The iPhone 13 could cost a lot, not only at the time of purchase but also at the time of repairing one, perhaps after a fall with damage to the display
The iPhone 13 could be the most expensive iPhones to repair in case of damage. This is what emerges from the first investigations on the smartphones presented by Apple in mid-month but whose marketing has just started a few days ago (here the details): the news on the applephones are not entirely positive.
Apple in fact would not only have decided to complicate a lot the replacement of the display of the iPhone 13 range with a third-party one, but also with a perfectly original screen. Despite Apple's efforts to demonstrate that it always acts to protect consumers, especially on issues of privacy or support, the discovery of the last few hours on the display (and several other components) can certainly not be defined to the advantage of consumers, and therefore to their protection. Apple is no stranger to practices with which it attempts to discourage repair work on its products, but it hadn't yet gone this far.
Apple's latest gimmick for iPhone 13
Apple can achieve its goal, namely to divert the path of iPhones from "third-party" repairers to Apple Stores or authorized repair centers, by combining the effectiveness of two measures. This is a good deterrent, but only in time, in the sense that repairers only need a learning period to regain the handling they had with previous generations, so for Apple it's effective up to a certain point.
The second way to achieve the goal instead is much more effective, and is the one on which according to iFixit Apple has focused most. Apple has resorted to a strategy that the technical experts of the portal that evaluates the repairability of devices call "security through serialization".
No FaceID even with original screen
In other words, Apple would have made sure that the use of a replacement component not "signed" - authorized - by Apple through a specific serial could determine the failure of the replacement itself, even a blackout of the whole iPhone.
This strategy in the case of some components determines the arrival of a real paradox: according to the first-hand experience of the guys from the YouTube channel Repair Guru, the replacement of the iPhone 13 display determines the failure of Face ID even if the replacement is the original screen of another iPhone 13.
So the replacement of a display with another original one determines the error that triggers the deactivation of the face unlocking system. It seems that the iPhone rejects any component other than the one with which it came off the assembly line, and that in case of repair it is necessary to communicate to the iPhone through a special machine the serial number of the new component so that it doesn't reject it.
Neverthless, this kind of practice will be a prerogative of Apple Stores and authorized service centers. With good peace of mind to those who would gladly save on the repair of a component highly at risk of breakage as the display.