Cracked Screen: Repair, Sell, or Live With It? The Honest Math
Cracked screen in Montreal? When repairing makes sense, when selling wins, and what it costs. The honest math, from repair technicians.
Your phone just kissed the sidewalk and the screen looks like a spiderweb. You’ve got three options: repair it, sell it as-is, or live with the cracks and hope they don’t spread. Here’s how to decide — straight talk from the team that sees hundreds of cracked screens a month on Beaubien.
The simple rule: the 50% rule
If the repair costs less than 50% of your device’s current value, repair it. Above that, the math gets murkier and selling often wins.
Concrete example: if your phone is still worth well above the cost of a screen, it’s a no-brainer — repair it. If it’s an older iPhone whose resale value has dropped a lot, it deserves a second thought. The quote is free, so you can run the math before you decide.
When repairing is the right call
Your phone is under 4 years old. The battery still lasts the day. You like it, your life is on it, and it does the job. In that case, a screen repair is often done the same day at Sub Tech Repairs — you walk out with a phone that looks new, under warranty, depending on model, parts and damage.
Repairing is also the green choice: every phone that stays in service one more year avoids roughly 70 kg of CO₂ in mining and manufacturing.
When selling makes more sense
The device has multiple problems (screen + battery + charging port), it’s 5+ years old, or you wanted to upgrade anyway. Good news: a phone with a cracked screen is still worth money. Our sister shop SubSell, at the same address at 757 Beaubien East, buys broken phones for cash — you can literally get your repair quote from us and a buyback offer next door, in one visit.
What NOT to do
Live with a cracked screen for months. Cracks let in moisture and dust, the touch layer starts failing, and a simple screen repair becomes screen + flex cable + sometimes motherboard. Also: glass shards genuinely cut fingers.
A YouTube repair kit is rarely a good idea either — without a heating plate and calibration tools, most DIY screens end up with Face ID or True Tone dead.
The 10-second verdict
Recent device + one problem → repair it (often same-day, warrantied). Old device + multiple problems → sell it broken and put the cash toward the next one. Not sure? Bring it in: the diagnostic is free and we’ll tell you straight what’s worth doing.
Sub Tech Repairs — 757 Rue Beaubien E, Montréal · (438) 938-6696 · 7 days a week, 8:30AM–9PM, no appointment needed.
Read next: if you are leaning toward repair, our iPhone screen repair in Montreal page covers panel types, the parts we use and what happens in the shop.
If repairing is the right call, our iPhone screen repair Montreal page explains what the swap involves, and phone repair near me lists everything else we fix at 757 Rue Beaubien E.