Precision screwdriver sets, and which heads you actually need

Every small electronic thing you own is held together by a screw that a normal screwdriver will not fit. A precision set fixes that for the price of a sandwich, and the shelf is full of them. The problem is that they are sold by a number, and the number is the least useful thing in the title.

The number is padding

“25 in 1”, “32 in 1”, “115 in 1”. The count is every bit in the tray plus the handle, the extension bar, the tweezers and the plastic pry tools. A 115 in 1 set does not have 115 kinds of screw head. It has a few dozen heads in several sizes each, and a bag of accessories.

For most people the useful set is small: two or three sizes of Phillips, two or three of Torx, a couple of flat blades, and one or two oddities for the particular device that brought you here. That is eight to twelve bits. The rest of a large set is insurance against a screw you have not met yet.

This is not an argument against the big sets. It is an argument for reading the head names in the title, because the names tell you whether your device opens and the number does not.

The heads that matter

Phillips. The cross-head. Everything has some, and every set here has them, so it is not a deciding factor. The small sizes, written PH000 and PH00, are what phones and laptops use.

Torx. The six-pointed star. Laptops, games consoles, hard drives, and a lot of the screws inside a phone. Sizes run T3 to T10 for this kind of work. Every set here that names its heads at all names Torx, and it is the family you will use most after Phillips.

Tri wing. Three blades meeting in the middle. Nintendo used it on every console from the Game Boy to the Switch, and Apple used it on some MacBook batteries. Only one title on this page names it. If you have a Nintendo console, that is your set.

Pentalobe. Five rounded points. The two screws at the bottom of every iPhone since 2011. No title on this page names it, and that matters: without a pentalobe bit, an iPhone does not open, whatever else is in the box. If you are buying to fix a phone, find a listing that says pentalobe, P2 or P5.

Hex. A small Allen key, used on some laptop hinges and a lot of hobby gear. Two titles here name it.

Read the title for the heads you need. If it only gives a number, the photographs of the bit tray usually show the stamped names, and it is worth zooming in. The 25 in 1 at the top of this page is the example: its title says Torx and Tri wing, and only its second photograph lists P2 and P5 among the bits. The picture promises what the title does not, and a picture is a weaker promise, so treat it as worth checking with the seller rather than as settled.

Magnetic is worth insisting on

A phone screw is two millimetres long. Drop it inside the phone and the repair becomes a search. A magnetic bit holds the screw on the tip going in and lifts it out coming out, and it is the one feature that changes how the work feels.

Ten of the sixteen sets here state magnetic in the title. The others may still be, but the ten are promising it, and it is worth choosing a set that promises it.

The handle decides how long it lasts

The bits in a cheap set and a dear set are often the same bits. What differs is the handle. A plastic handle with a fixed cap cracks when a screw is stuck and you lean on it. A metal handle, aluminium or knurled steel, does not.

Two details in the titles here are worth noticing. One set states an aluminium alloy handle. Another states a rotating base, which is the cap on the end of the handle that spins freely under your palm, so the handle turns and your hand does not. Both are the sort of thing a person who does this often would ask for, and neither costs much.

What the titles do not say

None of these listings state the steel the bits are made from. Good precision bits are S2 or chrome vanadium, hardened so the tip stays crisp. A soft bit rounds off inside the screw and then rounds the screw, and a rounded screw is a much worse problem than the one you started with.

A title that says “high hardness” is making a claim without a number. Treat the steel as unknown on all of them, use the largest bit that fits the screw, and push harder than you turn.

The sets that are something else

One title here is an eyeglass and watch set on a keychain. It is exactly what it says and nothing more: a handful of tiny flat and cross heads for the screws in a pair of glasses. Fine for that, useless for a laptop.

One is an automotive oil seal set, which is a set of picks for pulling rubber seals rather than a screwdriver set at all. It classified as a tool because it is one. It is not this tool.

What I would actually do

For a drawer set that opens laptops, consoles and most of a phone, the 25 in 1 that names Tri wing and Torx is the one. It is the only title here that covers the console head, and it states magnetic.

For a set that will still be working in five years, the branded 24 bit set with the aluminium handle. Fewer bits, better handle, and the count is the one most people use.

For every head you might ever meet, the 115 in 1, on the understanding that you will use twelve of them.

Whichever you buy, if the device is an iPhone, check for pentalobe first, and if the title does not say it, keep looking.