Repair or replace? How to make the call

Your phone screen cracks, or the battery starts dying by mid-afternoon, and the question pops up straight away: is it worth fixing, or should I just buy a new one? As a repair shop we could tell you to always repair, but that would not be honest. Sometimes replacing really is the better call. Here is the straight-talking way we help customers decide.

Start with one simple sum

The most useful rule of thumb is this: if the repair costs more than about half of what your phone is worth today, replacing starts to make sense. If it costs a lot less than that, repairing is almost always the smarter money.

A screen repair on a phone that would still sell for a few hundred pounds is an easy yes. Pouring a big repair bill into an old handset worth very little is where it gets less clear. Work out roughly what your phone would fetch second-hand, then weigh the repair against it.

When repair is the smart choice

• The phone is only a year or two old. It has plenty of life left and holds decent value.
• It is a single, clear fault, like a cracked screen or a tired battery. One fix and it is as good as new.
• You like your phone and everything else works. There is no reason to relearn a new device and move all your data for the sake of one part.
• The repair is quick and affordable. A screen or battery is usually a fraction of the price of a new phone.

When it might be time to replace

• The phone is genuinely old and no longer getting software or security updates.
• There are several faults at once, for example a cracked screen and a swollen battery and a failing charging port. The costs add up.
• The repair cost is close to the price of a good refurbished replacement.
• You were ready for an upgrade anyway. If the fault is just the nudge you needed, that is fair enough.

Do not forget the greener option

There is another side to this that is easy to overlook. Making a brand new phone uses a huge amount of energy and raw materials, and most of a phone's lifetime carbon footprint comes from manufacturing, not from using it. Keeping a working phone going for another year or two with a simple repair is genuinely the more environmentally friendly choice. A repaired phone is a phone that is not sitting in a drawer or a landfill.

Still not sure?

If you are on the fence, bring it in or book a doorstep visit and we will take an honest look. If your phone is not worth repairing, we will tell you, we would rather give you straight advice than sell you a repair you do not need. You can get a free repair quote here, and either bring your device to our High Wycombe shop or have a certified technician come to you.