Swapping iPhone 4 plates.

[moikeyy]

Hi macrumors people. My mom has an iPhone 4 black (unlocked) and gets a free iPhone 4 white (locked) from her network.

She wants to give me her white one but I cant use it to my network so I was wondering if could just swap our iPhone front and back plates so I could use her unlocked as white. Is it possible?

 

[dictoresno]

Back, yes. Front, technically but it is a lot harder to do. And no if one is a CDMA phone and one is gsm. The screens I think are different. But I wouldn't though. Destroys your warranty and hers.

 

[moikeyy]

Thank you sir.

 

[Bacong]

just pay to get it unlocked online. it's cheap.

 

[XboxMySocks]

The front plate is very tedious to take off; you have to disassemble 90% of the phone.

Source: I do it every other day.

 

[alexander25]

just pay to get it unlocked online. it's cheap.

*if OP is in the united states*

 

[saud0488]

It'll take you an hour, maybe more. But it's very do-able.


I've done over 50. Use ifixit. They have a fantastic guide. The one thing I'd recommend though is to use a piece of paper and label which screws came from which step. There's about 27 total. For each step with more than one sized screw, make sure you label the size as well.

 

[lordofthereef]

In generally a do it yourself person. But in going to say this as politely as possible. If you have to ask here, I suggest you just don't even go there. You run the risk of breaking two phones. Mom wouldn't be happy.