It's an old story. Customer buys an iPhone, customer and iPhone have a good time together, customer has to shell out hundreds of dollars because the iPhone screen cracked and was not covered under warranty.

This is a familiar story to many and the reason many people have cases and screen protectors. It is well worth remembering as Apple begins shipping the iPhone 12. Because a few dollars for a protector is nothing compared to the $279 to replace the entire screen.

Apple has done much to enhance the iPhone screen over the years, but the latest addition is called Ceramic Shield. According to Cupertino, this quadruples the iPhone's drop performance and makes the screen less likely to crack, which everyone agrees is a good thing. However, it turns out that the technology does not come cheap.

Apple recently updated its repair page to account for the October 23 release of the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro, but the price is not cheap. If you want an out-of-warranty screen repair on either device, you'll have to cough up $279 for the privilege.

Owners of the iPhone 11 Pro would have to pay the same amount for such service, but that's an $80 increase over the $199 it costs to repair a standard iPhone 11 screen. Much of this increase would be due to the iPhone 12's OLED display, as opposed to the iPhone 11's cheaper LCD panel. Still, $279 is hardly cheap.

Pricing for screen repairs for the iPhone 12 Pro Max and 12 Mini has not yet been announced, presumably because they cannot be reserved until November 6. Nevertheless, given last year, the Pro Max is likely to be around $329, as is the 11 Pro Max. 12 Mini is less transparent and almost an inch smaller than the 12 and 12 Pro, but it is still an OLED display. The price difference is likely to be marginal.

And if you thought screen repairs were expensive, Apple details "other damage" that will cost $449 and $549 for the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro, respectively.

It is worth pointing out that these costs only apply to out-of-warranty screen repairs. Unfortunately, warranties typically only apply to problems caused by manufacturing defects and not to an iPhone dropped on the sidewalk while playing Pokémon Go.

In other words, be sure to take good care of your phone, as sending it in for repair is not pleasing to your bank account. Alternatively, you can pay $149 for Apple Care+, bringing the $279 down to $29