The iPhone 5 has been around for a long time now and is still a favourite iPhone for a lot of users. With the demand for iPhone screens to repair old and broken phones comes a flood of copies from third party manufactures. This is the case for all brands of iPhone and other phone brands also – there will be OEM and Generic parts to choose from when needing a phone repair. Here we will look at the differences between the Original Equipment Manufacturer’s (OEM) screen and a generic copy.
In the case of iPhones, OEM screens would be from Apple, a trusted source for parts obviously. Apple don’t actually make the screens themselves, but other companies who manufacture for Apple’s past and new products.
Generic copies of screens and other parts are always going to be cheaper than the OEM version because they not only use cheaper parts but the companies that produce these copies have much lower overheads as well, by way of less staff and less quality control. These are just some of the factors that come into play when looking at the failure rate of some of these copied parts.
What’s the difference between OEM vs Original Parts?
OEM Parts are going to be the same high quality as the original parts used in your brand name phone as they will be replacement parts made by the same manufacturer/s who made the original parts in your phone with similar warranties in place.
Visual Differences between Generic vs OEM Phone Parts
Here you can easily see the differences between the OEM and generic parts. You can see in the picture below that there is clear differences in the IC on the generic screen. The parts on the generic screen are smaller and don’t line up very neatly.
In the next picture we can see that the circuits in the OEM flex cable are perfectly lined up and spaced apart evenly. The generic flex cable on the other hand looks overly complicated and less organised.
Display Panels of Generic vs OEM Screens
The OEM iPhone screen composition used is cell touch panels, which means the touch screen is embedded in the LCD screen. This design makes sure the display is as thin as possible when compared to other phones. Below we can see the different layouts used by the generic copy.
Below we take a look at the GFF touch screen technology used in the generic screens gives performance very similar to the OEM version with the cost of thickness. Cramming these extra layers into a space that was never designed to fit will generally cause more problems down the line for people that went with a generic copy.
While visually these screens are very similar, the generic copy is thicker and doesn’t emit light as well as the OEM screen.
How to Fix an iPhone 5 Screen
At Fix My Mobile we use screens sourced through OEM channel partners which enables us to provide an industry leading warranty on the repairs we do.
If you are needing your iPhone 5 screen repaired, we are here to help. Book your repair today for $10 off or if you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact our friendly staff.
