IPhone  8: the glass back can't be replaced, but is it so serious?

The iPhone 8 signed the return of a glass back as used by iPhone 4, before the aluminium (or polycarbonate) chassis took over.

Among the innumerable differences between these two generations of iPhone-eight years between them-is that of access to components. This also illustrates the changes in the nature of the repairs most often carried out.

In its disassembly of the iPhone 8, iFixit finds that the glass rear plate is virtually impossible to remove without playing the scalpel and damaging everything. If we break the glass at the back of his iPhone 8, it is the device that will be exchanged, confirmed a technician. A broken back belongs to the list of non-repairable problems (see also the repair costs of the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are known).

On the other hand, the back part of an iPhone 4 was just as easily sputtered as a rabbit. It was enough to exert vertical pressure to remove the glass back. At that time, there was almost immediate access to the battery. Except that all the contents of the phone had to be removed before, after 31 steps, the screen was removed if it had to be changed. This screen was indeed attached to the motherboard.

On the iPhone 8 (going back to the iPhone 5) we go the opposite way: we pass the front. The screen can be removed fairly easily and the battery is also immediately exposed, as iFixit noted with satisfaction.

In short, the broken glass back of an iPhone 4 changed into a whirlwind at no cost, the back of an iPhone 8 will force you to replace the phone.

This familiar with iPhone interventions at Apple explained to us that almost all the repairs that are done on iPhone concern "the screen, battery, loudspeakers and camera module". It is to them that priority is given to ease of access and repairs.

The choice of aluminium for the chassis had the merit of limiting the problems on this side. The need to return to the glass for induction recharging may bring this type of breakage back to the taste of the day. We'll see in the next few months how this back resists shocks.

For this repairer, offering a fully modular telephone in its internal construction, where everything is thought out to be changed, would nevertheless have its drawbacks: more mobile parts means more potential fragilities, and then an increased thickness due to the more numerous and more complex fastening systems, which in turn will be subject to various fragilities.

It also leads to a greater risk of mishandling during surgery, not to mention the time it takes to carry out these repairs: "it is possible to completely redo a phone in a workshop, but it would take a lot of time and customers already complain a lot when you have to wait more than an hour to repair a" simple "screen …. .

Some have already struggled with the idea of building a fully modular telephone. Google's Ara project is a good example of this, but it ended up falling into limbo a year ago. He faced the complexity of an equation that consists of proposing a phone that does not look like a thick brick, that is able to keep track of technological developments over a few years, offer very affordable modules, and unite manufacturers around this concept.

The bias of Apple with this iPhone 8 with a well-glued back, seems to be to consider that the glass back is strong enough to handle the small shocks of every day and that a very large majority of users anyway protect their phone with a case (the proportion would be about 80%). Case which, even thick, does not prevent the induction recharge function. The priority is to be able to intervene quickly and well on the screen and on a handful of other dependencies.

This would leave only a minority of users, who do not care for a case, and who will take the risk of a glass break, with the consequences for their wallet, in this case an AppleCare + contract is not necessarily a bad idea.