- iFixit and Samsung are ending their partnership on a direct-to-consumer phone repair program.
- iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens says “Samsung does not seem interested in enabling repair at scale” and that the deal is not working due to high parts prices and difficulty of repairs.
- Samsung only ships batteries pre-glued to the phone screen, forcing customers to pay over $160 even for just a battery replacement, unlike with other vendors.
- The contract also limited iFixit to selling no more than 7 parts per customer in a 3-month period, hampering their ability to support local repair shops.
- Additionally, Samsung required iFixit to share customer email addresses and purchase history, which iFixit does not do with other partners.
- iFixit says it will continue to stock aftermarket Samsung parts and publish repair guides, but will no longer work directly with Samsung on official repair manuals.
iFixit says:
We clearly didn’t learn our lesson the first time, and let them convince us they were serious about embracing repair.
We tried to make this work. Gosh, we tried. But with such divergent priorities, we’re no longer able to proceed.
Evil megacorp declines to be less evil, news at 11
True. Still I think it is not possible to have too much public attention, when it comes to evil corporate stuff. Keep a light on these mf.
mfw the zaibatsu does zaibatsu things
Chaebol. Zaibatsus are in Glorious Nippon, Chaebols are Korean. But same concept, and just as terrible.
Yeah, forgot the Korean term for it, but it’s basically potato potato
I have to admit, Samsung have some great things in terms of hardware, but this is not one of them - and their anti-consumer practices will continue to keep me away from the brand.
Yeah they have some cool gadgets and designs, but this kind of shit + the software side has always kept me away from the brand
that’s fine but the number of people on the globe who refuse to buy from them is literally a rounding error
There isn’t really a lot of options for a premium products.
Phones for example, sure they’re all repairable phones but they’re cheap low-end models, there’s nothing in the high-end market.
You’ve basically got Samsung and Google and then if you’re prepared to go with iOS Apple, but none of them are any better than Samsung.
At least from software point of view Google doesn’t make a fuss with the warranty if you unlock the bootloader of the phone, which can’t be said about Samsung (and good luck with Apple about that). It might not matter to the majority of users, but it matters to me.
In the EU at least Samsung can’t make a fuss either.
How’s that? As far as I know, once you trip Knox (which unlocking the bootloader does), you can’t restore the phone to factory state. Will they honour the warranty then?
IANAL: The short of it is that unless Samsung can prove that it’s the software’s fault that the malfunction is there, they have to repair it. A blown efuse is just as much proof as the ‘warranty broken if removed’ stickers, which is none.
There’s lot’s of cases online where Samsung/resellers try to stop people but as long as you are persistent and don’t just accept them not wanting to fix it they will repair it.
There’s also some cases of going through the small claims court to handle this (which doesn’t cost anything if you win) Small claims court
Also: This ONLY applies to the normal EU warranty which you always have, any extended warranty does not need to repair your device if you’ve rooted it.
You might be right (I hope you are), but it’s yet another gamble I’m not willing to take. Moreover, even if you don’t have to resort to warranty, you have limitations after you trip Knox if you change your mind or if you want to resell the device.
There are flagship quality phones that aren’t totally impossible to repair, and at reasonable prices.
Sent from my OnePlus 12
while i have some significant beef with samsung’s repair-ability, i was able to get my phone repaired. Had a problem with the antenna, and for $200 CAD had a new modem and a new antenna installed at a private shop.
At least samsung doesnt ‘key’ their parts!
Xiaomi phones are repairable in my experience, but they aren’t reliable enough to be used long term (except older models).
Apple consistently has better hardware if you’re willing to nuke iOS, and slap on an actual version of Linux, or hell, even Windows runs better on Apple hardware in my experience.
It’s just getting it on there that’s more than a bit dodgy
Did they really say, “We tried to make this work. Gosh, we tried.”?
Well, golly.
Yeah. It would’ve been fleek and groovy if they said mid or litchally. So fetch.
“We tried to make this work. No cap fam fr fr ong.”
Ugh… stop trying to make “fetch” work!
Is this a meme? Every time I’ve seen someone use fetch there’s always someone telling them to stop trying to make it a thing. I love it either way and I will henceforth do my part.
it’s a reference from the original mean girls movie, one of the characters says ‘that’s so fetch!’ a lot and regina keeps telling her to stop trying to ‘make fetch a thing’ hope this helps :)
I see! Thank you for expanding my knowledge. That’s kinda fetch of you.
You should watch the film, it’s great!
Oh God. You are so big. So absolutely huge. Gosh we’re all really impressed down here, I can tell you.
So, at this point it is cheaper to change iPhone battery in Apple Store. Wow.
This article is primarily about Samsung, but yes, there is a brief mention of iFix its battery prices, which are $50.
Apple charges $99 for a battery swap on a new phone. Component + labor.
Samsung’s replacement is $90 if done at a service center, so it was more expensive to buy the parts (because they included the screen for some reason)
I wonder, does it qualify as unwanted service?
If you’re technically inclined, you buy a Samsung phone only once.
But in my defense, the Galaxy S3 is legendary up to this day. They didn’t got better since then.
I had the original Galaxy Note and loved it. Then I went to oneplus one and loved it. Then I went Nexus 6 and liked it enough. Then I got the first Pixel.
I’ve been pixels ever since. But there was a deal on the Galaxy flip5, $0 up front, $300 over 2 years. I couldn’t pass it up, for the novelty if nothing else.
There’s a lot I like about this phone, but a lot more that I don’t. I’m looking forward to going back to Pixel when I can.
This phone is missing so many standard features, and so many others are locked behind Samsungs walled garden that I refuse to sign up for. It’s just a mess. I’m frequently frustrated.
I highly recommend the pixel fold if you want a folding phone but don’t want to go with Samsung. It’s a better form factor anyway and it closes all the way.
Thanks for the recommendation!
I like the fold concept in theory, though it’s a bit exhausting protecting the screen all the time.
Being able to set the phone anywhere at an angle to take a picture has come in handy super frequently.
If this phone was full price though I think I’d be mad. I baby this screen line no tomorrow, and I’m diligent about keeping my pocket free of any dust and lint, let alone dirt or bits.
I’ve got a tiny scratch in the middle of the fold, and the entire fold area has long tiny cracks forming from folding. I’ve only had this phone for like 7 or 8 months.
My buddies broke in 30 days of buying it, and he had to fight to get it replaced.
Again, I like the idea, and I enjoy using it. But there’s still too many pain spots for me to make the jump. It’ll have to get a lot cheaper or a lot more sturdy before I’ll get another.
I think s10 might have been peak.
yes, i got the s10e and wanted the standard s10, but both were unlockable (fuck samsung, snapdragon and american isps), i haven’t used or seen a better device around me since
I love the displays they put into cheap phones, but other than that they charge too much a premium for features that now should be standard such as fast and/or wireless charging
Samsung phones have some of the best features like the S Pen and Dex which turns your phone into a computer if you connect it to a TV/monitor. Samsung’s marketing is bad and doesn’t really tell you all the features it has.
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Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
This is exactly it. I owned an S3 and used it for many years, it was reliable. Assuming it would be of similar quality, I eventually upgraded to an (at that point) already outdated S5. It did not last as long. I’ve been using a Google pixel ever since.
There’s not really a lot of options out there. Can’t say I agree with Samsung’s policies but their devices are pretty good compared to everyone else. iPhones are well, if you’d consider an iPhone then we wouldn’t be in this conversation. Chinese brands generally have very problematic software, Pixels are pretty barebones unless you’re into the AI stuff (Material 3 is also pretty ugly), Sony is very expensive and fairly barebones too.
This why the “technically inclined”, as long as the device has some community support.
S4 Mini.
CMM
If you kept it long enough… The last update made it unusably slow, was the only phone I ever destroyed and sent for recycling as there was no way I could sell that thing to someone.
Also last Samsung phone I ever bought for that reason. Actually could be the last Samsung anything I nought come to think of it
Man, I’m glad I bought a Murena Fairphone.
I am 1000% asking Lemmy where to buy my next phone. It’ll take some setup but Stallman will be proud.
I don’t think Stallman would be proud of anything Android, and certainly not something that the user can’t update outside of the manufacturer updates. Pretty much everything has a locked down BIOS, and you can’t really modify the OS yourself.
I’m using a Pixel (bad) with GrapheneOS (good), so I think Stallman would be a little happier, but he’d probably still prefer something like a Pinephone, which I think has a project to open up the modem.
I always hated Samsung for their shitty business practices, and the way they dealt with their customers in terms of device repairability
So if I were to order a battery replacement part from Samsung would it already be paired with a screen? Or could it be future proofed with a bit of DIY engineering? Cause I love my S22 Ultra, and am tired of upgrading every 2-4 years because the battery starts holding less and less charge.
Some newer phones allow you to stop charging at 80% which will essentially extend the life of your battery for as many years as you want it.
Settings->battery->stop charging at 80%
I get a full day out of 80% and I’m nearly always near a charging source so I use it and haven’t found any issues with it.
I am pretty sure this only showed up in Android 14 for me. OnePlus phone.
They really should just make 80 the new 100
I fully agree. Like even 90% would reduce the amount of waste significantly without really impacting usability.
I got a reasonably high end phone for my last one (about €500 at the time) and it survived so so well and I only learned about the 80% thing about 2 years into it and still was charging it to full occasionally.
This automatic 80% thing that just came in is great.
It’s nice to have the option for when you’re expecting bad weather or will be out for an extended period.
My phone doesn’t have this feature, so at bed time I just tap a button on a smart switch to give it roughly another 20-60% overnight.
Can you tell me a little more about this please?
I haven’t come across a smart switch before as I generally try to minimise the number of smart devices in my home. I presume you have to pair your phone with something. It sounds quite intriguing.
No it’s just a typical smart socket and I’ve put my phone charger in it. (an old 1 amp charger so it is easier on the battery.) The 60% button turns the switch on for about three hours for example. (Phone has 5A battery.)
The charger is on from midday in case I forget to select a charging amount before sleeping.
You could do similar with an old fashioned rotary mechanical timer socket.
Perfect. Thank you.
Didn’t know about this feature, thanks!
You’re welcome. :)
I had learned about the “only charging to 80% extending battery longevity significantly” thing a while back and got over 5 years out of my last phone because of it.
I did switch to lineage OS after OnePlus stopped doing updates. Still… Not having to try to time it myself is a really nice feature now.
I think it’s more if you want to replace one you have to replace both, and if you don’t glue the battery to the screen the phone will fall apart, that’s what I’d do if I was an evil corporation and wanted customers to buy a new phone instead of repairing
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Two years after they teamed up on one of the first direct-to-consumer phone repair programs, iFixit CEO and co-founder Kyle Wiens tells The Verge the two companies have failed to renegotiate a contract — and says Samsung is to blame.
“Samsung does not seem interested in enabling repair at scale,” Wiens tells me, even though similar deals are going well with Google, Motorola, and HMD.
Instead of being Samsung’s partner on genuine parts and approved repair manuals, iFixit will simply go it alone, the same way it’s always done with Apple’s iPhones.
(While Samsung did add the S23, Z Flip 5, and Z Fold 5 to its self-repair program in December, that was with a different provider, Encompass; iFixit says it was left out.)
Some of those guides also mention a Samsung Self Repair Assistant app, which is weirdly not available in either Google Play or the Galaxy Store and has to be sideloaded in the US.
We can’t comment further on partnership details at this time,” reads part of a statement from Samsung head of mobile customer care Mario Renato De Castro to The Verge.
The original article contains 748 words, the summary contains 186 words. Saved 75%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Changed my phone last December… increasingly glad it wasn’t a Samsung.
Out of curiosity, what did you buy?
Samsung has always been garbage, and they’ve tricked you into thinking they’re premium just like Apple does. My $2000 Samsung TV from 2016 suddenly had serious light bleed at the 2-year mark. Turns out on the forums, lots of people complained about that model having light bleed at the two-year mark. The support forums morons refused to do refunds. My Samsung remote stopped working properly until I reinsert the batteries. Samsung folding phones break from folding, Samsung batteries explode, Samsung products are cheap garbage made to break that try to sell you on a single “cutting edge” feature. Samsung is planned obsolescence. Don’t buy Samsung.
Isn’t iFixit an Apple authorized repair center? Tf they breaking up with Samsung for when they’re just copying what apples been doing.
I do not believe iFix it is an Apple authorized repair center. They do not sell “genuine” OEM Apple parts.
Yeah there’s only one place to buy genuine apple parts, and when you get to that site, it feels sketchy, and I think that’s intentional
https://selfservicerepair.com/home
It feels like a pop up alibaba shop, but that is truly the only place to legally buy genuine Apple OEM parts
Yeah, this site is basically a way to remain compliant with right to repair laws. It’s not actually supposed to be a good experience.
I’d be shocked if any real UX designers even worked in that thing. It looks like it was designed by Lemmy’s creator.
It probably had real UX designers, but their goal was to make it bad enough that nobody wants to use it without actually breaking the site.
Removed by mod
Too much fuss about nothing. Samsung just want to be sure that they aren’t getting ripped off on warranty repairs and that they have an accurate idea of the devices repair history. Especially with 4 - 7 years OS support on new models, that phone will likely belong to several owners over the years.
When I worked in Telecoms back in 2005 - 2008, Samsung had the very best repair centres. Out of all the OEM’s their repairs were the fastest and the best quality and if a phone went in for repair more than twice, they would replace it on the third repair with a brand new unit.
Could not say that about Nokia, HTC, Sony Ericsson or Motorola. (There was no iPhone yet in my country at that time)
Hail corporate
All this Samsung hate.
Tell me which phone to buy. Plot twist:
- no fucking apple because the company and their phone keyboards enrage me
- no Samsung now
- no huawei or similar Chinese spyware
Bonus
- really great camera
- good photosphere software. (Clarify: it’s a panoramic with up and down as well so it makes a sphere around the photog almost)
- imap, ical, smtptls (basic, I know)
- 3.5mm jack
Don’t use it as a phone but as a tablet so I don’t care about
- phone
- SMS
- iMessage, naturally
Okay, confidently smart people. Go!
–…
Edit: I love how asking a question gets downvotes. Thanks people!
Motorola and Nokia have phones with 3.5mm jack, and they come with pretty clean Android, without a bunch of bloat, aggressive task killers and whatnot. Though I can’t speak for camera, photosphere or repairability.
Pixels are good in some ways, but of course, those don’t come with a 3.5mm jack.
Happy with my g84. $350AU
Dual sim Oled Headphone socket SD card option Fast charging Stereo speakers Call recorder 5g
Only gripes Camera not great Volume jumps from moderate to loud Leaving the camera app too soon after taking a picture in suboptimal lighting will lose the photo.
Edit: ok voyager, what did you do with my carriage returns?
No one’s saying don’t buy Samsung. I noticed your list of requirements didn’t include great repairability, which this article and comments are about
Sony Xperia line has a lot the things you want.
You could go with an older model and throw lineage on it too
Only 2 years max of Android support, no security patches after that. E-waste producers only second to Redmi and Huawei.
What’s wrong with redmi, I’m using the 4x from 2017 and am planing to unlock the bootloader and use it for a couple of years.
I like the pixel line of phones. Less bloat, just Android. All unlocked.
No headphone jack on the newer pixels.
Yeah, that’s a fair complaint for sure. I’m using a pixel 4a with a headphone jack and I can’t imagine living without one. I guess I’m not sure what phone I’ll get next.
I just got a Pixel 8 and I’m annoyed there’s no headphone jack. I have BT headphones as well, but my nice, non-BT headphones won’t work.
You can get a dongle though, so that’s an option.
Yeah, the headphone jack thing has been a major sticking point for me. But it seems like it’s becoming increasingly unrealistic to hold that line. Just sucking it up and getting a dongle might be the logical way to go…
See that’s an issue.
I came out second in a fight one time on the base, and suffered hearing damage on the one side. Wheee. Wireless phones for me at least are harder to hear on, and speaker phones worse. Battery headphones? No thanks, even if the apple ear pods are fucking magical for ANC on a plane ride or train ride when she sends me hers (I don’t even pair them or play music; just light them up for blissful silence). I do find them expensive and disposable, normally, and that’s irksome to a former poor kid.
I love that I can use a good-fitting earbud set that plugs into everything I need, and each thing doesn’t need its own converter dongle to lose. It’s a huge feature for me.
Xiaomi phones, if you unlock the bootloader and install a custom rom.
Yeah, the selection kinda sucks.
I went with Pixel 8 because:
- can be flashed with another Android OS - I went with GrapheneOS
- 6.5 years of Android updates (no word on security updates)
- fancy new memory tagging feature for security - maybe I’ll feel confident using it after it gets updates
- great screen
- probably more repairable? A quick search found a battery replacement for an okay price ($50?)
But none of that is on your list. I don’t care about the camera (though it does have arguably the best camera on the market), and pretty much any software can do ical/IMAP/smtptls. I don’t know what “photosphere” is (again, don’t care about the camera), but I’m guessing Pixel does it or something similar. It even has fun AI crap to play with (I use GrapheneOS, so I’m not getting any of that).
The only thing missing here is the 3.5mm jack, and requiring that is going to limit your options significantly. If you can budge on that (e.g. get a dongle or BT headphones), Pixel could work for you. There might even be a case that provides one, IDK.
I don’t know what “photosphere” is (again, don’t care about the camera)
It’s amazing, IMHO. It’s the difference between a pan shot and street view (ie, look up as well).
I’m only going to see a few amazing things given the opportunities available to someone like me even with our economic mobility, but I love going back and revisiting the things I’ve seen in detail. The cliffs of Ronda or the ceiling of the old bath houses below it, the view from the central hotel in Reykjavik or the shared rooftop patio in my old apartment; or date-stamped pics of that apartment so the landlord can’t say we hosed the trim in the second bedroom. These are things I love to go back to and spot new details I missed at the time but are interesting or important later, and I have a massive collection of such treasures.
I won’t be back to the natural history museum near the Atlanta zoo and its phenomenal dinosaur skeleton, as I don’t get to fly except for work and that job’s done, but I forgot until I looked again that they assembled small skeletons of winged dinosaurs as part of it: I blanked on that until I reviewed it years later, for instance.
Photospheres are a thing that, once you realize the dimension they add to a good panoramic memento, you just can’t do without, IMHO.
Hope you see it too!
-…
Huh, it looks like Google Camera 9.1 (what’s on the original Android shipped with Pixel 8) removed that feature.
But honestly, if I wanted that, I could get it with a separate camera, like the Insta360.
Anyway, I hope you find a good fit!
