iPhone 6. Will it bend?

Good morning iPhone fans!

It’s not unusual that I ask my technicians to take a few pictures of phones that are severely damaged…but it is unusual that an iPhone 6 would come into us in this bad of shape!  Check out the “before pictures” below:

Of course, this iPhone 6 needed a lot of TLC…but once we replaced the back case and the glass, the rest of the phone was still working.  This is a testament to the “ruggedness” of the rest of the phone even though we all know that the glass can break very easily.  Obviously this phone was run over or caught in a car door or something.  Normally they don’t look this bad.  Once repaired, they typically tend to look this good!

So when people ask “can you fix my iPhone?!?”, just take a look at the pictures above and judge for yourself…if it’s not as bad of the first two pictures, there’s a good chance that Mission Repair will be able to help you out.  I mean, there’s not much more someone can do to try to test our skills, right?  Thanks to my technician Casey for handling this one.

Thanks for reading, I’ll be back soon!  Ryan

 

 

 

iPhone 6S and 6S Plus – will it bend?

Hello friends,

There’s no secret that Apple announced several new products today; and they all seem to be pretty impressive! What caught my attention first was that the new iPhone 6S and 6S Plus are now made from 7000 series aluminum. This is in effort to stop the bending problem that the current iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have, and today’s release confirmed the rumors that have been floating around for a few months about the new structure.

Here’s a little bit about alloys for those that are truly interested. For those that are not, this may be a little waste of time 😉

The International Alloy Designation System is the most widely accepted naming scheme for wrought alloys. Each alloy is given a four-digit number, where the first digit indicates the major alloying elements.

-1000 series are essentially pure aluminium with a minimum 99% aluminium content by weight and can be work hardened.
-2000 series are alloyed with copper, can be precipitation hardened to strengths comparable to steel. Formerly referred to as duralumin, they were once the most common aerospace alloys, but were susceptible to stress corrosion cracking and are increasingly replaced by 7000 series in new designs.
-3000 series are alloyed with manganese, and can be work hardened.
-4000 series are alloyed with silicon. They are also known as silumin.
-5000 series are alloyed with magnesium.
-6000 series are alloyed with magnesium and silicon. They are easy to machine, are weldable, and can be precipitation hardened, but not to the high strengths that 2000 and 7000 can reach. 6061 alloy is one of the most commonly used general-purpose aluminium alloy.
-7000 series are alloyed with zinc, and can be precipitation hardened to the highest strengths of any aluminium alloy (tensile strength up to 700 MPa for the 7068 alloy).
-8000 series are alloyed with other elements which are not covered by other series. Aluminium-lithium alloys are an example.

So with your new found aluminum knowledge, you can see that the new iPhones will have the highest strength possible, which is a good thing in my opinion. I bent my iPhone 6 shortly after I purchased it, and I even blogged about it here.

Personally, I know that the cause of a lot of screen cracks are due to bent iPhones, so kudos to Apple for rectifying a problem that seems to have been swept under the rug.

We’ve gotten our hands on one of the new iPhone 6S screens, and there is a mysterious little chip that is soldered to the back; we are guessing that it’s the 3D touch screen “force touch” controller, but until we get our hands on a complete phone, the answer will have to remain in the hands of the engineers at Apple. Time will tell, and I can guarantee you that the repair market will be very interested in this IC that may take us by surprise.

Never fear, I know that this won’t change our ability to perform the best repairs in the market, but now that the aluminum shell is tougher, we are going to really need to hone our “blacksmithing” skills for those bent cases. Have you ever seen an iPhone after it’s fallen down a flight of stairs? We have.

If you’re an Apple fan, today was a fun day. I’m looking forward to seeing these new devices in my hands soon!

Have a good night, Ryan

Cracked screens on iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus?

Hello friends-

It’s just happening every day now and it’s doesn’t seem to be letting up;

We are repairing a ton of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus screens and my technicians really know the in’s and out’s of the iPhone 6 models like they were born with the gift.

Here’s a shot of one each removed, cracked screens…on the left is the mighty iPhone 6 Plus, and on the right is the iPhone 6. Both of which are totally smashed and useless to the customer. Once replaced, the customer is sent on their way and then we recycle the screens properly.

Just take a look at these parts though – some customers state that they are actually getting glass in their face and hands – we’ve had this complaint for many years on these types of phones, but the 6’s seems to be shattering even worse than the predecessors. The LCD is SO THIN and installation of the screen by untrained technicians is just not advisable. There’s glass everywhere.

Remember Mission Repair if you need an iPhone 6 repair; we’ll be here for ya. And we’ll bring the band aids.

Take care, Ryan

Cracked iPhone 6 and what it looks like from the inside…

Good afternoon-

I wanted to take some time today to talk about the iPhone 6, show you a cracked unit as received from a customer, the tear down, and the end result after my senior technicians performed the repair. This customer placed their order online for a cracked screen repair, and did so by visiting our website by clicking this link: Phone 6 Screen Repair

We received the phone, and here’s what it looked like right out of the box…CRACKED!

The phone pre-tested out well, no additional issues upon arrival, all that was needed was a screen to be replaced. We disassembled the device; notice that all of the cabling is up near the top of the device on the logic board. This is good news for rework facilities like Mission Repair – less likelihood of damaging a home button cable upon opening.

Then it was time to install the new screen. Our screens are exact replacements – the same screens that are used in the manufacturing process. After reassembly, all that’s left to do it test the device and run it through our QA procedure.

Of course, we test all of our customer units before hey leave our facility, and we properly dispose of all used eWaste. In some cases, we gather things like batteries and other disposables and deliver them to the proper facilities. The cracked screen from this repair will be cataloged and saved internally as we may find a need for it in the future.

Since the iPhone 6 was released not even one week ago, we still have a little time for the price on these parts to “settle down” into a reasonable range. Just like anything else, demand for the screen vs. supply is skewed currently, and the price for the repair is higher than it will be by the time Christmas of this year is upon us.

As always, and with any iPhone that is still currently in use, we can repair the screen for you fast. Point in case, we received this device and were able to check it into our system, run it through our pre-test station, deliver it to the technician production line, repair the device, notate the customer’s order in our database, complete the repair, send it to QA, ship it and notify the customer of their outbound tracking number all in the same day. We do this thousands of times every month and we keep getting better!

That’s the Mission Repair Difference, and we’re here to help.

Have a great weekend. Ryan

P.S. – This iPhone was not bent when we received it. No bending here yet!