Take your iPhone 5 to Apple with a broken display and the company will charge as much as $229 to swap it out. As MarketWatch notes, that’s a pretty steep price to fix a phone that starts at $199 on contract. This is pretty bad news for iPhone owners; according to third-party gadget insurer SquareTrade, almost one out of every three iPhone owners damaged their phones last year. Why is it so expensive to fix iPhones? The simplest explanation is often the correct one: iPhone 5 parts are much more expensive than typical smartphone parts. Apple’s restrictions on components are making parts so expensive, in fact, that some popular repair companies are refusing to service the iPhone 5. In the end, AppleCare is unfortunately still the best way to save money on iPhone 5 repairs.
Why does the iPhone 5 cost so much to repair?
Published May 23rd, 2013 12:20PM EDT
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Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 15 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.
His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.
