Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
TL;DR
- A writer from The Verge ordered Apple’s self-repair kit and it weighed 36 kgs.
- Apple sent industrial-grade repair tools to replace an iPhone Mini’s battery.
- The repair process itself was tedious with lots of room for something going very wrong.
Apple recently launched its DIY repair program, allowing iPhone users to fix their own devices by renting a repair kit from the company. If you thought this kit would consist of a few screwdrivers, pliers, spudgers, and magnifiers, you’d be highly mistaken.
When Sean Hollister from The Verge recently set out to repair his iPhone Mini, Apple sent him a toolkit in two suitcases weighing 36 kgs (see below) to repair the tiny device! Apple blocked $1,200 on his card for the heavy toolkit. It also charged $49 to rent the tools for a week and $69 for a new battery. The thing is, Apple charges the same $69 fee for battery replacement at its own stores, except there, an expert does all the repair work.
That said, if you are a DIY repair nerd, Apple’s got your back. The toolkit it sent to Hollister had every possible thing you would need to put together an iPhone, including a hefty, industrial-grade heat station and a huge spring-loaded press.
The chances of something going wrong are pretty high.
The problem is that the process itself was full of challenges for the writer. If you have no experience in repairing phones, you might find yourself stuck midway and the chances of something going wrong are pretty high.
The iPhone didn’t recognize the genuine battery Apple provided as genuine.
Apple sent a repair manual along with its enormous toolkit. However, Hollister still had some trouble getting things right. The manual was not helpful when the heating machine threw up an error code. Yanking the iPhone’s tiny screws was also a task for Hollister, even with Apple’s “fancy torque drivers.”
The “most frustrating part” of the repair process as per the report was that the iPhone didn’t recognize the genuine battery Apple provided. It flashed an “unknown part” warning, and apparently, you have to call Apple’s third-party logistics company after the repair to validate the part. That’s a whole other process that requires you to run diagnostics on the iPhone and give the company remote control of your device.
All-in-all, Apple’s repair process sounds pretty tedious. It’s perhaps more of a roadblock for the self-repair movement than a step in the right direction.
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