iPhone 5 easier to repair, say gadget gurus

Washington, Sep 23 (IANS) IFixit, the company that publishes free online repair guides for consumer electronics, gives the new iPhone 5 a 7 out of 10 in terms of repairability.

Apple's reputation for building hard-to-fix devices didn't dissuade people from ordering the iPhone 5, and it turns out that's a good thing, the Christian Science Monitor said.

After stripping Apple's newest handset down to the core, the gadget gurus report that the iPhone 5 is actually easier to repair than the iPhone 4S.

It isn't all rainbows and sunshine, however.

The iPhone 5 continues Apple's tradition of using unorthodox pentalobe screw to lock down the outer case.

Several internal components are joined to a single ribbon cable, which increase the cost of repair if just one of those components kick the bucket, according to the Monitor Saturday.

That eye-popping Retina display is another concern. "The front glass, digitizer, and LCD are all one component, thereby increasing cost of repair," the iFixit team said.

On the plus side, the front-to-back construction of the phone makes removing the display incredibly easy and accessing the battery simple.

Previous iterations of the iPhone made removing those components a headache.

All in all, it looks like the iPhone 5 is a winner inside and out -- as long as you have a pentalobe screwdriver, that is, the Monitor added.