Yeah – we get it. You’ve cracked your phone screen and you need it up and running as quickly as possible – and you want to spend as little as possible. Or, your phone battery is on its last legs and you’re meaning to order a battery repair kit online and pop it into the device when you get a spare hour or so over the weekend.

It can’t be that hard, can it? The right to repair movement folk have got a solid point haven’t they? Well, just hold your horses. There’s more than meets the eye when it comes to phone screen and battery replacements.

All Parts Are the Same, Right?

First up you should consider how there are countless variations of part qualities circulating the planet, with the cost of these parts varying wildly – from the dirt-cheap, through to top-notch ‘original equipment manufacturer’ (OEM) quality components. In the case of an iPhone 12 Pro requiring a screen replacement; a quick look through Ebay reveals replacement screens ranging from stupidly cheap through to triple figures. Common sense would suggest the most expensive screen to be the best quality, but that el-cheapo version could be hard to resist if you’re aiming to replace your screen at a bargain price (hint: with phone screens you get what you pay for).

The vast majority of cheap screen replacements aren’t what they seem. While they may look the same as the original they’re often riddled with manufacturing errors such as slight dimensional imperfections, low quality displays, lesser output backlighting, even the propensity to damage further components within the device. Even if you do manage to fit a cheap screen properly, it’s likely you’ll see it fail mere weeks down the track.

Battery replacements are no doubt the next most prevalent candidate for a quick  do-it-yourself repair job, but just like screens there’s varying qualities between batteries. You could be tempted by bold claims on Ebay of batteries with higher milliamp-hour (mAh ) heavy duty’ or ‘high-capacity’ batteries that will ostensibly last longer than the standard issue battery. This claim is simply an unfounded lie designed to fool you into buying an overpriced battery. Tech companies aim for the best battery life as possible in the electronic devices they release. Lithium-ion battery technology is quite a fine art, and those tech companies are at the top of their game. Cramming more power into an already small package is next to impossible. The mAh rating really can’t be increased. It’s sheerly a matter of chemistry.

The Right Tools for the Job

Then we get to the issue of tools and phone repair. Every industry uses specialised tools for specific tasks and phone repair is no different. Tri-wing and pentalobe screwdrivers? You’re going to need those screwdriver bits, along with a mini Philips screwdriver. Sure, the self-service repair kits you see online may include these tools, but they’re nowhere near the quality of tools used by the professionals and you run the risk of burring or stripping miniature screws during your maiden phone repair attempt. Plus its imperative you keep those screws in precise order, placing them back exactly where they came from. An extremely common logicboard repair is known in the trade as ‘long screw damage’. Inexperienced repairers could unknowingly place a 2.8mmm long screw into a 1.2mm depth hole, ripping through countless miniature wirings and utterly destroying the logicboard. From the original iPhone SE through to the 3rd Generation iPhone SE and onwards, correct screw placement is paramount.

Know How?

But specialised tools are just part of the story. More importantly, like in the long-screw-damage example above, is the overarching benefit of experience. Professional repair technicians repair thousands of devices a year. Their knowledge starts with the basics of the repair process such as always disconnecting a battery prior to disconnection of further components, through to knowing how to remove an iPhone 12-14 series screen without ending up with a broken display or display assembly. For example, disconnecting a screen while the battery is still powering the device can result in shorting the screen backlight circuit on the logicboard. Equally, removing a 12 and up series iPhone screen for a battery replacement without cracking it requires knowledge and skill.

Sure there’s dozens of tutorial videos, instruction guides, so called repair guides and websites claiming to have the best possible repair regime, but more often than not these tutorials don’t show how the professionals do it, and some are quite frankly dangerous. Batteries, can, and do, expand and catch fire if punctured or otherwise damaged during a one-off at-home single repair process. While this is highly unlikely in the hands of a repair professional, the repair professional has the safety equipment to be prepared for this possibility.

As for the most common phone repairs, such as the good old broken phone screen, there are various biometric sensors attached to any iPhone screen utilising Face ID, and with devices such as the iPhone 7, iPhone 8, and iPhone SE series there’s the somewhat fragile Touch ID home button sensor. Removal of these parts can be a tricky aspect with screen repairs as these delicate components are easily damaged, and if damaged will require return to an Apple Store or an expensive additional repair by a phone repair professional certified as an Apple Authorized Service Provider.

Then we get to the difficult repairs such as charge port replacements, camera and camera lens replacements, requiring far more than a couple of steps from an online instruction guide. You’ll seriously have more screws out on the table than you can keep track of, with these repairs often requiring removing the device’s logicboard entirely. Bend that logicboard a little and you’ll be looking at, at best an expensive phone repair from a highly skilled independent professional repair provider, and at worst a damaged beyond repair iPhone.

To DIY Phone Repair or Not

These days we tend to look over the complexity hiding behind the screens of our cell phones. There’s a lot going on under the hood of our powerful pocket-sized computers, with literally thousands of components miniaturised into a hand-held package. If your aim is to keep your phone in good condition and with as minimal downtime as possible, it makes sense to take your device to a professional repair service. Or, have a professional repair service come to you.