When is the right time to purchase Applecare?

Good morning everyone!

It’s Friday! Sun is shining and and going to be a beautiful day in here in Kansas City. I know the east and west coast have some formidable weather happening today and this weekend so stay safe for those of you impacted by those conditions.

I know the title may throw you off that Mission Repair is talking about Applecare, but give me a minute to explain. First off, I own an iPhone X, it’s just in my nature to be an early adopter of technology. When looking to buy any new device I am always curious how they can be repaired, or in this case IF they can be repaired. The answer is a bit more complicated than yes or no. The vast majority of past iPhones were a simple repair with a few screws and getting a quality part to replace the broken one. Granted there always seems to be a bit more complicated issue depending on the damage, but in general terms the older iPhones were 100% repairable. With the iPhone’s introduction of the Touch ID on the home button we have seen various issues keeping the Touch ID (fingerprint reader) working if the original one is damaged. Now with the iPhone X it appears that even opening up the device, disables the Face recognition ability of the phone.

So with that being said I do realize these are $1,000 iPhones and you should protect your investment by either having a local shop to handle your repairs, just as Mission Repair has done now for nearly a decade, or Applecare or some sort of insurance policy. This is the unicorn case of a device that currently is not repairable due to Apple’s security measures, or some other reasons I won’t go into, to keep 3rd party repair facilities from doing the repair. New technology brings new challenges, be thinking about your options before the worst may happen and your brand new iPhone X has issues. As a side note, basic Applecare does not cover “accidental damage”, that is drops, or physical damage to the device. You will need Applecare+, while not cheap, it’s currently the only sure way to have an iPhone X repaired from a drop/crack/accident and keep your face id tech working properly.

I hope this helps and possibly prevents an upsetting day if you should need to have an iPhone X repaired. Full disclosure, this is the first and only iPhone I have purchased Applecare+ on for this very reason. I wrote this as there have been a number of customers call in to ask if we can repair the device and then very disappointed that they would lose facial ID. As technology evolves we try to stay at the leading edge, but at this time the manufacturers, in the case Apple, has taken a path that currently prevents anyone outside their own facility to repair the iPhone X. While I love Apple products and will continue to use them, there are some challenges as technology and security evolves.

While I greatly appreciate all the support from the local community and across the country, please make a note if you do own an iPhone X that you may want to look into options for repair if you use the Face ID on a regular basis.

Have a great weekend!

 

What is an iPhone digitizer?

I know that there are a ton of question about the “digitizer” on your iPhone, or any other touch-screen smartphone these days. We here at Mission Repair are experts and very familiar with iPhone digitizers, glass, and screens. We repair them by the thousands every month. Let’s see if we can demonstrate what the digitizer is here under a glass panel:

This is the digitizer on an iPhone!

The digitizer is fused UNDER the glass cover. It’s the electronic component that senses the touch of a human finger through the glass, and is designed to allow the unit to be controlled by a fingertip. This is the “input” of the device and it’s very thin and transparent.

The point is that you cannot replace the digitizer alone. Since it’s part of the glass, in the event of a touch failure it needs to be replaced with the glass and vice versa. So if you have a cracked iPhone glass, you’re going to get a new digitizer as well. If you have an iPhone that doesn’t respond to touch, you’ll also get a new glass. It’s just the way it’s designed.

You might see these assemblies marketed as:

• iPhone glass
• iPhone digitizer
• iPhone touch screen
• iPhone glass screen
• iPhone screen
• iPhone touch panel

For all intents and purposes, these terms are all interchangeable and are all the same thing. Are you in need of one of these parts? Here’s a list of glass/digitizer repairs that we sell here at Mission Repair:

• iPhone 2G Glass Repair
• iPhone 3G Glass Repair
• iPhone 3GS Glass Repair
• iPhone 4 Glass Repair
• iPhone 4S Glass Repair
• iPhone 5 Glass Repair
• iPhone 5C Glass Repair
• iPhone 5S Glass Repair
• iPhone 6 Glass Repair
• iPhone 6 Plus Glass Repair
• iPhone 6S Glass Repair
• iPhone 6S Plus Glass Repair

Don’t forget our wide selection of iPad Glass Repair options!

Remember, you might see these glass panels for sale cheap – be sure to inquire about the required digitizer that is fused to the glass from the factory – without it, the glass is useless. You cannot replace the glass or “remove” your good digitizer and reinstall it onto your iPhone without advanced equipment and lots of training. It just doesn’t work! These assemblies are built together and must stay together. I hope this information helps!

Apple iPhone 5SE

Hello all –

If you have been following the news releases or the Mission Repair blog, there has been plenty of reviews and opinions about the new 4″ iPhone 5SE. The best news is the LCD screen, should the worst happen, is the same part as the iPhone 5S. Although the cables are slightly different, this should keep repair part costs within reason for this new iPhone! I’ll keep you updated as the parts become available. If you purchased the iPhone 5SE I’d love to hear what you think about it.  Leave a comment below. 

Have a great day!

Jeff

PLEASE! It’s worth the effort.

Hello there and good morning friends,

I wanted to talk about another scenario that is worth thinking about when you send your device into us; while we take in mail-in repairs every day from across the USA, there are times that the delivery driver makes mistakes. Take this package that we received recently for example:

No, there isn’t an accordion in this box, there was actually a Microsoft Surface 2 in there that somehow miraculously wasn’t damaged more than expected. A good amount of bubble-wrap took care of that.

But this is a reminder then when you send in your devices, it’s just a good idea to add “replacement value insurance” on your package in case it arrives in worse condition than this one did. We all know that things can happen, and our shipping carriers are not perfect.

Check out out shipping instructions page if you want to see what we really recommend.

I just want to make sure that your repair goes smoothly! 😉

Talk to you later, Ryan

We aren’t just your average repair center.

Every day we receive calls from customers asking if we fix devices other than Apple Computers and iPhones…the answer is that Apple is only a piece of what do. Mission Repair isn’t just one of these new “pop up” smartphone repair companies that you see on every street corner!

Yes, we do a lot of Apple repairs there’s no doubt about that. But did you know that we can repair the microphone on your Motorola Droid? Or upgrade the hard drive on your Dell laptop? Maybe you’ve got an iMac that needs a RAM upgrade? Mission Repair is your one-stop shop for your electronics repairs and upgrades.

Check out our full line up at MissionRepair.com or give us a call at 844-459-0105 to speak to one of our friendly representatives.

Here’s a fun little tidbit. When someone searches “screen repair” on the web, we will most likely pop up as a search result. However we have gotten several calls from customers asking if we repair screen doors. I’m sorry, but that’s just not on our list of expertise!! Have a good Friday.

Ryan