STREBITO 142pc Electronics Repair Tool Kit - after 6 months of use

[YoungBlade]

TL;DR - This 142pc electronics repair kit is very good, boarding on excellent. It has more than enough driver bits for dealing with computers, laptops, and other electronics with proprietary/unusual screws. The included screwdriver itself is not very comfortable, but is effective if you can get past the way it feels in the hand - in particular, the resizable shaft is very useful. It offers excellent value as far as general computer and DIY work is concerned, although it might not be as good for the more specialized phone repair that iFixIt specializes in.

 

At under $30, the STREBITO kit is a great choice if you don't need iFixIt's more premium/specialized tools and lifetime guarantee - although it is still of reasonable quality and includes a lifetime warranty.

 

----Scope & Limitations----

 

Back in October, I purchased the STREBITO 142-Piece Electronics Precision Screwdriver with 120 Bits Magnetic Repair Tool Kit from Amazon. It was on sale for $22.39 at the time of purchase as an Amazon Day deal. It seems to regularly be available for $28 on Amazon, putting it in competition with the iFixIt Essential Electronics Toolkit ($30) or about the same price as a Refurbished Mako Driver Kit from iFixIt ($27). A friend of mine has had the iFixIt Mako kit for a few years now, and I've used it a number of times to help him with computer maintenance, and also used it for more general DIY with him. That will be my point of comparison, as I have not used the Essential Electronics Toolkit, and, to be fair, I haven't used the equivalent phone repair tools from that kit in my STREBITO one.

 

That leads in nicely to pointing out some of the limits of this user report. I have used most of the kit, but not everything. Obviously, there are a ton of bits I haven't used, but I've used at least 40 of them, and I've noticed no difference in quality between them. If there is a dud somewhere in here, STREBITO has been lucky enough to not have me find it. But the important things that you might care about that I haven't used are the suction cup and pry tools (the 8 included guitar pick style ones in particular). I have not tried to use the kit for phone repair, nor for taking apart things like screens.

 

In the past 6 months, I've used this to work on a wireless access point, old DVR, a wide range of computers from Pentium 4 era Dell and HP boxes to modern ones, and for building furniture. I'm sure I'm forgetting a thing or two in that list, as well, but that's the gist of it. So if that sounds vaguely like your use case, then this should be helpful to you.

 

I should also let you know that I won't be going into details about product info that you can find on the Amazon listing. There's a lot in this kit, and if you want specifics, the listing is really solid. The company has also given some helpful answers in the Q&A section. Beyond the fact that they may or may not be Esperantists, this company seems to be potentially a good one, although I haven't tried to use their customer service, which is another limitation here.

 

----Case----

 

The kit comes in a fairly durable quad-fold case. It's made of the sort of rugged cloth-like material that some backpacks and wallets are made out of. The velcro on it is very powerful - if you use it on carpet, be prepared to sometimes need to fight to pry it back up. The good part is that the case stays shut really well. You are not going to open up your bag and find that it came open in transit. The bad part is that the rough side of the velcro can get caught on basically any fibrous surface, so this makes it less ideal to have it open the whole time you're working if your work surface or anything you place it on is cloth-like - including the LTT deskpad.

 

The case also has a small handle that you can carry it from that also can stayed tucked inside if you don't want it getting caught on things.

 

The rubbery plastic bit storage racks are of good quality and clearly labeled in high contrast white so you can tell which bit it is which. This is probably the single best part of the case and it's something that iFixIt could do better - the embossed look on the Mako kit is classy, but not easy to read when you're actually trying to use the kit.

 

The storage sleeves for the driver, spudgers, and other tools are not the best. It can be pretty easy to have a tool get stuck in one, at least at first. Once you've used the kit for a bit, you can build up the muscle memory for how to take them out without snagging them. But the iFixIt kit here is much better - removing the driver or extender from the Mako is effortless and feels nice.

 

I also think that the plastic of the Mako kit, along with the lid that can double as a screw tracking surface, feels more premium and intentional. However, this quad-fold design does allow the STREBITO kit to fit a lot more inside than the Mako ever could, and there's a certain beauty in that kind of utilitarianism for a tool kit.

 

When it comes to the head-to-head between the Mako and the STREBITO, I'm split on which case is superior. They are both good in their own ways and have their own weaknesses where, depending on what exactly it is that you're doing, one might be better than the other.

 

----Driver----

 

The driver, with 100+ year old, badly rusted Danish 10 Øre coin and unlicensed legionary mini-fig for scale

 

The driver is arguably the weakest part of the kit for me, but that's not to say I dislike it overall.

 

As you'd expect, the black plastic end can rotate freely, which makes turning the driver in certain situations much easier. And the grip surface is rubber, or at least rubber-like, so that it doesn't slip in the hand. It is also a fair bit slimmer than the iFixIt driver, which is potentially a good thing if you have small hands. Maybe they were hoping to attract Linus before he finished his screwdriver?

 

You can notice in the above picture that some of the little rubber bumps have already been worn down where my thumb has been resting on the driver. Honestly, this has made it more comfortable, and hasn't seem to have a significant impact on the amount of torque I can exert with it.

 

While the driver doesn't feel as premium as the one that comes with the Mako, and certainly doesn't feel as nice in the hand, it does actually have one rather big advantage.

 

My favorite feature of the driver is the resizable shaft. It is easy to use and unbelievably handy. You can just pull back on the lower black and silver section to release it, and it can lock in place at one of the 5 different joints along the shaft. The result is actually quite firm with minimal flex, making this feature very effective for using the driver to reach into smaller areas. And because there are 5 points along the way, you can size it to be exactly as long as you need it to be, which can be useful in particular for working on desktop computers with the parts still in the case.

 

This means that the shaft length - starting at the silver base and including a standard Phillips 2 bit - can range from 2 3/4" to 5 1/2" in the USA, or 70mm to 140mm for the remaining 95% of the world's population. For those not from Earth altogether, the length is roughly 1/3 to 2/3 hydrogen hyperfine transition radiation wavelengths - which will be meaningful if you did that homework assignment we sent you on the Pioneer Plaque.

 

This is something I think iFixIt should bring to their drivers if they can find a way to implement it. The extender that comes with the Mako driver is certainly nice, and is of better quality than the one that comes with the STREBITO driver, but honestly, I don't find myself needing a length longer than 17 barleycorns that often.

 

And you did read that right. The STREBITO kit does, in fact, also come with an extender that is about the same length as the fully extended shaft, meaning you can basically double the shaft's length to ~2.7 billion angstroms. That's right, they stack, and you can combine the extender with the adjustable length feature to get the working length just right.

 

That said, the extender in the Mako kit is way better. It is far more flexible, and yet also seems better at translating the torque from the driver. But like I said, it's fairly uncommon to need to use the extender with the STREBITO driver.

 

Again, I'm split. The Mako's driver feels so much nicer in the hand, and frankly just has a higher build quality, but the resizable shaft of the STREBITO driver is impressive. I don't want this to seem like a cop-out, but I'm going to have to say "it depends" here as well. If you care about feel and build quality, the Mako is miles ahead, but if you care about versatility, then the STREBITO one is just better. That ability to change shaft length on the fly is a great feature.

 

----Bits----

 

The STREBITO kit has nearly double the bits that the Mako does, but quantity isn't everything. I think one of the highlights is that the STREBITO kit comes with duplicates for all of the Phillips and flat-head bits. Since those are by far the most commonly used bits, having backups in case one gets damaged for lost is a great move. But, on the flipside, this effectively reduces the total number of unique bits you get. It still means that STREBITO kit has more unique bits, but it's not the landslide victory of "nearly double" that it would seem at first glance. So far, it has always had the right bit for what I was working on - including a few bizarre hex or triangle screws in proprietary cases. With that said, my experience with the Mako was similar - I never felt I was lacking bits for any of the projects I used it on with my friend.

 

The bits are magnetized, and the magnetization is plenty strong enough to pick up and hold screws, yet not so strong that working in steel computer cases always causes the screwdriver to latch onto one of the sides (although that can happen). It also includes a tool for re-magnetizing or de-magnetizing the bits, which is a nice touch, although I don't see myself using it all that much.

 

There isn't much wiggle for the bits when they're in the driver. There is some, but it feels plenty firm - I don't find myself cursing it and wishing I had a standard screwdriver, at least, even when the shaft is fully extended.

 

I do prefer the finish on the Mako bits from iFixIt. They feel higher quality, while these bits, frankly, feel kinda cheap. But that said, they work, and there are more of them.

 

You can look through the Amazon listing to see exactly which bits are included. If there are some you need that don't come in the Mako kit, then I guess this would win by default. But so far, I haven't had to use any bits that wouldn't have also been in the Mako kit. And since the Mako bits seem higher quality, I'll give the win there to the Mako kit. But it's not like the STREBITO kit has particularly bad bits. None of them have broken, and I've cranked on some of them pretty hard at times.

 

----Company Name----

 

STREBITO is the Esperanto word for "that which was striven for" - the object of one's past striving - from the verb "strebi." A somewhat loose translation would be "what someone's been looking for."

 

I was fairly certain this was a complete coincidence and unintentional, especially because "strebi" is intransitive, and therefore shouldn't take a direct object if you're being technical about it, but frankly that's a great brand name. I happen to speak Esperanto, so I recognized it as a possible word the moment I saw the brand back in October 2022. I assumed it was a happy accident. But in doing some basic research about the company for this review, I saw this on their Amazon page:

 

Apparently the name is, in fact, meant to be Esperanto

 

Whether they started with that idea, or just picked a random name and retroactively assigned in meaning, they know what it means (mostly) and are embracing it. So good job, STREBITO, on your company name. Much better than "Euymhod" or "WIHOLL" or the myriad of other terrible Amazon brand names.

 

Although, to be honest with you STREBITO, if you want to have the name be about you, as a company, striving. The name should be "Strebanto" - one who strives. But close enough. Maybe just change this copy to say STREBITO is Esperanto for "what was striven for" which still sounds good and then Esperanto speakers like me won't be saying "um, well, actually..." to you. Also, there are some other mistakes in the copy there. If you need a copy editor who happens to be fluent in both English and Esperanto, HMU.

 

----Conclusion----

 

I'm very glad I bought the STREBITO 142pc Electronics Repair Tool Kit. It has proven itself useful time and again for various projects, from disassembling computers to building my standing desk. The quality of the driver isn't all-around perfect, and the velcro on the case can get annoying at times, but it's an all-around solid option at its typical $28 price point. The fact that I got it for under $23 is a nice discount, but I'd be willing to spend up to $30-35 on this without regret. Having used both this and the iFixIt Mako, I'd say that both are good options. If you can find the STREBITO kit on a discount like I did, all the better. But if you find a good deal on the Mako, that would be a good choice, too.

 

My expectations for this kit were somewhat low when I bought it, and I was skeptical given the low price point, but this kit has won me over with its utility over the last 6 months. I can't say it's perfect, but it certainly was what I was looking for.

 

4 out of 5 Torx Star Bits