The iPhone XR gets the iFixit treatment

27 October 2018
It's not the easiest repair but the screen and battery remain fairly accessible.

Sort by:

  • K
  • Kangal
  • RN8
  • 28 Oct 2018

LOL, 27 Oct 2018Glass backs are sexy (and allow for wireless charging), som... moreNope.
Sapphire (and I'm talking about Tissot Watch kind) are harder than Glass, but its also more brittle. That means it would be much harder to scratch the rear glass... but it would be more fragile too. The reason why watches get away with this is because they're smaller, circle, rounded surface, and the internal housing is designed to spread force evenly. Hence, why I think the rear camera cover should be used with True Sapphire, and not a cheap imitation or Ceramic/Glass, especially on flagships.

A large, flat, straight, and less rounded Sapphire will break just as easily as Glass. Not to forget Ceramic (eg Xiaomi Mix), which is an intermediate step between Sapphire and Glass, also slightly harder/scratch-proof then Glass but more fragile/brittle and expensive. Then it makes very little sense to spend all that extra money on True Sapphire for nought.
To make it more durable, you would be playing with the engineering (shape, thickness, fitting) and this would result in a smartphone that's significantly thicker (8mm vs 12mm), that's also much heavier (190g vs 250g), and one that has a more abnormal shape (less screen to body). Overall, not worth it.

It's just like the joke "NASA spent 2 Million Dollars for a Space Pen, and the Russians used a Pencil"... it's probably better to simply use Glass and a Polycarbonate Case (slightly superior to Thermoplastic Polyurethane, and more better than Silicon).....but then it circles back to "why don't we just use Polycarbonate on the phone"
....and the answer to that question is "because people".

People were deluded by Apple to think Glass is the superior material, because its smooth and shiny, and hence easy to market. But reality doesn't care about your preferences, and gravity and force will act on it just like any matter. So a dropped iPhone 4 is likely to crack. And this doesn't change for the iPhone 8, or the extremely expensive iPhone XS max.

Nokia used Aerospace Polycarbonate on their Lumia 930 and Lumia 625 handsets. As another point, the Samsung Active S6/S7/S8 are built with Polycarbonate shells. Great material for the real-world forces and day to day nicks and grind. You can actually go a step further by having another fibre-based material that's lighter and tougher than APC, and that is Kevlar.

This stuff, Kevlar, what I think a phone that costs US$600+ should come with, when combined with Titanium Alloy structuring. Anything that costs $300-$600 can be accepted with a Scratch-Resistant Anodised Series-7000 Aluminium (think OnePlus 5t). And cheaper phones than $300 should stick to Aerospace Polycarbonate, since that's become cheaper and available on mass production.
....However the above gradings are rational, and we can't have anything rational when it comes to people or iPhones, now can we?

    • A
    • AmyThePerson
    • 3hZ
    • 28 Oct 2018

    Why don't they use what Motorola used for their shatterproof phone on the back? I think it's some sort of plastic.

    if they did that i'd not use a case tbh. it's stupid :c

      The XR rear glass replacement is already $250-$300 cheaper than the XS/XS Max which is already a win in my book. But nah.. I hate glass rears.

      I'll stick to my space gray iPhone SE. I still get glances from a half-decade-old design. They probably get envious how easy it is to maneuver it one-handed and the rear isn't such a fingerprint magnet and delicate.

      I still say the iPhone SE is the best iPhone that Apple has ever made. Perhaps one of the best products they ever made altogether. The X-design is built for clumsy people who love throwing away money to Apple.

      Glass is the absolute worst material to use for the rears on any smartphone. Use a matte ceramic finish instead like my halo gray Essential Phone. That's perfect.

        • L
        • LOL
        • yAK
        • 27 Oct 2018

        Glass backs are sexy (and allow for wireless charging), some Android phones are doing that too.

        You'll need a good case to protect it, although the cynical ones might say this was done deliberately to boost the sales of accessories.

        Instead of glass, I wonder if phones can have a sapphire back. No need to be high grade pure sapphire, and it'll still be more durable than glass.

          • ?
          • Anonymous
          • D9q
          • 27 Oct 2018

          Lol
          Another score against glass backs

            • ?
            • Anonymous
            • Snv
            • 27 Oct 2018

            AnonD-632062, 27 Oct 2018For just a split second, I mistook the rear wireless chargi... moreNokia N91 was is smartphone with an HDD.

              • D
              • AnonD-632062
              • Hx2
              • 27 Oct 2018

              For just a split second, I mistook the rear wireless charging coil for a disk drive.

              Imagine if smartphone had moving disk drives like HDD or CD! LOL!

                • D
                • AnonD-781012
                • D0d
                • 27 Oct 2018

                Worst iPhone ever?

                  1 of 1