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iPhone XR Repair XR, or upgrade..?

martin2345uk

martin2345uk

macrumors 65832
Original poster
Jan 6, 2013
1,500
1,276
Essex
So my XR got a cracked screen a few weeks back. I paid for a cheapo £60 repair job and it’s not as responsive as it should be but it’s usable.

Then I discovered I could claim on my travel insurance for a proper apple repair, which has just come through - £209.

But I’m now wondering if that £209 is better spent towards a replacement phone, or if should just fix the XR properly and maybe get the battery replaced…

I don’t need any of the features of the newer phones but in terms of longevity I just don’t know how much longer this XR has..!

Any words of wisdom..? How much of a different to performance would a new battery make? This one’s still at 82% capacity….
 
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how much is a new XR now?
how old is your XR?
what is your storage capacity and is it too limited for you?
add the new battery to the screen repair and you may be spending what you bought it for in the first place.
can you apply the insurance to an upgrade?
my inclination would be to upgrade and sell the XR.
 
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martin2345uk said:
So my XR got a cracked screen a few weeks back. I paid for a cheapo £60 repair job and it’s not as responsive as it should be but it’s usable.

Then I discovered I could claim on my travel insurance for a proper apple repair, which has just come through - £209.

But I’m now wondering if that £209 is better spent towards a replacement phone, or if should just fix the XR properly and maybe get the battery replaced…

I don’t need any of the features of the newer phones but in terms of longevity I just don’t know how much longer this XR has..!

Any words of wisdom..? How much of a different to performance would a new battery make? This one’s still at 82% capacity….
Click to expand...
sell it and upgrade imho.
 
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Your XR will be fully supported by Apple for at least 2 more years and after that it’ll still be 100% useable for a further 2 years. If you are not a heavy user and don’t need the latest apps, you could probably keep the XR for up to 5-6 years in total.

Getting a whole new phone still represents a fairly large overlay even if you use the repair money and sell your XR for a small sum. Depends own your on thoughts but you can’t really go wrong either way.
 
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I recently spent about the same amount to get the front camera and battery replaced on my iPhone 11 (at an Apple Store). The camera was dead and the battery life poor at 72% health, so the repair has brought new life to my phone (I now get two days easily on a single charge). For £209 I would probably consider it, but it really depends on what the cost of a good second hand XR or newer equivalent model would be for you. In my case, an iPhone 11 or newer with 256GB of storage was more expensive than the repair.
 
My dad still uses a XR. It's still a good phone and offers 95% of the experience of the newest iPhones. Where it shows its age is the display and single camera. Depending how long you keep your phones for (I'm guessing a while since the XR is a 4 year old phone now), I'd trade for a 14 Pro. You'll notice a significant improvement in display, battery life, cameras, and speed. My 13 Pro feels noticeably snappier than my dad's XR.
 
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boak said:
Would Apple still repair after the cheapo repair?
Click to expand...
In my experience from AASP you can do repairs for devices with aftermarket displays out of warranty. Meaning the customer may have bought the iPhone less than a year ago and think they're under Apple Limited Warranty, but they're not with a 3rd party modification. I recall some news stirring at some point about this potentially changing, where it wouldn't void warranty, but I don't see such on Apple's legal:
iPhone ALW
This Warranty does not apply: ... (c) to damage caused by use with a third party component or product that does not meet the Apple Product’s specifications
Click to expand...
Repair T&C
2. If service is needed due to failure of parts that are not original to the product or due to damage caused by abuse, misuse or any external cause, Apple reserves the right to return the product to you without servicing it, and may hold you responsible for any indicated diagnostic fee. Apple will not be responsible for any damage to the product that occurs during the repair process that is a result of any unauthorized modifications or repairs or replacements not performed by Apple or an AASP.
Click to expand...
Most of the times I had to reject repairs were because of housing damage or engraving, "Refurbished by Asurion". I don't recall whether aftermarket batteries mattered, but any other aftermarket modification (logic board) was rejected.
 
boak said:
Would Apple still repair after the cheapo repair?
Click to expand...
Probably not on a warranty basis of any kind, but as long as the customer is willing to pay to fix it they probably would.
That is, if parts are available for such a phone.
...........and IF the customer is willing to pay that much to repair it (and replace the battery as the OP mentioned).
 
I should clarify - I wouldn't be paying the £209 out of my money - the holiday insurance company have transferred it to me after I did a claim via them (that I really did not think they would pay out!).

So I can fix the screen properly (our local authorized Apple repair place says they would do it) basically for free, OR put that £209 (and whatever I can get for the XR) towards a new phone.
 
I‘d definitely not put more money into a phone that old. Although as you say you did a semi-fix so it’s usable. Personally I’d upgrade it to whatever fits your budget and interests, I’m an SE type person as long as they’re available, but those who need bigger, I guess try the 14 or 14 plus?
 
A money saved is a money saved. I would just repair it, especially if it's covered by insurance. The XR is perfectly fine today.
 
I think it all depends on the person on doing a repair or upgrade. I would not overthink it but see how much the upgraded phone cost minus the cost that the insurance pays and see how much a "trade in" is if any. Apple might even pay a little to take the old phone. Since the phone is actually not worth much in its current state I probably lean more to getting a newer model phone. I also think that there probably or likely that there is other issues since it had the screen replacement. That is the main reason I say just upgrade it and thank the phone for its good service to you.
 
Definitely upgrade if possible. A regular 12 or 13 would be the same size screen, but look so much better. I don’t think you’d regret it at all. :)
 
Yeah I have been looking at a refurbished 12 from Apple, it's £589 which when you take the £209 off and then whatever I can get for the XR it seems pretty decent?

I know the 12 is old hat these days but I think it will still feel like an upgrade...
 
Software support started in 2018... iPhone 6s was released in 2015 and iPhone 7 was released in 2016 but both can only be upgraded to iOS 15... At the most, your iPhone XR may only support up to iOS 18 which is still a few years of app compatibility... If you have the money and are interested with the features available in the new models, then go for a newer device but if you are still okay with using iPhone XR until the software end of life then keep it...

My iPhone 7 Plus cannot go beyond iOS 15 and I am thinking of possibly getting the iPhone XR in the used/pre-owned market however if I have the right amount of funds, I'd go with iPhone 13 Pro Max... Now that I think about it, if I were going to watch a 2:1 content, anything from iPhone X to iPhone 12 series would be fine since the notch don't get into the content that much unlike the iPhone 13 and 14 series even with the Dynamic Island...
 
martin2345uk said:
I should clarify - I wouldn't be paying the £209 out of my money - the holiday insurance company have transferred it to me after I did a claim via them (that I really did not think they would pay out!).

So I can fix the screen properly (our local authorized Apple repair place says they would do it) basically for free, OR put that £209 (and whatever I can get for the XR) towards a new phone.
Click to expand...
So you could get a XR working properly for free and you already have the cash?

Then isn't the question equivalent to "should I upgrade from an XR that is working perfectly fine?"?
 
boak said:
So you could get a XR working properly for free and you already have the cash?

Then isn't the question equivalent to "should I upgrade from an XR that is working perfectly fine?"?
Click to expand...
No. He has the cash from the insurance company which he can either spend on the repair or put towards a new phone.
 
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