| Display repair or replacement price | Back panel | Turnaround time | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple iPhone 12/12 Pro | $279 | $449/$549 | 3-5 days without shipping times, same business day when taken to an Apple Store after an online appointment |
| Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max | $329 | $599 | |
| Samsung Galaxy Fold 2 | $549 (*149 if you buy before December 31) $139 (front screen) |
– | up to 10 business days (up to 2 days for shipping, 5-7 working days for repair, 2 days for shipping out), same day for walk-ins in authorized repair centers |
| Galaxy Note 20 Ultra | $279 | – | up to 10 business days (up to 2 days for shipping, 5-7 working days for repair, 2 days for shipping out), same day for walk-ins in authorized repair centers |
| Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max and XS Max | $329 | $599 | 3-5 days without shipping times, same business day when taken to an Apple Store after an online appointment |
| Apple iPhone XS and iPhone X | $279 | $549 | 3-5 days without shipping times, same business day when taken to an Apple Store after an online appointment |
| Apple iPhone 11 and iPhone XR | $199 | $399 | 3-5 days without shipping times, same business day when taken to an Apple Store after an online appointment |
| Apple iPhone 8 Plus and 7 Plus | $169 | $399 (8 Plus), $349 (7 Plus) | 3-5 days without shipping times, same business day when taken to an Apple Store after an online appointment |
| Apple iPhone 8 and iPhone 7 | $149 | $349 (8), $319 (7) | 3-5 days without shipping times, same business day when taken to an Apple Store after an online appointment |
Enter third-party repair companies like the one you see in the video above which offer the same service – a cracked iPhone back replacement – but for much, much less. How? Well, instead of being part-swappers, as the Apple shops and Best Buy locations are, they actually put their back in it, pun intended.
Here’s the scoop directly from the repair shop owner: “during the second laser run, right here, you’ll see we’re vaporizing the residual glue left over after removing the glass. Once the second laser round is done, we’ll take it back over to our workstation and we’ll brush off the rest of that glue. [brushing] I use a metal brush that gets in and scrubs that adhesive right off of there. You have to have a surgeon’s precision, because if you go in and get those metal brush teeth into a gap, you could damage a component.“
As you can see, instead of swapping the whole housing with the frame, reattaching all the components back and then restoring the water-resistance rating with an abundance of glue, the repair tries to only swap what’s broken, the actual glass.
It is not an easy task, as it involves laser cutting, a lot of precision cleaning and reattaching but then the iPhone is back as new without actually having to pry it open for a simple back crack:
Now that I’ve removed all the glass, I can finally start putting the phone all the way back together. When I’m re-adhering the back glass to the frame, I use industrial-strength glue. It’s called B-7000. Straight from the Apple factory, they use cold press glue. We try not to get too close to the edges. That way we don’t have a lot of seepage. After the repair is done, if there’s any extra glue, we’ll go ahead and clean it up with some glue remover.
Moral of the story – don’t drop your iPhone without a case as it will cost you either way, but if you do, go the independent repair shop route unless it’s a simple screen replacement – those are cheaper at Apple.
