Inside the iPhone Repair Ecosystem: Where Do Replacement Parts Come From and Can You Trust Them?

[Mac 128]

Great article, always wondered about this! Kudos to Macrumors, I really enjoyed reading this.

So if you see someone selling an aftermarket display assembly that means it is a part from broken / stolen iPhones?

I have to wonder about this too. My friend had his iPhone 7 stolen while on vacation. Considering there's no way to wipe and setup an iPhone without turning off Find-My-iPhone first, and no real way to break the entryption, I was wondering why anyone would ever steal an iPhone, until I realized there might be a huge market for parts.

 

[44267547]

Ubreakitifix is a huge entity in my city. They are extremely reputable, use solid/quality parts, good customer service and and there over 500 reviews, mainly all positive about how The company stands behind their service and work completed. There are So many third-party repair stores, you really do have to do your due diligence in researching how reputable the company is and what type of parts are they using for replacements.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Great article! Always wondered about these things because I've always been one to go to Apple for my repairs (AppleCare+) and I usually upgrade after that expires. My sister has had screens replaced a few times from those mall screen repair while you shop kiosks and has had really bad luck with them. Apple also refused to touch her phone for another issue because of the 3rd party screen back then.

I used to be the go-to guy that family/friends/coworkers went to to replace batteries/screens (iPod days). But after the iPhone 4 things just got harder and I stopped offering my services.

Great article, loved the detail. Nice work!

While the content of the article was appreciated, the unprofessional tone and wording was not.

What the what?! After having read the entire article, the ONLY thing I could think of that would trip anyone up was the one time the word "crap" was used and even that didn't bother me. This could have been on WSJ and I would have thought it was a great article. Have to disagree with you 100% here.

 

[Dj64Mk7]

What the what?! After having read the entire article, the ONLY thing I could think of that would trip anyone up was the one time the word "crap" was used and even that didn't bother me. This could have been on WSJ and I would have thought it was a great article. Have to disagree with you 100% here.

That is an example that really stuck out to me, but also the use of incomplete sentences (exclamations).

 

[justperry]

There are tens of thousands more independent repair shops around the world.

Fixed that for you, 1000's is a very low estimation.

 

[DamoTheBrave]

Great article. I smashed my screen for the first time in my life a few weeks ago and it being an iPhone 5 I didn’t want to pay for expensive repairs so I went for a third party replacement. I was shocked how bad the quality of the screen was. The worst part about it is the colour changing as you change angle. It made me appreciate that Apple puts a lot of work into their original screens. From front on it is ok even if not quite as nice but the colour changes hues radically as you move to an angle. Then depending on which angle the nature of the specific hue will also change.
Perhaps going to a slightly more expensive supplier would have given me better results but shopping based on price as in all things can have predictable results. Looking forward to upgrading this year that’s for sure and it will be quite a significant one from the 5 to an X!

 

[iReality85]

While the content of the article was appreciated, the unprofessional tone and wording was not.

It read to me like Ms. Clover was paraphrasing Kyle Wiens of iFixit.

Regardless of the exact quotation or editorialization, do any of us disagree with that assessment though? Given the testimonials of commenters here, it seems there are plenty of crap parts and crap repair jobs.

 

[jclo]

It read to me like Ms. Clover was paraphrasing Kyle Wiens of iFixit.

Regardless of the exact quotation or editorialization, do any of us disagree with that assessment though? Given the testimonials of commenters here, it seems there are plenty of crap parts and crap repair jobs.

That bit actually should have been in quotes, and I've fixed it. Sorry about the misunderstanding.

 

[Blackstick]

The parts I find good enough, but I'm not sure I trust the "technicians" installing said parts correctly.

 

[justperry]

First MacRumors article that I will have to set aside a large portion of my day to read.

I was maybe 10 minutes in, decided to read some comments...then I read your comment and checked the article length, WTF.....

It's bedtime for me.


But, it's a good read...tomorrow is another day.

 

[CarlJ]

Yes, absolutely. You're always going to see some slight differences with an aftermarket display, but how much of a difference depends on the quality of the aftermarket part. Sometimes it's just a slight difference in color tone, while other times, it can affect brightness and other aspects of the display.

I'm guessing some of that is varying screen quality, but some is also that (most of) the third party repair companies don't have access to Apple's calibration tools, so they have to either go with however it looks "out of the box", or tweak things by hand/eye.

By the way, impressive article, and I'm pleased to see MacRumors doing this. But - especially on the front page - it'd be nice to have such a lengthy article have a "click here to read the rest" thingy - once read, if you later want to get to the second, third, etc., stories on the front page, there's a lot of scrolling while watching for the red article title bar.

 

[jclo]

I'm guessing some of that is varying screen quality, but some is also that (most of) the third party repair companies don't have access to Apple's calibration tools, so they have to either go with however it looks "out of the box", or tweak things by hand/eye.

By the way, impressive article, and I'm pleased to see MacRumors doing this. But - especially on the front page - it'd be nice to have such a lengthy article have a "click here to read the rest" thingy - once read, if you later want to get to the second, third, etc., stories on the front page, there's a lot of scrolling while watching for the red article title bar.

It should have that -- I added a more tag on the FP a few minutes after publishing, so you should see the click here to read more after refreshing the front page if you haven't already.

 

[jacky19_tech]

THe part about the OLED screens is only partly true. While OLED is a new technology, don’t forget that it is still manufactured in the Foxconn factory or somewhere around China/Asia. The Chinese have the technology and are currently producing OLED Aftermarket iX screens. Please reach out to REWA, one of the big guys in China, who are like iFixit but more focused on tutoring technicians and microsoldering. You can find their channel on YouTube by searching REWA Technology.

 

[Aston441]

Wow! What a spectacular article! Nice job MacRumors

Agree. Best article I've seen here in years!

 

[Dj64Mk7]

It read to me like Ms. Clover was paraphrasing Kyle Wiens of iFixit.

Regardless of the exact quotation or editorialization, do any of us disagree with that assessment though? Given the testimonials of commenters here, it seems there are plenty of crap parts and crap repair jobs.

The content itself was well worth the read. It's just that the structure and phrasing doesn't quite mesh with my idea of what "professional journalism" would look like. Have anything to say in response, @jclo?

 

[redheeler]

Great article, well worth the read. My iPhone 6s Plus has shattered front glass (though the screen and digitizer are still undamaged) and I haven't yet decided whether it's worth getting it replaced by Apple, or getting a third-party part to replace it myself.

I do still have one question not mentioned in the article: Will Apple refuse to honor the $30 battery replacement for the iPhone 6s Plus if a third-party screen is installed? I've done some research and can't find a definitive answer to this.

 

[1984 Mac Guru]

As a former Genius at a retail store I can tell you that it’s way more reliable to fix any iPhone 6s and up at Apple. Once you open any phone using VHB adhesive it will be next-to-impossible to reseat the display so that waterproofing remains intact. Apple uses OEM adhesive replacements and a press to assure a hermetic seal.

I was recruited to be a CellSaver tech (now Puls) and had so many questions regarding their repair workflows. It was very sketch and not even safe (Li-ion issues). And the idea of unscrewing and re-attaching the TouchID just felt like a lot of extra work for so little money. So many things can go wrong.

Enough things went wrong just replacing some displays or batteries that Apple can swap out the device at their option. Nobody else can fix a mistake or anomaly like that.

If you’re going to be an Apple customer you might as well get used to premium repairs to maintain it.

Some people drive F150s (anything Android) and some like BMWs. Both get you down the road but one feels a whole lot better driving it. BMW owners expect to pay more to maintain their highly-engineered and expensive machines. Mechanics at Sears can fix your Ford.

 

[AZMecha]

Wow what a great read....

I especially like the part about the disconnect between Apple & Apple Authorized retailers...

 

[ZMacintosh]

I wouldn't be disappointed in Apple cracking down on 3rd party parts...its only a matter of time before the Secure Enclave or other functions of the iOS device detect a non-OEM part that could potentially capture sensitive details or inputs.
For the price of these devices I sure won't put cheap non-oem replacement parts in.

 

[jclo]

The content itself was well worth the read. It's just that the structure and phrasing doesn't quite mesh with my idea of what "professional journalism" would look like. Have anything to say in response, @jclo?

Hey there, I'm honestly not sure what you want me to say in response to a comment like that. I do have one or two spots where I did not use a complete sentence, that's true, but that was to break it up and it was a deliberate stylistic choice.

I don't agree with you that it's unprofessionally written or that there's a problem with tone/structure, but I would like to point out that MacRumors is a rumor site, not a "professional site" like The Wall Street Journal and I've never attempted to write in a tone that would be suitable for what I guess you would consider "professional journalism" on MacRumors because it wouldn't fit. I've been writing in the "MacRumors voice" for six years now, and I don't think this is incongruent with the rest of the content on the site. Please feel free to email me at juli@macrumors.com if you have specific feedback and would like to discuss further.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Hey there, I'm honestly not sure what you want me to say in response to a comment like that. I do have one or two spots where I did not use a complete sentence, that's true, but that was to break it up and it was a deliberate stylistic choice.

I don't agree with you that it's unprofessionally written or that there's a problem with tone/structure, but I would like to point out that MacRumors is not The Wall Street Journal and I've never attempted to write in a tone that would be suitable for The Wall Street Journal because the two sites are very different. I've been writing in the "MacRumors voice" for six years now, and I don't think this is incongruent with the rest of the content on the site. Please feel free to email me at juli@macrumors.com if you have specific feedback and would like to discuss further.

As a WSJ subscriber, I'd have been happy if your article was on WSJ. I really liked it, the quality, effort put into it, reminds me a lot of the longer WSJ articles that obviously took a lot of work to come up with the information required. Hope you keep doing stuff like this because this'll keep me coming back for a long time.

 

[WannaGoMac]

Macrumors actually writes real journalistic articles!? I had no idea, and I am impressed with this piece.

 

[jclo]

Great article, well worth the read. My iPhone 6s Plus has shattered front glass (though the screen and digitizer are still undamaged) and I haven't yet decided whether it's worth getting it replaced by Apple, or getting a third-party part to replace it myself.

I do still have one question not mentioned in the article: Will Apple refuse to honor the $30 battery replacement for the iPhone 6s Plus if a third-party screen is installed? I've done some research and can't find a definitive answer to this.

As long as the third-party screen didn't cause additional damage to the iPhone, Apple should still be willing to replace the battery, from what I understand. Apple used to refuse repairs because of third-party components, but does not do so any longer as long as the repair hasn't damaged the device.

 

[simonmet]

What a minefield! I need some time to digest it, but can I say: epic article and journalism MR!

 

[JosephAW]

I noticed when I got a replacement screen for my 5S I couldn't look at the display with my sunglasses on in the vertical position. The polarization was messed up. Probably a 3rd party screen. I went through the UBreakIFix store.