iFixit Pro Tech Toolkit Review: The $79.95 Kit That Beats Its Own Parts List

Inside the roll: the tool list

Inside the roll: an anodized-aluminum 4 mm driver handle, a 150 mm flex extension, and a black magnetized case whose lid doubles as a sorting tray. Around it sit eleven more tool lines — three opening tools, six opening picks, a spudger, a halberd spudger, a metal spudger, the Jimmy, angled, blunt and nylon-tipped tweezers, a suction handle, an anti-static wrist strap — plus the fabric roll itself. iFixit's care-and-use page walks the same list item by item and adds the desiccant bag kept inside the bit case.

The "64 bit" number counts slots, not screwdriver bits. Add up the printed list and it reaches 64 items, three of which are not bits: the quarter-inch-to-4 mm adapter, the magnetic pickup and the SIM eject tool. That leaves 61 driver bits. Coverage is the argument — pentalobe P2, P5 and P6 for current iPhones, gamebit 3.8 and 4.5 mm for Nintendo consoles, JIS 0, 00, 000 and 1, tri-point Y000 to Y1, hex 0.7 to 5.0 mm and six nut drivers from 2.5 to 5.5 mm.

Priced one by one, the extras add up

The Mako kit alone is $39.95. Everything else in the roll lists at $54.71 bought singly: three opening tools at $1.99 each, six picks at $4.95, the spudger at $3.99, the halberd spudger at $2.99, the metal spudger at $2.99, the Jimmy at $7.95, three tweezers at $4.99 each, the suction handle at $2.95 and the anti-static strap at $7.95. Driver kit included, that shopping list totals $94.66 against the kit's $79.95.

A drawer that already holds the Mako changes the math. The $9.95 Prying and Opening Tool Assortment covers a spudger, a halberd spudger, one opening tool, two plastic cards and six picks; add the Jimmy at $7.95, the suction handle at $2.95 and the strap at $7.95 and the extras cost $28.80 rather than $79.95. What that route skips: two of the three opening tools, the metal spudger, all three tweezers and the roll. It also skips the refund window — the assortment, the picks, the spudger and the halberd spudger are sold as-is.

Cheaper iFixit kits, and what each drops

One tier down, the $49.95 Pro Tech Go carries a 32-bit Moray driver set and its own opening kit: two opening tools, six picks, angled and blunt tweezers, a spudger, a halberd spudger, the Jimmy and a suction handle, in a 6.25 x 4 x 2-inch fabric roll. Against the Pro Tech it drops the anti-static wrist strap, the metal spudger, the nylon-tipped reverse tweezers and 32 bits — hex falls from eleven sizes to four and TORX Security from eight to four. The driver body is polymer rather than aluminum.

The $29.95 Essential Electronics Toolkit is the shallowest starter: 16 bits, angled tweezers, a spudger, the Jimmy, one opening tool, six picks and a suction handle in a 6.25 x 6 x 1.5-inch polymer case. The $69.95 Manta goes further, with 112 bits across quarter-inch and 4 mm drives, but lists no opening tools, tweezers, suction handle or strap. For a first phone battery swap, the $49.95 Go covers the prying; for light household repairs, $29.95 is enough.

Missing from the box: heat and the magnetizer

No heat. Factory-sealed phone and tablet screens are glued, and iFixit's care guide says the suction handle grips best warm — cold stiffens the cup, and cracked glass may refuse to seal at all. The iOpener, a microwave-heated pad that holds repair-safe temperatures for up to 10 minutes, sells separately at $24.95. A first repair that needs it starts at $104.90.

The bits are held by friction, per the care guide, and screws do not cling to the bit until it is magnetized; iFixit's magnetizer is $8.99. More expensive is what wears out. The three opening tools, six picks, the spudger and the halberd spudger are consumables, excluded from iFixit's lifetime guarantee and sold as-is with no refunds or returns — replacing those four lines costs $17.90.

iFixit's lifetime guarantee covers the rest: the maker defines it as the product working as long as you have it, and iFixit names the plastic opening tools as the consumable exception. The 30-day return clock starts at delivery, and a return authorization comes first; the customer pays return shipping on non-defective orders, and iFixit refunds rather than exchanges. A CPSC SaferProducts name search returned no iFixit recall records on 2026-10-08.

Who should skip it

Skip it when a 64-bit driver already sits on the bench. That buyer pays $79.95 to duplicate the Mako kit and can assemble the rest for $28.80, and iFixit does not sell the Pro Tech without the Mako, so there is no cheaper version of this exact roll. Driver-only work is cheaper too: the $39.95 Mako carries the same 64 items, and the $19.95 Moray covers 32 of them.

Skip it for glued-screen work by itself; that job wants heat, and the $24.95 iOpener or the $84.99 Pro Tech Disassembly Module with its Anti-Clamp is the more direct spend. Skip it when repairs are occasional and light: the $29.95 Essential puts the same Jimmy, spudger, picks and suction handle in a smaller case for $50 less.