iPhone Air breakdown — 4 things we learned from the internet's most infamous teardown test

The iPhone Air is Apple's thinnest phone yet and as a nice bonus, it also appears to be much easier to repair than rival thin phones on the market.

In its recent teardown, iFixit revealed some of the design changes that Apple has made that help to make the phone much simpler to repair. Apple has been working to make it simpler to repair its phones at home, and this seems like a continuation of that.

There's a lot to get through, so let's have a look at the four biggest changes that help to make the iPhone Air a repairer's dream, as well as a potential issue that could rear its head in the future.

Apple’s use of space makes it easier to solve issues

One of the hardest parts about repairing any phone is that the internal components are often laid on top of each other. This means that to reach certain issues, you have to disconnect and remove a lot of other parts. Naturally, this can lead to excess damage you didn't intend and can often make repairs more convoluted than they need to be.

The advantage thinner phones have is that the inner components are usually set side-to-side, making them much easier to remove. Apple has taken this one step further with the iPhone Air.

As revealed by iFixit's CT scan, the battery takes up the entire middle of the phone, while the logic board and single camera have been moved to the new camera plateau. Apple has also removed the lower speaker entirely, making it easier to access the USB-C port.

This makes it a much simpler process to remove any damaged parts without risking the other components in the process.

The battery is simple and easy to replace

Speaking of the battery, the iPhone Air's is much easier to replace due to several reasons. Now, while the Air might not have the biggest battery of the iPhone 17 series, it’s still very impressive. However, even the best battery will fail over time, so replacing them is just a fact of life.

Apple has made this process easier in a few ways. Firstly, the battery sits in the very center of the phone and is attached via electrically debonding adhesive strips. That means that you can remove it by attaching a power source and running a low-voltage feed through it. iFixit was able to do so by using 12V from its Portable Power Station, debonding each strip after about 70 seconds.

The battery is also encased in a metal shell, a design which Apple has patented as a metal can. This not only adds more durability to the center of the phone, but it also makes it much safer to remove by limiting the chance of piercing or otherwise damaging the battery.

iFixit also confirmed that the battery cell in the phone is the same as the one used in Apple’s MagSafe battery pack. You can swap the two without too much issue, so in concept you could swap them on the fly in an emergency (although it will take a bit of fiddling to manage that without the right kit.)

The USB-C Port is modular and oddly bubbly

When it comes to the parts that are most likely to fail beyond the battery, the USB-C port is a close second. The port used on the iPhone Air is modular, meaning that you don’t need to replace the whole board if there's a problem. This makes repairs easier, although it is still tricky as it features a delicate flex cable and hard-to-reach screws.

However, as iFixit notes, this doesn’t seem to be a choice made to make it easier to repair. For one thing. Apple doesn’t offer repairs for the port in-house and doesn’t supply replacement ports to repair centers. This means that many will have to rely on third-party parts, which might take a while to catch up.

Apple reportedly 3D printed the housing to help it fit on the frame of the iPhone Air, which is claimed to have reduced material usage by 33% compared to traditional forging. This is the same process used for the Apple Watch Ultra 3. What’s strange is that, when iFixit took a closer look at the port with a microscope, it noticed regular bubble-like structures.

While it’s unclear why this is, some in the additive manufacturing industry stated that Apple could be using a binder or aerosol jet process, in addition to some post-printing machining.

The iPhone Air is durable... mostly

We already know that Apple’s move to titanium frames for the iPhone Air has increased the durability of the phone to an impressive level. However, as was shown by the CT scan, both the top and bottom of the phone are vulnerable, with iFixit being able to snap the empty Air frame at the plastic antenna passthroughs.

That doesn’t mean the phone will instantly snap at the top, but only time will tell if this becomes an issue over the next few months. I also remain concerned about heat, which is an issue that often affects thinner phones, especially as the Air doesn't have the vapor chamber seen on the iPhone 17 Pro series.

Overall, the iPhone Air scored a seven out of ten on iFixit’s repairability scale, which is a marked improvement over the 5/10 that the Galaxy S25 Edge scored. However, this score is provisional, as it is dependent on Apple making good on its commitment to parts availability. Only time will tell if it’s easy to get official parts for the phone, but Apple has a pretty good track record in this area.

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