electrode is oxidized during the delamination process. When putting in a new battery does reversing the current reverse this oxidation? Or is the aluminum electrode permanentaly ruined? I'd guess it's reversible, otherwise why would Apple go to the trouble of using this. Maybe it requires a special tool to apply even pressure on the battery?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      The aluminum electrode is oxidized during the delamination process. When putting in a new battery does reversing the current reverse this oxidation? Or is the aluminum electrode permanentaly ruined? I'd guess it's reversible, otherwise why would Apple go to the trouble of using this. Maybe it requires a special tool to apply even pressure on the battery?

      No, it doesn't. Reversing the current just puts the sticky side on the other surface (i.e., the phone).

      Use Apple's recommendations for the current and the s

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by rapjr ( 732628 )
        Thanks, now I see, the aluminum electrode is on the battery, it's not aluminum exposed on the case. So the sticky stuff comes with the replacement battery and is sticky without any current being applied. This perhaps means that only Apple could supply a replacement battery? Though I guess third party repair shops could just use double sided tape (which might make a second replacement difficult if there are no tabs to pull up the battery). Or is this special adhesive easily available?
        • Batteries are serialised. You have to get them from an Apple-approved source and the battery must not have been used in a device which is still activation locked to avoid big warnings.
          • Wow that's great. I hope their repairability score was increased for this. I'd hate to have my battery replaced somewhere and find out that the parts were either non-genuine or stolen. Maybe I will get the new iPhone after all.
  • Why does the battery need to be glued in place? Couldn't it just be friction fit? If the circuit board is properly designed, its proximity would keep the battery from shifting around. Maybe just a small piece of foam or rubber would do the trick. Also, lithium ion batteries never seem to get smaller as they age, but can bulge or inflate, which would just make the fit more tight, not less.

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