After what seems like forever, the Apple iPhone 8 is finally up for sale, with the iPhone X destined to hit store shelves at a later date. Critics on a wide scale have all agreed that the new iPhones are great, but what about their repairability statistics?
Well, the folks at iFixit dove right in to get an idea of how repairable the iPhone 8 is. Is there a chance for this device to rank significantly higher than the previous models? Fat chance of that happening, but despite that, the teardown did reveal some interesting tidbits.
The new Apple device internals are similar to the iPhone 7
No surprises here folks, the internals of the iPhone 8 are almost the same as the iPhone 7. It goes to show that Apple is saving a lot of money by working with older components, which is a sensible move since the company is moving to change the overall design beginning with the iPhone X.
The big changes on the inside of the iPhone 8 are the Qi wireless charging component and the battery. Qi wireless technology is one of the most standout features of the new smartphone. However, it's not revolutionary as Android and Windows Phone products have been down this road already.
As for the battery, the iPhone 8 battery capacity is smaller than the iPhone 7.
Expect a 1,821mAh battery with 6.96Wh of power when compared to the previous battery that sits at 1,960mAh and 7.45Wh. Nobody is certain why Apple chose to go with a smaller capacity battery. Time will tell if it poses a problem for overall battery performance when compared to the previous product.
What about the RAM?
Apple isn't known for throwing a lot of RAM into its iPhones.
Android and Windows 10 Mobile products have surpassed 3GB of RAM, but Apple is still working with 2GB of RAM. Is this a problem? Not at all since iOS is well optimized, therefore, it should be able to perform just as well as competing products.
Outside of the 2GB of RAM, iFixit found the new A11 Bionic chip. It's a fast processor, and chances are, it could be more capable than anything we've seen in the latest smartphones to-date.
So what's the repairability score then?
The experts at iFixit gave the iPhone 8 a score of 6 out of 10. That's a point down from the iPhone 7. The reason for the lower score has a lot to do with Apple deciding to go with a glass back. It won't be possible to replace the back cover with the same material if it's damaged and only Apple can do that.
At the end of the day, the differences between the iPhone 8 and iPhone 7 are small, and that's great. However, tech enthusiasts would prefer to see how the iPhone X stacks up with its edge-to-edge display design.
