this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2024
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Bahahaha
I’ve had the opposite experience, but I have AppleCare. I’ve seen the prices without it and you’re not wrong! I had cracked the back glass on my phone a year or so ago and it cost me like, $30 to fix. Without AppleCare it would’ve been almost $700. And that’s because—due to the ridiculous design—replacing the back glass involves replacing the entire phone other than the screen and camera module. New battery, new SoC, new storage, new everything.
I later confirmed with an acquaintance who works at the Apple Store that, as long as your battery is still in decent-ish shape, this is a cheaper way to replace the battery. Break the back glass and get that replaced with AppleCare, and you get a new battery. But if you wait for the battery to drop below whatever threshold it is for them to replace the battery (I believe 80% life), it’s more expensive. This acquaintance told me this kind of thing is why he genuinely thinks AppleCare is the best deal they offer. It’s basically a way to inexpensively swap your phone with an identical replacement under certain circumstances.
Recent iphone models have “easily” removable back glass, and it’s actually the main entrypoint for replacing the battery, lowering costs due lower risk of a broken screen (see new google pixels with screens that almost always break on removal)
After this, apple also lowered the cost of most repairs, including on models that don’t get the new replaceable back. the non applecare cost for a battery replacement ranges from 80-100 dollars roughly. which is comparable to the cost of a replacement with even a generic battery from a 3rd party shop.