The iPhone Air is really thin and, as it turns out, easy to repair, too. iFixit, a website that helps people DIY repair a wide array of electronics, tested the iPhone Air and gave it a “respectable” 7 out of 10 for repairability.
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“Apple has proved that thin doesn’t have to mean unfixable,” iFixit noted in its field test. “Its layout and design trade-offs make repairs more approachable, not less. It still has limits, but the design shows that good engineering can make even the slimmest devices last longer in the real world.”
Read more: The iPhone Air Reminds Me That I’m Just Not a Skinny Phone Girl
The iPhone Air’s battery life might not be as strong as its thicker iPhone brethren (although it’s better than expected), but it’s also the easiest battery to replace. To make the Air as thin as it is, no other parts — namely, the logic board — are stacked on top of the battery. That enables easier battery access.
As iFixit explains, thanks to Apple’s “dual entry design, ” you can access the battery through the back glass. Then, with the back cover off, you can free and remove the battery without having to pry it out.
iFixit also points out that the iPhone Air battery is the same one used in Apple’s MagSafe battery pack.
iPhone Air battery life appears better than pre-launch concerns warranted. CNET’s Abrar Al-Heeti found that “the battery took a noticeable hit on heavy-use days, though it held up surprisingly well under more moderate use and in CNET’s battery tests.”
iFixit says that 80% of how it scores repairability is based on how easy it is to replace the parts that are most important and most likely to break.
One of the other issues that iPhone customers face is a USB-C charging port that collects lint, dust and dirt over time and sometimes prevents charging cables from working. iFixit says the iPhone Air’s port is “decently modular,” which enables replacement if necessary, albeit after a fairly tedious but “feasible” process.
iFiixit says Apple doesn’t perform in-house USB-C repairs or sell replacement ports for iPhones, but parts are available from other sources.
