It’s very frustrating when your phone’s hardware breaks. Cell phones have transformed and evolved significantly over the years, and now smartphones are personal pocket computers we rely on every day. So if you crack the screen or your camera stops working, it can become a big problem very quickly.

Given that smartphones are somewhat delicate devices with a lot of small tech packed into them, it can be hard to see them as repairable. But it’s easier to get your phone repaired than you think, and depending on the part, it’s often cheaper than buying a brand-new phone. With the price of flagship phones regularly costing over a thousand dollars, the cost of fixing what you already have is a viable and even preferable course of action.

You don’t want to wait too long to repair a broken part, either. Many issues can be more than just minor frustrations or cosmetic, and over time, problems that seem small can get worse. If you’re using your phone as often as most people are, it’s important you keep it in the best shape you can.

Batteries are among the most common components of a phone that degrade over time, and if your phone is having trouble holding a charge, your battery may be to blame. After about 500 charge cycles, lithium-ion batteries begin to lose their charging capacity. Many people also have bad habits that affect phone battery health, causing it to degrade even faster.

Thankfully, getting a replacement battery is easy enough, and depending on your phone model, you may be able to replace it yourself. If you’re thinking of replacing the battery yourself, make sure to do your research first — some phones are easier to repair than others. Getting a professional to do a battery replacement will cost, on average, between $60 and $220.

One thing to keep in mind, however: if the backplate of your phone is swelling or gets extremely hot, you may be dealing with a swollen battery. These are dangerous and can pose a fire hazard, so make sure to have a professional replace the battery safely.

Your phone failing to hold a charge isn’t always because of the battery; sometimes the charger port is to blame. A failing charging port is typically easy to spot, as you won’t see the telltale charging notifications on your phone, or the cable will constantly disconnect from the port. Alternatively, the phone won’t fast charge even with the correct charger and cable.

Since being unable to charge the phone becomes a problem really quickly, this component is a priority to fix when it breaks. Even if you can sometimes get your charging cable to work, you won’t be getting a proper charge, and other accessories you may use with the port won’t work properly either.

What’s important to note, though, is that charger ports don’t actually break as often as you might think, given how exposed they are. Normally, the problem has to do with some debris or moisture affecting the connection. If you believe the problem is debris, using compressed air is your best bet. Using something like a toothpick to clean the port can damage it.

If you’ve ruled out debris and moisture, go through a checklist of possible charger port problems before considering a replacement. Replacing a charger port yourself may be easy, but some of them are soldered directly to the circuit board. A professional can fix all kinds of charging ports, and it’ll generally cost you between $40 and $150.

Screens are one of the most common components of a phone to break. It’s all too easy for any device to take a tumble out of your hands and hit the pavement in just the right way to ruin it. Sometimes it can be helped, sometimes it can’t, but it’s a frustrating experience nonetheless.

However, a broken screen is more than just an ugly crack on your display. It’s harder to read the screen, touch controls are affected, and tiny shards of glass can break off and hurt you. As such, it’s important to get a broken screen replaced rather than continuing to use the phone in that condition.

Thankfully, since damaged screens are so common, phone repair shops are well-versed in replacing them, and the cost won’t break the bank compared to a brand-new phone. You may even be able to fix the phone screen yourself, though be sure to keep potential risks in mind. Generally, it’s better to have a professional replace the screen for you. The costs will vary a lot depending on the phone’s screen type and size, but on average it will cost you $200. Make sure you research and get a quote for your particular model before committing to a repair.

Did you know that you can repair your cameras, instead of replacing your phone entirely if its hardware breaks down? Cameras are such a complex part of mobile devices nowadays, with many smartphones having three or more camera lenses and other features such as gyroscopes. Because of that, it’s easy to assume that if your camera starts failing, it’s time to get a new phone. But that simply isn’t the case. 

Cameras can be replaced, and despite evolving technology, replacing a rear camera may be cheaper than buying a new phone. This is good considering the increasing number of points of failure with rear cameras. With multiple lenses and gyroscopes keeping your shots steady, a broken camera can lead to blurry pictures or autofocus features failing.

Once you’ve ruled out any possible software glitches, it’s time to get the camera replaced as soon as you’re able. Camera module replacements are almost always best handled by a phone repair specialist. Like phone screens, the costs will vary wildly depending on the phone model and camera you’re using. The average cost is between $90 and $250, but some models, like the latest iPhone model, will cost $250 or more.

On most phone models, the front camera is the little black “dot” on the top of your phone screen. Despite the extra protection from the screen, though, the front camera can still be damaged and degrade over time. A failing front camera can also point to other underlying issues, such as water damage or debris getting stuck in the lens.

Cracked screens can also affect the front camera. First, if one of the cracks passes through the lens’s position, it will obscure the lens and prevent proper use. There is also the possibility that the fall that cracked the screen in the first place may have jostled or damaged the front camera.

Rule out any software glitches first by checking for an OS or app update, restarting the phone, and testing to see if your rear cameras are working. If the rear cameras are working but the front camera is malfunctioning, it’s likely that the hardware is broken. In some phone models, the front and rear cameras are internally connected, so there may be hardware issues that affect both modules even if only the front camera is technically affected.

The front camera is generally simpler to repair than the rear camera. However, these are still complex bits of technology, and it’s best left to a professional to replace them. A front camera repair will, on average, cost around the same as a rear camera repair (between $70 and $200).

It may be surprising to hear, but even circuit boards, also known as PCB boards, are repairable, and it’s imperative that if it’s failing in your phone to get it fixed as soon as possible. Like a computer motherboard, a failing board can damage and break other parts of your phone. If you’re dealing with an overheating phone or it randomly shutting off, and you have ruled out other components, you’ll want to get the board checked.

Generally, a faulty component on the circuit board doesn’t require replacing the entire board, unlike camera modules. For example, if your Wi-Fi card is acting up, the card on the board can be replaced while keeping the same PCB board in the phone. 

Note, however, that diagnosing and repairing broken components on a circuit board can be complex, and it’s best to take your smartphone to a phone repair shop rather than try to fix it yourself. They’ll know whether it’s better to replace a part or the entire circuit board and be able to quote a price to repair it. The average cost of a PCB repair is quoted between $60-$200, but costs can quickly rise based on whether the issues are isolated to a single chip on the circuit board or require replacement of multiple chips (or the entire board).

Not all phones have a physical SIM card slot, as some manufacturers have opted for eSIMs, or electronic SIM cards, instead. While they have some advantages, eSIMs have many downsides; if you have a physical SIM card slot, you’ll want to make sure it’s in working order for easy swapping of SIM cards between devices and avoiding eSIM compatibility issues.

If you have a SIM card slot, you want to make sure it stays in good working order. Of course, the biggest disadvantage of using physical card slots is that they introduce mechanical failure points, and a faulty SIM card slot results in spotty cellular connections. While Wi-Fi will still work on your phone, it can still cause issues when using your device in areas with no internet connection.

One thing to note before looking into SIM card slot replacements: It is more common that the SIM card itself has failed, so make sure to try another SIM card in the slot first.

To help you make an informed decision about which phone components to replace, we used a range of criteria to inform our research. First, we determined which parts of a phone, if failing or broken, would most affect its functionality. Some of these components, such as phone screens and charging ports, have obvious issues when they malfunction that we’ve all experienced, while others are more subtle and may not be easy to diagnose. For these latter components, we looked into common issues they cause and their solutions, then determined how critical it is to fix them quickly.

Next, we narrowed down these parts based on how feasible it is to replace them. We looked into this across a variety of sources, including official articles from places like Apple Support and BatteriesPlus, how-to guides for replacing the part yourself at iFixIt, and various forum threads asking for advice on their phone model’s replacements. Some parts are more likely to require professional help than others, but that doesn’t negate the need to replace them quickly.

Finally, we compared the repair cost to the price of a new phone via sites like CPR Cell Phone Repair and other nationwide phone repair providers. If replacing a component is comparable in cost to buying a new mid-range phone, it generally doesn’t meet our criteria of something that needs to be repaired right away, or it is more cost-effective to replace the phone entirely.