When purchasing a new iPhone, the Apple Care plan is often one of the value-added services that users struggle with the most. After all, the high cost of iPhone repairs is really unbearable.

Today, Apple’s official website released the repair price list for the iPhone 15 series, in which the price for damaged back panel glass of the iPhone 15 Pro/Max is 1,548 yuan. Compared with the previous generation iPhone 14 Pro/Max, it is 2,050 yuan lower.

(Source: Apple)

Repair price The decrease is mainly due to the new mid-frame structure design adopted by iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. The back glass is easier to disassemble and assemble, which greatly reduces the difficulty of repair. This change may give users who are struggling with whether to purchase the Apple Care plan for iPhone 15 a clear direction.

If it’s easier to repair, who would buy Apple Care?

In 2012, the epoch-making iPhone 5 was officially released, featuring a Lightning interface, a 4-inch retina display, and an A6 dual-core processor. Every upgrade surprises the entire mobile phone market.

The biggest change in the iPhone 5 is actually the body structure. Starting from this generation, the iPhone needs to be disassembled by removing the screen. This means that almost all internal repairs require disassembly of the more expensive display, which is high risk and low benefit.

The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus that debuted last year were the first to make changes: a new frame design allows the back glass to be completely removed, greatly reducing Maintenance risk. For unknown reasons, Apple did not allow this new structure to appear on the iPhone 14 Pro.

(Source: iFixit)

The maintenance organization unitedlex believes that, iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus are Apple’s easiest-to-repair models since the release of iPhone 5, with a repair difficulty of only 3 points (out of 10 points). Some popular flagship models, such as the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, have a repair difficulty of 6 points, and the Huawei Mate 40 Pro has a repair difficulty of 5 points.

Nowadays, the more easily disassembled design has been used on iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, and the repair price of the back glass has naturally dropped to a relatively reasonable range.

It can be seen from the iPhone 14 disassembly report displayed by ifixit that the front and back glass of the new architecture iPhone can be easily removed, especially The latter can be removed by simply heating it with a hot air gun. The only cable is the connecting cable between the wireless charging coil and the battery, making it very easy to disassemble.

(Source: iFixit)

And the iPhone 14 Pro still It is a "traditional" solution to disassemble it from the screen, especially since this generation of iPhone can only be opened from right to left. If you are not careful, you may cause damage to the cable. If you need to replace the back glass separately, you may need to use a more violent blade to clean it. In the process, it will inevitably cause damage to the camera and stainless steel frame.

The advantage of the new design is:

Disassemble the phone directly from the back and replace the battery more quickly ,convenient.

The screen panel and back glass are the two most fragile parts of the mobile phone. Independent disassembly can reduce the consequential damage to related components.

Currently, the most intuitive feeling of the new design is that the maintenance cost has been reduced a lot. iPhone 15 series users who do not consider using protective cases can also enjoy it Feel the wonderful feel of "bare metal".

New design, but still too expensive

Theoretically, the new design brings more With the easily removable glass back panel, the maintenance cost should be reduced to a reasonable range, but the reality is not satisfactory.

The official after-sales service provided by Apple has always been expensive. Especially since the iPhone 13 series uses super ceramic glass panels, the quotations have gone straight to the sky. Before 2022, Apple only provides repair services for screen, battery and other three options. Damaged or broken glass back covers are considered "other" repairs.

The iPhone 13 Pro Max is undergoing "other" repairs, and the price is as high as 4,699 yuan.

(Source: iFixit)

Released on iPhone 14 series After that, Apple provided glass back panel repair services separately, but the price was equally expensive: iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus were 2,998 yuan, while iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max were as high as 3,598 yuan and 3,998 yuan.

Compared with competitors, Apple’s price for replacing the back cover is still too expensive.

It is understood that the backplane repair cost of Xiaomi Mi 13 is 100 yuan, plus the labor guide price of 40 yuan outside the warranty, the total is only 140 yuan. The recently released Huawei Mate 60 has a back panel glass repair cost of only 899 yuan. This is the second-generation Kunlun glass with a stable and strong structure.

(Source: Huawei Mall)

It seems like this, Although the newly designed structure reduces labor costs to a certain extent, the price of glass panels is still very high, which results in the final maintenance cost being still much higher than that of competitors.

In any case, although the repair price of the iPhone 15 series has dropped significantly, the cost of repairing the glass back cover has almost accounted for 1/1 of the cost of a new phone. 5. It is also difficult to accept for most users. If you don’t want to spend this money, then consider wearing a protective case, which is very helpful in reducing damage caused by accidental drops.

Reducing maintenance fees, Apple seems to be hiding a big secret

iPhone is easier to repair, for This is definitely a good thing for consumers, but not necessarily for Apple.

A report provided by SquareTrade, a third-party warranty service provider, shows that the most vulnerable parts of the iPhone are the screen, back glass and rear camera. The screen panel and back glass both support independent replacement, and the difficulty of repair is further reduced, which means that more third-party service providers will be able to provide high-quality repair services.

(Source: Apple Newsroom)

Obviously, Apple will The maintenance price has remained above the previous 3,000 yuan, completely losing its ability to compete with third-party service providers. In a sense, "price reduction" is also a helpless option. But when the price drops to about 1,500 yuan, most consumers will give priority to official services. After all, official services have low risks, high degree of completion, and better services.

#But the reduced repair costs may affect the sales of the Apple Care plan.

#We have also mentioned before that whether it is back glass or other repair items, it is a huge expense for iPhone users. For example, it costs 2,498 yuan to repair the back panel of iPhone 13, which is nearly half of the official selling price of the phone. Most consumers will think it is too expensive.

(Photo source: Apple Newsroom)

If the user chooses to participate The Apple Care plan only costs 1,787 yuan for a single repair, which is obviously more cost-effective. But now that the price of backplane repair has dropped to about 1,500 yuan, the advantages of the Apple Care plan are less obvious.

As we all know, Apple is accustomed to creating more peripheral profits in a single product, such as strongly recommending iPhone users to purchase Apple Care plans, larger capacity iCloud services, or Apple Music, etc.

The adjustment of maintenance fees obviously conflicts with the benefits of the Apple Care plan. Could it be that Apple is hiding some little secret?

#The iPhone 15 series is the first model for which Apple has put "repair" on the table since the birth of the iPhone. "Easier to dismantle and repair" has become a breakthrough for Apple in this generation of iPhone. It is also reported that the reason why Apple adjusted the backplane glass repair costs of iPhone 15 Pro/Max is mainly because the newly added titanium middle frame performed poorly in the drop test, in an attempt to use "price reduction" to "prevent" users. Needle".

As for whether the iPhone 15 Pro is really as rumored, it is so fragile that Apple needs to open a "green channel" for it, and it needs to be tested after it is officially released. Only then can we find out.

#

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