Thanks for the great article. For me as a fan of older devices repair through 3rd party or AASP is always preferred and much cheaper than buying anything new.
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Inside the iPhone Repair Ecosystem: Where Do Replacement Parts Come From and Can You Trust Them?
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Obviously repair shops won't say if aftermarket components have lower quality. Really, it's their business afterall.
On the other hand, you can sometimes tell aftermarket displays. They either have larger air gap, or their panel is not as wide angle as the original IPS panel. Having said that, phones that use aftermarket parts are usually much older phones (like iPhone 4/4S), that the lesser quality is not such a huge concern.
On the other hand, you can sometimes tell aftermarket displays. They either have larger air gap, or their panel is not as wide angle as the original IPS panel. Having said that, phones that use aftermarket parts are usually much older phones (like iPhone 4/4S), that the lesser quality is not such a huge concern.
I've been a freelance writer for about two decades. Your explanation that MR is a rumor site and not a "professional site" is a cop-out. You're getting paid to write. You might not think it's a professional site (and as an aside, that's probably the worst thing you could say about the entity that pays your bills), but you are a professional.
I also have some issues with some of the phrasing of the article. Here's some examples:
- "Looking at the iPhone repair ecosystem holistically..." There's no need to use "holistically".
- "Sans Horizon Machine..." It's better to be clear than clever. "Without a Horizon Machine..."
- "The reason for this is a replacement and calibration process that's done with something called the 'Horizon Machine,'..." Lots of ways to tighten that up. Also, the use of quotes around "Horizon Machine" seems very off. Does MR have a style guide?
Good quality repair shops will have repeat customers and a good reputation. Bad ones won’t. That’s how the free market works, across the board, for every service. Any attempt at stifling customer choice is absolutely morally wrong.
Apple may not like it. Apple may fight it openly or secretly. But this is bigger than them.
Apple may not like it. Apple may fight it openly or secretly. But this is bigger than them.
It's apparent to me that Apple doesn't want to repair your phone; Apple wants you to buy a new one.
I'm not sure there's a good solution here short of Apple liberalizing it's approach to AASPs (more of them, paying them better rates, and allowing in-house display repairs) but right-to-repair laws, however flawed, might at least force Apple's hand.
I'm not sure there's a good solution here short of Apple liberalizing it's approach to AASPs (more of them, paying them better rates, and allowing in-house display repairs) but right-to-repair laws, however flawed, might at least force Apple's hand.
Aftermarket parts are horrific. We do 400+ repairs a month using original REFURBISHED screens and have been in business for over 6 years. These cheap aftermarket knock off screens cause significant damage to the iPhone SE, 6S, 7 & 8. We have customers who come in with no video and no backlight. These are direct damages caused from the aftermarket part.
Promoting that aftermarket parts are viable alternative is awful. Macrumors.com is promoting you go and have your phone damaged beyond repair.
Original refurbished parts are the best and in my professional opinion the only option other than going directly to Apple for the repair. This article was less facts and clearly an AD justifying the use of $19 "Premium Grade A" aftermarket screens used by iFixit, uBreakiFix and Cupertino iPhone.
$19 "Premium Grade A" Aftermarket iPhone 7 screen but Cupertino iPhone charges $129. Thats $110 for 20 minutes of labor. Original iPhone 7 Screens cost $60 and we only charge $115.
This article is a disservice to Macrumors.com's readers simply justifying subpar repair parts that damage unknowing customers iPhones.
Promoting that aftermarket parts are viable alternative is awful. Macrumors.com is promoting you go and have your phone damaged beyond repair.
Original refurbished parts are the best and in my professional opinion the only option other than going directly to Apple for the repair. This article was less facts and clearly an AD justifying the use of $19 "Premium Grade A" aftermarket screens used by iFixit, uBreakiFix and Cupertino iPhone.
$19 "Premium Grade A" Aftermarket iPhone 7 screen but Cupertino iPhone charges $129. Thats $110 for 20 minutes of labor. Original iPhone 7 Screens cost $60 and we only charge $115.
This article is a disservice to Macrumors.com's readers simply justifying subpar repair parts that damage unknowing customers iPhones.
Interesting article. I've replaced a few iPad screens before and they never worked as good as original.
Recently brought an iPhone 6 to Apple for the $29 battery replacement. Phone worked fine afterwards but a month or two later it would charge very slowly then was completely dead. Brought it to Apple and they said they would replace the battery again since it was under warranty but after running some tests they weren't too hopeful this would fix the problem. They said if it didn't, they could replace it for $300 which I wasn't going to do (it was my kid's phone) but would have probably sent it off for a 3rd party repair. Went to go pick up the phone and noticed the guy had my phone and a box in his hand. He said the battery swap didn't fix the phone but they would replace it with a new phone for $300. I was about to baulk when he looked at his iPad and said it was my lucky day and gave me the new phone for free. I asked for the old phone too (to get it fixed) but they wouldn't give it to me. Needless to say I was happy. Note that I didn't have AppleCare and have never bought that in my life (or any other extended warranty).
Recently brought an iPhone 6 to Apple for the $29 battery replacement. Phone worked fine afterwards but a month or two later it would charge very slowly then was completely dead. Brought it to Apple and they said they would replace the battery again since it was under warranty but after running some tests they weren't too hopeful this would fix the problem. They said if it didn't, they could replace it for $300 which I wasn't going to do (it was my kid's phone) but would have probably sent it off for a 3rd party repair. Went to go pick up the phone and noticed the guy had my phone and a box in his hand. He said the battery swap didn't fix the phone but they would replace it with a new phone for $300. I was about to baulk when he looked at his iPad and said it was my lucky day and gave me the new phone for free. I asked for the old phone too (to get it fixed) but they wouldn't give it to me. Needless to say I was happy. Note that I didn't have AppleCare and have never bought that in my life (or any other extended warranty).
Allow me a bit of professional disagreement here. Some aftermarket parts are indeed inferior than others but they're not all bad. As one of the few shops that repair logic boards, we can't say that we've seen a higher incidence of logic board damages due to aftermarket screens. We have seen many original, never-repaired devices fail and we don't feel that there's a strong correlation between aftermarket repairs or the absence thereof. We do, however, see a higher incidence rate of damaged caused by amateurs.
Just my $0.02.
I'm not sure that when it comes to consumer technology right to repair laws aren't going to have the opposite effect. If Apple has to supply parts or guides for repairs to everyone, that increases the motivation to make those repairs as unfriendly as possible. Even if you get the parts and the guides if the repair takes a dozen specialized tools or machines and a long time for the layperson to do it then there's not going to be much of a way for these third-party shops to make it cost-effective, and fewer home users will try it themselves.
Realistically I think the only way to ensure repairable electronics is through consumer action, but that doesn't mean Apple will be compatible with that. It's clearly a really niche issue for most people—their Macs and phones have gotten generally harder to repair over the years, and it hasn't hurt their sales.
Some of this is nitpicking of the highest degree. There's not one perfect way to write, even in a journalistic capacity. Your edits are your opinion, not the perfect prescription.
Just a heads up, a few months back the first aftermarket OLED (not LCD) hit the market for the iPhone X.
Check out REWA's coverage and comparison of it, here: https://blog.rewatechnology.com/iphone-x-aftermarket-oled-screen/
This was one of the best articles I've read on MR in a long time. Nice work, Juli.
Their not promoting anything... Users can decide if they wish to do this or not.
This is probably the trade-off using aftermarket parts... and although in this space "price excels over quality" ....you get what you get.
And the irony, is no one learns any lesson by it, because when the users aftermarket screen breaks, they just go right back to get it "fixed" at another aftermarket dealer. So, its purely price driven, that no aftermarket dealer can match Apple. (based on country/location).
very possible. in fact my ex is an apple genius and colors being off is one of the first clues to a screen being non Apple. Scott said they would have to open the phone to verify for quoting non covered repairs but it was just confirming what they already knew
This is a great article that directly addresses a problem I'm having. I want to upgrade my phone and I've decided on getting the iPhone 7. I was impressed by the discounts available when you buy these phones on eBay — and I've had really great luck buying used electronics in the past. I've bought two phones so far, both look "like new" on the exterior, but both just seem off with how the display looks and acts. After reading this, it's now clear that these phones have lower-grade replacement screens and that's what's causing the issues. Anyway, just wanted to say thanks for this great educational piece!
Spare part market is completely unregulated which means you have to go through many suppliers as you can to find quality piece which usually costs as much as crappy piece.
There are proper quality spare components for phones just like there are for laptops. You just have to dig deep.
There are proper quality spare components for phones just like there are for laptops. You just have to dig deep.
Update: I went to the genius bar today and the guy there also told me that my phone is a brick as it gives no response when he tried to test it which means that there is likely something wrong with the logic board and that would be too expensive to fix. So I went to a 3rd party repair shop next to my house, they opened the phone and reconnected the battery and it's now working. They are testing the battery right now as they say it's draining too quickly but it may have been just a loose connector somewhere.
I had a horrible experience with a third-party screen replacement. Don’t do it
[doublepost=1534499330][/doublepost]Sorry for the long post below, but here is my experience with a third-party screen replacement. After this I would only go to Apple. Third-party screens can dramatically slash your battery life, as well as disable touch ID and as a professional photographer your color fidelity can be anywhere from off to horrible.
I live most of the year in Italy so when we go to the US I will look for good deals on used Apple gear since Apple stuff is so expensive here in Italy. We bought a used iPhone 64 GB 6S in cosmetically PERFECT condition from someone off Craigslist for only $200. Having bought several before I did check the camera, made sure that it was completely unlocked, that the capacity was 64 GB, etc. But when we got it home and restarted it it said the touch ID could not be activated. Since my wife’s fingerprints are superthin, and she can’t really use touch ID, this wasn’t a big deal But since the battery was at 83% and Apple has the $29 battery replacement program I took it to an Apple authorized service center to get the battery replaced and hoping that in reconnecting the iPhone the touch ID problem would be solved. They informed me that there had been a third-party screen replacement done. I went ahead and had the battery replaced for $29, but the battery life after the replacement was absolutely horrible. Since Apple can do a screen replacement for $149, I set up an appointment a few days later, allowing myself time to do more battery tests. One day I disabled every possible thing, put it in low battery mode, and the battery went from 100% to completely dead in a matter of hours with absolutely no use.
So I took it to the Apple Store, after reading online where people had bad battery life after a third-party screen replacement, but the person I talked to told me that he had never heard of that before. He asked colleagues and only one of them said he had occasionally heard of that. It was going to be $149 for a screen replacement or $299 to get a refurbished iPhone from Apple. I really didn’t want to spend another $300 but I also didn’t want to spend $149 and have no improvement. After talking to the manager, they had offered me a screen replacement for $149, and if that didn’t work then for another $150 they would give me the refurbished iPhone. They would give me up to two weeks after the screen replacement to return and pay the extra $150. We opted for the screen replacement. This not only fixed the touch ID, but after a full day of low usage, the phone was still at 95% battery life.
After this experience, I would never opt for a third-party battery replacement. You really have no idea what you are getting. Plus, the savings are minimal for the risk involved.
[doublepost=1534499330][/doublepost]Sorry for the long post below, but here is my experience with a third-party screen replacement. After this I would only go to Apple. Third-party screens can dramatically slash your battery life, as well as disable touch ID and as a professional photographer your color fidelity can be anywhere from off to horrible.
I live most of the year in Italy so when we go to the US I will look for good deals on used Apple gear since Apple stuff is so expensive here in Italy. We bought a used iPhone 64 GB 6S in cosmetically PERFECT condition from someone off Craigslist for only $200. Having bought several before I did check the camera, made sure that it was completely unlocked, that the capacity was 64 GB, etc. But when we got it home and restarted it it said the touch ID could not be activated. Since my wife’s fingerprints are superthin, and she can’t really use touch ID, this wasn’t a big deal But since the battery was at 83% and Apple has the $29 battery replacement program I took it to an Apple authorized service center to get the battery replaced and hoping that in reconnecting the iPhone the touch ID problem would be solved. They informed me that there had been a third-party screen replacement done. I went ahead and had the battery replaced for $29, but the battery life after the replacement was absolutely horrible. Since Apple can do a screen replacement for $149, I set up an appointment a few days later, allowing myself time to do more battery tests. One day I disabled every possible thing, put it in low battery mode, and the battery went from 100% to completely dead in a matter of hours with absolutely no use.
So I took it to the Apple Store, after reading online where people had bad battery life after a third-party screen replacement, but the person I talked to told me that he had never heard of that before. He asked colleagues and only one of them said he had occasionally heard of that. It was going to be $149 for a screen replacement or $299 to get a refurbished iPhone from Apple. I really didn’t want to spend another $300 but I also didn’t want to spend $149 and have no improvement. After talking to the manager, they had offered me a screen replacement for $149, and if that didn’t work then for another $150 they would give me the refurbished iPhone. They would give me up to two weeks after the screen replacement to return and pay the extra $150. We opted for the screen replacement. This not only fixed the touch ID, but after a full day of low usage, the phone was still at 95% battery life.
After this experience, I would never opt for a third-party battery replacement. You really have no idea what you are getting. Plus, the savings are minimal for the risk involved.
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A quick tip: another such place exchanged my cracked screen, the result was bad (phantom taps, bad colors) and they offered changing the new screen for a cracked, Apple original screen. They said that this way the Apple store would accept working on the phone. I accepted.
However, I finally changed the screen somewhere else where they used a more expensive OEM screen (?), which is working all right. So I don't know whether the Apple store would have accepted it after all.
Good news! Hope they can get it back up to snuff. I hope the current push for "right to repair" laws becomes successful. If you haven't already, you might consider subscribing to, or watching the "Louis Rossmann" videos on youtube. He's an independent in New York who specializes in fixing Apple products, especially laptops, and has become an advocate of the "Right to Repair" movement. He streams actual repair jobs of motherboards and the like, but also offers interesting commentary on the computer industry. There are basically three classes of Apple product repair: Apple Genius Stores, Apple Authorized Repair businesses, and independent repair shops. They all have their pluses and minuses - major problems with independents is access to OEM parts and access to product schematics. It sounds like one of your problems involved the need to simply re-seat the battery. You'd be amazed at how often re-seating a battery or other motherboard components can fix things. Back when I was working with servers re-seating of suspect parts was nearly always the first thing we tried, and it worked many times. This is another problem with the trend of gluing or soldering in parts - simple reseating isn't an option.
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One of the things the "right to repair" movement hopes to accomplish is to make it possible for independent repair shops to order OEM parts. Reputable independents have no choice but to order aftermarket, non-OEM parts as things currently stand. It's not only price driven to seek out independents, but can often be a matter of turn around time in getting your device back. Apple is very restrictive about allowing even Apple authorized repair shops to keep many spare OEM parts on their premises, so once a problem is diagnosed, the shops often have to either order needed parts from Apple or, in some cases, ship the device to Apple to complete the repair. This can involve weeks of turn around time before the customer can get their phone/computer/tablet back. With independents, turn around time can be minimized as long as the customer is willing to accept repairs using non-OEM parts.
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Thanks again. The repair shop kept my phone for a day to test it to see if there is anything else that might be going on with it but found absolutely nothing. All that was necessary was to re-seat the battery. They didn't even charge me for anything. I got it back this morning and it's been completely fine so far (knock on wood). I'm very happy with the repair shop but very unhappy with Apple. They refused to even open it because they suspected it might be something serious and the phone is out of warranty.
I must admit I used to be quite indifferent to the right to repair issue as I've always thought it's best to take my stuff to Apple for repairs but my experience with the power button on my ipad and this one with my phone definitely changed my mind. In both cases Apple just refused to deal with the problems because the products were out of warranty. But if that's their position they should give others the opportunity to do so which in particular means letting 3rd party stores buy parts from Apple. A 1000$ phone which is less than 3 years old should be at least repairable.