Is This the End of the Repairable iPhone? • Hacker News Board

Re: Is This the End of the Repairable iPhone?

#101

Post by davidy123 » Sat, Oct 31, 2020, 1:15 PM UTC

gambiting wrote: post #100

davidy123 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure what is going on with your power button, but if it's outside warranty repair $300 for a replacement device is pretty good. On my fifth Android handset, I have really not found the incompatibility you point out to be an issue. Sure, some companies, like Samsung, try to offer some exclusive features. Just avoid them. I have to use an iPhone for work, there are a lot of critical annoyances, like how poorly curs…

About your first paragraph - No, that's absolutely shit. My friend was one of the first to buy a Pixel 4 in the UK, and unfortunately dropped it and broke the screen. He contacted Google for a repair, and their response literally was that they don't repair Pixel phones, but they can sell him a new one at a slightly(by about £100) discounted price as a "good will gesture". That's absolutely unacceptable . Imagine if a…

That's surprising, but there are many third party options to get it repaired. You can even DIY for $115 including required tools.

I know someone whose iPhone XR glass back broke after a year (they had a super robust case), Apple's response was it was not cost effective to repair. Ultimately devices designed to be repaired is the best answer (and maybe not have glass backs?), but I don't think there's that much difference in many cases here.

Re: Is This the End of the Repairable iPhone?

#102

Post by oefrha » Sat, Oct 31, 2020, 1:23 PM UTC

neya wrote: post #73

whytaka wrote: post #35

Not too long ago, I went to the Apple store to get my MacBook Pro looked at for a faulty key and degraded trackpad. As I had a Genius diagnose the issue, the screen brightness of my iPhone 7 had dropped nearly completely. While it was true that the glass of the screen had cracked due to a fall, the phone had operated just fine for many months since. The Genius told me it was likely a display issue while I told him it…

Not speaking in support of Apple here, but just like any other manufacturer, their support quality varies with location. I was in Singapore, took my broken screen Macbook Pro for repair and I was quoted something that costed half the price of the machine for the replacement as they mentioned the motherboard also had to be replaced for some reason. That very month, I had to fly to India for some work and I decided to…

In my experience Apple still has the most haggle-free support experience and offers full replacements often and quite willingly, but whether you land on a no-questions-asked-replacement issue is luck-based.

A few years ago I had an iPhone whose mute switch would flip off on its own after 1.5 years of use. Went to an Apple Store in U.S. Northeast, described the issue in a sentence, handed it over, and five seconds later the bro told me I was getting a full replacement, which was in my hands three minutes later.

Then, in early 2019, my iPad Pro was having this occasional touch-not-registering issue, which to this day I’m not sure if it’s software or hardware. It also had a tiny tiny strip of dead pixels tucked in a corner, which was only noticeable when using a video player. I brought it into the Apple Store, this time somewhere in Asia, mainly for the touch issue, but casually mentioned the dead pixels since I was already there. Ended up getting a full replacement, and the lady told me it was lucky that this minor display issue was present, otherwise it would be hard to fix and basically impossible to get a replacement for that hard to reproduce and hard to diagnose touch issue.

Re: Is This the End of the Repairable iPhone?

#103

Post by ece » Sat, Oct 31, 2020, 1:29 PM UTC

vaccinator wrote: post #83

whytaka wrote: post #35

Not too long ago, I went to the Apple store to get my MacBook Pro looked at for a faulty key and degraded trackpad. As I had a Genius diagnose the issue, the screen brightness of my iPhone 7 had dropped nearly completely. While it was true that the glass of the screen had cracked due to a fall, the phone had operated just fine for many months since. The Genius told me it was likely a display issue while I told him it…

Did they still make you pay for the $200 for the screen? I wish I could get a phone with plain Linux but I don't think that my carrier (Comcast Mobile) supports any of them. I once used an unsupported phone, and the 4G would work for only a few minutes after a reboot (so it probably is an artificial problem).

This seems curious, any unlocked phone regardless of OS should work on any network. Tech support should be able to help you with connection issues, and if not, I would try a different carrier.

Re: Is This the End of the Repairable iPhone?

#104

Post by maccard » Sat, Oct 31, 2020, 1:39 PM UTC

davidy123 wrote: post #66

maccard wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I moved from apple to android a few years ago, hoping the grass would be greener. I hoped I was leaving behind a locked in ecosystem with hard to repair devices for a more open ecosystem where competition would improve quality. Android is a fat mess, with flagship phones from premium manufacturers being incompatible with various OS features, and devices from different manufacturers being incompatible in ways that nev…

Not sure what is going on with your power button, but if it's outside warranty repair $300 for a replacement device is pretty good. On my fifth Android handset, I have really not found the incompatibility you point out to be an issue. Sure, some companies, like Samsung, try to offer some exclusive features. Just avoid them. I have to use an iPhone for work, there are a lot of critical annoyances, like how poorly curs…

We'll I'm claiming that my pixel 3 is _in_ warranty, and google are claiming £300 for a replacement (not $300 sorry, that was a typo). The phone is less than two years old, but I don't know what recourse I have.

> Sure, some companies, like Samsung, try to offer some exclusive features. Just avoid them.

If your advice is to ignore the largest manufacturer and manufacturers of the most high end devices, that says a lot about the state of the ecosystem. Samsung and huawei have both had massive incompatiblies with other devices and android products - work profiles, pay, fit being my examples.

> Although there are a lot of cheap Android devices to choose from that can drag down the brand reputation, I would really push back against the suggestion Androids are exclusively "cheap" in the pejorative sense

I never claimed they were cheap. My experience is with flagship devices and premium manufacturers, who in many cases are the same price as apple - a galaxy s20 is £900, a oneplus 8 is £800.

Re: Is This the End of the Repairable iPhone?

#105

Post by maccard » Sat, Oct 31, 2020, 1:43 PM UTC

hesarenu wrote: post #94

maccard wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I moved from apple to android a few years ago, hoping the grass would be greener. I hoped I was leaving behind a locked in ecosystem with hard to repair devices for a more open ecosystem where competition would improve quality. Android is a fat mess, with flagship phones from premium manufacturers being incompatible with various OS features, and devices from different manufacturers being incompatible in ways that nev…

What kind of incompatibility? Base Android would be same. Pure Android you don't even require Google, you can buy Android one mobile.

My galaxy s10( which was the flagship device at the time) seemed to have an issue with spurious edge taps from holding the phone. Samsung claimed it wasn't a problem, and the workaround online was to use a different keyboard. Except no keyboards other than Samsung's own work with samsung knox, and because samsung knox was preinstalled, I couldn't use the "work profile" feature in the version of Android that was installed.

Fitbit claimed to be fully android compatible, except when I contacted support it turns out they support fitbit pay, not Android pay, which isn't the same thing. And it doesn't work when used with Samsung Pay.

> Pure Android you don't even require Google, you can buy Android one mobile.

If your advice to people is to avoid the largest manufacturerd of premium handsets, don't you think that says a lot about the state of the ecosystem?

Re: Is This the End of the Repairable iPhone?

#106

Post by maccard » Sat, Oct 31, 2020, 1:45 PM UTC

VBprogrammer wrote: post #74

maccard wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I moved from apple to android a few years ago, hoping the grass would be greener. I hoped I was leaving behind a locked in ecosystem with hard to repair devices for a more open ecosystem where competition would improve quality. Android is a fat mess, with flagship phones from premium manufacturers being incompatible with various OS features, and devices from different manufacturers being incompatible in ways that nev…

It's probably faux pas to mention it in the current environment but my Huawei has easily been the best phone I've ever owned, it's nearly 2 years old and as good as the day I bought it.

Yep, my partner has a P20 and I'm much happier using that than my pixel 3. Unfortunately they don't do google services on their new devices which my employer mandates on their devices for 2fa, so my choices are carry two smartphones, or don't use huawei. Similarly my bank(s) don't support huawei phones last time I checked.

Re: Is This the End of the Repairable iPhone?

#107

Post by benhurmarcel » Sat, Oct 31, 2020, 1:45 PM UTC

alisonkisk wrote: post #96

e_proxus wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There aren’t many (if any) realistic options. It basically boils down to Apple, Android or some extremely niche third party special phone (Fairphone etc.) which are mostly Android anyway. So either you pay Apple for premium hardware and software quality but loose out on repairability. Or you get Android which is a potential or actual privacy nightmare. Or you get an obscure other phone which is less supported and usu…

And how will you feel if after legislation phones cost even more TCO than they do now?

The price of those phones don't follow their cost. They are purely down how high they can market them.

Re: Is This the End of the Repairable iPhone?

#108

Post by maccard » Sat, Oct 31, 2020, 1:48 PM UTC

toper-centage wrote: post #58

maccard wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I moved from apple to android a few years ago, hoping the grass would be greener. I hoped I was leaving behind a locked in ecosystem with hard to repair devices for a more open ecosystem where competition would improve quality. Android is a fat mess, with flagship phones from premium manufacturers being incompatible with various OS features, and devices from different manufacturers being incompatible in ways that nev…

I damaged the charging port on my android phone. I paid 20 euros plus shipping for a new bottom module and used the screw driver provided by the manufacturer to open the phone and replace it. If you care about repairable phones... Buy a repairable phone, instead of a "flagship".

Ah yes, blaming the customer for making an uninformed choice when the information about whether my choice is informed or not isn't available.

If repairability was top of my list, I'd be using 4-5 year old device that's proven repairable. Silly me, I tried to be "reliable" and choose a samsung - you know the largest manufacturer of Android phones, and when that didn't work out for me I tried Google - the people who make the software. If your advice to people is to avoid all of the premier manufacturers, I think that shows that the ecosystem has major problems, no?

Re: Is This the End of the Repairable iPhone?

#109

Post by davidy123 » Sat, Oct 31, 2020, 1:48 PM UTC

maccard wrote: post #104

davidy123 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure what is going on with your power button, but if it's outside warranty repair $300 for a replacement device is pretty good. On my fifth Android handset, I have really not found the incompatibility you point out to be an issue. Sure, some companies, like Samsung, try to offer some exclusive features. Just avoid them. I have to use an iPhone for work, there are a lot of critical annoyances, like how poorly curs…

We'll I'm claiming that my pixel 3 is _in_ warranty, and google are claiming £300 for a replacement (not $300 sorry, that was a typo). The phone is less than two years old, but I don't know what recourse I have. > Sure, some companies, like Samsung, try to offer some exclusive features. Just avoid them. If your advice is to ignore the largest manufacturer and manufacturers of the most high end devices, that says a lo…

Vendor discretion whether something is in warranty is a pain point, I've seen people bitten from all vendors. If they don't respond to pressure (for example, finding other people with the same problem for a united voice), it might be a minor problem. If you don't want to take it apart yourself (don't blame you) you could find a local authorized dealer who could hopefully fix it for not much money. I wish they would just offer hardware like this on a subscription.

I don't mean to avoid Samsung (or any other Android) devices altogether, just don't use anything that takes away your portability within the Android ecosystem (which, granted, has various lines in the sand when you rely on Google, outside going no-identity, which is impossible on iPhone). It was easy enough to do when I had my Note2, there are many people within user communities who care about things like this and make sure it's possible without much effort; for example by putting pressure on vendors to enable choice for what apps are used for what purposes. In my experience, Samsung offers its own App Store, I just ignored it, I used Google's calendar instead of Samsung's default enhanced one, etc.

There are some cases, per your examples, where there's a distinct branch in what's supported. Samsung and Huawei are really competitors to Apple more than Google in this case. I can only say that like repairability is the best answer to some questions, interoperability is the best answer to others. Being locked in to any ecosystem, especially over time as our digital lives become linked to health and wealth, is bad for everyone.

My last comment, about "cheap" perceptions, was intended for another comment in the thread, sorry about the confusion.

Re: Is This the End of the Repairable iPhone?

#110

Post by Digory » Sat, Oct 31, 2020, 1:50 PM UTC

groundCode wrote: post #68

maccard wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I moved from apple to android a few years ago, hoping the grass would be greener. I hoped I was leaving behind a locked in ecosystem with hard to repair devices for a more open ecosystem where competition would improve quality. Android is a fat mess, with flagship phones from premium manufacturers being incompatible with various OS features, and devices from different manufacturers being incompatible in ways that nev…

The question is, do any of us actually need the flagship devices? The android phones I’ve bought for family members on the budget end of the spectrum seem to last just as long as the flagships and have decent enough feature sets for pretty much everything from what I can see. Granted none of us play a lot of games and we are more of the holiday snaps than artists when it comes to photos.

If I'm buying for an adult, the flagship cameras / imaging software makes a difference.