It’s not us, it’s you. It’s with a heavy wrench that we have decided to end our partnership with Samsung. Despite a huge amount of effort, Samsung’s approach to repairability does not align with our mission.
Starting June 2024, iFixit will no longer be Samsung’s designated third-party parts and tools distributor.
Also starting next month, we will no longer have a quantity limit of seven Samsung parts per repair shop per quarter.
Wow that is quite a limit Samsung. I can see why no one would want to be a partner with them. (Which was obviously the point.)
It's not just about the cost though. They're inferior to pretty much any other mid-range or high-end smartphone too. Expensive but good would be fine. Cheap and mediocre would be fine. Expensive and mediocre though? Nah.
My £250 used phone has a faster processor, more RAM, better screen (higher resolution, brighter, bigger and higher frame rate), and a higher capacity battery with faster charging. It's a mid-range Xiaomi from a couple years ago, not a high end or flagship phone.
They should take notes from pinephone. Offers something unusual at a low cost. Since enthusiasts eat that stuff up you get extra help with software and ROMs too. Yes it's low spec, but it's good enough for enthusiasts to play with and is of good value as the price reflects the quality.
Yeah, roll one out with a 5.8" screen and a headphone jack amd I'll buy it at a premium. I'd shell out even more for a true iPhone mini-sized phone if they make the battery fat enough for decent battery life -- small phones can still be ergonomic and light enough with a little extra chonk.
Giant screen, no headphone jack? No thanks, I might as well buy a $50 android phone at a gas station.
I mean if you keep a FP5 for it's entire service life it's actually a pretty damn cheap phone. If all goes well maybe a couple of battery changes tops.
I would rather buy nokia with ifixit partnership and save hundreds of euros. for me it's about the money 700€ is a shit ton of money
edit: okay after looking moreninto nokia phones (or hmd phones, maker of current nokias) I would propably hold my money until they release something new and good which isnt too expensive, currently their lineup is a bit weird. but they do make the phones mostly from recycled materials and I like the idea of that company. (mostly cuz it's finnish and even stores the data in finland so no china involved)
Buy an older secondhand flagship. It's actually an even greener option. Battery may need replacing but hopefully* EU will make that easier for all of us.
Glad they're not afraid to call out Samsung here. Most manufacturers don't care about repairability.
I have to wonder if they're finding issues with the new Google phones. Supposedly Google has committed to have the Pixel 8 parts available but I haven't had to look into it.
Most importantly, Samsung has only ever shipped batteries to iFixit that are preglued to an entire phone screen — making consumers pay over $160 even if they just want to replace a worn-out battery pack. That’s something Samsung doesn’t do with other vendors, according to Wiens. Meanwhile, iFixit’s iPhone and Pixel batteries cost more like $50.
While this may be concerning from an ewaste standpoint, don't worry! Samsung has that covered. For anyone that elected to get a new phone instead of replacing a simple part Samsung has had the courage to not include a charging brick which slightly decreases the size of the box. Customers that need a charging brick can aquire one through a separate expensive purchase that comes in another box shipped on a different cargo ship from china. Samsung is super duper into being green.
If you're replacing your phone surely it's better that it doesn't come with the charger (from an environmental point of view), since you don't have to ship it back and they don't have to ship you a new one. And what does it matter if they're on different ships? It would still be pretty much the same amount of emissions released, which is probably less than the amount needed to drive it to your house. Adding the extra packaging for two separate items isn't great though, and I agree that as a customer it isn't great to get less for the same price.
Honestly I'm loving my FP5. I liked my previous two handsets, but between locked bootloaders and lack of support after a few years they weren't much use to me. I'm looking forward to a another eight years or so with this one, though.
I just picked up an S20 on swappa because I destroyed my S10 and there aren't any s10s for sale...the back fell off...not broken. I'm going to replace the battery before I restick the back on.
You don't think that was running through my head as I'm emailing the seller......"I love the phone but the back fell off... nothing broken, I didn't drop it" then I sent pictures.... being that I HAVE dropped a new phone before...I'm pretty good at understanding and accepting when it's my mistake vs wtf‽
It's impressive they managed to last this long. I remember getting the ifixit kit for my first Note. I think I replaced the screen twice and had several spare batteries after the first one stopped holding a charge.
I'm not sure who you mean by "they". iFixit is great, but they just sold me the tools and the parts, and provided the replacement guides. I have been a customer since they opened their webshop, but I haven't ordered anything from them for a few years. I can only assume they still have great customer service, if they're willing to cut ties with Samsung over customer privacy.
Samsung was OK back then. I really liked the device, but it was a little flawed and they offered nothing for the battery that didn't hold a charge. Eventually the charging port also failed, but by that time I had three spare batteries, so I would just rotate them through the device rather than plug it in. The screen cracking was on me, I dropped it, but the other issues shouldn't have required a third-party DIY repair channel at all.
About 6 montha ago I wanted to replace my S21 battery and checked with Samsung, who redirected me to iFixit. The only genuine Samsung S21 battery they had was only sold with the screen, which cost ~$130 or something. I didn't need the screen...
Last month I checked again and saw they had a third party replacement battery for ~$30, same capacity. I bought it and popped it in. It's been working fine.
Was it Samsung's requirement that the battery only be sold with the screen? At the time, I would have rather had the genuine Samsung battery and would have paid a bit extra for it, but not $100 extra.