Some phones arrive at our counter after other shops have already said goodbye to them. These are two of our favourite comebacks from the Moortown workshop.
Rachel from Alwoodley left her iPhone 14 Pro in a jeans pocket, and found it forty minutes later, at the end of a full 40° wash. It wouldn't power on, wouldn't charge, and showed no signs of life at all. A high-street chain took one look and offered her a trade-in price of £40. The phone held eight years of family photos that had never been backed up.
In the workshop, Ali stripped the phone to the logic board within the hour. Under the microscope: corrosion around the power management IC and two damaged board tracks. The board went through an ultrasonic cleaning bath, the corroded IC was replaced by micro-soldering, and the tracks were rebuilt by hand. A new battery and screen finished the job.
The result: the phone booted on the second day, with every photo, message and contact exactly where she'd left them.
"I'd been told twice it was scrap. Ali rang me the next evening to say it was alive. I actually cried. Every photo of my kids was on that phone."
Mark, a delivery driver from Moortown, dropped his Galaxy S23 Ultra on his driveway, then reversed over it. Realising what the crunch was, he pulled forward. Over it again. The screen was shattered corner to corner, the back glass was in pieces, the aluminium frame was visibly bent, and the S Pen was jammed in its slot.
The insurer called it a write-off, and the excess plus a replacement would have cost more than the phone was worth. Ali's assessment was different: the logic board, the heart of the phone, had survived. The team transplanted it into a new frame, fitted a new AMOLED display, back glass, battery and S Pen assembly, and re-sealed the housing.
The result: four days later Mark collected what looked and worked like a brand-new S23 Ultra. Same number, same data, same phone underneath.
"I brought it in as a box of bits, honestly just hoping to get my contacts back. Ali handed me back my actual phone, mint. Unbelievable."
Get a second opinion before you give up on it. Diagnosis is free, and if we can't fix it, you pay nothing.