YouTuber assembles iPhone 13 Pro from AliExpress parts
The iPhone has remained one of the most popular gadgets for many years, but a new model can easily run up a bill of $1,000. A Canadian YouTube blogger decided to skip the official Apple Store and test whether it's possible to assemble a fully working iPhone from parts ordered on AliExpress — and save money in the process.
SuperCarBlondie reports on the experiment.
How an iPhone 13 Pro was built from AliExpress parts
With the release of the iPhone 17 Pro Max and iPhone Air, Apple's smartphone lineup is becoming increasingly complex and expensive. Yet the basic principle remains the same: a set of components assembled into one device. Blogger Phone Repair Guru set out to see if he could recreate an iPhone 13 Pro using parts sourced from the Chinese marketplace.
For the experiment, he ordered what he described as "all the parts" needed to build the phone. The AliExpress package included:
- An iPhone housing with charging port, antennas, and a "motor" (likely a refurbished Apple board)
- A main camera module
- An OLED display
- A battery
- Internal elements such as a SIM card tray and small screws
Once the parts arrived, he began assembling the smartphone from scratch. The biggest challenge was the OLED screen, which turned out to be thicker than a standard iPhone display, making installation tricky. However, the rest of the components fit together relatively smoothly.
In the end, he successfully built an iPhone 13 Pro that looked almost identical to the original. The phone powered on fully, with working cameras, Face ID, and iOS — despite the components coming from different sources. Essentially, the DIY iPhone proved to be fully functional.
Was it really cheaper than an official iPhone?
The blogger also touched on the theory that if you buy parts for, say, an iPhone 17 Pro and assemble it yourself, you could save a lot of money — but at the cost of losing official support and future updates.
As for the iPhone 13 Pro experiment, Phone Repair Guru did manage to save money. The DIY smartphone built from AliExpress parts cost him $360. He called it "absolutely insane," noting that the average price of a refurbished iPhone 13 Pro is around 500 Canadian dollars.
At the same time, he openly admitted that such experiments are "incredibly risky" and cannot be recommended to a wide audience. Using non-original or questionable components usually leads to problems for the device. But in this case, the project ended successfully — and with noticeable savings.
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