Should You Repair or Replace Your Old Phone?
A cracked screen or a dying battery can feel like a sign it's time for a new phone. Often it isn't — but sometimes it genuinely is. Here's how to actually work out which situation you're in, rather than guessing.
Start with the repair cost as a percentage
A simple, honest way to think about it: compare the repair cost to what a similar replacement phone would cost. As a rough rule of thumb, if the repair is under about 30% of a like-for-like replacement's value, it's almost always worth repairing. A £79 screen repair on a phone that would cost £400+ to replace is an easy decision.
How many things are actually wrong?
One broken component — a screen, a battery, a charging port — is usually a straightforward, worthwhile repair. If you're looking at multiple failures at once (a cracked screen and a dying battery and a broken camera), the maths shifts, and it's worth getting a full assessment rather than fixing things one at a time.
How old is the phone, really?
Age on its own isn't the deciding factor — a well-looked-after 3-year-old phone with one broken part is often a better bet than it looks, especially if it still gets software updates. What matters more is whether the manufacturer is still supporting it with security updates. A phone that's stopped receiving them is a genuinely different conversation to one that hasn't.
What do you actually use it for?
If your phone comfortably does everything you need — calls, messages, apps, photos — a repair gets you right back to where you were for a fraction of a replacement's cost. If you've been finding it too slow or too limited for what you actually want to do with it, that's a different problem a repair won't solve, and it might be the right moment to consider trading in rather than repairing.
The environmental angle, briefly
Repairing rather than replacing keeps a working device out of landfill and avoids the environmental cost of manufacturing a new one — genuinely one of the most effective things you can do, and it's a side benefit of the decision that often gets overlooked next to the pure cost comparison.
Not sure which camp you're in?
Bring it in for a free diagnostic and we'll give you a straight answer — including telling you honestly if we think replacing makes more sense than repairing. And if you do decide to move on, our trade-in estimator gives you an instant value for your old device towards whatever's next.