iFixit is Breaking Up With Samsung (theverge.com) 13
iFixit and Samsung are parting ways. Two years after they teamed up on one of the first direct-to-consumer phone repair programs, iFixit CEO and co-founder Kyle Wiens tells The Verge the two companies have failed to renegotiate a contract -- and says Samsung is to blame. From a report: "Samsung does not seem interested in enabling repair at scale," Wiens tells me, even though similar deals are going well with Google, Motorola, and HMD. He believes dropping Samsung shouldn't actually affect iFixit customers all that much. Instead of being Samsung's partner on genuine parts and approved repair manuals, iFixit will simply go it alone, the same way it's always done with Apple's iPhones. While Wiens wouldn't say who technically broke up with whom, he says price is the biggest reason the Samsung deal isn't working: Samsung's parts are priced so high, and its phones remain so difficult to repair, that customers just aren't buying.
Just making the fscking batteries replaceble (Score:3)
Just like they were in every dumb and feature phone before the sealed up iPhone came along. You slid or popped the back cover off and there was the battery, no dismantling required. Apple could easily have done this for the iphone but no doubt to save money on a more complex case and lock people into an upgrade cycle they didn't bother. Cynical doesn't even begin to describe it.
Re:Just making the fscking batteries replaceble (Score:4, Interesting)
Several journalists have misread the "no special expertise or tools required" text that has been passed around. It doesn't mean no tools and it would be terrible to lose the water resistance we have because humidity destroys circuitry, especially going in and out between hot humid air and air conditioning. Apple used to deny warranty claims just for the stickers turning pink from summer air.
Here is the specific wording:
A portable battery should be considered
to be removable by the end-user when it can be removed with the use of commercially
available tools and without requiring the use of specialised tools, unless they are provided
free of charge, or proprietary tools, thermal energy or solvents to disassemble it.
Commercially available tools are considered to be tools available on the market to all end users without the need for them to provide evidence of any proprietary rights and that can
be used with no restriction, except health and safety-related restrictions.
I think completely disallowing the use of thermal energy is a bad one because that's the best waterproofing we have. Cheap tools for thermal separation would be fine - an adapter for a hair dryer, for example. If you rely on screws and tension against a rubber/silicone seal, you're going to have a hard time with a consistent IP67 rating.
As an aside, expansion of failing batteries currently pushes adhesive seals apart. While that wrecks the waterproofing, it does run the risk of hiding failed batteries for longer or possibly breaking open the battery instead and starting more fires.
Re:Just making the fscking batteries replaceble (Score:5, Interesting)
i have a actual current phone that is water proof (IP68) AND that i can open using my finger and nails to replace the battery
check https://volla.online/en/volla-... [volla.online]
isn't even hard to do.
Yes, phones will be bit thicker to accommodate the battery socket and cover, but not much
Re: (Score:3)
"If you rely on screws and tension against a rubber/silicone seal, you're going to have a hard time with a consistent IP67 rating."
Kyocera doesn't have this problem.
Not thin enough (Score:3)
Just like they were in every dumb and feature phone before the sealed up iPhone came along.
Supermodel philosophy: You can never be too thin. Or too addicted to heroin.
Samsung Care (Score:4, Insightful)
Samsung Care in the US is something that can be purchased within a month after retail sale on any new Samsung phone or tablet, or at time of purchase with direct sale from Samsung. In the USA, Samsung's repair partners are (were?) Best Buy and iBreakUFix.
My S23 was killed by, of all things, getting splashed with salt water by a dolphin, but my Samsung Care policy includes accidental damage because I am NOT trying to fix a device that's glass on all sides in the best of cases.
What I found out in the aftermath of this was that 1. Almost no Best Buy can actually repair Samsung phones. I visited nine of them before somebody leveled with me to say that the people qualified to do the repairs don't stick around and in any case they don't keep the parts on hand as a matter of policy. You have to find a store that is currently employing a qualified tech AND willing to order the parts for you. This is a very unlikely confluence of circumstances, and Best Buy will basically tell you to go away if you pull out a clearly broken Samsung device.
ibreakufix locations aren't nearly as easy to come by but they are apparently the only authorized repair provider that will consistently work on Samsung devices. In my case, I just needed someone to verify my phone was completely inoperable in a way that's not worth fixing so I could get trade-in value on a new S24. The closest location to me was about an hour's drive, but I'd spent an entire day driving between Best Buy locations before somebody finally told me the deal with it.
All of this is intensely frustrating. I used to be able to fix my own goddamned phone. LG phones prior to the G8 could be fully disassembled to discrete parts in under a minute with an eyeglass-sized screwdriver. I just don't want to mess with delaminating the glass off the back of newer devices.
Seems A Good Place For A #GSOD reminder (Score:2)
Oh, in fact, another source [youtube.com] that says the same
A big part of the issue keeps being missed (Score:3)
That's the reality of it, that most people are incompetent when it comes to doing phone repairs. I don't agree that iFixit should have to go through it, but iFixit should then have had to suck it up every time they break a screen while trying to replace a battery, instead of making Samsung provide screens due to phone repair techs who are incompetent.
Re: (Score:2)
first, not everyone is incompetent doing repairs, second, professional repair shop can do that without any problem... so samsung can sell the battery/screen bundle, but MUST also to sell those in different parts for the previously named groups. But they don't do that, they don't really want to support right to repair, they want people to buy new phones, just like apple... samsung and apple are mostly the same, they only want is money and don't care about their customers nor the environment... but they like