Apple Vision Pro deemed "unbelievably unrepairable" on discovery of software locks

The Vision Pro has shown itself to be even more teardown-resistant than the average Apple product, demanding that the third-party repair enthusiast dig through its new and advanced arrays of cameras, sensors and lenses before finding anything like conventional Mac or iPhone internals (saying that, its M2 chipset does exhibit a logo once excavated, at least).

Then again, according to the YouTuber Phone Repair Guru, it is possible to get the device open without fatal mishaps, albeit in a painstakingly delicate manner that might involve taping the plastic-coated Persona Display visor down just in case.

Nevertheless, the "spatial computer" is still laden with anti-repair "booby traps", those ~2mm nuts securing the motherboard that are beyond non-standard for mobile devices - even for Apple - included.

Furthermore, it seems the Vision Pro, like most newer iPhones, sports the same kind of component serialization that can lead to serious issues in devices with replacement parts.

iFixit reported no evidence of software-locking during its Vision Pro teardown - however, the Canadian vlogger found that one headset outright refused to work if its biometrics-enabled display was swapped with that of another, even though both parts were genuine Apple components.

The same was true for the headset's sensors and Persona Display; then again, Phone Repair Guru did concede that this might be because they are "calibrated together" for pass-through and might thus not be compatible with the same parts of a different unit. 

Nevertheless, it is clear that Apple has no intention of allowing anyone besides its own operatives to fix its $3,499 gadget at this point. All in all, the Meta Quest 2 - which still starts at $249 on Amazon - was declared much more user-repairable by comparison.