iFixit hot-wires the iPhone 16 battery (updated).

Great write-up and explanation of how the battery gets replaced in the new iPhone 16 lineup. Love the microscope images.

I recently replaced the battery in my original iPhone SE, and it was a pain to get those pull tabs out. I had to significantly bend the battery just to dislodge it at one point since the pull tabs were so fragile, and I had to tell my curious kids to back away since I didn’t know if the battery would explode.

The new method on the iPhone 16 lineup would have saved me at least an hour, plus the anxiety of potentially damaging my phone. Be careful though because if you reverse the polarity, then all the residue stays on the phone instead of the battery:

The reverse polarity did have an effect: when we reverse-zapped a new phone, the zap released the battery, but the adhesive residue stuck to the frame instead of the battery. Before that, a positive zap consistently left the residue on the battery. If you’re trying this at home, be sure to get the polarity right so you have less residue to clean up on the frame!

Update: The new electrode method is only for the regular 16 models, not the Pro models.