 Now it's no secret that iFixit has been a long time sponsor of our channel and we use their kits for all kinds of things from repairing phones to building computers to- I mean, I'm sure someone in this building has picked their nose with an iFixit kit. That doesn't necessarily mean that an iFixit kit is the be-all and end-all of toolkits. In fact, some of you have suggested to us that you can actually build your own iFixit kit for much cheaper on AliExpress. So that is exactly what I tasked Anthony with. This is what we're calling the iFuxit kit. We changed one vowel and we're gonna walk you guys through how it compares to the brand name iFixit kit for half the price. Mac Weldon's silver line of underwear, shirts, and socks are naturally antimicrobial, which means they keep you from smelling so bad. Use offer code TECHTIPS20 to get 20% off at the link below. Okay, so let's start with what's in a typical iFixit ProTech toolkit. You got a few of their astonishingly bendy, like, pry tools. You've got one of their suction cups. You've got an ESD wrist strap. You've got some ESD safe tweezers, like reverse tweezers. You've got a couple of little grabber tweezer doodads. You've got... ah, these are great. So these are their spudgers. So these are pry slash poking tools. You can use these to, like, pop off a Wi-Fi antenna or whatever else. You've got this metal pry tool. You've got their, I forget what they call this, something knife? The Jimmy. Jimmy, yep, Jimmy tool. And then you get their 64-bit driver kit, which has the extension, the driver handle, and then a whole bunch of different bits that we've used to take apart everything from a Nintendo DS to a computer monitor. Pretty much you name it, you can take it apart with one of these and a guide on iFixit.com. But the thing is that none of this stuff is really that unique. Oh, I missed the guitar picks, which are literally guitar picks, except blue with an iFixit logo on them. Like, you can get a lot of this functionality elsewhere. So let's try to do just that. Anthony, hit me with what you found. All right, well, the screwdriver kit is obviously the most important part for... Well, most people would call it the most important part. And this here is the, I think it's called alouette. The alouette. So you know what? This actually reminds me a lot of the older iFixit kit. So it's got these little rubbery bases that all of the bits go into, like that. It's got a really different looking extension. And the driver itself is quite different from either revision of the iFixit, but feels okay. The rubberized grip is not bad. This isn't metal, this is plastic. So it does feel a little less, you know, le quality. But is this a ratchet? I can't really tell. I don't know what this is doing. You know, you want to... Yeah. Oh, interesting. So there's a couple cool features of this guy then. Now, this won't necessarily help you get into some of the tight spaces that I've had trouble with the iFixit kit. Because the only way to extend this one out of the box anyway is to take the hex driver that's just the same size as the bits. And then you can get a little bit of extra length. Now, one other thing that they actually removed that they used to have on the old iFixit driver is this hex hole through the top that you can use to jam something in it. And then get a little bit more leverage if you don't have enough from the rubberized grip. They removed that from this revision and that is something that I missed from the old one. Now, the last thing that I'm not that pleased with is the variety of the bits here. There's just not nearly as many bits and some of the really obscure ones like security torxes are simply not present. So for those of you not familiar, a security torx has a hollowed out middle so that you can use it to remove security torx screws. Alright, so that's our screwdriver. Oh, wait, hold on. I want to see if there's anything else interesting here. Three torxes up here with the two tri-wings and then a, like a Phillips, a female Phillips with a hex on the end. That's kind of interesting so you could use your screwdriver to something, something I guess. There's one pentalobe bit that I can see. The springy thing here. It actually works at very extreme angles. So you can actually do like 180 degrees here. That looks like a much smoother action there. Much smoother action there. It's cross compatible. These use the same diameter I believe. Oh, handy. So if you liked certain components of a different kit or you just needed a top up of bits or whatever else. Yep. Alright, so you're saying this is by far the most expensive part of our DIY kit. How much is this? Yeah, it was about, eh, $12, $13. Ooh. That is called the JakeMe. I like this. And I actually like that it's a little bit longer and doesn't taper quite as much. It feels a little more secure in my hand. So how much is a JakeMe? The JakeMe costs $2.42 US. Great value. Recommended. Cordless wrist strap. Be a bro. Wear an anti-static strap. So basically as we conduct to the metal screw that's in the top through the resistor, we will dissipate some static buildup. I really wouldn't count on this though. So the few things that I've seen that actually test these out. Yeah. Show that it is basically no different than if you're not wearing one. Got it. So the iFixit Spudger actually doesn't go quite so thin at the tip. This one's a little worn, but that's not the entire reason why it's so dull at the end. So I'm gonna pick a spot. Okay. Got my spot. And I'm gonna just bend it back, hopefully without hurting myself. So I can bend that back 90 degrees with my hands. Spudger. Same spot. Not a friggin' chance. Like this, I don't care how much it costs. I wouldn't price something with this because I'd probably end up hurting myself. You know, I'm gonna give a pass to the screwdriver set because I think it's a great value. It's not an iFixit kit, but... So this is iFixit. This is the off-brand one. And in terms of strength, I'd say not quite, but the blade is a little thinner. And there are times when that might have actually been a little too thin. And there are times when that might have actually been handy for me. It's nice that I get all these other options. Now, I don't typically like to use metal tools for prying because you tend to leave marks in the casing of whatever it is you're trying to take apart. But this curved one here, it's got quite a lot of strength to it. You can really get some leverage on that. Depending how much this whole kit is, even if I had an iFixit kit, I'd probably run out and grab one of these just for this guy. And then these other similarly bent ones. You got a nice wide one here, and then a more pointed, but wider, like really strong tip here that you could really put some force on. I really like these extra ones that come with it. Yeah, so this one cost $3.75 US for those. Strong recommendation for these ones. I really like these. About 25 a piece. So I've got the iFixit ones in my right hand, and I've got our off-brand iFixit in my left hand here. And you can see that iFixit includes this sort of broader tweezer that I actually find myself using an awful lot just to pick up a screw that I've dropped that's non-ferrous or whatever the case may be. But really my main criticism of the iFixit angled one is that the tip, if you try to do any real grabbing or prying, anything forceful with it, they do bend quite easily. And so that's, you know, where these can really stand out to me. Yeah, my iFixit kit at home, I ended up breaking off the tip of the angled ones because they're a little bit, you know, less sturdy. Now, it's not a direct replacement for a broader grippier, like more of a grabber. And I still want one of those in my tech tool kit. But I'm liking these. Yeah. These get a pass. How much are they? $1.81. Heck yeah. Next round, let's go for these here suction cups. These are garbage. Okay. I actually had an off-brand suction cup. I lost my iFixit one that's from my kit a while back. So I was using an off-brand one to try and pull the screw off. And unless you have a really good suck, you can't apply enough force to lift up the adhesive. Just for your reference though, those suction cups were $1.55 for 50. Cool. Not even worth it. As for the rest of the stuff in here, first, we've got our off-brand pry tool. Now, these are really, really impressive. I absolutely love these. I think they're one of the highlights of iFixit's kit. And this one is not. Now the handle itself seems fine, but there is no way I'd be able to snap one of iFixit's pry tools. Bend, yes. Break, absolutely not. These things are fantastic. And this is no substitute. I can't believe I forgot to talk about iFixit's lifetime warranty though. So if your spudger from them did this, then they'll send you a new one. And that's something that you won't get if you're ordering random stuff off AliExpress. So I think the conclusion then of this video is something I wasn't really expecting. There's not a clear winner here. What we do know is that piecing together your own electronics toolkit could yield actually better quality than what you'd get from iFixit at a similar or even better price. But the other thing that we've discovered is that unless you can find lots or very reputable reviews of the things you're buying, it's quite likely that even though you paid half the price, half of what you ordered or more might not actually be usable or of sufficient quality compared to what you're getting from the name brand toolkit. Yeah, it's a real roll of the dice. Okay, I was sort of expecting a more clear winner or loser. But we don't have that. So hopefully you guys enjoyed the video anyway. You'll find links to where to buy all the stuff that we feature today in the video description. But the only ones we're really recommending are the tweezers, if you need that kind of tweezers, the screwdriver kit, if you don't need all the bits that are included with the iFixit kit, these pry tools and the JakeMe. These ones I really like. These are absolutely going in our workshop. These are absolutely going in our workshop immediately. Today's sponsor is Massdrop featuring the new Force EDC-3 in-ear monitors. So these are the big brother of Absolute Sound's 2017 Earphone of the Year. They swap out the original's single dynamic driver for three balanced armatures in each ear. They've got a lightweight translucent housing that shows off all the sexy internals. The new tuning is a little more neutral but still retains a rich sound and you can wear them at home, in the office, at the gym, anywhere. That's kind of the idea with in-ear monitors. They come with two removable braided cables and you can join the drop at the link in the video description. So thanks for watching guys. If you just liked this video, you can hit that button. But if you liked it, hit like, get subscribed, or maybe consider checking out where to buy the stuff we featured at the links in the video description. Also down there is our merch store which has cool shirts like this one, lttstore.com, and our community forum which you should totally join. We don't have shirts like that one anymore, unfortunately. Unfortunately, this one's pretty good. That's old school. Yeah. Did you just pick that up out of like the swag pile or did you actually buy that? I haven't found it in like the warehouse or something. I thought you were gonna say in the washroom. I originally was going to say the washroom, I don't know why. Quick question though. Yes. If you could tell iFixit to copy any of this, what would you say to copy? This guy for sure, a greater variety of prying tools in general is something I think they could improve on. Yep. And it's not really any better here, but a better suction cup is another thing that I'd really like to see them improve. Overall though, I mean, we've worked with them for a long time. That's not an accident. I've been using iFixit tools since before they were even a sponsor, and I really, I like their stuff because there's that consistency. Yeah. Whatever it is that I need to do, I know that the tool is going to be a little bit of a pain in the ass, but I know that the tool they've included is good enough. Maybe it's not the best, but it's definitely not just complete garbage. Spudges aren't supposed to do that.