For the past few weeks, my old iPhone 3GS has been unable to hold a charge for more than an hour. Words cannot describe how frustrating it is to type a long email to my editor, only to have it disappear along with my iPhone’s power.
There are three options to fix this.
1. Get a new phone
This solution, while fixing everything, is the most expensive. Though buying a new phone might be fun, you’ll also either have to pay around $500 for an unlocked phone or renew your contract with your current carrier. I plan on buying an iPhone 5 when it comes out (possibly next month), but I also need a phone for the time being that won’t break my budget.
2. Have Apple replace the battery.
Apple will replace the battery for you if the battery falls below 50 percent of its capacity a year after purchasing your iPhone (two years if you also bought AppleCare). This is great for others, but I bought my iPhone 3GS in April 2010. According to Apple’s help page, it will cost more than $80 when you include shipping. This option isn’t the most expensive, but you’re also shipping your phone to Apple — meaning you won’t have it for a week. As a college student, losing my iPhone for a week is not an option for me.
3. Replace the battery yourself
By doing this on my own, I’d be able to save more than 75 percent of the cost of letting Apple do the same process (the kits cost between $10 and $20), and I wouldn’t have to send my phone anywhere. Sounds great, right? In a perfect world, this would be the best option, however, the replacement process is a tough one.
For Android and Windows Phone 7 owners, replacing the battery is easy. Just buy a battery online, and then open the back component of the phone. But replacing it on the iPhone is a multi-step process. On an iPhone, the battery is located behind the screen, and the back of the phone doesn’t come off like it does on other phones. The only way to remove the battery is to remove the screen, which is dangerous because everything is intricately connected on the iPhone, and accidentally removing the wrong component can render the whole phone useless.
My dilemma now comes down to this: is it worth $20 to buy a replacement kit and fix my phone weeks before the iPhone 5 comes out?
Absolutely.
I ordered the iPhone 3GS battery kit from iFixit. When it arrives, I’ll take pictures and videos of how I replace it. Hopefully this will help you guys, since I hear the process is similar to how it’s done on the iPhone 4.
The bottom line is that as UNC students, we should be educated enough to do these types of repairs on our own and have a general sense of knowledge about our devices. Through my writing, I hope to kickstart that knowledge.
Join me next week, when I fix my iPhone battery! Until then tweet at us at @PitTalk if you have any questions or comments.
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