The senior director of iPhone product design at Apple, Richard Dinh, discusses the iPhone 14 models’ design and improved repairability. 

While the iPhone 14 models may look identical to their predecessors, there are a few significant design changes. Richard Dinh, Apple’s longtime senior director of iPhone design, discusses some of these changes in a recent interview with The Sydney Morning Herald. 

Dinh admits to the publication that previous iPhones’ single enclosure design and permanently-fixed glass backs hurt repairability. So Apple made a few internal changes to the device. 

The latest iPhone 14 and 14 Plus have a central aluminum structure that more consistently dissipates heat across the entire surface. More importantly, the aluminum acts as a backbone, making it possible to open the iPhone from the display or rear glass. 

“This design also introduces our first four-sided stacked main logic board,” says Dinh “[It] really condenses all the iPhone 14 components in a smaller space and allows us to access the board from either side, for improved repairability,” says Dinh. 

Thanks to these improvements, Apple’s estimate to repair a screen has dropped from $579 on an iPhone 13 to $275 on an iPhone 14. Besides reducing repair costs, the new internal design diminishes the chance of accidental damage during repair. 

Improved Repairability of the iPhone 14 Models

Apple hasn’t released iPhone models that can be opened from the back side since the 2011 iPhone 4S. As a result, technicians often have to remove the glass panel and several other components to replace an iPhone’s back panel.  

However, the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus models have a slightly different internal than its predecessor. 

According to iFixit, Apple secured the devices’ display and back panel with two screws and two connectors, making it easy to replace both parts. Indeed, iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens praised the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus’s more repairable internal design. He further noted that it was the most substantial iPhone design since the iPhone X. 

“This is such a big deal that it should have been Apple’s big announcement—the iPhone has been redesigned from the inside out to make it easier to repair,” said Wiens.

That said, Dinh noted that Apple doesn’t always follow a recipe regarding iPhone design. While the non-Pro models occasionally draw inspiration from the Pros, he said it’s not unusual for the tech giant to create something entirely different. 

The iPhone 14 is a perfect example of “something different.”