Yesterday I got a phone call from a customer. He asked: “do you know iFixit?”. I answered: “Let me guess. You tried to fix your phone by yourself and accidentally damaged something else.”
So, how is iFixit? If you google “is iFixit …”, you will get: Is iFixit legit? Is iFixit OEM? Is iFixit good? Is iFixit tool good? Today I am going to answer all there questions basic on my phone and phone repair knowledge.
What is iFixit ?
According to Wikipedia:
iFixit is a private company in San Luis Obispo , California . Founded in 2003 while the founders were attending Cal Poly , the company sells repair parts and publishes free wiki -like online repair guides for consumer electronics and gadgets on its web site. The company also performs product teardowns of consumer devices.
Is iFixit legit?
This is the first question you can get on Google. I checked about 100 websites about it but no one answer it directly. I also checked a few law books for writing this blog. According to what I got, iFixit is legit.
iFixit tell you how to fix phones or other stuff like Wikipedia or Wikihow. They also sell the parts and tools to do so like Amazon or eBay. Basically, iFixit is a combine of those websites. So if Wikipedia, Amazon and eBay are legit. iFixit should be legit, too.
There is a sentence I found on iFixit website that I think is very interesting.
Law is black and white. And ethics is the gray area in between.
I think iFixit is also in the gray area but I also think it is acceptable to use this website from now.
Is iFixit OEM ?
This is another popular topic on Internet. For my experiences, all parts I ever got are not OEM but still high quality. Most of them are better than what I got from eBay.
Is iFixit good?
Let me spare this question into two questions. First, is iFixit repair guides good? Second, is iFixit tools good?
Is iFixit repair guides good?
Most of them are very good with clear pictures and explanations. Some of them even have videos. I learned things from watching these guides.
The problem with these guides are:
- Some guides use tools you don’t have.
After all, repair guides won’t make any money. It is the parts and tools they sell make money. Normal customers does not know that you can do these repair/replacement with other tools.
- Some guides skip step.
I always say iFixit is like the pornography in repair industry. When they do it, it looks so easy. But when you do it, you just realize it is not the same thing at all. We often hear customers say thing like: “they said open this but I can not”, “they move it in a second but it takes me forever”. You know why, because they skip the hardest steps.
When I am doing my research, I read an article named: iFixit b ecame k ing of the iPhone t eardown .
In that article it said:
Ten hours after he bought the phone, the brand-new iPhone X is lying on the boardroom table, spread out into its component parts. The phone will never work again, a sacrifice made in the name of exploration.
You see, these people are real hard working. But there are king of teardown, no king of repair. The phone won’t work again after there teardown.
Is iFixit tool good?
It is very good. We have a few iPhone repair tools from them.
As I said before, some tools are too fancy or not necessary for people who are no technicians.
Should I use iFixit instead of go to repair store?
If you don’t mind ruining your phone, (that means you are ok, if all the information are gone and the phone won’t turn on again), you can try to fix it yourself.
Otherwise, I can safely say that gadget repair is not for everyone. If you can’t dedicate a few calm hours to the process, or struggle working with small things, then you’re probably better off taking your phone to a repair shop or the Apple Store and having them do it for you. You might pay a bit more, but you’re guaranteed a product that’s going to work.
“I should came to you guy at first place”. I heard that too many times.
First Technology