If you have an iPhone 13, or in fact any iPhone with Face ID from the iPhone XS onwards, then repairs to the Face ID component will reportedly soon be much less of a hassle.
According to an internal Apple memo obtained by MacRumors from a reputable source, Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers will soon be able to repair Face ID without having to replace the whole phone. That’s thanks to a new TrueDepth camera service part that will be made available to them.
It’s a move that carries a number of advantages, not least of which being that you won’t have to set up a whole new phone when you send yours in for a Face ID repair.
But an arguably even bigger bonus to this – and the one that Apple apparently cites – is that it’s better for the environment to repair a phone than to replace it.
It doesn’t sound like every Face ID repair will be possible with this new part though, with a diagnostic tool set to be used to assess which repairs it’s a good fit for.
It’s also not clear when this part will start being offered, with Apple apparently saying simply that documentation and training will be made available to repair people at a later date.
Analysis: another step towards improving the repair process
Apple has made a number of moves towards taking the pain out of iPhone repairs recently, with perhaps the most significant being the launch of Apple Self Service Repair, which lets users repair their iPhones for themselves.
Apple also added a feature in iOS 15.2 which would tell you whether your iPhone has been repaired using official parts or not, while along the lines of this latest news, Apple previously made it possible to replace the rear glass of the iPhone 12 without replacing the whole device.
So making repairs simpler, clearer, and less wasteful definitely seems to be on the agenda for Apple, and that can only be a good thing.
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