Repairing Your Samsung Smartphone May Become Much Cheaper Soon
Even though Samsung has been in the news for all the wrong reasons of late, there is no denying the company has – at least for the past few months – been at the forefront when it comes to making major consumer-friendly changes to its policies. In March, the global smartphone powerhouse announced a DIY repair program in collaboration with iFixit, for example.
Under this program, Samsung would not only encourage people to perform DIY repairs on the smartphones they have purchased, but the company will also sell the replacement parts that will make the entire process less taxing and bothersome to users. Apart from giving a major fillip to the right to repair advocates, Samsung's move could also allow competitors to take a similar stand favoring DIY repairs. This is a welcome change given that several companies – including Samsung – were notorious for making smartphone components non-user-replaceable.
In addition to this much welcome DIY repair program, we now have reports coming in about the likelihood of Samsung coming up with a certified recycled parts program for its smartphone users. According to Business Korea, this program – which is expected to be officially announced by Samsung later this year – includes a two-pronged plan to make replacement parts much more affordable than they already are. The company aims to achieve these goals while also creating a positive environmental impact by encouraging recycled parts in smartphone repairs.
Smartphone repair bills to go down significantly
There are several occasions when repairing a smartphone may end up being a more expensive affair than simply buying a new phone, and this happens a lot with Samsung devices. In such cases, customers usually throw the old device away and buy a new one. Unfortunately, that's one additional smartphone in the market simply because the manufacturer charges ridiculous, exorbitant repair fees. However, with the new plan, this could be a thing of the past.
The folks at SamMobile estimate that this program, if executed well, could bring down the cost of replacing a smartphone display using recycled parts to half the price of buying a new one. With Samsung already commencing the rollout of its DIY repair program, the addition of a certified recycled parts program would only encourage people to take self-repairs more seriously.
Samsung's support for the right to repair initiative and its decision to come up with this certified recycled parts program will generally be seen as a consumer-friendly move. In fact, this may make people forget that Samsung has been gradually increasing the number of smartphone models in its portfolio that do not come with a charging brick. What remains to be seen now is how long Samsung will take to implement these initiatives globally. It would also be interesting to see how Samsung's archrivals – the likes of Apple, Xiaomi, and OPPO – react to Samsung's recent consumer-friendly decisions.