So why always bitch about just Apple?
For years, Apple have been locking down parts to their phones. In this case with batteries, you get a message saying that your battery needs to be serviced, even if you are using a genuine Apple battery from another phone.
Batteries, cameras, screens and sensors are locked down on newer iPhones. Replacing them will remove some of the phones functionality.
I’m not sure if I’ve missed other manufacturers doing this with batteries, the only other one I remember was OnePlus encrypting the battery in their new OnePlus pad. It’s unfortunate that some manufacturers see what Apple have been doing, then followed in their footsteps with pairing screens - on some phones you can’t use the fingerprint scanner if you have swapped the screen, it’s ridiculous.
The phone I use from oppo won’t complain if I were to replace parts in it. Though given that oppo and oneplus are owned by the same company, I wouldn’t be surprised if that changes soon.
There are a few problems with Apple’s third party repair kits though; you still have to go through to Apple’s support to get the parts paired/calibrated to the phone. If you look at Google’s pixel repair program, the screen is paired to the phone, but they provide the software to calibrate the fingerprint reader - no need to go through a text chat for possibly hours just to pair the parts back to the phone.
The good thing about the program is that some small parts can be cheaper than getting them from a third party, but on the flip side, parts like screens and batteries are expensive. It would be cheaper to get Apple to repair the device than to do it yourself through the program. It just feels off to me.
Documentation is very good and detailed at least!
To be fair I’m quite biased as well, having had bad experiences with multiple apple products :p
I completely understand first hand why this is could be a problem. My brother’s iPhone 6 had a dying battery and a cracked screen, there was a new repair shop that had opened up which was cheaper than the repair shop we normally go to. They replaced both the screen and the battery, great! Not even a year later and the battery had severely degraded and the screen just stopped responding to touch.
He got a new phone and I decided to try repairing it myself. Turns out this new repair shop was incredibly incompetent at repairing the phone - double sided tape to hold the battery down, missing screws, the rubber ring around the home button was missing, and the screen bracket was bent so it didn’t clip in on one side of the phone. Fixed it up - mostly - the screen still doesn’t clip in as I used the same bracket from before.
Though it never happened at any of the other repair shops, just the cheapest one. is it really a good idea to lock out all repair because the minority of shops are going to mess it up?
Problems arise for me because:
I can buy refurbished screens online, more expensive than what I’d find on AliExpress but everything on the screen is still up to Apple’s quality - I can’t swap it in though without losing auto-brightness and true tone. Batteries from reputable manufacturers are also up to apple’s standards, but I can’t swap it in without losing the battery health indicator. Even with genuine, or high quality parts, I cannot replace them without losing some sort of functionality.
As far as I am aware, Apple doesn’t offer touch ID sensors through their repair program (although it’s hard to confirm that without an iPhone serial number). I guess I could somewhat understand that, but you used to be able to replace the touch ID sensor with a normal home button. You would still have access to your data, for payments, you could use contactless on the card as that existed far before apple pay. That was until the iPhone 7 came around and added that touch capacitive home button, once that dies, you have to go to Apple to get it replaced. It’s apple’s design that prevents people from accessing their data, not third party repair.
Besides, the FTC found very little evidence to justify manufacturers reasonings for restricting repair: https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/reports/nixing-fix-ftc-report-congress-repair-restrictions/nixing_the_fix_report_final_5521_630pm-508_002.pdf
That’s just the way people act unfortunately, there was a video by Louis Rossmann where he said people wouldn’t be angry with him if he told them that their machine couldn’t be fixed within a couple days of recieving it. If he had waited about two weeks, then told them about the issue, the damage was his fault and that the machine is broken because of him. It’s unfair but it’s the reality we are in unfortunately.
I don’t expect much for Apple in terms of safeguarding data given that I was able to unlock my mum’s phone with face ID. my face wasn’t registered, I got in fairly easily without knowing her password. This was fixed by redoing the face ID recognition thing. I don’t think it’s a secure way to lock a phone.
Of course other manufacturers have messed it up too, but I never really thought face ID was a good idea anyways.
Giving your device to apple, or an authorised repair store, also doesn’t guarantee that your data will remain private, as seen by this contracted repair. Yes, small chance that it could happen, but giving a device to apple doesn’t guarantee your data’s safety.
I wouldn’t really say work longer, I still have a Samsung galaxy S2 somewhere that still turns on and functions. Though Apple devices are definitely supported for a longer period of time compared to the competition. Build quality I would probably question, though my last iPhone was an iPhone 6 - a slightly bent iPhone 6. Glass backs on the newer phones are even more questionable to me, after seeing many people who have cracked the backs of their phones - you could cut your hand if you weren’t using a case.
Android phones on OS’ as old as Android 6 can still use most of the apps on the play store. While the device is more vulnerable to attacks, it’s still usable if necessary. Although that doesn’t really excuse manufacturers dropping support after a few years. You can flash modern android versions like 13 to an old S2 for example, it’s not going to run well but it’s possible!
I had a Mac kill itself after 4 years of use, the authorised repair shop in the other city took two weeks to get it repaired and I wasn’t allowed to keep my data. It was an expensive repair too. I was lucky that everything important was backed up on a usb drive I had.
I would be happy to buy another Apple product if they stopped this nonsense of blocking third party repair, unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be happening any time soon.