iPhone SE (2016) iPhone SE 1 (2016) Battery And Screen Replacement Questions

[NewToAMBP]

My Dad insists on keeping his iPhone SE 1 on his account as it stays at home 24/7 as his "backup two factor" device. He turns it on every month, checks for updates to the OS and apps and then turns it back off and repeats every month. However, it still has the original battery and the screen has a small crack. The battery will take forever to get to 100% then he will take it off the charger and maybe 15 minutes later its at 78% and then randomly drops down until it turns off.

He has tried to fully charge, discharge, recharge and the same thing occurs. He sees that the Apple Store wont do a battery replacement now since its obsolete. He looked at iFixIt and they want $24.99 for the battery and $29.99 for a screen. Does anyone know of any trust worthy battery replacement brands or screens that are cheaper, he sees so many on Amazon and some lie and say it will have like a 15,000 mAH battery lol. Also, if he replaces the screen or battery, is it like the new devices that in the settings app will display that it has a aftermarket part? Or would / could he better off buying a used iPhone SE 1 and just taking its screen and battery and hoping for the best?

Or is he nuts and should just recycle it and not freak out about a two factor backup device?

 

[jetsam]

That phone is well past EOL. He shouldn't spend money on it.

If he really feels the need for a backup phone just for 2FA - a phone that he never uses - he doesn't need an iPhone at all. He should just buy the cheapest Android phone he can find. That would give him a phone with a new battery and a new screen, without having to deal with a repair shop.

 

[Reverend Benny]

My Dad insists on keeping his iPhone SE 1 on his account as it stays at home 24/7 as his "backup two factor" device. He turns it on every month, checks for updates to the OS and apps and then turns it back off and repeats every month. However, it still has the original battery and the screen has a small crack. The battery will take forever to get to 100% then he will take it off the charger and maybe 15 minutes later its at 78% and then randomly drops down until it turns off.

He has tried to fully charge, discharge, recharge and the same thing occurs. He sees that the Apple Store wont do a battery replacement now since its obsolete. He looked at iFixIt and they want $24.99 for the battery and $29.99 for a screen. Does anyone know of any trust worthy battery replacement brands or screens that are cheaper, he sees so many on Amazon and some lie and say it will have like a 15,000 mAH battery lol. Also, if he replaces the screen or battery, is it like the new devices that in the settings app will display that it has a aftermarket part? Or would / could he better off buying a used iPhone SE 1 and just taking its screen and battery and hoping for the best?

Or is he nuts and should just recycle it and not freak out about a two factor backup device?

Or he could use your phone as the backup 2FA.

 

[rwh63]

That phone is well past EOL. He shouldn't spend money on it.

If he really feels the need for a backup phone just for 2FA - a phone that he never uses - he doesn't need an iPhone at all. He should just buy the cheapest Android phone he can find. That would give him a phone with a new battery and a new screen, without having to deal with a repair shop.

I use 2 OGSE phones everyday. They are getting old, but still fully function. I’m probably going to upgrade to a 13 mini someday.

You can get like new SE1 phones on eBay for about $160.

 

[bzgnyc2]

My Dad insists on keeping his iPhone SE 1 on his account as it stays at home 24/7 as his "backup two factor" device. He turns it on every month, checks for updates to the OS and apps and then turns it back off and repeats every month. However, it still has the original battery and the screen has a small crack. The battery will take forever to get to 100% then he will take it off the charger and maybe 15 minutes later its at 78% and then randomly drops down until it turns off.

He has tried to fully charge, discharge, recharge and the same thing occurs. He sees that the Apple Store wont do a battery replacement now since its obsolete. He looked at iFixIt and they want $24.99 for the battery and $29.99 for a screen. Does anyone know of any trust worthy battery replacement brands or screens that are cheaper, he sees so many on Amazon and some lie and say it will have like a 15,000 mAH battery lol. Also, if he replaces the screen or battery, is it like the new devices that in the settings app will display that it has a aftermarket part? Or would / could he better off buying a used iPhone SE 1 and just taking its screen and battery and hoping for the best?

Or is he nuts and should just recycle it and not freak out about a two factor backup device?

If he doesn't prefer the OGSE in particular and just wants a backup two factor device, I would probably just get a used iPhone SE 2020. I see a number of them on eBay for $80. These will probably get to at least iOS 27 and be usable for longer after that.

While I liked my OGSE, iOS 15 isn't being updated for security and is being dropped by all sorts of apps. It sounds like he is just using it for Apple's 2FA but as an example iOS 15 was dropped by DuoMobile earlier this year.

If he has an affinity fo the OGSE (as I did and all else being equal still would), I don't think those prices are terrible for those parts. Maybe you can save $5 or $10 on them elsewhere and that's significant on a percentage basis but in the grand scheme of things not sure worth the risk of lesser parts. It sounds like you plan to do the replacement yourself? In which case what's the savings in your time if there's any rework of a sketch part? If you're planning to have a repair shop do the work anyway, I would just defer to them to source the part from a source they trust.

 

[Chidoro]

Did a battery replacement from ifixit and it same came with all of the tools. Fairly straightforward replacement as there is no water resistance so you don’t have to worry about warming up the phone to loosen a sticky bond around the frame.

Battery is a larger capacity than a standard se battery. 4-6 hours of sot, doesn’t surprise drain, and runs better than in I don’t know how long.

It sits at a much higher capacity than the standard 1624 mAh battery as measured by apple’s own diagnostics.

 

[eyoungren]

Cheaper no, reputable yes.

uBreakiFix is backed by Asurant, which is one of the two companies (Asurion being the other) that provide insurance to the major phone carriers.

If they have a OEM part they will use that, otherwise it's third party. They guarantee their work. I've got a battery in my 6+ that I had them put in over two years ago and it's doing just fine. Based on that, I had them replace the battery in my son's SE2, and I've heard no complaints from him.

The problem is that it's probably about $100 more than the prices you mentioned.

 

[NewToAMBP]

Thank you all for the input! I went over everything with him and he decided to go the ifixit route and will skip the screen and just get the battery with kit from them. I tried talking to him into the other options but he seems too attached to his SE lol.