Write About Everything

This is the aluminum iPhone 15. We’ve learned quite a lot about the titanium of the iPhone 15 Pro through some rather destructive analysis, but sometimes non-destructive science can still be pretty interesting. I sanded off the exterior anodizing of the iPhone 15 and stuck it in a desktop XRF scanner machine so we could analyze the metal frame. And we found an alloy of aluminum and zinc, meaning that Apple is once again using 7000 series aluminum for iphone glass broken their base model of iPhone. Science is really cool.

And speaking of cool science, huge thanks to today’s sponsor, KiwiCo. KiwiCo is one of those companies that I wish was around when I was a kid. They provide monthly crates that introduce science, technology, engineering, art, and math in fun ways, like this pinball machine. Designed by experts, KiwiCo has shipped 50 million crates to more than 40 countries. They’re on a mission to equip the next generation of innovators with creative confidence and problem solving skills so they can conquer the problems of tomorrow, and they make perfect gifts for the holidays. KiwiCo has 9 different crate lines that are designed for kids aged 0 to 104. My favorite is the Eureka crate, like this one where we’re learning about the physics of gravity, friction, and inertia, along with potential and kinetic energy, all while building a pretty sweet pinball table. For 50% off your first month, you can go to Kiwico.com/JerryRig. You can even buy crates individually if the subscription thing isn’t your style. Screen-free, constructively educational entertainment.

And now it’s time for our destructively educational teardown. Let’s get started. Even though Apple has made this new iPhone lineup more repairable, both the 15s and the 15 Pros, they’re still very difficult to get inside. With the screen turned off and the bottom two pentalobe screws removed, we can use heat to soften the watertight adhesive holding on the back glass. Once the phone reaches about 5 or 6 thousand degrees Kelvin, a super strong suction cup can lift up on the glass, allowing the adhesive to be sliced away for a few seconds. After that, the reheating process begins again. This would be a far easier task performed inside an active volcano.

I do like how Apple has placed the rear glass bracket right in front of the fragile ribbon cable. So as the cutting of the adhesive is performed, it is far less likely to damage the ribbon. Thumbs up for that. I’m an absolute huge fan of Apple’s new repairable design. This repairable design, however, is only designed to be repairable by Apple themselves, since each repairable component, including this back glass for some reason, is still software locked to the motherboard. But hey, we are making progress with the right to repair movement.

Interesting to see that the bottom two pentalobe screws are able to secure the back glass panel by stabbing far through the frame into the little metal brackets on the glass. These little engineering details are incredible. Hit that subscribe button if you like seeing the insides of technology. I’ll switch to our second screwdriver bit to remove two tri-point screws over the battery ribbon. It’s got the plus and minus etched into the top and can be popped off like a little Lego. There’s another metal bracket held down with a singular tri-point screw and if you slide the bracket down it comes off a lot easier. I’ll unplug the rest of the back glass panel with its copper wireless charging pad in the center.

At the moment, Apple charges $169 to replace this whole component. You can, of course, buy imitation glass panels for like 20 bucks off of Amazon or eBay. But if I’m being totally honest, a glass-only panel is not worth the effort. It’s nearly impossible for a first-timer to reuse Apple’s original metal frame, and I just don’t have all that much confidence in your abilities. The rectangular taptic engine has three screws holding it in place and this guy uses 100% recycled tungsten. The lower loudspeaker has five screws, and again, Apple does not appear to have a window for foam balls like we see on most Android phones.

Now one of the coolest things about the entire iPhone 15 line that nobody seems to be talking about is that each and every one of these batteries is using 100% recycled cobalt, which is a pretty big deal. Cobalt is used for treating cancer, aircraft engine alloys, refining gasoline, and of course used in cell phone batteries and electric cars. So it’s incredibly cool to see it being recycled and reused by such a large player. Nice.

Still says trained technician, serviceable only, and is 3,349 milliamp hours. The metal frame on the inside is the same piece of 75% recycled 7000 series aluminum that we see on the outside. Very different from the iPhone 15 Pro design, which has aluminum on the inside and titanium exoskeleton on the outside. There are quite a few more ribbon cables and a couple more screws holding down metal brackets over the top of them. Then we have the front-facing dot projector, face ID, and 12-megapixel selfie camera that all come out attached to the same unit. This does not have OIS. There is an interesting little box that sits just below the motherboard. This is where the SIM card tray should be. This box is just a placeholder, a space filler, since outside the USA the iphone glass broken variants do still have physical SIM cards.

The upper loudspeaker comes out next using a combination of Phillips and tri-point screws and also doesn’t look to have any foam balls inside. The motherboard has five standoff screws holding it in place, which when removed allows the motherboard to rotate up and out of the frame, exposing two ribbons on the backside. These are where the 6.1-inch Super Retina display connects with the phone. The front screen gets removed the same way the back screen gets removed and costs $279 from Apple to fix. It’s also a good time to note that this double-stacked motherboard uses 100% recycled copper, gold, and tin. The dual camera setup on the back has three more screws. And while at first glance it does not look to have any optical image stabilization, the larger 48-megapixel camera in fact does… just internally with a sensor-shifting mechanism instead of a lens-shifting mechanism. It’s actually pretty cool and Apple has been doing it since the iPhone 12.

And again, huge thanks to Tim Cook for color matching the lower waterproofing speaker gasket with my orange Jerry Rig Everything knife. Link in the description. Always a pleasure working together, albeit possibly unintentionally on Apple’s part. I’ve been a pretty loyal Android user for the past 13 years, but I have decided to give Apple a valid shot and I’ll be using the iPhone 15 Pro for the next few months with as open of a mind as I could possibly have. This will be temporarily of course before I pick which phone I want to stick with for the long term since I normally use my phones for about three or four years before switching. I like the direction Apple is going when it comes to repairability. Still a long way to go of course, but they are definitely headed in the right direction for now.

With the iPhone 15 plugged in, it turns back on and functions like normal. Nice work, Apple, and nice work myself. Hit that subscribe button if you haven’t already. It’s free. And remember, if you’re looking for an extremely educationally useful gift for the holidays, that 50% off your first month of KiwiCo link is in the description. Thanks a ton for watching. I’ll see you around.

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