Cracked Screen

[MacNoobie]

Ok so I dropped my phone face first on asphalt due to Apples slippery sides. Never mind the fact that I hate phone cases but I've checked out the glass + digitizer replacements and have a few questions.

1. I've seen some through Amazon.com for ~$30 and some specific sites that specialize in repair sell them for $~60.. Any differences? do I get what I pay for?

2. Is it fairly easy to take apart the phone? I'm pretty technically inclined I've taken apart pda's to overclock em, modded PC's back in the day (circa G5 Mac)

3. Does it work as good as the original? any issues with finger taps or anything?

 

[outphase]

Talk to the Apple Store to see if you can get a warranty replacement.

 

[acfusion29]

Talk to the Apple Store to see if you can get a warranty replacement.

Apple doesn't cover accidental coverage.

 

[moka]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7A341 Safari/528.16)

Talk to the Apple Store to see if you can get a warranty replacement.

Apple doesn't cover accidental coverage.

He never said that, also lots of people were able to get their shattered screen iPhone replaced "under warranty"

 

[variable]

Ok so I dropped my phone face first on asphalt due to Apples slippery sides. Never mind the fact that I hate phone cases but I've checked out the glass + digitizer replacements and have a few questions.

1. I've seen some through Amazon.com for ~$30 and some specific sites that specialize in repair sell them for $~60.. Any differences? do I get what I pay for?

2. Is it fairly easy to take apart the phone? I'm pretty technically inclined I've taken apart pda's to overclock em, modded PC's back in the day (circa G5 Mac)

3. Does it work as good as the original? any issues with finger taps or anything?

I used to work at a place called ClickAway and they do digitizer replacements. I think it was like $119 including parts. Its not terribly difficult to pull apart, but you have to be super careful when separating the lcd from the rest of the unit (which you have to do to get the digitizer off) as its very fragile. Most of its fragile, but thats very fragile. The digitizer is surprisingly resiliant. You have to separate the digitizer from the plastic that its glued to which requires breaking the glass and peeling it away. there's some videos up on youtube. Having a heatgun or a strong hair dryer to help melt the glue will make things a lot easier, though hotter... I stopped using it personally. I can't believe I just plugged my old job...

 

[dagomike]

Go into an Apple store and tell them a sob story. You might luck out. If your mom or girlfriend is hot, bring them too. Either way, I'm sure you'll be loving cases in the near future.

 

[NOFSChef]

Long time lurker and finally see somewhere where I can offer some info. I have reciently replaced my screen and can tell you a couple of things if you are interested. First of all, I bought the screen off of eBay for around $30, but make sure you also buy the adhesive strips as well, or you wont be able to put the phone back together. Also, when the above poster said to remove the digitizer, listen to him - I know of people ruining it trying to save some time.

As far as getting the original glass off, some things I found helpful were a hair dryer and a knife. I had shattered the corner and was able to work some of the smaller pieces out with the knife. Be very careful around the home button!

Also, be careful with the third cable (the last one you disconnect) I managed to bend it and had to replace it. This controls your earpiece and sensors.

Finally, when I got my phone back together, it worked just as well as before so no worries there. Be sure to keep your digitizer free from fingerprints and lint, because they are hard to get off once you have put your phone back together!

Good luck!

 

[MacNoobie]

I might head to an Apple store and see what they say since I bought the phone in January. Really a total accident BUT most of it was due to not having a case (which I cant seem to find one I like) and Apple designing it so damn sleek. Besides that it sounds like a PITA to get the whole phone apart BUT its not impossible its just a project for half a night.