Model guide · iPhone X, XS, XS Max, XR · Singapore
The iPhone X, XS, XS Max and XR were the first iPhones with Face ID and the notch, and they launched in 2017 and 2018. That is old enough that the question changes from “can it be fixed” to “should it be”. This page covers what fails on them, how to tell them apart, the power-chip fault people search for by name, and which repairs still make sense.
Six faults that bring an X-series iPhone to the bench
On this page
All four have the notch, no home button and a Lightning port, so across a table they look like one phone in three sizes. The differences decide which part we order, so we confirm the model on the bench before every quote.
The quickest split is the screen. The iPhone XR has an LCD, one rear camera, an aluminium frame and visibly thicker bezels. The iPhone X, XS and XS Max have OLED screens, two rear cameras stacked vertically and a stainless-steel frame. The XS Max is the big one, at 6.5 inches against 5.8 for the X and XS.
The hard pair is the X and the XS: same size, same notch, same frame, different internals. Settings, then General, then About, then Model Name settles it. Please do not order a part from a photo. One that fits one of these phones should not be assumed to fit another, and a wrong part is the dearest avoidable mistake in a repair.
The X launched in 2017 and the rest in 2018, so every fault here is on a phone with years of daily use. The useful question is as often “is it worth doing” as “can it be done”.
These are the bands on our iPhone repair cost guide. They are bands, not quotes: where you land depends on the model, the part you choose and what the diagnosis finds.
A genuine-grade panel costs more than a quality aftermarket one, and the XS Max has the largest panel, so it tends to sit towards the top of the OLED band. We use both kinds of part where there is a real choice, and tell you the difference first.
Back glass, Face ID, charging port, board-level and water-damage work are quoted by model after a free diagnosis. We print no number for them, because a number given before the phone is open is a guess.
Diagnosis is free on a walk-in, the quote is in writing before work starts, and if we cannot fix the phone you do not pay a repair fee. Screen and battery jobs are often done while you wait, subject to parts.
The X, XS and XS Max use OLED panels, where each pixel makes its own light. The XR uses an LCD, lit from behind. That matters for price, because OLED is the dearer part, and for how the screens fail.
Through a cracked front, three situations look alike. Cracked glass over a picture that is still sharp and responds everywhere is damage to the outer layer. Ink-like patches spreading from a crack, dead strips of touch, or green, pink or purple lines down the glass mean the panel itself has failed. Lines like that tend to spread and software does not cure them, so the answer is a new panel however clean the glass looks.
The third is burn-in: a faint ghost of a keyboard or navigation bar that sat on screen for hours, visible against a plain grey or white background. Mild retention on an OLED this age is common and not worth chasing. Obvious burn-in is the panel ageing, and only a new panel clears it.
An LCD is not prone to burn-in the way an OLED is. It fails more ordinarily: cracked glass, dead touch, a dark patch where the panel took the hit. If the screen is black but the phone still rings, and a bright torch shows a faint image, the backlight circuit on the board may be at fault and the display fine. That is a board repair and not a new panel, which is why we test before we sell you a screen. How the job runs on any model is on our iPhone screen replacement page.
These are the first iPhones with Face ID, and its sensors sit in the notch. The earpiece and sensor assembly at the top of the display carries parts Face ID depends on. On a careful screen repair your original assembly is moved across to the new display and Face ID keeps working. On a careless one it is torn, pinched or left behind, and Face ID dies the day the new screen goes in.
A cracked front alone does not usually end Face ID. When it fails after a drop, the impact has usually hurt a flex or the sensor array as well. Since the iPhone X the dot projector has been paired to the individual phone’s logic board, so a part from another phone will not bring Face ID back, and some faults are not worth repairing. We say which case you have, in writing, before you spend. The faults are covered on our iPhone Face ID repair page.
An original battery from 2017 or 2018 has had a long working life. The percentage falls in steps, the phone shuts down at 20 or 30 per cent, or it feels slower than it used to. That last one is real: iOS can slow a phone with an aged battery to prevent shutdowns, so a tired battery can look like a tired phone.
Check first. Open Settings, then Battery, then Battery Health & Charging, and read Maximum Capacity. Apple treats a battery as consumable below 80 per cent. If the battery was replaced before, the figure describes that battery and not the phone.
Our band is from around S$80 to S$150 for the X, XS and XS Max and from around S$60 to S$110 for the XR. On a phone you like and mean to keep, a new battery is the cheapest way to make it comfortable again. The detail is on our page for iPhone battery replacement in Singapore.
A swollen battery should not wait. If the screen is lifting from the frame or the phone rocks on a flat table, stop using and charging it and bring it in. This can happen on any age of phone.
People search for “iPhone X power IC repair” when a phone has stopped charging, or will not switch on, after a drop or after liquid. “Power IC” is shorthand for the small chips on the logic board that look after power: the ones that talk to the charger, and the ones that share current out to the rest of the phone. When one fails, everything downstream stops and the phone can look dead while most of the board is healthy.
That makes it a different job from a screen or a battery. Nothing is cracked or worn out; a chip a few millimetres across has failed on a crowded board, and you cannot buy it as a module. The repair is microsoldering at component level under a microscope, and it starts only once we know which circuit is at fault.
“Will not charge” and “will not switch on” have many causes, and the board is the last we reach for. A dead-looking phone can have a failed battery, a port full of lint, a worn cable or a software state that a restore clears. We work down that list, cheapest first, then put the board on a bench power supply, which shows how much current it draws and so where to look. We do not quote board work from a photo or over the phone.
Component-level repair keeps the board you brought in, so the storage on it, and everything stored there, stays in the phone. Replacing the whole board would lose that data. Power and charging faults are commonly reported on phones of this age, but that is no guarantee about yours: corrosion and hard drops do damage a chip replacement cannot always undo, and we say so in writing, with the quote, before work begins. If we cannot fix it, you do not pay a repair fee. The process is on our iPhone motherboard repair page.
Before any of that, the commonest cause is lint packed into the Lightning port, which stops the cable seating. Shine a torch in, and do not dig with a pin. A clean is free when that is all it needs. If a clean port and a good cable still charge only at an angle, the port assembly is likely worn, a part job and not a board job. If they change nothing, or the phone says it is charging while the percentage does not move, the charging circuit is the suspect. The whole ladder is on our iPhone charging port repair page.
All four have glass backs, as the iPhone 8 does, because glass lets them charge wirelessly. The back is laser-welded to the frame, so removing it cleanly needs a laser and heat. It cannot simply be prised off.
That is why back glass is quoted by model after a free diagnosis, and why you will not find a number here. The camera surround differs between the single-lens XR and the dual-lens X, XS and XS Max, and the XS Max back is the largest. A cracked back on an otherwise sound phone is usually worth fixing, because the damage spreads and lets humidity in. If the phone also needs a screen and a battery, we will say honestly when the total stops making sense. See iPhone back glass replacement.
Apple rates the X and XR at IP67 and the XS and XS Max at IP68. Those are Apple’s own ratings from when the phones were new, and Apple itself says water resistance is not permanent. Any repair that opens a phone affects the factory seal. We say so before we start, and we renew the seal where the model has one.
What does the damage is rarely the first splash. It is the corrosion that follows, which in Singapore’s humidity carries on after the phone feels dry. If one has been wet, switch it off, do not charge it to test it, do not bury it in rice, and bring it in early. Caught early, many can be repaired; left for weeks, some are beyond economic repair, and we say so on day one. See iPhone water damage repair.
As of 2026, the iPhone X can run up to iOS 16. The XS, XS Max and XR can run up to iOS 18. The iPhone 11 and every later model run iOS 26. Those are the published compatibility lists, and that is the full extent of what we claim. Your phone has not stopped working. But new major versions of iOS do not come to it, and the apps you depend on may eventually ask for something newer. Check that your banking app still installs and updates before you spend.
A battery on an X-series phone you like is still sound value, and so is a screen on an XS, XS Max or XR that is otherwise healthy. An iPhone X is fair value too if you accept the iOS 16 ceiling, as a second phone or a child’s first. A board repair is sound value when the phone is otherwise good and the data on it matters.
We would rather say this at the counter than take the job. We would not repair one of these phones when:
The free diagnosis and the written quote are how you find out.
Apple is the right answer when you want only original parts and the maker’s own process, or while a phone is still under warranty or AppleCare+, which is rare on phones launched in 2017 and 2018. We are an independent workshop, not affiliated with or authorised by Apple.
We are the better call when you want a choice between genuine-grade and quality aftermarket parts, when a board fault means a whole-unit swap would cost you your data, and when you want the quote in writing first. Nothing is sent offshore, and nothing is handed to a third party without telling you.
The cheapest shop is sometimes fine and sometimes exactly what it costs. What separates shops is a written quote, what happens if they cannot fix it, and who does the work. Our comparison of third-party versus Apple repair sets out the questions to ask anyone, including us.
We are at 6 Harper Road, Leong Huat Building #05-02, three minutes from Tai Seng MRT on the Circle Line. Walk-ins get a free diagnosis and a written quote before we touch a screw, and islandwide courier is possible. WhatsApp the model and symptom first and we will confirm parts and timing.
If the phone in your hand is a newer generation, see the iPhone 16 repair guide, iPhone 15, iPhone 14, iPhone 13, iPhone 12 or iPhone 11. The generation before the notch is in the iPhone 6, 7 and 8 repair guide. For costs across every generation, see the iPhone repair cost guide, or start at iPhone repair Singapore for the full range of work we do.
Verified Google reviews
Real reviews from our Google profile, shown with the customer’s name as they left it. The score and the count are Google’s own, updated every week.
Thank you iDevice for helping me recover the data from my bootloop iPhone. I had asked many other places for help, but none of them could do it without restoring the phonne only you guys managed to recover it successfully. I really appreciate it! 🙏
Managed to successfully fix my damaged iPhones and my data is also saved! Thank you for assisting
Excellent service. Been sending different model of iphones to this store for repairs these few years. All well and good after that. Thank you
A simple, quick, & fuss-free battery replacement done for my iPhone 8. Excellent customer service from start to finish. Thanks Dean & co.!
Manage to fix my iPad mini screen as well as the home button with minimal cost incurred compared to Apple Store. It was a very disappointing with Apple Store that they only cares about selling new products to consumers. At least in here, the staffs help you to save either your iPad, iPhone or even Mac book. Thumb up for them!!
great! managed to recover the data in my iPhone 11 Pro Max by fixing my motherboard.
Very professional and high quality service! They are competent in recovering data and repairing devices as well as very responsive. They managed to retrieve all of my files in macbook and iphone which were apple logo frozen/stuck and they also repaired the device successfully.
10/10 service, and Michelle was very patient in answering all our questions. I would definitely go back to them to solve any iPhone issues!!
Questions we get every week
Our band for an iPhone XR screen, which is an LCD, is from around S$85 to S$200, and for a battery from around S$60 to S$110. Back glass, charging port, Face ID, water damage and board-level repairs are quoted by model after a free diagnosis. You get the quote in writing before any work starts, and if we cannot fix the phone you do not pay a repair fee.
The iPhone X, XS and XS Max all use OLED screens, and our band for that tier is from around S$110 to S$380. Where a phone lands depends on the model, with the larger XS Max panel towards the top, and on whether you choose a genuine-grade or a quality aftermarket panel. Diagnosis is free on a walk-in and the quote is written before any work.
Our band for an iPhone X, XS or XS Max battery is from around S$80 to S$150, and for an XR from around S$60 to S$110. We are at 6 Harper Road, three minutes from Tai Seng MRT on the Circle Line. WhatsApp the model first and we will confirm parts and timing. Diagnosis is free on a walk-in, and islandwide courier is possible.
Power IC is shorthand for the small chips on the logic board that manage charging and power. When one fails after a drop or liquid, the phone may not charge or may not switch on even though the screen and battery are fine. It is repaired by microsoldering at component level, so the board and its data stay in the phone. There is no list price. It is quoted by the fault after a free diagnosis, with no guarantee that every board can be saved.
It should, if the repair is done carefully. The earpiece and sensor assembly at the top of the display carries parts Face ID relies on, and we move your original assembly to the new screen. Face ID that was already failing is different, because the dot projector is paired to your phone's logic board and cannot be swapped from another phone. We diagnose first and tell you in writing which case you have.
Often it is not. The commonest cause is lint packed into the Lightning port, which stops the cable seating. A torch will show it, and a clean is free when that is all it needs. If the port is clean and it still charges only at an angle, the port assembly is likely worn. If it ignores a good cable on a clean port, the charging circuit is the suspect.
Yes. All four have glass backs that are laser-welded to the frame, so removing the glass cleanly needs a laser and heat. We quote back glass by model after a free diagnosis, because the XR has a single-lens camera surround, the others a dual-lens one, and the XS Max back is the largest. If we cannot fix it, you do not pay a repair fee.
A battery on an X-series phone you like is still sound value, and so is a screen on an XS, XS Max or XR that is otherwise healthy. As of 2026 the iPhone X can run up to iOS 16, and the XS, XS Max and XR up to iOS 18, so check your banking app still updates. We would not repair one when the total nears the cost of a newer phone, and we will say so first.
No phone is waterproof. Apple rates the X and XR at IP67 and the XS and XS Max at IP68, and says water resistance is not permanent. If one gets wet, switch it off, do not charge it and do not use rice. Bring it in early, because corrosion keeps working in Singapore's humidity after the phone feels dry.
Walk in at 6 Harper Road with the phone and we will tell you what is wrong with it, what it costs to put right, and whether it is worth doing, in writing, before anything is started. If we cannot fix it, you do not pay a repair fee.
