Today we’re going to be taking apart the OnePlus 3; the new flagship killer from the
company OnePlus. Luckily the phone is not that hard to take apart. Let’s get started.
First thing we’re going to do is remove the dual SIM card tray from the side. Then
there are 2 screws along the bottom of the phone, similar to how an iPhone works, except
for these are a T2 screw. I will link all of the tools and replacement parts that you
need down in the video description. I found it was easiest to start on the side of the
phone. If you remember during my durability video the screen popped out of the frame just
a little bit along that center line. So I put my metal pry tool between the edge of
the screen and the edge of the frame and then pry it up a little bit. And I switched to
my plastic pry tool as soon as possible because metal on metal doesn’t work out so well
for electronics. Screen lifted out relatively easily once it was up. And here is the single
slab of aluminum that OnePlus talked about. You can see the mill lines so they weren’t
joking around when they said it was a solid block of aluminum. The alert slider has the
little contact points up at the top that also connect to the vibration motor. I will show
you the contact points on the motherboard here. And this is how those get their signal
from the phone itself. There is one screw holding down the two little clasps over these
extension ribbon cables. We’ll work on those in a second after we remove the battery connection.
This disconnects the power from the board so it’s safe to work on. I will unclip the
two extension ribbon cables just like little Legos. Same thing with the bottom. You can
see that that’s really all this is is just an extension ribbon cable from the charging
port up to the top of the motherboard. There’s one little piece of tape along the top of
the battery. Remove that and then I can just pry the battery out from the phone’s little
pull tab on the side. Similar to how the iPhone 4 and 4S batteries were…very easy, no heat
necessary. The biggest disappointment of this phone is just that the battery is not red.
The OnePlus 1 and the OnePlus 2 phones had a bright red battery which was fun for repair
guys like myself to open up and see something a little bit different. But they went back
to being the original boring black batteries. There are 7 screws for the charging port.
Remove those. They are Philips head. And then we are going to remove the wire cable and
then two ribbon cables with that Lego like connection. And then the charging port will
just pop out from the bottom side of the phone. Here is the charging port; it comes with the
headphone jack, the loud speaker and the USB type C connection. I’ll try to find replacement
parts for these and link them down in the video description. Here is the tamper evidence
screw on the top motherboard and the water damage indicator. We’re going to remove
the wire cable first from the side; be careful with that connection. Then there’s the screen
ribbon cable from the side as well. 8 screws hold it down. These screws are all different
sizes; make sure to keep them organized. It is very important to put them back from the
same hole they come from. The volume button and power button have little contact points
just like the vibration motor does; those just rest up against the motherboard here.
That’s how it receives its signal. So if your phone gets wet and those button stop
working, it’s because there’s a little bit of corrosion or something on the contact
points. The front facing camera can just pop out. There’s a little bit of tape on the
back so peel that up. This is an 8 megapixel camera. We’ll set that off to the side.
The rear camera also unclips from the main board; it has the same Lego-like connection.
This one here is a 16 megapixel camera and it does have OIS image stabilizing. So the
camera itself compensates for the shaking of your phone while you’re holding it. Pretty
cool. So this is the screen. It’s got the glass layer, the AMOLED layer, and the plastic
frame that gives the phone its rigidity. So when you buy a replacement screen it will
most likely just come with the glass and the AMOLED and you’ll have to pry it out from
the plastic frame. But this kills the old screen so only do it if it’s absolutely
necessary. I’m not going to transfer mine over because it does sacrifice the screen
and I want to keep on using my OnePlus. The square around the battery is what I imagine
gives this phone its strength. The battery presses up against the sides of the plastic
to give it rigidity. Very cool design. Let’s reassemble this phone. We’ll put back that
8 megapixel front camera and clip it into the board, put the tape down along the back
again. You can just transfer the tape from your old camera to your new camera if you’re
replacing it. The 16 megapixel rear camera gets pressed down into place and then the
whole motherboard can just be pressed down into the frame of the screen. We got the ribbon
cable for the screen and the wire cable. And then we have the 8 screws that go in around
the outside. Make sure they go into the exact same hole they came out of. Get the charging
port set down into place; wire cable; and then the two ribbon cables – bend those
around the extension cable and then clip those in. There are 7 screws that hold this in place.
Remember they are different sizes as well so keep them organized. And then put the boring,
black colored battery back into the frame. I really hope to see a red battery for the
OnePlus 4. Now the two pieces of tape along the top are not super important, but since
they were there in the first place I will put them back on anyway. And then I’ll clip
on the extension ribbon cables that connect the charging port to the top motherboard as
well as the little metal bracket. Pinch one side in first and the screw goes in the other
side to hold it down. And the last thing you want to do is just stick in the battery connector.
That makes sure there is no power going through the phone while you’re working on it. Before
I put the screen into the back metal panel I’m going to turn it on and make sure it’s
working. Looks like everything is fine. You should turn your phone off before inserting
it into the back panel but I’m going to do it anyway. Put the top in first and then
pinch down the sides and the bottom. Remember that you are working with a piece of glass
here so don’t put too much pressure on it or you’ll crack your screen. I’m going
to put the bottom two T2 screws into place…that was a tongue twister. And everything is good.
If you have any questions leave them down in the comments below. Thank you so much for
watching. I did do a behind the scenes snap story on this tear down if you want to check
out my snapchat. I do a lot of behind the scenes stuff on Twitter as well as Instagram.
Thank you so much for watching. Hope to see you around.