Phone Repair Basics: What Actually Goes Wrong

Most phones that land on our counter aren't dying of some exotic fault. They're failing in one of about five ways, and knowing which one it is tells us in about thirty seconds whether we're looking at a same-day fix or something that needs a longer conversation with you first.

Screens: the most common, and the most misdiagnosed

A cracked screen is obvious. What's less obvious is whether the glass is cracked or the display underneath it is actually damaged. We test touch response and image quality separately from the glass before quoting: a spider-cracked screen that still works perfectly is a different (cheaper) job than one where the display itself has gone dark or discoloured.

Batteries: the "it just died" problem

If your phone switches off at 30% or swells slightly at the back, that's a battery, not a software fault. Batteries degrade on a curve, not a cliff: by the time it's obvious, it's usually been struggling for months. We check cycle health before we recommend a replacement, because sometimes it's a charging port issue wearing a battery costume.

Charging ports: dust, not doom

In Nairobi's dust, charging ports are one of the most common "my phone won't charge" calls, and one of the cheapest fixes. Before we quote a part, we clean the port properly. A surprising number of "dead" phones come back to life with nothing replaced at all.

Water damage: speed matters more than anything we do

If a phone has been wet, what you do in the first hour matters more than what we do after. Power it off, don't charge it, and bring it in: the longer a wet board sits powered on, the more corrosion spreads. We won't promise a wet phone will survive, but an honest quote on the spot, either way, is the promise.

Software: sometimes it isn't hardware at all

Slow, freezing, or app-crashing phones often need nothing opened at all. We run a software diagnostic first on any device that isn't obviously physically damaged, because there's no honesty in replacing a part that was never the problem.

What we check first, every time

• Power and charging behaviour, before anything else
• Screen and touch response, tested separately from the glass
• Battery health and swelling
• Port and connector condition
• Software state, if there's no obvious physical fault