If you use genuine parts and tools, you can replace those parts yourself without issues (Apple Repair Kit).
There are a few problems with Apple’s third party repair kits though; you still have to go through to Apple’s support to get the parts paired/calibrated to the phone. If you look at Google’s pixel repair program, the screen is paired to the phone, but they provide the software to calibrate the fingerprint reader - no need to go through a text chat for possibly hours just to pair the parts back to the phone.
The good thing about the program is that some small parts can be cheaper than getting them from a third party, but on the flip side, parts like screens and batteries are expensive. It would be cheaper to get Apple to repair the device than to do it yourself through the program. It just feels off to me.
Documentation is very good and detailed at least!
Having worked at an Apple Store I might be biased
To be fair I’m quite biased as well, having had bad experiences with multiple apple products :p
- complaining that their phone didn’t work although they just had it fixed.
I completely understand first hand why this is could be a problem. My brother’s iPhone 6 had a dying battery and a cracked screen, there was a new repair shop that had opened up which was cheaper than the repair shop we normally go to. They replaced both the screen and the battery, great! Not even a year later and the battery had severely degraded and the screen just stopped responding to touch.
He got a new phone and I decided to try repairing it myself. Turns out this new repair shop was incredibly incompetent at repairing the phone - double sided tape to hold the battery down, missing screws, the rubber ring around the home button was missing, and the screen bracket was bent so it didn’t clip in on one side of the phone. Fixed it up - mostly - the screen still doesn’t clip in as I used the same bracket from before.
Though it never happened at any of the other repair shops, just the cheapest one. is it really a good idea to lock out all repair because the minority of shops are going to mess it up?
Locking parts to your phone and only allowing replacement in an authorized store / through Apples own repair programs does prevent that.
Problems arise for me because:
- There isn’t a nearby Apple store, I am not driving to the other side of the country just to get a screen replacement
- There is an authorised repair store in a nearby city, but they usually cost more than going straight to apple. As far as I am aware, they are only allowed to swap in apple’s parts rather than repairing what’s broken (e.g. cracked glass on the screen where everything else still works fine)
- Usually the repair stores take a few hours at most, where as mailing my phone to Apple can take weeks before I can get it back.
- Apple’s repair program costs more than going straight to apple, there’s also a chance that a user can mess it up, is it apples responsibility to fix a botched repair?
I can buy refurbished screens online, more expensive than what I’d find on AliExpress but everything on the screen is still up to Apple’s quality - I can’t swap it in though without losing auto-brightness and true tone. Batteries from reputable manufacturers are also up to apple’s standards, but I can’t swap it in without losing the battery health indicator. Even with genuine, or high quality parts, I cannot replace them without losing some sort of functionality.
Making the replacement of TouchID sensors harder (again, only authorized repair shops, authentic parts) helps improve their security.
As far as I am aware, Apple doesn’t offer touch ID sensors through their repair program (although it’s hard to confirm that without an iPhone serial number). I guess I could somewhat understand that, but you used to be able to replace the touch ID sensor with a normal home button. You would still have access to your data, for payments, you could use contactless on the card as that existed far before apple pay. That was until the iPhone 7 came around and added that touch capacitive home button, once that dies, you have to go to Apple to get it replaced. It’s apple’s design that prevents people from accessing their data, not third party repair.
Besides, the FTC found very little evidence to justify manufacturers reasonings for restricting repair: https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/reports/nixing-fix-ftc-report-congress-repair-restrictions/nixing_the_fix_report_final_5521_630pm-508_002.pdf
What then? Whom would they blame? At first Apple. And then the go angry to the next Apple Store where the reps have to explain everything to them…
That’s just the way people act unfortunately, there was a video by Louis Rossmann where he said people wouldn’t be angry with him if he told them that their machine couldn’t be fixed within a couple days of recieving it. If he had waited about two weeks, then told them about the issue, the damage was his fault and that the machine is broken because of him. It’s unfair but it’s the reality we are in unfortunately.
Also, their user base expects higher quality and better safeguards for their data from Apple then from other manufacturers.
I don’t expect much for Apple in terms of safeguarding data given that I was able to unlock my mum’s phone with face ID. my face wasn’t registered, I got in fairly easily without knowing her password. This was fixed by redoing the face ID recognition thing. I don’t think it’s a secure way to lock a phone.
Of course other manufacturers have messed it up too, but I never really thought face ID was a good idea anyways.
Giving your device to apple, or an authorised repair store, also doesn’t guarantee that your data will remain private, as seen by this contracted repair. Yes, small chance that it could happen, but giving a device to apple doesn’t guarantee your data’s safety.
Apple devices work longer than most android devices.
I wouldn’t really say work longer, I still have a Samsung galaxy S2 somewhere that still turns on and functions. Though Apple devices are definitely supported for a longer period of time compared to the competition. Build quality I would probably question, though my last iPhone was an iPhone 6 - a slightly bent iPhone 6. Glass backs on the newer phones are even more questionable to me, after seeing many people who have cracked the backs of their phones - you could cut your hand if you weren’t using a case.
Android phones on OS’ as old as Android 6 can still use most of the apps on the play store. While the device is more vulnerable to attacks, it’s still usable if necessary. Although that doesn’t really excuse manufacturers dropping support after a few years. You can flash modern android versions like 13 to an old S2 for example, it’s not going to run well but it’s possible!
Repairability and software support of macs is a completely different case.
I had a Mac kill itself after 4 years of use, the authorised repair shop in the other city took two weeks to get it repaired and I wasn’t allowed to keep my data. It was an expensive repair too. I was lucky that everything important was backed up on a usb drive I had.
I would be happy to buy another Apple product if they stopped this nonsense of blocking third party repair, unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be happening any time soon.
guess we’ll find out if the data gets leaked somewhere