You know the drill.
The phone drops in slow-mo right in front of you, you become a real-time ninja trying to save it.
But too late.
Usually, when you find yourself in this predicament, a number of thoughts come to mind. “Why is this so expensive? It’s just a piece of glass! Can’t you just replace the glass in the back with all that heavy machinery you got there?”
Let's first look at what makes up the seemingly expensive price so we can define the right price for your cell phone repair.
Let's say you have an iPhone X and need a screen replacement. The price quote will be a combination of two main factors: parts and labor. While companies can be flexible on the labor cost, you don't want them to be cheap on the parts cost. Using our example model, an iPhone X screen has many attributes to it, mainly two parts - the glass LCD and the digitizer.
In touchscreen devices, the digitizer is a layer of glass that’s designed to convert analog touch commands into digital signals. Both capacitive and resistive touchscreen devices have a digitizer. It’s essentially a glass layer that’s placed over the device’s liquid-crystal display (LCD) layer. The digitizer’s primary purpose is to convert the analog signals from your touch commands into digital signals that the device can read.
To better understand how a digitizer works, you should familiarize yourself with the basic design of touchscreen devices. Capacitive touchscreens have a layer of glass on top, which is basically the digitizer. Below this glass layer is an LCD layer. The digitizer connects to the LCD using a flex cable, and the flex cable is able to transmit the converted digital signals to the LCD.
You might be wondering whether or not you can continue to use a touchscreen device with a physically broken digitizer. Since digitizers are made of glass, they aren’t immune to damage. Like other glass objects, they can crack or otherwise break when exposed to stress. If a touchscreen device’s digitizer breaks, it may affect the device’s functionality. Have you ever used a screen where the touch wasn't 100% correlated? that might be a digitizer issue.
As previously mentioned, the digitizer is responsible for converting analog signals into digital signals. If it breaks, it won’t be able to perform this conversion process. When you attempt to tap or touch an icon, the touchscreen device may fail to respond with the appropriate action.
LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) is a type of flat panel display which uses liquid crystals in its primary form of operation. LEDs have a large and varying set of use cases for consumers and businesses - they can be commonly found in smartphones, televisions, computer monitors, and instrument panels.
LCDs were a big leap in terms of the technology they replaced, which include light-emitting diode (LED) and gas-plasma displays. LCDs allowed displays to be much thinner than cathode ray tube (CRT) technology. LCDs consume much less power than LED and gas-plasma displays because they work on the principle of blocking light rather than emitting it. Whereas an LED emits light, the liquid crystals in an LCD produce an image using a backlight.
A display is made up of millions of pixels and the way a pixel is controlled is different in each type of display. CRT, LED, LCD, and newer types of displays all control pixels differently. In short, LCDs are lit by a backlight, and pixels are switched on and off electronically while using liquid crystals to rotate polarized light.
A polarizing glass filter is placed in front and behind all the pixels, and the front filter is placed at 90 degrees. In between both filters are the liquid crystals, which can be electronics.
As we established, the LCD is in charge of the image and colors, basically the main part of the front screen of your device, whether a smartphone or other smart device. Therefore, the price for LCD replacement is typically higher than a digitizer replacement.
If your screen is fully functioning with no color lines through the screen or other color marks through the front screen, then the digitizer is probably damaged. However, if you see lines, black spots or discolored areas, or the screen won’t light up, your LCD screen is most likely damaged and will need to be repaired.
As mentioned previously, replacing your LCD screen will be more expensive than just replacing your front screen.
This is a common question we get a lot from customers who are trying to lower the cost for their phone repair or iPad cracked screen replacement.
The answer obviously depends. Some of the iPads manufacturers honor the separation and you will be qualified for a repair of a digitizer or LCD screen. Most manufacturers, however, do not offer the separation and will charge repairs for both. Therefore, when either the digitizer or the LCD is damaged, you will need to replace the entire LCD.
There are different types of LCD screens, every one of them has its pros and cons. We also attached a great video by Aplong Tech
OEM is typically used to indicate that the parts are from the same original manufacturer(s) as the brand. This is very common for Samsung repair parts. At trufyx we use the original parts for all Samsung smartphone repairs.
The soft OLED is built around a flexible substrate. The soft OLED is a step ahead in mimicking original screen performance. Its display size matches the dimensions of the OEM screen, and the flexible substrate gives the soft OLED a leg up in hardiness, allowing it to absorb more impact without malfunctioning or breaking.
The hard OLED is built using a hard glass substrate. Two benefits of the switch from soft to hard are cheaper production cost and higher screen brightness. These benefits, however, come at the expense of display size and durability. The hard glass substrate is also more prone to damage than the soft OLED, and may crack more easily if dropped. It’s also worth adding that, while enhanced screen brightness sounds like an added bonus, it may be harsher for your eyes to look at.
While this is the cheapest option in this list, you should be able to assume the quality by its position in this list. The lower quality will mainly affect the colors, brightness, and the main experience for the phone user.
Here's a quick comparison video showing the different results using non-OEM parts.
With all the information provided above, you should now understand that the highest expense when repairing your phone is the part replacement.
If you go to an unauthorized shop or a low-reviewed shop, you are risking low-quality parts in your phone - especially if you try to negotiate on the price. An established repair company will never mislead you on the quality of the part they use. This is why they will be less flexible when it comes to price negotiation. However, the high price tag will also explain the high quality service you receive, along with the durability of your repaired phone.
Bottom line:
In this article we’ve explained why it is nearly impossible to expect to receive good service with top-quality parts for a price below the market rate. Based on your priority for your phone repair, you should search for the right repair service for you.
Be wary of companies and services that promise you high quality service and parts for your smartphone screen replacement at a price below market rate - it is often too good to be true. It is better to pay a higher price initially than paying more in the long run after your phone is repaired with cheap and illegitimate parts.
At trufyx, we keep our prices fair at market average, so that they're affordable to customers with good quality parts and excellent service. Get your quote in under 60 seconds, or check our free phone repair calculator to see if the screen replacement is worth it.
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