Kerja pertama dia dalam industri ini adalah pada dua peranti yang sudah tiadaHis first jobs in this trade were on two devices that no longer exist

Charging port iPhone 4. Custom housing BlackBerry.

An iPhone 4 charging port. A custom BlackBerry housing.

Kalau anda masih ingat kedua-dua benda itu, anda tahu ia bukan semalam. iPhone 4 guna penyambung 30-pin yang sudah lama Apple buang. BlackBerry pula sudah pupus sepenuhnya — tiada siapa buat housing untuknya lagi sebab tiada siapa memakainya lagi.

If you remember both, you know that was not recently. The iPhone 4 used the 30-pin connector Apple retired long ago. BlackBerry is gone entirely — nobody makes housings for it because nobody carries one.

Zaki tidak menyimpan dua kerja itu dalam riwayatnya kerana ia mengagumkan. Dia menyimpannya kerana ia benar, dan kerana kedua-duanya masih hidup dalam tangannya hari ini.

Zaki does not keep those two jobs in his history because they impress anyone. He keeps them because they are true, and because both still live in his hands today.

Bertahun kemudian, itulah tepat dua kemahiran yang diperlukan untuk membaiki telefon lipat. Flex mesti melalui kawasan engsel. Panel dalam mesti duduk tepat pada rangka yang bergerak. Salah sedikit jajaran, lipatan itu akan makan panel itu sendiri dalam beberapa minggu.

Years later, those are exactly the two skills a folding phone demands. The flex has to cross the hinge. The inner panel has to sit true on a frame that moves. Get the alignment slightly wrong and the fold itself will eat the panel within weeks.

Ini kerja yang tidak semua kedai buat, dan sebabnya jujur — ia memang susah.

This is work that not every shop takes on, and the reason is honest — it is genuinely hard.

Panel dalam telefon lipat bukan kaca tebal seperti telefon biasa. Ia lapisan melentur yang sangat nipis, dilekatkan pada rangka yang membuka dan menutup ribuan kali. Engsel itu sendiri satu mekanisme berspring dan bercam, dengan kabel isyarat menyeberanginya. Buka dengan cara salah, anda rosakkan panel yang belum rosak. Pasang tanpa jajaran betul, ia bertahan dua minggu dan pelanggan pulang dengan masalah kedua.

The inner panel of a folding phone is not the thick glass of an ordinary phone. It is an ultra-thin flexible layer bonded to a frame that opens and closes thousands of times. The hinge itself is a sprung, cammed mechanism with signal cable crossing it. Open it the wrong way and you destroy a panel that was not yet broken. Reassemble without proper alignment and it survives two weeks before the customer returns with a second problem.

Zaki buat kerja ini di kedai, bukan hantar keluar.

Zaki does this work in the shop, not by sending it away.

Zaki belajar Diploma Perakaunan di UiTM.

Zaki studied a Diploma in Accountancy at UiTM.

Itu maklumat pelik untuk dimasukkan dalam profil seorang tukang baiki, sehinggalah anda sedar soalan paling penting yang pelanggan tanya di kaunter bukan soalan teknikal langsung:

That is an odd line in a repair technician's profile, until you notice that the most important question customers ask at the counter is not a technical one at all:

Berbaloi tak repair ni, atau baik saya beli baru?

Is this worth repairing, or should I just buy a new one?

Itu soalan perakaunan. Kos membaiki, lawan nilai baki peranti, lawan berapa lama lagi ia akan bertahan. Orang yang dilatih membaca nombor akan menjawabnya dengan nombor.

That is an accounting question. Cost of repair, against the device's remaining value, against how much longer it will realistically last. Someone trained to read numbers answers it with numbers.

Itulah sebabnya kedai ini memberitahu anda apabila sesuatu kerja tidak berbaloi, walaupun jawapan itu bermakna kami tidak dibayar hari itu. Bukan kerana ia strategi pemasaran yang baik. Kerana orang yang membuka kedai ini memang berfikir begitu sejak sebelum dia pegang pemutar skru.

That is why this shop tells you when a job is not worth doing, even when that answer means we are not paid that day. Not because it makes good marketing. Because the person who opened it has thought that way since before he ever picked up a screwdriver.

Dasar penuh kami tentang harga, part dan sumber maklumat ada di Dasar Kandungan.

Our full policy on pricing, parts and sources is on the Content Policy page.