iPhone repairs aren't affordable — that's a fact. And Apple isn't exactly keen on third-party repairs of its devices. That's why the warranty service AppleCare+ is a popular add-on to just about any Apple product purchase.
Still, there are a lot of people seeking to change the status quo, such as Louis Rossmann who advocates the users' right to repair, and the popular YouTuber JerryRigEverything, whose real name is Zack Nelson. At that, the latter just showed a way that could change things up in the near future, using his iPhone X with a shattered glass back and an industrial laser.
Fixing With Lasers
With the iPhone X, Apple began using a permanent adhesive for its rear glass. That basically means its back can't be softened with just a heat gun and then removed with a pry tool, as is the case typically with most smartphones.
The Cupertino brand's repair solution here is to replace the whole glass housing, and that could cost up to $599 of out-of-warranty service. In other words, that's how much users without AppleCare+ might have to fork over to have their device fixed.
In a new video (posted below), JerryRigEverything shows how replacing the entire glass housing could become a whole lot easier to do. He used a laser machine on his iPhone X and burned through the adhesive that's keeping things together. The intensity of the laser even erased the paint on the panel. After that, he managed to remove the back glass panel with relative ease.
For the record, JerryRigEverything used a machine that costs over $2,000 from REWA, a provider of repair apparatuses. Put differently, that makes this method impractical for the average user, since it's improbable anyone will buy a $2,000 laser machine to repair their iPhone at home, not to mention that the whole process isn't that easy to do. However, third-party shops can certainly benefit from it.
Sure, it might still be far before these industrial lasers to fix iPhones and such become widespread, but if nothing else, it's a viable method down the road.
At this point, though, it's recommended to avail AppleCare+ and invest in a case to avoid the exorbitant costs of first-party repairs as much as possible, especially for butterfingered iPhone owners.
