Is this an iPhone 4 or a 14?

What it is, is a return to the good old days, when iPhones would open up from the back.

It's way too early to draw conclusions on the efficacy of this design or its repairability. 

However, it certainly looks like it will be easy to disassemble.

FYI: Even if you don't repair phones, you might still find this interesting...

Currently all iPhone back glass' are adhered to the frame with heaps of cold press glue, which is extracted from the mines in Mordor and sealed by Sauron himself. This is why we have to shoot them with lasers to remove them. (The mines were a joke, the lasers are not)

The 14 by comparison, looks a doddle.  

Check out the video teardown

Early teardowns indicate that the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max utilise a very similar structural design to their predecessors, i.e. they open from the front.

So why is the iPhone 14 different?

Manufacturers such as Apple will often trial a new design on a limited selection of their products. They do this because (for whatever reason) they think that this design is superior, but they don't want to put all their eggs in one basket. If this new design has structural flaws or defects, then at least the whole iPhone 14 series won't be a write off. If it works, then we can expect to see a similar design in the 15 Pro and Pro Max.

Thus, the iPhone 14 is the guinea pig.

Upon deeper consideration, we suspect that this might be one step towards a larger goal. It could be that Apple want to make devices more repairable so that they can expand their self-repair program, whereby they sell their own parts to the end consumer.

For Apple, it's always a strategic approach. It's toeing the fine line between appeasing their critics and the increasing legislative pressure brought on by the Right To Repair movement, whilst bolstering a tight business model which subtly forces customers into buying more products. Extremely difficult, but immensely profitable.

Third-party repair and parts supply is a big market. Why wouldn't Apple want a piece of the pie?

Of course, this is just conjecture. But it's worth thinking about.

Looking forward to opening up one of these 14's soon!