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Replace iPhone 13 Screen with 3rd-Party Option, Face ID Won’t Work

By Laura Tucker
Iphone 13 Replace Screen Featured

Every year, tech bloggers and vloggers put new Apple devices to the test to see if they’ll hold up to scrutiny. With the iPhone 13 now available, one vlogger put it through a test and found that Face ID will no longer work if you replace the screen with a third-party option. That leaves you without a great set of options.

Vlogger Finds Fault with iPhone 13 Build

A blogger known as iPhone Repair Guru showed that if you replace the iPhone 13 microphone, ambient light sensor, and proximity sensor, everything will still work just fine. However, if you replace the screen on the iPhone 13 with a third-party option, you will lose support for Face ID.

A message will pop up that says, “Important Display Message: Unable to Verify this iPhone has a genuine Apple display.”

Iphone 13 Replace Screen 2

You may get lucky and find a repair shop that can fix it in a way you won’t lose support for Face ID, but the vlogger feels there’s not much chance in that, as while there are some ways to get around the limitations, they’re “too sophisticated.”

Of course, there’s one surefire place that will know how to replace your screen to not force you to lose Face ID: Apple. But the cost to fix it will probably cost more than you would like to spend.

Does the iPhone 13 Go Against the Right to Repair Laws?

The problem with Apple being perhaps the only place to replace your iPhone 13 screen means it could go against Right to Repair laws. U.S. President Joe ‘ Biden is pushing for a national right to Repair law, but many states do have a form of the law in place. The FTC supports the idea as well.

The Right to Repair law says that third-party repair has the right to the same manuals, tools, parts, etc., as the manufacturers and that they should be able to open a device and repair it without voiding the warranty.

Iphone 13 Replace Screen Home

And this goes further than just the cost of replacing y your screen. If you fear this will happen to your phone, you can buy an Apple Care plan that will replace your phone for a smaller fee.

Your choice becomes to pay the Apple Care plan fee, pay the price Apple charges to replace your screen, or get it replaced by a third-party repair and do without Face ID after. Of course, there’s a time limit on Apple Care coverage, and once that runs out, you’re left with just the other two choices.

If you want to learn more about this issue, read how to set up Face ID on an iPhone and an MTE Explainer, What Is “Right to Repair” Legislation?

Image Credit: Apple Newsroom

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Laura Tucker Avatar
Laura Tucker
Laura has spent more than 20 years writing news, reviews, and op-eds, with the majority of those years as an editor as well. She has exclusively used Apple products for the past 35 years. In addition to writing and editing at MTE, she also runs the site’s sponsored review program.

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