“Repairability” is a whole new concept to look for, but it is essential to understand. Repair comes in addition to electronic devices, be it televisions, refrigerators, air conditioners and to be more specific, smartphones. Looking for a smartphone’s repairability may sound strange but it can be an eye-opener to make a wise decision while buying a new smartphone. We recently discussed this with a company which does Mobile repair in Delhi and found something interesting to share with you.
With various smartphone brands flooding the market, each has its unique repairability criteria. As we move forward in the smartphone era, we’ll witness that they have powered more on the inside and boast better material usage and durability. This article provides an insight into the repairability arena of Androids and iPhones. Let’s dive into one by one.
Assessing iPhone’s Repairability
In the case of Apple (Iphone repair), it has made devices more difficult to crack open and opening up an iPhone by yourself means voiding the warranty. The Apple iPhone (1st generation) got a repairability score of 2/10 and it’s the oldest and the most difficult to repair. This iPhone uses standard Philips screws and has hidden clips that make it extremely difficult to open without damaging the device. The battery too is difficult to replace.
The iPhone 4, got a repairability score of 6/10 and is still repairable to a certain extent. It has screws that can be opened easily and limited adhesive as well. It has a more modular design as compared to the first iPhone. However, replacing the camera is difficult. The iPhone 4 successor gets the same score of 6/10. It has the same screws and limited afor easy opening up. In this iPhone too, removing the back panel is slightly difficult as it requires a pentalobe driver. The LCD is fused in the front glass.
Apple iPhone 3G gets one score high, that is, 7/10 and is comparatively easier to repair as it has just one issue. The smartphone’s battery is placed under the logic board which makes it difficult to replace. The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus get a 7/10 score as Apple does not share repair manuals with repair shops or consumers, making it difficult to open and replace components in general. The iPhone 7 and the 7 Plus would require users four different types of drivers to open up. It’s fairly easy to access the batteries of these two iPhones.
Assessing Android’s Repairability
Android repair is budget-friendly but in order to get a good repairability score a device must be easy to disassemble, a service manual should be available, and points are awarded or deducted based on the difficulty to open and complexity in replacing major components.
In the android domain, Motorola is the repairability champion whose Droid Bionic and Atrix 4G are the only devices on the list with 9 points. Another one is Samsung Galaxy S4 including its younger siblings S3 and S2 both, received 8 points as did the Galaxy Note and Galaxy Note 2.
The HTC One rounds out the bottom of the Android repairability list with a score of 1. The phone’s construction is solid, but it is virtually impossible to open without extreme damage to the rear case. The HTC One becomes extremely hard to repair in the Android repair domain.
The shining star among the androids is the Fairphone 3 smartphone. The Fairphone 3 earned a 10/10 repairability score and is made out of user-replaceable modules. There are modules for the display, battery, rear camera, selfie camera, headphone jack, USB-C port, speaker, and more. If something breaks, then you can replace it in the blink of an eye. For some extra peace of mind, Fairphone 3 comes with a two-year warranty. This smartphone is powered by Android 10. Another offspring of Fairphone 3 is Fairphone 3+, which had an upgraded camera module and even more sustainably-sourced components.
Epilogue
From the above-mentioned facts about Androids and iPhones repairability, it’s pretty much clear that the more the visual clues are hidden, the more difficult it becomes to repair a device. For instance, the early generation of iPhones is quite difficult to repair because the devices are highly compact and in some cases Apple didn’t even provide a user manual, hence making the repairing process hectic and laborious.
Moving on to the Androids, their repair cost is a bit low as compared to iPhones but their repairability too depends on the factors catering to the iPhones. Most of the android devices are easy to open up, heating up the device or simply hands can do the work which can be checked via android cpu temperature status bar. Androids received much higher repairability scores as compared to iPhones, which makes them easy to repair without any hassle.
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