In what seems like an affront to the right-to-repair crowd and the repair community, Apple has just made it harder than ever to get the iPhone’s screen fixed, especially if you just bought the brand new iPhone 13.
This is according to a video put out by Phone Repair Guru who discovered that if you get your iPhone 13’s display fixed/replaced by a third-party repair shop who isn’t authorized by Apple, it doesn’t matter if your components are genuine because it will end up disabling Face ID.
This suggests that it isn’t just about the use of genuine components, but there seems to be an extra step in the repair process that only authorized repair shops know about that will ensure Face ID will work after a screen replacement. This is demonstrated in the video above where it shows that despite using a genuine Apple display, the phone will now warn the user that they aren’t using a genuine display.
The video does note that it is possible to get it to work by transferring chips, but it also says that due to the complexity involved, most repair shops probably won’t do it.
So what does this mean? This means that if your iPhone 13’s display gets cracked or spoiled and you need to get it fixed or replaced, your only “choice” would be to send it to Apple or one of the company’s authorized providers.