It’s a horrible feeling when you drop your phone and hear it crack, only made worse by the inhale of breath from people around you. Yep, you’ve ruined your £600+ smartphone in less than a second. Bugger.
Just thinking about it turns me cold. It happened to me twice last year. The first time, I sent the phone back to the manufacturer to get replaced. When it happened again, after I recovered from the nausea, I enlisted the services of iMend and was back in business within 32 hours. Here's how it went.
iMend review: How it works
Once you’ve composed yourself, you have several options (see below). The best is to shop around online for the best quote and go from there. I found iMend.com, a team of phone-repair professionals based all over the UK. They calmed me down and promised to repair my cracked Huawei P9 screen for £80.
Here’s a brief rundown of how the service works.
- Visit iMend’s website and select your phone type.
- Select exactly what you need repairing on your phone (screen/camera/battery et cetera).
- Chose whether you want to post the device to iMend.com or have an engineer come to you for £15.
I opted to send my device to iMend and it was a totally painless process. You just have to pop your phone into a Jiffy bag and post it to iMend HQ using recorded delivery.
I sent my package just before 5pm (it cost £6.60) and received an email from iMend the next day at noon confirming they had safely received my device. A couple of hours later, I received another email letting me know my phone had been fixed, posted and would be with me in the morning. The entire process took roughly 36 hours.
iMend also runs a more premium service where it sends staff to your location. For a £15 callout fee, on top of standard pricing, iMend will dispatch a phone-repair professional to your home/office to repair your phone. The company has the majority of the UK covered with staff in most major cities (see map here).
iMend review: Quality of repair
The standard of workmanship is very high, and the front of my phone now looks box-fresh because iMend has given the P9 a brand-new LCD screen and glass front. It’s only upon close inspection that you can see the scuffs and scars previously inflicted on the device (by me).
A better question is what is the spec of the replacement parts?
I got in contact with iMend to find out what they actually used on my Huawei P9. iMend confirmed that parts used were like for like, so in this case I got the same LCD screen and Gorilla Glass 3 cover that the Huawei P9 originally came with.
How to fix a cracked phone screen: Other options
- Insurance: This is possibly the best-case scenario in terms of cost. Providing your phone is insured against accidental damages, your insurance company will fix/replace the phone for you. This isn’t always the case, however, and it’s far from convenient.
- DIY: Type in “how to fix a cracked [insert phone type] screen” into Google and you’ll find scores of articles and YouTube tutorials guiding you through how to fix your phone using kits bought on Ebay. While this is a viable option to fix your phone, it’s also very difficult and can easily go wrong. It’s certainly not advisable unless you know exactly what you’re doing.
- Live with it: The final option is to simply leave it and hope it doesn’t get any worse. If you do choose to do this, we advice getting a phone case and putting a screen protector over the phone to limit further damage.
- Get it repaired: Find a specialist phone-repair service and handover your phone to professionals.
iMend: Verdict
If you’re looking to get your phone repaired, the service offered by iMend is hard to beat. The prices are competitive, and if you want your phone repaired on the same day, iMend will bring the service to your door. The quality of the repair is flawless and if your phone is beyond repair then iMend won’t charge you. Best of you, you can pay using your Amazon account.