iPhones are kind of fragile, soft aluminium, brittle glass, expendable batteries, not to
mention all the chips inside, and so when it breaks, it can feel a little bleak, like
it did for our graphic designer here, Sarah Butt.
Last year, Sarah's iPhone 11 Pro started boot-looping uncontrollably, so she took it
to the Apple Store, and it offered her a choice, pay the $550 iPhone repair fee, or
pay a thousand plus dollars to buy a brand new iPhone 12.
Well, she bought the new iPhone, which, understandably, made her sad.
And it cost me my dignity. Perfect. Okay.
Just get a sequence of like, I don't know, but thank you for letting me see your phone.
RIP, little guy. Yeah.
Jesus Christ. Oh, sorry.
Do we have another broken phone?
Oh my God, I'm so sorry, Sarah. It's okay.
I mean, I actually did get AppleCare with this one. Oh, did you?
Yeah, but...
So, like, I had a different plan for like the repair video, but like, we could repair
that. I mean, do you want to come and repair it?
Do you have the repair kit here? It's like all set up. Really?
I mean, we can. Is there a way to fix this? Yeah, yeah.
I mean, we could. It's a good thing that Apple released their self-service repair program earlier this year.
In response to years of dogged complaining from my colleagues, actually, about how opaque
and difficult it is to do simple repairs on Apple devices.
The company relented and gave us this.
This may not look like the official website of an Apple-sanctioned repair program, but
it is. And here, Apple lets you buy official parts and tools to fix any iPhone 12 or newer.
And if you're not a repair shop, you can rent all the tools for your device for $50
for seven days. It'll come all packaged up nicely and you'll need to make sure you return it in those seven
days or else you'll get charged. It's okay.
It's the end of the day. It's just a phone. You're just the nicest person in the world.
I don't know how to read it this far.
Well, you learn from the best like Linus, right?
All this crazy, technical-looking equipment is necessary to repair your phone to Apple's
exacting standards. From what I've heard, the iPhone 12 and 13 are now much more difficult to pull apart,
requiring this heated display removal tool and corresponding cassettes.
And then for reapplying, there's the whole press and plate system for the battery, adhesive,
and final display. So you'll have to buy or rent this equipment.
And if you want to buy it, say, to set up a repair shop like what we have here, it'll
set you back around $1,700. And you'll have to spend time organizing everything.
Let me show you an example of how confusing things can get.
This is listed on the website and in my invoice as a 6.1-inch iPhone repair tray.
This is also listed as a 6.1-inch iPhone repair tray, but this one is designed to work with
the iPhone 13 and this one works with the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro, which means you have
to literally put a label on everything just to figure out what's for what.
But when you do have it all sorted, what you're left with is a pretty authentic-looking repair
space. You get to play Apple Genius for a day, like Sarah.
Ta-da! Whoa! So this is all the repair stuff.
This is the evil scientist lab, it seems.
It does look like it, doesn't it? This is everything you need to repair an iPhone properly, including a manual.
Apple's repair manual is a pretty comprehensive document showcasing all the steps and tools
involved with repairing the iPhone. And they're pretty adamant that you read it.
For instance, if you want to buy a replacement part for your iPhone, you have to input a
code only found in the repair manual.
Flip the switch on the back of the heated display, the back, I don't really want to
get up. There's a switch. Okay, I'll do it, I'll do it.
Gently insert the iPhone into the heated display pocket with the display face up.
My phone worked. Okay, there. She's in there.
And now, we put on the heat-resistant gloves, align the cutout to the bottom pocket, which
is this. And then, slide her on in there.
Oh, it clicks in. It smells like something's happening.
So apparently, it is much harder to open up an iPhone 12 and above than it is to open
an older. The older ones can use this thing. Wow.
Oh. Oh. Oh, you have 15 minutes.
Oh, oh, to do what? Wait, turn the knob on the fixture.
Do it quick. I think it's $50 to rent for a week that all the kids.
That's actually not bad at all. So let's say you're out of Apple care. Okay.
Your battery wears out and your screen breaks because your clumsy coworker drops your phone.
Would you go to the Apple store and pay, I guess it comes out to probably $450 to get
the screen and battery replaced, and let an Apple genius do it? Or would you pay around the same amount of money to rent the equipment and buy the parts
and do it yourself? Well, we haven't quite gone to the point to see whether or not this works.
Okay, okay. I've got too early asking that question. If it does, you know, it's kind of a fun experience to get down to the nitty gritty and do it
yourself. Yeah. So I think it's worth a shot.
Okay. Oh, there. There she is.
Whoa. That's so cool.
There's still some annoying limitations to Apple's self-service program.
First off, it only supports anything from the iPhone 12 and made after.
It only supports repairing the bottom speaker, the battery, the camera, the display, the
SIM tray, and the Taptic Engine. Everything else, like the back glass, the logic board, you know, things that actually
do break and are really annoying when they do, you can't fix.
Which means for Sarah and her iPhone 11 Pro, which probably has a logic board issue, she
wouldn't have been able to repair it herself anyway. How's it going over there?
It's a work in progress. I have seen crazy looking laser machines that can remove the back glass from an iPhone shell,
but it's not a straightforward repair. And there's no repair manual for it.
Likewise, Sarah's iPhone 11 Pro most likely has an issue with the Face ID ribbon cable.
That'd be nice to fix too. It says don't damage the flex cables, but I think they're good.
I feel like a secret spy, like hacking the main frame here.
Oh yeah, you've got the black shirt on. Hacking the battery is arguably the most dangerous part of the process, and Apple does everything
to scare you into caution in the repair manual. This is the scary part.
This is the part. It's kind of funny that this is the scary part, yeah. This is the part where we could die.
We could have an emergency. That box of sand underneath the desk is there because it's the only way to deal with a fire
were to happen. If Apple were so concerned about the danger of battery removal, why then have they made
it so hard to pull the adhesive with the tweezers they recommend?
Oh, oh, you did it!
Wow. That's tough. Yeah, right?
No! Success! They're just so small.
I know, okay.
No!
I have like hawk eyes, so I might be able to climb it.
Oh really? Yeah. I have 2020 vision.
so I might be able to find it. Yeah, yeah, I have 20, 20 vision.
So we should probably talk about costs again, because it's not exactly economical
for individual users like Sarah. Sarah has AppleCare Plus,
so this fix would only set her back $30. Going to the Apple Store without AppleCare Plus
would set us back $280 for the screen and another 70 for a battery, so around about 350.
To do it yourself with the equipment rental and necessary parts, the total comes out
to $20 of savings. If you return the broken parts for credit.
Oh, here it is. Oh, where? Right here.
But let's just talk about the repair process. Okay.
How was it putting, doing this? I enjoyed it. I felt like a scientist. And now it's so rewarding afterwards
because I did it properly. Yeah. Now, would it be worth, is it worth
as we determine it costs around the same amount of money? No, the answer is no.
It wouldn't be worth it. Important display message. Unable to determine if your iPhone displays
a genuine Apple part, it is. Go to the settings for more information.
Settings. So yeah, hit settings. So what you have to do if you replace your phone screen
or battery or camera is you need to go through a system configuration process, which means
you have to go onto the website and deal with someone in the Apple Chat, which is kind of annoying.
So now I have to go through that. Yeah, no, I did it.
And it sure is an experience. Am I chatting with a bot?
This, by the way, is taking multiple days and sessions of chats because when something doesn't work,
they kind of give up on you and you have to wait a bit before you can try again.
I was having troubles putting my phone into diagnostics mode, but it turns out
that the up volume button on this phone is broken, which may be our fault.
Nonetheless, the screen and battery are approved and Face ID works.
Now, about getting that credit back, it's another bunch of chats.
If you just replaced a normal part, you should be able to print a shipping label no problem.
But because we replaced the battery as well, my only option is to arrange a pickup
to get the full refund. If I just replaced the battery, I could bring it to a local recycling depot
and I guess tell them that I did it. It's not entirely clear how all this works.
Am I gonna have to contact Apple to be like, hey, or are you gonna do that for me?
So, that wasn't your phone.
What?
This is your phone.
We bought a broken phone that was exactly like your phone
and then pretended to break your phone,
but didn't break your phone. Your phone's fine. I told you, your phone was fine the whole time
I was saying your phone is fine. It was a prank. It was a prank.
What? I'm so confused.
How did you do that? How did...
Well, I had a bit of help.
I had Jake back up your phone and do a restore on the...
I can't believe you tricked her the whole time.
I figured she'd find out. No, I was just like... She was being really good.
She was really good. I'm trying to feel bad. She's so nice.
She's one of the nicest people in the world.
I think it's the one thing we've learned in this video. Sarah's so nice.
Thanks for fixing this Mac Address. If you think that you can fix your own iPhone like Sarah did,
well, give this video a like. And if you wanna watch more prank videos, then you might as well subscribe to Channel Super Fun.
Now, I'm curious, do you think Apple's self-serve program is great
or do they need to go a bit farther, including more devices and more things to fix?
And would that actually make things any better? Comment below.