My iPhone XS Max screen cracked a few weeks ago and I've been debating sending it in for repair. Apple charges $300 friggin dollars to "fix" the display (I think they just send you a new phone).

Looking online, displays only cost around $50-$90. So I've considered doing that instead, but if I go down that route, my phone will no longer support the "True Tone" feature. This is because Apple burned the serial number of the display onto the motherboard, so if you try to replace it, they'll know and will disable features even though they work perfectly fine.

So in addition to the cost of the screen, I'll also have to buy a screen reprogrammer, which is a device that can copy the serial number from my old display and write it into the new display, so that the phone doesn't realize I replaced the screen. The prices I've seen online for these are like $60+, so it's still cheaper than sending it to Apple.

I don't understand how this isn't 100% illegal. How the hell can Apple get away with doing something so obviously malicious and detrimental to consumers and the environment? Those are some Scrooge McDuck levels of ridiculousness.

With YouTube tutorials and iFixit instructions all I needed was a screwdriver and parts from AliExpress. I replaced 4 times a screen and 3 times a battery in my wife's BQ Aquaris X until the motherboard gave up. It still probably is repairable, but not as easy. The phone had seen too much water in it's life... I repaired in my time also: Moto G1, Nexus 5X and Pixel 1. It was all not difficult. Now I wonder how it will go with Moto G7 that my wife has when its time will come.

That's one of the reasons I think about Fairphone, but with my experience I bought for myself Pixel 1 with a broken screen, that I repaired myself. Now my phone is all good except software and that makes me think about the Fairphone again. Can't wait until Linux phones will get better, maybe Pinephone 3 will be a good main phone. But I would like to see a small phone, like latest Unihertz Jelly, but without an awful Mediatek SoC.

I have a garbage laptop from 2012 that's still enough for basic browsing. Thanks to a replacement battery and reasonably accessible internals it's still working fine. The case is all busted but whatever.

Customers should be able to legally get parts. If the original company is done making them someone else should be allowed.

I highly doubt repaired devices are massively cutting into sale. Most people don't want to deal with the hassle and would rather have something new anyways.

Yeah, I just recently replaced the battery in a family member's MacBook Air. Surprising that it was even possible to replace (thanks iFixit)! With this model the SSD is also replaceable, thankfully. Of course, once the logic board itself fails, that'll be a whole different story, but at least _some_ aspects of the system are repairable.