iPhone 5 resurrection... It lives!

So last week I acquired a (for lack of a better word) destroyed iPhone 5 from a family member. The LCD was completely shattered and glass was actually starting to delaminate from the screen. The housing was also severely bent. When connected to a charger the phone would only beep every 5 seconds, no picture on the LCD and no response from button presses. It was however still recognized by a mac and still showed that it was passcode locked so with that all in mind I decided to try a little test. I purchased a replacement screen from ifixit and plugged it all in. To my surprise the phone booted right up! Everything seemed to function as normal with the replacement screen!

Once it was determined that the phone was still functional I decided to refurbish the phone in order to use it tell the 7 is announced (so I can decide if I want the 7 or the SE). Searching amazon for replacement housings I came across the "iPhone 5 to 6 mini" housing conversion and decided to give it a try. So far the phone is back together and ALMOST functioning normally... I apparently broke the lock button while transferring the ribbon cable so a replacement is on the way and I have also decided to start fresh with a new battery. Other then those two things the phone is fully functional! I am pretty amazed that an iPhone can be that far gone and be brought back to life! Just wanted to share this!

Pics!

Top is original housing in the condition I received it in.

Bottom is its current condition!

 

I do too! I am also pretty impressed with the quality. I was expecting to run into tolerance issues with screw locations and such but everything fit in without a problem. My only complaint is that they seem to have cheaped out on the sim tray and just included an OEM iPhone 5s tray. It doesn't quite match the curvature of the body but it is not terrible.

 

$25 for the housing, $85 for the screen (ifixit is expensive), and about another $40 in small bits. So about $150 total. I probably could have bought a pristine condition 5 for that much but it would not have been as much fun or as customized as this one!

 

Word of advice..... If you have never taken apart an iPhone before it is actually pretty difficult compared to say an iPad. There are so many tiny ribbon cables that can easily be ripped if your not careful (lock button on mine). The best thing to do is to just buy a replacement ribbon cable for the power and volume buttons. Relatively cheap and you will not have to spend a lot of time pulling the ribbon cable from the adhesive tape that is holding it down.

 

Basically yes! The idea was to A) have fun in rebuilding an iPhone and B) see if I am ok with using a 4" phone again. I love how pocketable 4" phones are but am unsure if the 4" screen will feel to cramped for a daily driver. If I am ok with using the phone then I will most likely be getting the SE! The question then would be to see if apple will accept this phone as trade in! Would be very interesting to see if they do.

 

Oh most definitely... Planning on heading to Annapolis. This phone was actually previously repaired at the pentagon city store (battery replacement). When I disassembled it I found that they had ripped the battery pull tab off and actually got part of the battery casing stuck in the screen retention clips causing an intermittent short in the phone (hence the new battery I am going with). I would expect this from a mall kiosk but not from "trained" Apple technicians.

 

And here it is!! Lock button replaced and working perfectly! All that is left is the battery replacement but that can be done in 10 minutes when it arrives tomorrow!

 

Well the Annapolis Apple Store will not accept "altered" iPhones as trade in. Oh well, still a fun project!

 

Haha it was pretty funny! I pulled the phone out and the guy was certainly taken back! He had to go ask his manager about the phone and she too had that look. He comes back and says they won't do it and then says "it looks great though!".