I have an iPhone 3GS and I've been wanting to replace the back panel and replace it with a new one, perhaps a white one. I've looked at a lot of videos of the process and it seems fairly easy, but I'm just worried about the whole process. Has anyone tried this before? It's way cheaper to do it by yourself than sending it to some service to do it for you.
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iPhone 3GS back case replacement
- Thread starter sbl03
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Is your 3GS still in warranty? If it is, I'd try to find some cracks in the back plastic, and get it replaced under warranty at the Genius Bar. You can probably ask for a white replacement if you have black. I don't see why they wouldn't give you white. They're worth the same amount.
They won't give you a white one if you have a black iPhone. When you go to do a warranty repair/replacement, they do a like for like replacement. It all depends on your model number/serial number.
I have done this myself. I actually bought an orange one online through Ebay, its cost me all of about $7. You need to be very vigilant of where screws came from and don't lose any... (they are very easy to lose, as well as forgetting where the came from...) I know this through experience. If you do decide to do this yourself make sure you remove all the screws from the motherboard, as well as the ribbons and be very careful in the removal of the motherboard. I ended up snapping off a microchip that can only be seen under 20X magnification. My iphone became a really nice ipod touch with a camera. Luckily enough my friend had an iphone with a cracked screen that she had no intention on fixing to I exchanged my mother board for hers. My iphone is now a product of two iphones, and i also had to sacrifice 8gigs of memory, mine was a 16 gig, hers was an 8. PS if you are going to replace the backing then i would recommend replacing the battery as well, mine lasted almost exactly two years to the month so if its getting close on that time, you should just kill two birds with one stone... I would hate for you to go through all of this only to have to do it again only months later.