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Broken screen? Swollen battery? After years of being rigid around repairs when gadgets break down, more and more consumer electronics companies are offering the option for people to fix these problems themselves, at home.
Samsung said this week that customers who want to try their hand at fixing gadgets can now buy genuine smartphone and tablet parts on repair resource website iFixit, as well as at Samsung Experience stores nationwide country
The push to make at least some of its devices easier to repair comes amid a broader national conversation about the right to fix the products we buy, spurred mostly by heightened scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission from from last year Since then, Apple has launched a self-service repair program of its own, while Google has partnered with iFixit to provide would-be tinkerers with genuine tools and parts.
But like some of these other self-service programs, Samsung’s approach comes with some quirks.
Despite Samsung’s popularity in the U.S., it accounted for nearly a third of all smartphone shipments in the first half of 2022, according to research firm Strategy Analytics, the company’s new self-service repair program it is limited to a handful of high-end models. for now.
Owners of the Galaxy S20 and S21 series smartphones (released in 2020 and 2021 respectively) will be able to purchase replacement screens, back glass and charging ports for repairs they attempt at home. The same goes for people who own one of Samsung’s Galaxy S7 Plus tablets, though the same can’t be said for the rest of the company’s mobile products.
“We plan to expand to more models as the program matures,” a Samsung spokesperson said.
In offering the resources to make these repairs, however, Samsung highlighted its use of designs that make fixing gadgets more confusing than some might expect.
You can’t, for example, just buy a screen to replace a broken one on your Galaxy phone. Instead, Samsung says you have to buy an entire screen “assembly,” which includes the screen itself, the metal frame around it, and another battery. Essentially, this means replacing the entire front of the phone and then some.
This also means that, at the moment, Samsung has no way to buy a genuine battery on its own to replace the one that does not have a long charge or swelling, a common problem in devices that are used and charged regularly. A Samsung spokesperson told The Washington Post that “additional parts will be added as the program expands,” though co-founder and CEO Kyle Wiens says iFixit will continue to sell third-party replacement batteries.
These types of self-repair programs are fairly new, so it’s no surprise that they don’t always feel fully developed. And even when they offer a more comprehensive set of replacement parts and guides, some of the processes involved can seem a little strange.
Let’s say you had an iPhone 12 with a cracked screen, for example. You can easily find spare parts on the company’s self-service website. But if you want to follow the full details of Apple’s repair guide, this requires the use of a specific set of professional tools: tools that can be rented, but come in a set of Pelican hard cases and require a credit card hold of $1,200.
(That said, you can just buy the Apple part and open the phone using tools and guides found elsewhere.)
So here’s our advice: Unless you’ve done this sort of thing before, or don’t mind following guides with dozens of steps, you might want to avoid doing a phone repair job at home. These types of solutions really benefit from a level of finesse and attention to detail that, let’s face it, isn’t everyone’s forte. And we’re not kidding about how complicated these guides can be: According to iFixit, the process of replacing a Galaxy S20’s screen assembly requires 41 steps, and that doesn’t include reassembling the phone.
But now we’re left with a bigger question: If these companies are willing to let us repair the products they make, how about designing them to be easier to repair in the first place? For now, at least, that’s a lot easier said than done.