Okay Geek Farm
Fixlogik Color Change repair service and Custom Back for iPhone 4 / 4S review
Jason Tsay
If Batman owned an iPhone, it would be the one you see above. Our iPhone 4 recently took a trip to the New York based company, Fixlogik for their Color Change service. When it came back, we had possibly the world’s stealthiest looking iPhone 4. To top it all off, the good folks at Fixlogik sent us a custom Okay Geek back cover to show off with. How are their repair services and customization options?
Features
- 7 colors
- custom branding
- over 100 combinations
- 24 hour turnaround
Our Impressions
Ordering Process and Options
The ordering process for Fixlogik is simple. You go to their website and select from a wide variety of customization options. They have everything you could ever want to make your iPhone unique - custom printed glass backs, wood backs, backs with light up logos, color changes for specific parts, engravings (even on the stainless steel band of the iPhone), and more. And if you’re just looking for fix a broken iPhone, they have a plethora of standard parts as well. Once you’ve decided what you want, you can choose to have the parts professionally installed by Fixlogik technicians or you can order the parts to your home for self installation (that’ll save you 20%). If you run into any issues with the installation, you can refer to Fixlogik’s many detailed online repair guides and if you still aren’t able to put your phone back together, you can drop Fixlogik a line for help. It’s worth noting that Fixlogik does not currently provide shipping labels for the customer to mail out the device but we were informed it was something they were working on and a potential feature we’d see in the future.
Turnaround Time
Fixlogik has a 24 hour turnaround time, which unfortunately for us, didn’t play out as we had hoped due to unexpected issues. Here’s the full timeline. We mailed the phone out via USPS on Thursday, June 14 and it was on track to arrive on June 16th, but the phone didn’t get to Fixlogik until the end of the day on June 18th because the offices were closed on Satuday. Fixlogik had the phone ready to ship on the 19th but due to some complications regarding our iPhone’s previous repair/conversion, it didn’t get back to me until June 21st via UPS’s overnight shipping. To sum it all up, it took three days for the phone to get to me since Fixlogik received it. Under most circumstances, Fixlogik should be able to return the phone within the promised 24 hour turnaround time but for this review, we weren’t able to properly gauge the turnaround time.
Repair Service
Fixlogik did a pretty awesome job with the repair/color conversion considering the extent of the parts replaced. Basically, my entire iPhone was disassembled and any parts visible from the outside were swapped, including the stainless steel band. Everything functioned properly and their technicians even fixed an issue caused by a previous repair involving the proximity and ambient light sensors. After repairing the phone, Fixlogik did a number of tests through the Mail, Camera, Settings, YouTube, Phone, Voice Memos, and Music apps on the phone. The phone was left on the 5.1.1 custom firmware as instructed. One thing I will note is that the front facing camera alignment is a fraction of a millimeter off with the front glass so if you scrutinize, you’ll see a small border. But unless you really hold the phone up close to your face, you won’t notice it.
Parts Quality
Let me start off by saying Fixlogik uses possibly some of the highest quality aftermarket parts you can find. It sounds like an advertisement for them but I do not exaggerate. They are almost indistinguishable from Apple’s parts in terms of look, feel, and quality. Even an expert on the matter who had an iPhone with original parts next to the Fixlogik repaired iPhone would be hard pressed to differentiate between the two.
The matte finish on the stainless steel band is amazing. The phone looks completely stealthy. As we mentioned in the intro, if Batman had an iPhone, this would be it. All the buttons and switches around the side of the phone are completely covered in a smooth matte finish.
Those antenna bands that so many people complained about when the iPhone 4 was leaked blend in so well with the coating, causing them almost to disappear.
The only areas that are not covered by this new coating are the ring around the headphone jack, mesh areas, and the two screws on the bottom, which is not too much of an issue at all. What did present itself as an issue was that the converted headphone jack was not compatible with inline remotes on iOS ready headphones.
The naked screws might actually be a better idea if you’re going to be replacing the back a lot yourself and the headphone jack is an area that would potentially come in contact with a lot of wear. I rather like the accents that they provide
The quality of the glass (front and back) is the best out of any aftermarket part we’ve seen. It’s so similar to Apple’s original part, you’d be amazed. It has that oleophobic that rids fingerprints and smudges so easily and blends right in with the design of the phone.
The plastic borders around the front and back glass have the same thickness and texture so unlike other aftermarket iPhone parts, well made iPhone cases will be able to fit with no issue.
I was most impressed by the backplate. While it seems so simple, countless aftermarket iPhone parts and repair services get it horridly wrong. Fixlogik’s back panel is almost indistinguishable from the original that came with our iPhone. The feel of the glass is the same and it has the same oleophobic coating that makes smudges so easy to wipe off.
The camera lens is the highest aftermarket camera lens, identical to Apple’s own in look and performance (the way to tell is to look at the camera lens from an angle.
If you hold it up to light, the surface should appear blue due to a UV coating and you should be able to see the edge of the thicker camera glass. The flash diffuser ring is also there and functions perfectly.
The text and logo on the back are in the correct location, font, size, and metallic color.
Our main gripe with the parts has to do with the LCD. Although you still get the sharpness, viewing angles, and the colors of the Retina Display, we noticed some pretty serious issues. First of all, there seem to be some screen refreshing problems where the edge of items flicker as you scroll. For example, text will flicker between orange and blue; even when you’re just looking at something static, any black on white will have an odd orange/pink outline. We also had some really odd screen “burn in” issues. While watching a YouTube video, I noticed that towards the top of the LCD, there was a faint outline of the persistent status bar. After a few minutes, the “burn in” faded away but we were still confused as to why such an anomaly would present itself.
To top it all off, there was a speck between the glass of the display and the LCD. It was a little larger than a pixel but in a fairly minor area on the left side of the screen. Your mileage will definitely vary in terms of defects like this, although it probably isn’t just a coincidence that we saw something similar on one of RapidRepair’s parts as well.
Custom Back
The custom back is one of the coolest things we’ve seen to bear the Okay Geek logo. We sent in a high resolution image of our logo (they prefer a vector .ai or .eps but a high resolution, 500 dpi, 2000 x 2000 Jpeg without gradients will suffice) and Fixlogik did the rest of the work.
A large Okay Geek logo went where the Apple would usually be found.
The area at the bottom sports my name and the title “Product Editor.” The text and logo are not as crisp as the Apple logo are nor is it in the same mirror like finish but it still blends in perfectly with the design of the phone.
Overall
To sum up, Fixlogik is one of the best companies we’ve dealt with for customizing or repairing your iPhone. They offer just about all the options you’d want to make your iPhone your own and do a great job at it. The parts they use are of great quality, complete with oleophobic coatings and original camera lenses. Our main complaint was the issue we experienced with the flickering LCD but beyond that, everything else is much better than the competition.
UPDATE - Fixlogik reached out and offered to replace the LCD after hearing about our issue. They covered overnight shipping to and from their offices. The new LCD seems to have no issues.
Pro’s
- great parts quality
- amazing customization options/job
- professional installation
Con’s
- flickering LCD issue
- headphone jack not remote compatible
Where to buy
Fixlogik — MSRP: $100 (frame), $5 (home button), $120 (front w/LCD), $30 (back)
Fixlogik — MSRP: $45 (custom back)
