Apple has expanded its self-healing program to include more devices, opening it up to cover some M1-powered Macs and the Apple Studio Display.
The self-service repair program allows equipment owners to make repairs themselves and provides the parts, instructions and tools to make the repairs. You’ll need to be pretty confident with your tinkering gadgets to get these repairs done in general, though.
as six colors (opens in a new tab) found (via edge (opens in a new tab)), starting now, users will be able to self-repair iMac (M1), Mac mini (M1) and Mac Studio, as well as the Apple Studio Display, as well as devices already included in the program (i.e. MacBooks and iPhones).
As you may recall, Apple recently expanded the scope of its self-healing program to include Europe (including the UK), because first, it was a US-only venture. Sadly, the aforementioned new devices are not covered in Europe, and only US citizens can benefit at the moment.
Analysis: More options (but some expensive repairs)
Clearly, this represents a positive step forward for Apple on the PC front, since, as mentioned earlier, the program previously only covered MacBooks as far as computers were concerned.
Presumably, it’s only a matter of time before Apple expands coverage of these various Macs (and displays) to Europe. It’s been just over half a year since the self-healing program arrived in Europe, so we can expect this expansion to go live in less time than that.
As we mentioned above, this is definitely for tech-savvy Apple device owners, because even with full instructions and the right tools provided, some procedures can be really tricky. (Those tools can be rented to you, by the way, you don’t have to buy them). For many people, the smartest course of action is to have Apple (or an authorized service provider) do the repair.
Some DIY repairs can also be expensive. As The Verge points out, if it’s the screen on the Studio Display that needs to be replaced, a new screen will run you close to $970, though you do get $100 back when you return the damaged screen to Apple later. It’s also worth noting that it’s apparently possible to replace the tilt-only stand with a tilt-and-height-adjustable model, or the Studio Display repair manual details the process (or switch one of them to VESA mount, or vice versa).
