Repair your smartphone if it is cheap or replace it with a new one!

Is your smartphone broken? Do you want to fix it as cheap as possible? Where to go, how much it costs and is it worth it to fix your phone or is it better to buy a new one? These are the questions which I will try to answer below.

With the boom in smartphones and tablet sales it is obvious that owners of such devices would encounter failures in manufacturing or mechanical shocks.

Smartphones have become larger in size and slimmer, so many of us inevitably drop them and if we are lucky we don’t need to take them to the dealer service. If we are unlucky we get a broken display, a nonresponsive touch screen or a damaged casing.

Overuse leads to battery issues, humidity can cause the deterioration of internal components and using the smartphone while connected to its charger may lead to malfunctions of the micro-USB plug or it may affect the life of the battery.

Let’s see when it is worth it to fix our broken smartphone and when we should just give up and purchase a new one.

1. Damaged screen: a broken display, cracked or chipped, non-functional/unresponsive touchscreen – are some of the most common smartphone malfunctions caused by dropping or by hitting hard surfaces. 

Replacing the screen (display and touchscreen) of the smartphone in an authorized dealer’s workshop (be it Samsung, iPhone, Sony or HTC) will take out of our pockets about 30 -50% of the price of a brand new device.

The service warranty for replacing a display is 6 to 12 months, and as we can see it’s not a cheap alternative if we compare the costs of a new smartphone complete with warranty. Moreover, the shock can also damage other internal components (the smartphone’s antenna, the speakers, etc.).

2. Damage to the sensors of the smartphone: signal antenna or speaker – generally the issues to the smartphone’s sensors, the GSM signal antenna and the speaker – are easy to fix and the spare parts are very cheap.

The repair cost is a relatively small one representing about 5-15% of the value of the smartphone depending on the model we own.

3. Software malfunctions: the smartphone may present some issues on the apps and operating system part ( Android more often ) , and if reseting your smartphone doesn’t solve the problem then a cheap intervention in an authorized service will be necessary in order to rewrite the phone’s firmware.

This repair is very cheap (2-5% of the value of the smartphone) so it won’t affect your budget too much.

4. Damage to the battery – how can a phone’s battery be fixed?

Most of the time it is impossible and you will have to replace it with a new one. Although we will have to pay approximately 5-10% of the value of the phone, a new battery will ensure a better autonomy like on the first day you purchased your smartphone.

5. Damage (or rather deterioration) to the casing of the smartphone

The damage to the phone’s casing occurs due to wear and tear or due to shocks which lead to scratches, cracks, dents or chippings of the plastic or metallic surfaces.

Even if the smartphone we own is a top one, it is relatively cheap to replace the case of a smartphone. The costs and work done are about 10-20% of the value of the phone but the best thing is that it will look like the first day we bought it.

Conclusions 

Is it worth it to fix our smartphone? Yes, if it is done by professionals and if it’s cheap.

As seen above the most expensive repairs are those that involve the display and unfortunately these are the most fragile components.

If you encounter such a problem weigh the repair costs and the purchase of a new smartphone and make the decision which provides the best price–quality ratio.