Apple lets you self-repair your iPhone

A scratch on the screen, a camera lens that doesn’t work or a vacuum cleaner that stops working. Technology is increasingly present in the lives of citizens and the problems derived from its use as well. The question is: do they spoil before? The answer has a name: planned obsolescence.

A concept that the European Commission has declared war on. Brussels seeks to promote a longer useful life of technological products to reduce electronic waste that does not stop growing year after year. A roadmap that also goes through the ‘do it yourself’ or ‘do it yourself’ (DIY) in English.

This current, very widespread in the United States, invites citizens to manufacture their own products and prevent third parties from doing so. In this case, the option goes through self-repair or repair at home. “77% of the citizens of the European Union prefer to repair a device to buy a new one,” says the Commission in a statement issued last April.

“The MEPs demand incentives for consumers to choose repair over replacement, such as extended warranties or receiving a replacement device for the duration of the repair,” he explains.

A stimulus that happens, among others, to be able to change, for example, the mobile screen, although it does not seem so easy. The latest technology giant to join the ‘right to repair’ initiative with its Self Service Repair Store.

Through this new measure, users of the bitten apple devices will be able to become real handymen and change a broken screen on their iPhone. Although, not everything is so simple.

Profitable?

Until not long ago, opening a device to fix it without the manufacturer’s permission was synonymous with losing the warranty. A thought that the industry, under pressure from the authorities, has put aside, but that has not allowed DIY to be a real alternative.

At the moment, this new Apple service is only available in the United States and only for the latest models of its smartphones (iPhone SE, iPhone 12 and iPhone 13). “Later they will be available for Mac,” adds the technology.

A step up, but not the cheapest. The iPhone 13 Pro battery repair, one of its latest models, is cheaper to repair in store than at home. In the case of the screen, for example, Americans do save ten dollars (269 versus 279), but it has small print.

To repair these devices you need some tools: you can buy them, but Apple gives you the option to rent them for a week for $49. In addition, the company offers its users the option to return the defective component for recycling, which reduces the total cost.