iPhone 14 Pro Max screen replacement: interactive 3D teardown

All 10 steps

1. 1Power off and remove the two P2 screws

   Switch the phone off (hold the side button and either volume button, then slide) and unplug its cable. Turn out the two P2 pentalobe screws in the bottom edge, one each side of the Lightning port: both are 6.8 mm long and hold the bottom of the screen to the frame. Lay them in wells 1 and 2 of the magnetic tray.

2. 2Warm the screen’s edges

   Lay the warm heat pad along each edge of the screen in turn: the bottom, the right, the top and then the left, until the glass there is too hot to keep a fingertip on, about 70 °C by our estimate. The heat softens the adhesive gasket that seals the screen into the frame. Do not go much hotter, and do not hold heat on one spot: the battery lies right under the screen.

3. 3Lift a gap and slide a pick in

   Press the suction cup onto the glass just above the bottom edge and pull up slowly and steadily until a hairline gap opens between the screen and the frame. Slide the tip of an opening pick into that gap, between the screen and the frame, no further than its 3 mm mark, and let go of the cup.

4. 4Cut the adhesive and open the screen like a book trap

   Run the pick along the bottom edge, round the bottom right corner and up the right edge, no deeper than 3 mm, then round the top right corner and halfway along the top, stopping short of the earpiece and the sensors behind the Dynamic Island. Put the pick in again at the top left corner and run it down the left edge no deeper than 2 mm: the display flex and the sensor flex fold under the screen just inside that edge. Then swing the screen up from its right edge and over to the left, the way a book’s front cover opens, and lean it on the foam block. Avoid this trap: The display flex and the front sensor flex both leave the screen a few millimetres in from its left edge and fold down to the logic board there. Push a pick 7 mm in along that edge and its tip cuts straight through both, and as the screen swings open the cut ends pull apart. The old screen’s display flex hardly matters if it is being replaced anyway, but the sensor flex does: it is the part you meant to move to the new screen, and without it the phone loses its proximity sensor and the front light sensor that auto-brightness and True Tone rely on. Keep the pick to 2 mm along the left edge.

5. 5Unscrew the connector cowling

   A steel cowling covers the battery, display and sensor connectors on the logic board. It is held by eight Y000 tri-point screws of three lengths: one 1.9 mm, two 1.6 mm and five 1.3 mm. Turn them out one by one, each into the well printed with its length (3 to 10), so that each can go back in its own hole. Then push the cowling a little towards the bottom of the phone with tweezers, to free its top edge from the cable ends, and lift it off.

6. 6Disconnect the battery first, then the display

   Before any other cable, slide the flat end of the nylon spudger under the end of the battery’s press connector and lever it straight up off its socket, then bend its cable back a little so it cannot spring back. With the battery off nothing inside is live. Then pop the display flex, which carries the picture and the touch layer together, off its socket the same way.

7. 7Unplug the sensor flex and lift the screen away

   Pop the front sensor flex off its socket, next to the display’s: the screen is now free. Lift it away and lay it face down on a clean part of the mat. On its back, at the top, a small bracket holds the sensor flex down: turn out its two Phillips #000 screws, each 1.4 mm long, into wells 11 and 12, and lift the bracket off with tweezers.

8. 8Warm the old screen and lift out its sensor flex trap

   Lay the heat pad over the top of the old screen’s back for about two minutes, to about 60 °C by our estimate, to soften the adhesive under the sensor flex. Slip a pick under the proximity sensor and then the ambient light sensor and ease each up out of its recess, slide the pick along under the flex to free the rest, and lift the flex out with tweezers. Lay it on the back of the new screen, beside its place. Avoid this trap: A new screen often comes without a sensor flex. Throw the old screen away with its flex still on the back and the phone is left with no proximity sensor and no front ambient light sensor: during a call the screen stays lit against your cheek and your cheek taps the buttons, and auto-brightness and True Tone lose the front light sensor they rely on. Face ID is not affected, as its TrueDepth camera stays in the frame. Move the original flex across before the old screen goes for recycling.

9. 9Seat the original sensor flex in the new screen

   With tweezers, move the flex into the same place on the new screen’s back: each sensor into its recess first, which lines up the rest, then press the flex down along its length. If its adhesive no longer holds, add a strip of thin double-sided tape. Lay the bracket over it and drive its two 1.4 mm Phillips screws back in from wells 11 and 12.

10. 10Lay a new gasket, reconnect and test

    Peel the old adhesive off the frame’s rim, clean the rim with isopropyl alcohol and lay the new gasket on it, its top liner left on. Lean the new screen on the block, open, and press its connectors on in this order: the sensor flex, the display flex and the battery last, each one end and then the other until it clicks. Lay the screen loosely on the frame, power on and test the picture and touch all over before anything is sealed, then power off and lean it open again.

What you need

• P2 pentalobe screwdriver · for the two bottom screws
• Y000 tri-point screwdriver · for the cowling’s eight screws
• Phillips #000 screwdriver · for the sensor bracket’s two screws
• Heat pad or hair dryer · to about 70 °C at the edges, our estimate
• Suction cup lifter and plastic opening picks · marked at 2 and 3 mm
• Nylon spudger and ESD-safe tweezers · no metal near the battery
• A foam block and a magnetic screw tray · to lean the screen on; a well for every screw
• Replacement screen and screen adhesive gasket · and isopropyl alcohol, 90% or stronger

Questions

Safety

Run the battery below 25%, switch the phone off and unplug it before you start, and unplug the battery before any other cable. Keep metal tools away from the battery and never press on it or bend it; if it swells, smokes or gets hot, stop and move the phone onto a non-flammable surface. Tape over cracked glass and wear safety glasses.

• Lithium-ion batteries: never bend, puncture or pry a battery with metal. A damaged cell can go into thermal runaway: it smokes, catches fire and can explode. Discharge it below 25% first; if it swells, hisses, smokes or gets hot, stop and move it somewhere safe.
• Static (ESD): work on an anti-static mat with a grounded wrist strap; a spark you cannot feel can kill a chip.
• Power off: switch the device off and unplug its charger before you open it, and disconnect the battery before touching anything else inside.

About this teardown

3D Spatial Reconstruction: Models are engineered from factual hardware measurements to visualize internal layouts, screw lengths, and hidden cable traps before you open your device. Always verify cable routing on your specific hardware revision.

The phone is Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro Max, modelled at its published size of 160.7 × 77.6 × 7.85 mm, with its 6.7-inch Super Retina XDR OLED screen, the two cut-outs behind the Dynamic Island and the camera bump drawn plainly, and none of Apple’s logos, names or printing. The order, the screws and the cables follow iFixit’s iPhone 14 Pro Max screen guide and Apple’s own display procedure for this model: two 6.8 mm P2 screws, picks kept to 3 mm and to 2 mm along the left edge where the cables run, the screen swung up from its right side over its left edge, eight Y000 screws in the connector cowling, the battery disconnected first, then the display flex and the ambient light and proximity sensor flex.

Where the brief for this teardown differed from the phone, the phone decided. The cowling has eight Y000 screws in three lengths (five 1.3 mm, two 1.6 mm and one 1.9 mm), not four 1.3 mm ones, so twelve screws come out, not eight. The two Phillips #000 screws are the sensor bracket’s, 1.4 mm long, on the back of the removed screen; the 1.6 mm Phillips screws hold the earpiece speaker in the frame and stay in. No bracket in the phone holds the sensor flex: it plugs into the logic board under the cowling beside the display flex. The screen has one flex for both picture and touch; the second cable along the left edge is the sensor flex. And the new gasket goes onto the frame before the cables are plugged in, as both guides do it; the screen is then tested before it is sealed.

Parts pairing: Face ID’s TrueDepth camera stays in the frame, so a careful screen replacement leaves Face ID working. The screen itself is linked to the phone by Apple. On iOS 17.6 and earlier, True Tone and auto-brightness switch off after any screen replacement, even with a genuine Apple screen; on iOS 18 and later, Repair Assistant (Settings, General, About, Parts & Service History) can calibrate a genuine Apple screen and turn them back on. A screen Apple cannot verify is listed as an unknown part. The sensor flex carries the proximity sensor and the front ambient light sensor; iFixit’s iPhone 14 Pro guide also frees a microphone from it, so we drew one.

Our estimates, not measured figures: the 70 °C at the edges and the 60 °C for the sensor flex (iFixit gives heating times and a touch test, not temperatures), the layout and sizes of the parts inside, the corner radius and the height of the camera bump. The 3D runs faster than real hands do.

Sources: iFixit: iPhone 14 Pro Max Screen Replacement, iFixit: iPhone 14 Pro Screen Replacement (its front sensor assembly), iFixit: iPhone 14 Pro Max Earpiece Speaker Replacement, iFixit: iPhone 14 Pro Max Front-Facing Camera Assembly Replacement, iFixit: iPhone 14 Pro Max Battery Replacement, Apple: iPhone 14 Pro Max Display (repair procedure), Apple: iPhone 14 Pro Max Internal View, Apple: iPhone 14 Pro Max technical specifications, Apple: Use Repair Assistant to finish an iPhone or iPad repair, Apple: About genuine iPhone displays, Apple: iPhone Parts and Service History, Price source: iFixit, iPhone 14 Pro Max screen fix kit with an aftermarket OLED, from $129.99 (October 2026), Price source: Apple, out-of-warranty screen repair, $379 for the iPhone 14 Pro Max (October 2026).

The 3D models, drawings and text are our own. Apple, iPhone, Super Retina XDR, Dynamic Island, True Tone, Face ID, TrueDepth and Lightning are trademarks of their owners, named only to say which device this teardown is for; iTakeApart is not affiliated with them.