3 Hours Ago I Had A Black iPhone. Now I Have A White One - A Conversion Story

[Stiss]

Yup.

Bought the parts and converted it myself.

As the title implies it took around 3 hours. Mainly because I was chatting to my GF whilst doing it haha!

It almost ended as soon as it started. I don't know if many of you know but when you slide the back cover off your greeted with the battery. First stage is to remove that battery, which is glued in. You have a plastic tab which you pull to loosen it, similar to fitting RAM in a iMac. But there was so much glue the tab pulled clean off in my hands. I had to use a opening tool to prise the battery out.

The only other tricky part I was met with was screwing the LCD and glass to the frame. You remove 10 screws to detach it, 6 of them have washers. The screws are tiny and fitting them back with the washer was tricky, you need nimble fingers.

Any questions, feel free to ask. It all works fine btw.

 

[awadeee]

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Where did you buy your parts, how much did they cost, what parts did you get (headphone jack? Dock port?), does the camera work well? Does the prox sensor work?

 

[awadeee]

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EDIT: double post

 

[Stiss]

whiteiphone4me.com

Cost £99 for the front back and home button + tools. Not the cheapest available but my mantra is you buy cheap you buy twice. wefixmac.com do them for around £60 but In a thread on here some people received blotchy LCD's and glass which cracked.

Camera is great, front and back. Let me test the prox. Brb.

 

[Legion93]

I converted mine as well, but I also put a White dock port and headphone/audio jack.

Wanted to ask, my home button feels too low, how's your home button? Did it fit properly?

 

[Stiss]

Prox doesn't work, I just called a shop and asked for something random lol.

Home button feels good! I had to 'assemble' the home button. I had to stick the ribbon cable which has the actual button on it to the back of the white plastic. It was a struggle fitting the cable into it's holder.

The socket the cable goes into is very thin and you can't force it.

 

[Legion93]

The socket the cable goes into is very thin and you can't force it.

There's a kind of a lock thing on top of the transistor where the little ribbon goes into. There's a little tab that you have to lift up to insert the thin cable and then push downwards to secure it in place.

My home button feels very low, kind of annoying

 

[awadeee]

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Prox sensor will work if you disassemble the phone, take a sharpie and dot the back of the sensor where the dots are.

 

[Legion93]

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Prox sensor will work if you disassemble the phone, take a sharpie and dot the back of the sensor where the dots are.

My prox sensor worked fine the first time, didn't even needed to do anything :d

I got to add, OP, there's a screw that has a water sensor litmus paper on top of it that is glued to the screw which holds the logic board in place. Removing this voids the warranty so if you take it into an Apple store if your IPhone encounters problems, they will know .... Just saying :d

 

[Ian.C]

If anybody needs a water damage sticker Lmk, I have about 600 of them

You will just need to pay the postage, uk only.....

Lmk

Thanks

Ian

 

[awadeee]

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Prox sensor will work if you disassemble the phone, take a sharpie and dot the back of the sensor where the dots are.

My prox sensor worked fine the first time, didn't even needed to do anything :d

I got to add, OP, there's a screw that has a water sensor litmus paper on top of it that is glued to the screw which holds the logic board in place. Removing this voids the warranty so if you take it into an Apple store if your IPhone encounters problems, they will know .... Just saying :d

If you take a white conversion into an Apple store, they'll know immediately upon looking at it because the proximity sensor is quite different between the conversions and the official model. They will not service a conversion.

 

[Stiss]

I still have my black LCD and rear case. I took the water sensor off with tweezers. I replaced it when I screwed the board back in.

FYI my phone was replaced by Apple on Thursday because it had a faulty hold switch. It goes out of warranty next month so I have nothing to lose really.

 

[awadeee]

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I still have my black LCD and rear case. I took the water sensor off with tweezers. I replaced it when I screwed the board back in.

FYI my phone was replaced by Apple on Thursday because it had a faulty hold switch. It goes out of warranty next month so I have nothing to lose really.

Oh that's good! Looks like you know what you're doing. and yeah if your warranty is out soon then you really don't have a lot to lose.

 

[rdowns]

A fake white iPhone. Color me impressed.

 

[Legion93]

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If you take a white conversion into an Apple store, they'll know immediately upon looking at it because the proximity sensor is quite different between the conversions and the official model. They will not service a conversion.

No, I meant changing the parts back to black and then taking it to the store, otherwise what you said would be a silly idea :d

 

[maclaptop]

I bought a new white iPhone 4 for my girlfriend. After she used it for a few days it became apparent that its antenna is so far superior to the one on my original iP4, that its not even funny.

Thus I sold mine and bought a white one yesterday. I was surprised to find my Apple Store had them in stock.

Now I finally have an iPhone that makes and holds calls perfectly.

I knew Apple could do it.

This phone is so significantly better, its really a pleasure. And now I'm able to tell everyone how good it is.

Something I could not say about my original, or any of the three replacements Apple gave me.

 

[Stiss]

I have the genuine White iPhone 4 too. I got it the day it came out. I did this for my GF really, because she wanted a white iPhone but can't really afford one.

I will take a picture comparing the two for you.

Edit: Here we go.

Real iPhone is on charge.

What I'm trying to show you in the last image, but I don't think it's worked, is the fact the same model number appears on both rear pieces of glass. Am I right in saying the white iPhone 4 has a different model number to the black and it was recently changed close to launch?

 

[ap3604]

I'm REALLY happy that Apple went w/ a different proximity sensor on the white iphone 4 (cut out instead of a grill) so that you can tell if your getting a genuine one on craigslist or a fake.

 

[Legion93]

I'm REALLY happy that Apple went w/ a different proximity sensor on the white iphone 4 (cut out instead of a grill) so that you can tell if your getting a genuine one on craigslist or a fake.

I think the main idea was to increase functionality, not to promote whether it is genuine or not. A wider proximity sensor with a glass makes it better to operate (it works better than the black iPhone 4). This makes it very sensitive when making calls so that the screen stays off even if you hold the phone about 1-2cm from your ear.

 

[ap3604]

I think the main idea was to increase functionality, not to promote whether it is genuine or not. A wider proximity sensor with a glass makes it better to operate (it works better than the black iPhone 4). This makes it very sensitive when making calls so that the screen stays off even if you hold the phone about 1-2cm from your ear.

Yeah, just thought it was a nice side benefit in addition to the better functionality

 

[awadeee]

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Appreciate the pictures comparing the two. Virtually identical minus the prox sensor and home button. I am currently trying to find a beat up or cheap black on carrier Telus in Canada and convert it to white with parts. If this proves unsuccessful, I will purchase a factory unlocked white.

 

[BlindMellon]

i'm guessing apple put a raised plastic gasket on the iphone for a reason. have you noticed any light bleeding with the conversion?

 

[SL4VE]

where in the UK are you based?

 

[Stiss]

No light leak issues on either phone.

Haha! I guess I could make a business out of this.

 

[Apple OC]

the real one looks better ... hard to tell though unless they were side by side