Apple Recalls Defective iPhone 8: How To Check If Your Device Is Eligible For Free Repair

Apple discovered that some of its iPhone 8 devices have a defective logic board that prevents the phones from working properly. The logic board houses the phone’s main electrical components, which include the memory, microprocessor, and the wireless chip.

Apple decided to issue a recall and launched a repair program for the affected products. Potentially defective units were sold from September, 2017, to March, 2018, in the United States, Australia, Hong Kong, China, Macau, India, Japan, and New Zealand. If you bought your iPhone during this period in one of these countries, it is likely that your device is affected.

The faulty iPhone 8 models may suddenly restart or freeze, or won’t turn on. In devices that do not seem to be having these issues, Digital Trends said that the symptoms of the defective logic board may possibly appear sooner or later.

Your device may be part of Apple’s recall regardless if it exhibits issues or not, but how do you check if your iPhone 8 indeed has a faulty logic board and is eligible for the repair program?

Open the Settings app on your iPhone and scroll down to General. Select About and scroll down to Serial Number. Copy the serial number and head over to Apple’s iPhone 8 checker tool, which will show you if your phone is affected by the recall.

Apple said that it will repair eligible phones for free albeit with a major caveat. Your device should be free of any damage, such as a cracked screen, that can impair the ability to completely repair the product. A cracked screen can make repair difficult for a service specialist. You may have to fix the issue first before Apple will change the faulty logic board.

In an article published on Forbes, Jean Baptiste Su described Apple’s condition as outrageous. Owners of defective iPhone may have to choose between spending hundreds of dollars to fix their device or opt to keep their faulty phone.

“Apple could claim that even the tiniest flaw that has nothing to do with the defective logic board, like a minor screen crack, a defective button or a crack in the back of the device, would need to be fixed first, incurring hundreds of dollars in repair just to be able to fix your faulty iPhone 8,” Su wrote.

The recall is limited to iPhone 8 devices only. The iPhone 8 Plus models and other iPhone models are not affected by the faulty board.