Apple’s Senior Director of iPhone Product Design Richard Dinh recently spoke with The Sydney Morning Herald‘s Tim Biggs on the design of the standard iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus, including internal changes that make repairs easier.


The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus feature a removable glass back panel to facilitate repairs, making them the first models that can be opened from both the front and back of the device from iPhone 4S. The change does not extend to the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, which can still only be opened from the front.

This new structural design with an aluminum midframe “helps dissipate more heat across the entire surface more consistently”, and the ability to access the motherboard from either side of the device results in “better repairability,” according to Dinh.

iFixit iPhone 14

Image credit: iFixit

Last year, iFixit’s Kyle Wiens said the iPhone 14 represents “the most significant iPhone redesign” since the iPhone X, given the increased repairability. He added that the changes are “so significant that they should have been Apple’s big announcement: the iPhone has been redesigned from the ground up to make it easier to repair.”

Dinh also touched on Apple’s approach to designing standard iPhone models, noting that the company doesn’t have a strict formula.

“We don’t always follow a recipe, although our customers might like to predict what we’re going to do next, but it always starts with the customer experience,” he said, adding that “sometimes we draw pros because they’re just amazing” and “sometimes we’ll do something different”.

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