Samsung and its repair provider, Asurion, have announced that certain uBreakiFix locations will be getting an upgrade, helping them turn around Galaxy phone repairs faster. By the end of the year, 50 existing repair centers across the US will be designated as Samsung flagship locations, equipped with specialized tools and larger parts inventory for Galaxy devices. It’s a helpful step toward making phone repairs less painful, which remains a deeply uncomfortable process — just ask anyone who’s cracked a phone screen in the past, oh, decade or so.
Some repair centers in parts of Texas, Orlando, and Los Angeles have already been upgraded to flagship status, and Samsung says that the program will continue to roll out throughout 2023. Staff at these stores will get special training for Samsung repairs and will help implement new repair types before they’re used more widely at standard uBreakiFix locations. Samsung also says that upgraded locations will be able to handle certain types of repairs not previously available at a walk-in repair center.
Parting with your phone for any amount of time while it’s being repaired is tough. Personally, it still sends a shiver up my spine thinking of the four hours I spent wandering phone-less through the Bellevue mall, and that was over four years ago. Samsung and iFixit sell self-repair kits if you want to maintain possession of your phone, but not all models or repairs are supported — and the hands-on approach isn’t for everyone. But when the other option is shipping your phone out for repairs, suffering through a few hours without your device doesn’t sound so bad. Better integration between an OEM and its repair partner is something we like to see and will hopefully result in more — and faster — fixes for Galaxy phone owners.
