It’s a tale as old as time. Customer buys iPhone; customer and iPhone have a great time together; iPhone’s screen breaks and customer has to shell out hundreds of dollars because it wasn’t covered by the warranty.
It’s a familiar story to many people, and it’s why so many people have cases and screen protectors. It’s well worth remembering as Apple starts shipping out the iPhone 12, because a few bucks on protective gear is nothing compared to $279 on replacing the whole screen.
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Apple has done a lot to strengthen iPhone screens over the years, and the latest addition is called Ceramic Shield. According to the Cupertino company, it quadruples the phone’s drop performance and makes the screen more resistant to cracking — which we can all agree is a good thing. But it turns out that tech doesn’t come cheap.
Apple has recently updated its repairs page to account for the release of the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro on October 23, and those prices are not cheap. If you want an out of warranty screen repair on either device you’re going to have to cough up $279 for the privilege.
While iPhone 11 Pro owners would have to pay the same amount for such a service, it’s an $80 increase on the $199 it costs to repair the screen of a standard iPhone 11. A lot of that increase is likely due to the fact the iPhone 12 has an OLED display, as opposed to the cheaper LCD panel in the iPhone 11. Still, $279 is far from cheap.
The prices for a screen repair on the iPhone 12 Pro Max and 12 Mini haven’t been announced yet, which is presumably because they aren’t available to pre-order until November 6. That said, if last year is anything to go by, the Pro Max will likely cost around $329, just like the 11 Pro Max. The 12 Mini is less clear, and while it’s nearly an inch smaller than the 12 and 12 Pro, it is still an OLED display. Any price difference is likely to be minimal.
And if you thought repairing the screen was expensive, Apple also details “other damage” that will cost a respective $449 and $549 for the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro.
It’s worth pointing out that these costs only apply to out of warranty screen repairs. Unfortunately, the warranty typically only covers issues caused by manufacturing defect, and not you dropping your iPhone on the sidewalk while playing Pokémon Go.
In other words, make sure you take care of your phone, because getting it fixed is not going to be pleasant for your bank account. Alternatively, you can pay $149 for Apple Care+, which drops that $279 price down to $29.
