Before we get started, we want to mention that we can’t guarantee these methods will be foolproof. Also, working on electronic devices always carries a risk of bodily harm. If at all possible, we recommend partnering with a professional electronics refurbisher.
Without further adieu, here are four smartphone repairs that you might be able to do on your own.
Getting a Few Necessary Items
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One of the first steps to take before repairing smartphones is to get a few tools. You’ll need these tools to access and work on various parts of your phone. As you get better with repairing smartphones, you can expand your toolset.
Until then, here are a few essential smartphone repair items you’re going to need.
Screwdriver Kit: When it comes to repairing smartphones, you’ll be working with a lot of screws. To ensure you always have the right tool for the job, you’ll need a set of screwdrivers. Unfortunately, the ones you’ll need probably aren’t in your home right now. If you have a set of screwdrivers for computers, these might work.
Screen Tools: Another common repair that we’ll get into has to do with smartphone screens. With that in mind, you’ll need a tool made for prying old screens off. Fortunately, these tools only cost a few dollars. If you plan on doing any type of smartphone screen repairs, pry tools are essential items to have.
Replacement Parts: If you’re wanting to start repairing smartphones, you’ll be doing lots of replacing. So, it’s wise to have a decent supply of smartphone replacement parts on hand. The types of replacement parts you’ll need depend on what types of repairs you’re doing. A few of the most common replacement items are screens, cameras, and buttons.
Test Devices: Of course, you’re also going to need more than a few test devices. These are devices that you can buy to test out your repair skills. Test phones are going to be ones in damaged or otherwise broken conditions. Fortunately, it’s easy to find deals on these phones since they’re not in optimal condition.
Of course, these won’t be the only types of smartphone repair tools on the market. As you get better and can start performing more complicated repairs, you can purchase additional tools.
We wanted to start with the four items above because they’re incredibly beneficial to new phone flippers.
The 4 Most Common Types of Smartphone Repairs
Source: Image by Bruno /Germany from Pixabay
We’ll now take a look at four of the most common types of smartphone issues and how to repair them. We chose these smartphone issues because of how common they are. They’re also the easiest problems to repair.
Broken Screens
As we all know, there’s nothing as scary as watching your smartphone fall from your hands and towards the ground. If you’re lucky, you’ll walk away from this with an undamaged phone. However, most of the time, dropping a phone is going to smash its screen.
When this happens, it leaves your phone with a damaged or broken screen. The difficulty of this repair depends entirely on what type of phone you’re working on. Unfortunately, the difficulty of the repair can also give you a guideline of how costly it will be.
First things first, you’ll need to begin disassembling your smartphone. During this time, look to see if the phone and digitizer (what registers screen touches) are connected.
If a digitizer and screen material fuse together, it’s going to be a tricker and more expensive repair. On the other hand, phones with screens separated from digitizers are easier to repair as you might only need a new piece of glass.
As you begin working on repairing or replacing smartphone screens, try to be gentle and take your time. If you try and rush this smartphone repair, it’s possible to accidentally damage this smartphone.
Camera Replacements
As smartphones continue to innovate, one popular feature of these devices is its cameras. In the past, smartphones featuring a single camera were all the rage. Now, smartphone cameras have almost become standard features.
Over time, smartphone cameras have also become more complex. It’s now commonplace to find smartphones with two, three, and even four cameras contained inside a single device.
While cameras make smartphones even more valuable, these parts are also prone to getting damaged. The most common types of camera-related issues have to do with broken lenses.
As it is with most other smartphone parts, camera repairs can be easy or quite complicated. Most of the time, you’re going to have to open your smartphone to access its camera and replace it.
The complexity of camera replacements will depend on what type of smartphone you’re working on. Certain smartphones make it easy to access, remove, and replace camera equipment. In other cases, cameras are more embedded into the phone.
Damaged Headphone Jacks
Certain phone manufacturers made decisions to remove headphone jacks from their devices. However, many companies still produce smartphones with this type of connection.
At first, it might not seem that headphone jacks would require replacing. But it’s important to think about how much stress this section of a phone endures. Many users are constantly moving headphones in and out of this area.
While it might sound complicated, repairing damaged headphone jacks can be an easy fix. The difficulty of replacing a headphone jack will depend on the style of phone you’re working on.
Phone with a closed-off, unibody style will likely be tough to get inside of. Another issue you’ll encounter with headphone jacks is whether or not they’re connected to any speakers. If there are any connections, you’ll need to be careful not to damage anything while replacing headphone jacks.
If you don’t like working on headphone jacks, you might want to start buying newer Apple iPhones. Recently, Apple completely did away with their headphone jacks in smartphones.
Non-Functional Buttons
You can complete almost everything on a smartphone by using its touchscreen. But most smartphones still depend on the use of buttons to perform certain actions. Like other parts of a smartphone, this device’s buttons can get damaged.
By this point, I’m sure you’re glad to know that repairing non-functional smartphone buttons can be easy. Basically, you can repair a smartphone’s buttons if you can open the device and have the replacement buttons on hand.
Should I Learn How to Repair Smartphones?
Source: Image by Bruno /Germany from Pixabay
You might find yourself unsure of whether or not you want to commit to repairing smartphones. We completely understand the importance of this type of decision.
By learning how to repair smartphones, you can offer new services to the public or other companies. This can be a great potential way for your electronics business to enter into a new avenue.
Another advantage of learning how to flip phones is to make extra money. When you decide to start refurbishing electronics, you’re unlikely to need brand new or factory sealed items.
Because you’re buying used, damaged, or broken electronics, you’ll pay low prices for these items. After learning how to flip electronics, you can resell them for much higher values.
The major drawback of learning how to repair phones is that it’s going to be a learning process. Unfortunately, there’s no guarantee that you’ll easily learn how to repair smartphones. You’ll also be spending money on test devices to perfect your skills.
Another major hurdle is the range of smartphones on the market. Most people know that Apple and Samsung create smartphones. However, you might be unaware that many other companies manufacture smartphones of their own.
If you learn how to fix iPhones, it’s unlikely that the repair process will be the same for other types of smartphones.
If you decide that repairing smartphones isn’t for you, there’s always the option of partnering with a professional refurbisher.
Where Can I Find Professional Electronics Refurbishers?
Source: Image by Bruno /Germany from Pixabay
If you’re wanting to have someone else repair smartphones for you, we understand. Learning how to do anything, especially repairing smartphones, can mean investing a lot of your time.
Also, some people are better with technical work than others. If you’re not enjoying the process of flipping phones, it’s always possible to have a professional take care of this for you.
You might assume that it’s hard to find trustworthy smartphone refurbishers to work with. Fortunately, there are several potential ways to find the professional smartphone repairers you’re looking for.
Trade-In Tech
To find trustworthy electronics refurbishers, look no further than Trade-In Tech. Trade-In Tech is a company that provides a social platform for everyone in the wholesale electronics industry.
While we spend lots of time welcoming buyers and sellers, there’s also a growing number of electronics refurbishers joining our platform. If you want to avoid the stress of repairing your own smartphones, consider joining Trade-In Tech and contacting these professionals.
To become a member of Trade-In Tech, you will first need to complete our verification process. This process is something all of our members must complete. We set up this verification process to ensure each of our members is someone you can trust.
We also make it easy to find the reliable and skilled electronics refurbishers you’re looking for. Our membership base consists of professionals from all over the world.
You’ll find Trade-In Tech members operating out of the United States, Canada, Hong Kong, India, and just about everywhere in between.
PhoneCheck
Another popular way to repair your smartphones is by working with PhoneCheck. Since the beginning of this company, PhoneCheck has helped many people in the electronics industry.
PhoneCheck is a product that can perform diagnostics checks on many types of smartphones. These in-depth tests inspect each part of a smartphone.
After each test, you’ll learn the state of each of your smartphone’s parts, including whether they’re parts from the original manufacturer or not.
Something we love about PhoneCheck is that, like us, this company loves making life easier for wholesalers. Regardless of how many devices you need to process each week, month, or year, you can rest assured that PhoneCheck can handle it.
Partnering With Local Repair Companies
It’s also possible to find someone to help with smartphone repairs by finding a local repair company to partner with. Many businesses throughout the world repair smartphones.
If you live in a relatively populated area, it might be quite easy to find a range of electronics repair professionals. On the other hand, living in less populated areas might not provide you with much in the way of leads.
There’s also the issue of whether a repair company will be able to handle working with large volumes of electronics. If you need to repair 500 devices a month and a local company can only repair 100 per month, this isn’t going to be very beneficial for you.
Finding Refurbishers Through Online Searches
You can also take to Google or your search engine of choice to track down refurbishers online. This might be a good way to find the help your business needs. After all, there are many refurbishers out there.
Be warned that searching online for a refurbisher will be a time-consuming effort. First, you’ll need to perform your searches and scan every website you find.
Next, you’ll need to start building a list of contact information. After you have your list, it’s time to start contacting any refurbishers you’re interested in working with.
Unfortunately, there’s no guarantee that any refurbishers you speak with can take you on as a client. Also, many of these websites might contain inaccurate or outdated information.
When you’re dealing with this type of information, it takes even more time to find a quality electronics refurbisher.