Blog

iPhone 8 and 8 Plus

Media speculation that Apple would follow their previous naming pattern and name the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus’s successors as the iPhone 7S and iPhone 7S Plus turned out to be wrong- the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are here.

Both feature a glass back, wireless charging support, “All Bionic” CPU and 4.7″ and 5.5″ displays respectively.

 

Home Button Replaceability

The home button remains on the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus (though not on their sibling, the iPhone X), and Touch ID is still integrated. This means it will face similar issues to those already surrounding iPhone 7 home button replacement (which we covered in more detail in this article).

Basically, for security reasons related to Touch ID integration (alongside possibly more cynical ones), the home button that came with an iPhone 7- and presumably the new iPhone 8 models- could not simply be replaced with a new one, even if it was an official Apple part.

While we can- in many cases- repair the home button, if it’s unfixably damaged, it’s likely it will have to be sent back to Apple themselves for replacement.

Additionally, many of our customers- and people on Apple support forums- report damage and cracking of home buttons even where the rest of the phone itself was not broken. It’s our belief that Apple may have to offer a repair extension- check this page to see if that has happened since this article was written.

 

Old-Technology LCD Display is Good News for Repairs

The IPS LCD displays used in the iPhone 8 series may not be as exciting as the iPhone X’s all-new OLED, but from a repair point of view this is a good thing. (Scroll down to see why the OLED isn’t so good for iPhone X owners with broken screens).

Put simply, it means that replacement screens (including refurbished and third-party compatible ones) are likely to be available in good numbers relatively quickly.

Often when iPhone screens are broken, only the front glass- not the touch or the LCD itself- are damaged, since the LCD backlight unit tends to absorb some shock. The glass can be replaced by recyclers and then resold back onto the market, keeping prices low and repairs affordable.

On top of this, iPhone 7 and 7 Plus LCDs appear to fit the 8 and 8 Plus and even show a display (although the touch doesn’t work due to some changes in the connection). This implies that the two are very similar, and that manufacturers of compatible (“copy”) iPhone 7 displays are likely to be able to produce iPhone 8 and 8 Plus compatible ones relatively quickly.

(However, as this article at our “Disc Depot Dundee” site explains, we don’t personally recommend copy screens for several good reasons).

 

How Much Will Glass Back Replacement Cost?

Several Samsung Galaxy models already feature glass backs, and going by experience with our customers breaking those, it seems likely that this will be a similarly-common repair on the iPhone 8 series.

What’s worrying is that- taking Apple’s iPhone 8 repair prices at the time of writing (mid-September 2017) at face value, these would fall into the “other [non-screen] damage” category. These repairs are charged at £356.44 and £406.44 for the 8 and 8 Plus respecctively. Ouch!

While it’s quite possible Apple may add another (lower) charge for glass replacement, at present we can only go by their existing price list, and that’s not something we’d like to have to pay!

 

iPhone 8 launch event publicity shots.

Official iPhone 8 repair prices on Apple’s website as of 13 September 2017.

iPhone X

 

New OLED Display, No More Home Button

The iPhone X (“iPhone Ten”) is the new flagship named to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the original iPhone.

Its design is clearly different to the iPhone 8 series, the first difference being its a 5.8″ edge-to-edge display dubbed “Super Retina”. This uses OLED technology rather than LCD- the first Apple device to do so- and we believe it’s closely-related to the one Samsung use in the Galaxy S8.

The other obvious change is that the home button has disappeared. Touch ID- which used the home button to provide its functionality- has been replaced with Face ID for access to the phone and Apple Pay.

 

Front Sensors and Cable Repair Issues

As can be seen from the photograph, the front of the iPhone X includes numerous sensors, including:-

• Front camera
• Infrared camera
• Flood illuminator
• Proximity sensor
• Ambient light sensor
• Speaker and microphone, and
• Dot projector

We’re guessing these will feed back through a single flex cable. If tied to a specific iPhone as was previously the case with the home button (and still is with the iPhone 8), this cable will be non-replaceable by independent stores, and any damage to it would require the phone to be sent back to Apple themselves (at Apple prices).

While some iPhone 7 owners have been prepared to tolerate the loss of home button functionality, due to damage suffered while the iPhone was being repaired by one of our rivals. This is because the phone is still usable with assistive touch. However, the loss of the front sensors (including security measures) on the iPhone 8 due to a non-replaceable would be far more serious.

On the up side, this might not be the case- Apple noted more than once that the much-heralded All Bionic CPU had a region dedicated to facial recognition data, suggesting that the “secure enclave” information is held on the processor itself, and not the cable (making the latter replaceable).

 

Replacement OLED Availability

As noted, we believe the iPhone X’s “Super Retina” OLED to be the same as- or very closely related to- the ones already used in some Samsung Galaxy phones. Experience with those leads us to guess that there may be severely restricted availability of replacement OLED parts for quite some time after the iPhone X’s release.

OLED-based Samsung Galaxy owners are often shocked to hear how much we have to charge for a replacement display. This is unfortunate, but down to the high price of the parts themselves- both due to the cost of original parts and a shortage of refurbished units in the supply chain.

When OLED-based devices are dropped, the display itself usually cracks (rather than just the glass, which is often the case with LCD-based displays). As a result, there’s little that can be recycled and refurbished- then sold on- so what few there are command a high price. It’s also hard for manufacturers of “compatible” displays to produce replacements for these units.

At the time of writing, Apple hasn’t given its price for screen replacement, but we’re assuming that for the first few months after launch (at least), it’s likely to be just as cost-effective to go straight to them. Not that this is likely to be cheap- it certainly won’t be!- just that until the parts are widely available and affordable, independent stores are unlikely to be able to do it any cheaper.

This will happen eventually, and the price of iPhone X screen replacements will fall- it’s just likely to happen much slower than for traditional LCD-based units. That said, we strongly recommend that you contact us if you need an iPhone X repair in St Andrews, Fife or anywhere else- we’ll let you know if and when we can do it cheaper. If that’s not the case, we’ll advise you to send it to Apple… once the prices come down we’ll be happy to do it personally and pass on the savings to you!

iPhone X front sensors as seen during launch at Apple keynote, 12 September 2017.