Repair your iPhone yourself. This is the dream that Apple has sold to enlightened amateurs in its program Self-Service Repair launched in the United States for iPhone 12 and 13. Sean Hollister, journalist at The Verge, jumped at the chance and asked for the famous repair kit to replace the battery on his iPhone mini. But it was a real obstacle course he endured.
A deposit of 1200 dollars
If the battery only costs 69 dollars and the equipment rental is 49 dollars, you will have to pay an astronomical deposit of 1200 dollars to have access to the kit, knowing that you will not store it for more than one week. You will also need to enter the IMEI number of your phone to prove that you are the owner. And reading the repair manual specifies that you should keep a bucket full of sand with you in case the battery burns out. What a hesitant to start.
Pro equipment
Delivery of the kit to Sean Hollister was two days late because the countdown had already begun. It started out badly. But most of all, he didn’t look at everything as the reporter thought. He hopes to receive screwdrivers and pliers in a small box. However, two giant Pelican crates weighing nearly 36 kilos were delivered to his door.
Sean Hollister took his courage and dragged everyone to his San Francisco office by train. When the contents were discovered, he discovered the professional equipment. Something that inspires confidence, because he will do well using Apple spare parts and Apple equipment.
Complex manipulations
Unlocking the smartphone should be possible simply by heating the seal around the screen to melt it. Except that it required doing this multiple times and that the reporter was experiencing a lot of cold sweat, believing that he had broken his device. Problems not mentioned in Apple’s documentation.
Other tools have proven to be extremely sophisticated, but not practical enough for sometimes unnecessarily complicated maneuvers. “Apple needs three different screwdriver bits just to remove the screen, and none of the bits are magnetized to prevent the screws from removing”said Sean Hollister.
Validate features remotely
The same observation then applies to a new battery. The reporter has a nice press, but no proper positioning of the drums. He failed to hang up the phone completely. And most of all, when he tried to turn on the iPhone, nothing happened. The battery actually needs to be recharged. If he had been miswired yet, he would not have known. Eventually, he was able to unlock the device, but it didn’t work, because the iPhone didn’t recognize the new battery.
And there’s one more final step: call Apple’s third-party logistics company so they can validate the part. This is a process that involves restarting your iPhone in diagnostic mode and giving it remote control. And so in part restored the interest in doing everything yourself.
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a masquerade
For the journalist The Verge, it’s all just a charade. Apple gives the impression that it supports the right to repair, but it’s almost impossible. How can you imagine the American giant seriously thinking for a second to send these giant chiefs across the country? He would be expensive and large, never worth the $ 49 rent. But he was able to prove to lawmakers that he left the choice to the people to repair their tools themselves, and that they preferred to call his services, or authorized repairers.
Keep in mind that Apple is fighting in twenty American states against the right to repair so that they don’t have to sell spare parts directly to users. The announcement of the Self-Service Healing program surprised everyone at the end of 2011. But many observers immediately pointed to its limitations and the fact that few people would be affected by the end of this offer.
Source: The Verge