Motorola and iFixit partner to sell phone repair kits • Hacker News Board

Re: Motorola and iFixit partner to sell phone repair kits

#81

Post by bradfa » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 4:56 PM UTC

woodrowbarlow wrote: post #71

bradfa wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding longer software update promises, a good number of recent Motorola phones are on either the Android One or Android Enterprise Recommended lists, so they should get security updates for at least 3 years from launch and see at least 1 or 2 Android letter OS upgrades. The Android Enterprise Recommended "rugged" devices get at least 5 years of security updates, which is quite good, although Motorola doesn't make…

> Motorola doesn't make any "rugged" devices currently all of motorola's rugged phones are designed for firstnet (private, secure LTE for emergency responders). these are relatively repairable (removable battery, screws behind the battery) but i wouldn't hold my breath for consumer models. https://www.motorolasolutions.com/en_us/products/lte-user-de...

Ah! You're right! But that's a different Motorola (arguably the "real" Motorola) that makes the rugged devices. However those rugged Motorola phones aren't on the Android Enterprise Recommended list.

I'll correct myself to say that Motorola Mobility (Lenovo) don't make any "rugged" devices.

Re: Motorola and iFixit partner to sell phone repair kits

#82

Post by Spivak » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 4:59 PM UTC

addicted wrote: post #61

Retric wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not screwing over customers as a slow phone is better than a phone that turns off at the same time. At most you can say they where trying to fix a hardware issue with software which is never a clean solution.

Except the situation isn’t binary. It’s not either slow your phone down or let it not working. The problem is Apple makes the other option, battery replacement, extremely difficult. If you do it with Apple, then you have to pay a ludicrously high amount (and I’m not sure if they give you a new or a refurbished battery). Further, Apple does not provide third party repairers, or customers, access to genuine parts. Even…

> The problem is Apple makes the other option, battery replacement, extremely difficult

Take it to an Apple store, call Apple support, or take it to any one of your friendly neighborhood repair shops?

> ludicrously high amount

Battery replacement costs:

Google Phones: $79

Apple Phones: $79

Samsung Phones: Nothing 1st party, $50 was the cheapest 3rd party I could find.

This honestly doesn't even seem like that much when the battery itself retails for $25 before shipping. That plus an hour of skilled labor to do the replacement puts us right around $80-$100. And when a new battery extends the life of your $800 phone for another 2 years its hard to say the value isn't there.

Re: Motorola and iFixit partner to sell phone repair kits

#83

Post by Spivak » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 5:03 PM UTC

addicted wrote: post #62

balls187 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a gross misrepresentation of fact. Apple engineers slowed the CPU in the phone, in order to keep battery life reasonable, and prevent the phone from restarting when worn batteries couldn't deliver power. Windows does this with laptops. Apple's mistake was not disclosing it. There an argument for user experience that advocates making the best choice for the user and not over burdening them with options.

It’s not just not disclosing it. Their geniuses would actively tell you that the phone was not any slower and that you were imagining it.

I'm not sure why you're expecting miracles from what are essentially sales reps turned helpdesk. You have every right to be mad because they are representing their company but we get senior engineers from MS that don't understand basic things about Windows.

Re: Motorola and iFixit partner to sell phone repair kits

#84

Post by dsr_ » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 5:15 PM UTC

bloopernova wrote: post #10

I have a lot of respect for iFixit. They at least appear to have their heads screwed on right, and the tools I've bought from them do really seem to be good quality. My only recent "complex" task that needed their tools was adding a hybrid water cooler to a 1080ti GPU. Their stuff was great, and their customer service has been good too. (EDIT: I meant to say, the addition went well due to their tools, good quality st…

The LG V20 is not listed as being waterproof at all. The MIL-STD-810G covers a great many things, and it seems likely that the V20 was tested for impact resistance, not waterproofing.

Re: Motorola and iFixit partner to sell phone repair kits

#85

Post by pier25 » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 5:20 PM UTC

nerdponx wrote: post #8

organsnyder wrote: post #5

Looks like my next phone will be a Motorola! I'm tired of "upgrading" phones every couple of years because the battery wears out.

FWIW, you can now get an official iPhone battery replacement for $30 on the "last-gen" models, or for free with Applecare. https://support.apple.com/iphone/repair/battery-power It looks like on some issues, we still have market power.

US only probably

Re: Motorola and iFixit partner to sell phone repair kits

#86

Post by amyjess » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 5:22 PM UTC

icebraining wrote: post #27

amyjess wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My only problem is that you can't unlock the bootloader without notifying Motorola so they can void your warranty. As much as I want to root my Moto X4 to get the notification LED back, I'm waiting until my warranty expires next fall before doing so.

Where do you live? I'm pretty sure that one can't renounce the mandatory warranty for stuff bought in the EU, so if you live here, you should be OK (but don't blame me if they're hard to convince!).

North Texas. I'm pretty far from the EU, and I ordered my phone through Project Fi.

Re: Motorola and iFixit partner to sell phone repair kits

#87

Post by moftz » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 5:26 PM UTC

bloopernova wrote: post #77

moftz wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MIL-STD-810G doesn't really mean anything unless they have test results available. That standard is mostly just a list of lab tests and how to perform them. It could mean anything from the product is designed to comply but never tested all the way up it passing the whole gambit of various tests. Military hardware is going to actually be tested if the manufacturer wants to sell it to the government. No one is regulati…

Cool, thank you. From a quick glance at the wikipedia page I saw that it could mean a whole bunch of different stuff, or almost nothing. I'm just glad my phone is still working after dropping it in water this morning!

My Nexus 6P has pretty much zero waterproof rating but I've dropped it in the sink face up before with the full stream falling right onto the screen. The front speakers are a little quieter but it still works otherwise, I thought for sure it would have been an instant death. Unless you have a real IP rating, it's a crapshoot how well your phone works under harsh environments.

Re: Motorola and iFixit partner to sell phone repair kits

#88

Post by amyjess » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 5:31 PM UTC

lower wrote: post #28

organsnyder wrote: post #5

Looks like my next phone will be a Motorola! I'm tired of "upgrading" phones every couple of years because the battery wears out.

FWIW, Motorola is very slow with software updates. My G5 plus is currently still on Android 7.0 on the June (!) 2018 security patch level and this is usual. I think that an update to 8.1 is around the corner, but they've promised an update to Oreo for over a year now...

Honestly, I've strongly disliked recent changes to Android so much that I'm not interested in updates. I got a Moto X4 last month because I got tired of being terrified that my Nexus 5X would bootloop again, and I'm keeping it at Nougat even though it keeps nagging me to upgrade.

Oreo is so visually ugly that I'd rather keep my phone on an old version than upgrade.

Re: Motorola and iFixit partner to sell phone repair kits

#89

Post by pier25 » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 5:31 PM UTC

organsnyder wrote: post #5

Looks like my next phone will be a Motorola! I'm tired of "upgrading" phones every couple of years because the battery wears out.

I had a couple Motos and recently moved to Xiaomi.

The last one was a Z2 Play. The USB-C port broke and I couldn't charge the device anymore, 6 months after purchase. When I contacted Motorola Mexico they asked me send the phone so they could determine if this would be covered by warranty or not. Of course I had to pay for all shipping myself and be without a phone for a couple of weeks. Yeah no thanks.

Instead of wasting money on shipping I invested that money into a new Mi A1 which does everything I need from a phone and cost me half of the Z2 Play. It also comes with Android One.

Re: Motorola and iFixit partner to sell phone repair kits

#90

Post by samstave » Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 5:34 PM UTC

krtkush wrote: post #74

ateesdalejr wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly would qualify a phone as user repairable? I'm guessing something could be repairable by users, but the costs of the tools are prohibitive. Would that be considered user repairable or would cost of materials and tools have to factor into the equation?

> but the costs of the tools are prohibitive. A device being repairable does not equate to the device being repairable by the owner only. The cost for a tool could be prohibitive for a single person but would still make sense for a professional third party repair company.

There is an apple official repair video for the replacement of a battery on the iPhoneX (IIRC) -- and its comically complex process to replace the battery - and requires this specally constructed aluminum scaffold-like rig structure to apply the appropriate adhesion pressure. The device is custom made for apple by some machine shop in the south bay, and obviously unlikely available to plebs-like-us... (I can't find the video any longer - apple likely had it removed)

My point being; if apple has such stellar HW designers, 1. the fact that they needed a ~30 minute official training video on the proper replacement which required 2. a custom rig to install the new battery which was 3. only made by some small-ish machine shop in san jose is mildyinfuriating....

I think that a measure of HW design prowess should be service/repairability as a base KPI for considered being 'good design'.