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Apple’s iron grip on its supply chain means that sourcing parts necessary for the company’s newest iPhones will be next to impossible, but for models like the iPhone 13, that journey is still a possibility, though the roads are filled with potholes. One brave Redditor found out the hard way, but he still managed to assemble an entire unit using components that were purchased from AliExpress. Still, he misses out on two non-crucial features, not to mention that a whole lot of luck was required to source one particular piece of the puzzle. Using non-genuine parts to assemble any iPhone, such as the display and battery, means you will lose out on features like True Tone, but in the grand scheme of things, it hardly matters An individual with the username ‘Legal_Newspaper_5710’ has posted images showing how he successfully assembled an iPhone 13 and ensured it was in working condition, despite not having access to True Tone and battery health monitoring features. As you can see from the images, the housing, the A15 Bionic logic board, Face ID, and all its relevant components, including the battery and metal covers, can be identified. The procedure was successfully completed thanks to watching tutorials from the YouTube channel Phone Repair Guru. All the parts purchased from AliExpress cost 460 NZD, or $260, though the Redditor states that the total could have been 100 NZD less had he chosen a logic board and Face ID parts that were not paired with one another. He notes that in iOS 18, if these components are genuine, they can be paired together, but if even one of them breaks, then good luck getting another unit to work with your current part. The entire process took 4 hours, which is not a significant amount of time, but we assume that the person had some prior experience in performing this assembly. Remember what we mentioned above, saying that the Redditor had a lot of luck when building an iPhone 13 from scratch? That is because he did. Keep in mind that the only way to get this device running was to ensure that the A15 Bionic logic board was not iCloud locked. For that, you will have to scour AliExpress for a seller that has garnered lots of positive reviews, and even then, the chances of success are pretty slim. The iPhone 13 parts were likely stolen, but the original owner likely performed a remote data wipe, meaning that these could be reused by someone else - Here is why that matters? The assembly process is likely to be the least of your worries if you want to attempt something like this. On the Reddit thread, the person believes that the iPhone 13 parts were likely stolen, but luck was on his side because the original owner remotely deleted the data and removed his or her account from the device before it could reach a tiny shop in China and get disassembled. In short, if you want to save money and source parts from AliExpress to build your own iPhone, there are several key considerations to be aware of, which we have highlighted here. News Source: Reddit
