We’d recommend going to great lengths to ensure that your iPhone 14 lasts as long as possible – slap on a case, abide by good battery health practices, and use a screen protector too.
Why is this? Well, it’s because official prices for part repairs for the iPhone 14 family have been unveiled, and there’s a big price hike over the iPhone 13 equivalents. These are official Apple prices, as spotted by 9to5Mac (opens in new tab), though you could get cheaper repairs from third-party stores.
For the iPhone 14, it’ll cost you $99 to get a battery repair from Apple – that’s quite a jump over the $69 cost that you’ll be paying for the same repair on the iPhone 13. The jump is even more pronounced in the UK, where last year’s £69 price has been replaced by a startling £105 cost.
Sure, the UK’s economy isn’t doing great right now, but that’s one massive price hike for the same service as you were getting last year.
That’s right – the battery packs in the iPhone 14 series are basically the same size as they were in the iPhone 13 range, with slight increases or decreases for certain models, but no major shifts.
So it’s not like the iPhone 14 is much more demanding to repair in any particular way, as far as well can tell at least – and that conclusion seems especially likely when you consider that the standard iPhone 14 is almost identical specs- and design-wise to its predecessor.
What’s with this price hike then? Well, we’d say it’s down to economics – you may have noticed that it’s quite a tumultuous planet right now, and the cost of things like component production and logistics have likely gotten quite high. Apple needs to offset these costs by bumping up the prices of its devices – you may have noticed that the iPhone 14 series itself has quite a price hike over the iPhone 13 models.
Hopefully, this repair price increase is only temporary, and we might see the iPhone 15 go back to that $69 / £69 cost like before. But for now, as we said, you’d better look after your iPhone, because it’s already a far cry from a contender for our list of cheap phones.