Should you repair or replace your mobile phone?

Posted by Darwin Cellular  on February 10th, 2021

The mobile phone industry does a fantastic job of motivating people, young and old, to ditch their money semi-annually or annually. It is quite rare for people to keep their old phones for a long time. Obviously, there are exceptions to the rule. In fact, I recently upgraded from the iPhone 4S (quite a bit of effort!). But there is no question that it is much more common for people to update their phones than to retain them. And that's exactly what phone companies count on.

Samsung and Apple are some of the biggest companies on the planet and they don't get that big without a huge and hungry customer base. It's not that they only cell phones, but that's where we're going to focus our attention for now. These companies are fantastic at marketing and they push you to believe that your life will change if you just buy the latest and greatest smartphone to rule your life. We hear from many people who are disappointed after speaking to 'big boys' phone support and finding out that the new phone they just got is going to cost almost as much as they paid for a screen replacement because they dropped it. if they replace it at all. Many new phone warranty claims are instantly rejected for "physical damage" because customers dropped their phones.

But having a cracked screen on your phone doesn't have to be a death sentence for your mobile phone (or your wallet). If you've made it this far, you probably already know that we've repaired tens of thousands of mobile devices over the years and given them a new life. But in addition to saving money, there are other very good reasons to never throw your old phone in the trash.

The environmental impact of electronic waste

In 2016, 44.7 tons of electronic waste were generated worldwide, which is equivalent to about 6.1 kg per person. That number is expected to rise to more than 52 tons globally by 2021. It is estimated that 76% of e-waste is likely to be disposed of, traded or recycled in other ways, but regardless of the lack of data, it is still a huge void to fill. Only 20% of e-waste is documented as being properly recycled. However, despite this, more than 90% of the materials used in mobile devices could be recycled.

The news gets worse; Australia is in the area that generated the most e-waste per person globally at 17.3kg, with only 6% documented as recycled. Poor results are really no excuse here in Australia. There are specific mobile phone recycling businesses like Mobile Muster and we offer mobile phone recycling and buyback services ourselves, just give us a call and we will let you know how much your device is worth or we can arrange for recycling properly for you.

Why are some mobile phones easier to repair than others?

You've probably heard that in an effort to reduce the size of mobile devices that designers needed to make decisions, which means some phones are very difficult to Phone Repairs Palmerston. In some cases, that may be true, but there is certainly an undeniable effort to make some devices difficult to Phone Repairs Palmerston, so if they break, you have to buy a new one. It wasn't that long ago that mobile phones were specifically designed to have replaceable batteries so that when they began to reach the end of their useful life, a new one could be fitted.

Many parts of a phone are now so tightly integrated that we have to break specific parts to even reach the broken part. This could mean that if you break the outer layer of glass on your phone, we will most likely have to replace the entire screen as well.

They also make it very difficult to obtain parts for your party companies. Electronic parts are not always very expensive and they would have trouble keeping their big margins on phone repairs if it were easy for companies like us to get parts easily.

We have worked long and hard to get the best parts at the lowest prices and have combined with experienced technicians to provide you with the best possible repairs. We back this claim with an optional lifetime warranty on many of the repairs we offer.