Forget about Denuvo for a moment, Apple’s DRM on iPhone 15 replacement parts means DIY repairs can leave you with busted features.
Try to hold back your surprise but Apple might not be the right-to-repair champion you hoped it might become, even after recently penning a letter in support of California’s proposed right-to-repair bill. This is evidenced in a teardown of the iPhone 15 Pro Max. While not without some redeeming qualities, replacing parts in the iPhone 15 Pro Max left the folks at iFixIt lamenting a “dystopian future that science fiction authors warned us about, where DRM infected every part of our lives.” Yikes.Forget about Denuvo for a moment, the site’s beef with Apple is over its insistence on authenticating parts for replacement or else risk having otherwise sound repairs not function like they should. This all comes to a head in a disconcerting chart outlining what issues iFixIt ran into for numerous replacement parts, including the front and rear cameras, display, and even the battery.Only a small handful of parts can be replaced without worrying about an authentication handshake. For example, the main speaker and taptic engine both work as expected when swapping either or both of those out. Other parts run the gamut from minor to headache-inducing issues.
