iPad Repair

iPad Repair Specialist in London

Getting Into an iPad Means Getting Past the Screen

Every repair on this page except a screen replacement starts the same way: the display comes out first. Battery, charging port, cameras, anything on the logic board — the glass is the lid, bonded to the chassis, and there is no back panel to remove instead.

That has not changed because Apple has opened up a little. iPads were added to Self Service Repair and Apple’s own service page offers repair or replacement, but the construction is what it always was: a large, thin, tightly bonded panel over a battery glued to the frame.

So there is a real risk — smaller on the thicker older models, larger on a slim Pro — that a display which was intact when you handed the tablet over cracks while it is being lifted. Controlled heat, proper separation tools and patience keep that rare. Rare is not never, and it is better said in advance than explained afterwards. If the screen breaks while we are opening your iPad, the replacement screen is chargeable. On some repairs — typically on older models, where the panel is inexpensive — we carry that risk ourselves and the screen is already inside the price you were quoted. Which of the two applies to your iPad is something you hear before we open it, with the actual figure attached.

And you are not committed either way. If it happens and you would rather keep the money, we finish the repair you came in for and hand the iPad back with the cracked screen — that is your call to make, not ours. If you would rather not take the risk at all, say so when you hear the numbers and we stop there: you pay for any part already ordered plus the £39 diagnostics, and nothing has been opened. What will not happen is a bill arriving that you had not heard about first.

Laminated and Non-Laminated Screens Are Two Different Bills

iPad Pro, iPad Air and iPad mini use laminated displays: the glass, the digitiser and the LCD are fused into a single assembly at the factory. Crack the glass and the LCD behind it is intact, but there is no way to separate them, so the whole assembly is replaced. That is the expensive repair, and the cost is almost entirely the part.

The standard iPad — 5th generation through 10th, the current one included — is non-laminated, with a visible air gap between the glass and the LCD. On those, a cracked front glass can often be replaced on its own and the display left in place, which is a materially cheaper job. It is also why two people with “a cracked iPad” can be quoted numbers that are nothing like each other.

We confirm which type your iPad uses, and on a laminated model we tell you the part price before ordering. On an older tablet the panel can come close to what the iPad is worth today, and you should hear that before you spend the money. If the price is what stops you, ask about a tested used part — a screen taken from a working tablet and checked before it goes in, where one exists for your model.

Why People Bring Us an iPad Instead of Booking It In with Apple

Apple’s own service page offers a repair or a replacement, and out of warranty the answer is often the second one: you hand over your iPad and a different unit comes back. It is a clean, quick answer, and for a lot of people it is the right one. But your tablet does not return, and neither does anything on it that was not backed up — which is exactly why you are asked to back up first.

We will be straight about where that route beats us. On price we often cannot win. A laminated panel for a current Pro costs what it costs whoever fits it, and there are faults where the manufacturer answer is simply cheaper. When yours is one of them we say so rather than quoting you anyway.

Where we are better is everything else. Speed — most screen and battery work is finished in hours, or a couple of days if the part has to come in. Your iPad stays yours — we repair the tablet you brought in, we never wipe it deliberately, and we test only the function we repaired. And we take on work a replacement does not cover at all: a logic board corroded after a spill, a tablet that will not power on, a bent frame straightened rather than written off, and data recovered from storage soldered to a board. A replacement answers all of them the same way: it keeps your iPad, and your photographs go with it.

What We Can Do, and the One Thing We Cannot

Beyond screens and batteries, most of what makes an iPad worth bringing to a workshop is board-level: microsoldering, component diagnostics, ultrasonic cleaning and logic board repair after liquid or physical damage. That is also where data recovery lives — iPad storage is soldered to the board, so getting photographs off a tablet that will not start is component work rather than a drive read. For an iPad used for work or in a school, it is frequently the whole point of the repair: the device may not be worth much, and what is on it is not replaceable.

The limit is Activation Lock. If an iPad is locked to an Apple Account nobody can unlock it without those credentials — not us, not any shop that tells you otherwise. Software faults in iPadOS are similarly bounded by what Apple’s security model allows. If your problem is one of those, you will hear it from us immediately rather than after a diagnostic fee. Hardware is a different matter, and hardware is what we do.

Not on the grid above? The grid is what has a page here, not what we take. Older iPads, models newer than this page and variants that never got a page of their own all come through the workshop on the same two conditions as everything else: the part has to exist, and the price has to make sense to you. Ask for a quote with the model and you get a real number back. Not an iPad — see Microsoft Surface repair, or tablet repair for everything else.

Pick your model above to see repair options and pricing, or visit our Wimbledon workshop.