{"id":630931,"date":"2026-09-21T00:34:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T00:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/630931\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T00:34:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T00:34:15","slug":"the-iphone-18-pro-is-tricky-to-repair-according-to-an-ifixit-teardown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/630931\/","title":{"rendered":"The iPhone 18 Pro Is Tricky to Repair According to an iFixIt Teardown"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the outside, the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max<\/a> look identical and have the same dimensions as last year\u2019s iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max<\/a>. But on the inside, the 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max are quite different, with bigger batteries, a new A20 Pro chip, a significantly larger vapor-cooling system, and tiny mechanical aperture blades in the main camera\u2019s lens.<\/p>\n

As the new Apple pro phones make their way into people\u2019s pockets<\/a>, they\u2019re also appearing in durability testing and teardown videos.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tech reviewer Zach Nelson dropped a pair of iPhone 18 Pro videos on his YouTube channel, JerryRigEverything: one showing how the new pro phone did in a scratch and durability test<\/a>, and the other showing him dismantle Apple\u2019s new handset<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, the tech repair and advocacy site iFixIt did a teardown of the iPhone 18 Pro<\/a>, and not all of it went according to plan. Taking the back glass panel was relatively straightforward, but there\u2019s not much that a person can repair aside from the panel itself.<\/p>\n

Of the four 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max models that iFixIt took apart, the plastic frame behind the display broke on three. Apple doesn\u2019t sell the plastic frame part, so if it\u2019s damaged, it can only be replaced by getting a whole new display module. You could put the display back on without the plastic backing frame, but it wouldn\u2019t sit flush with the body. I should note that in Nelson\u2019s teardown, he didn\u2019t suffer the same calamity and gave Apple a \u201cthumbs up for repairability\u201d after removing the display.<\/p>\n

\u201cFour phones are too few to establish a failure rate. Adhesive strength, heating, technique, or a difference in the plastic could all matter. That plastic frame has been present since the 15 Pro. But it hasn\u2019t given us nearly as much trouble in previous years,\u201d wrote Liz Chamberlian and Carsten Frauenheim, iFixIt\u2019s director of sustainability and repairability engineer, respectively, in a\u00a0blog post<\/a>. \u201cUsing isopropyl alcohol might make display removal more consistent, but we\u2019ll have to do more testing to be sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nelson and iFixIt\u2019s teardown, along with Apple\u2019s Ireland site, gives us a complete picture of the battery capacity for the new iPhone Pro models, SIM card and eSIM only models. Both the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max have larger batteries compared to last year\u2019s 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max. The variants sold outside the US have a slightly smaller battery to afford room for a SIM card tray. <\/p>\n

PhoneSIM card or eSIM onlyBattery capacityiPhone 18 ProSIM card + eSIM4,056 mAhiPhone 18 ProeSIM only4,288 mAhiPhone 18 Pro MaxSIM card + eSIM5,391 mAhiPhone 18 Pro MaxeSIM only5,567 mAh<\/p>\n

The new variable aperture on the main camera of the 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max is another curiosity. It\u2019s made of six tiny mechanical blades. For CNET\u2019s iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max review video<\/a>, our cinematographer, Celso Bulgatti, filmed it in action.<\/p>\n

\"AnThere are six paper-thin aperture blades inside the main camera lens of the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max.Celso Bulgatti\/CNET<\/p>\n

If any of the rear cameras on the iPhone 18 Pro or 18 Pro Max break, you\u2019d likely need to replace the entire camera array, which includes the new mechanical aperture.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe dismantled the main camera and concluded that an aperture-only repair isn\u2019t going to be feasible: if your aperture gets stuck, you\u2019ll be looking at replacing the entire main camera assembly,\u201d noted Chamberlian and Frauenheim.<\/p>\n

On the whole, iFixIt gave the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max a provisional repairability score of 7 out of 10, the same as the 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max and 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max.<\/p>\n

You can watch more of iFixIt\u2019s findings in the company\u2019s full teardown video below<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"The<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Patrick\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPatrick Holland\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDirector of Content\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAs Director of Content, Hardware, I lead CNET’s team of journalists and editors, covering news and testing on smartphones, laptops, wireless carriers, AI, and pretty much anything with a battery.
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSee full bio\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the outside, the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max look identical and have the same dimensions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[61,60,80],"class_list":["post-630931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}