So what’s inside the world’s thinnest premium smartphone?
If you drop your phone and it cracks the glass, how hard it is to replace the screen?
Let’s find out.
[Intro]
First off I’m going to remove the SIM card tray since there are no visible screws on
the outside of the device.
Then I’m going to use a heat gun to melt off the adhesive underneath the back glass
panels.
It turns out that the construction of this phone is kind of weird.
Technically you can remove the screen without popping off these glass panels but I’m going
to show it anyway and then you can decide which method is best for you.
I found that the easiest way to get underneath the back glass panel was to start at the plastic
portion of the frame and dip my metal pry tool underneath the glass and gently slide
it out.
Once the metal pry tool is in I’m going to reheat the back glass to make sure that
the adhesive is good and soft so I’m not cracking anything.
Once the back glass panel flips up I can just tear it off and set it off to the side and
repeat the process for the top panel.
When you’re heating it up you want to get it just too hot to touch, then you know the
adhesive is getting soft underneath.
Now that both panels are off I can remove this gold bar on the bottom section of the
phone.
This bar is purely aesthetics; there is no actual value to it.
It’s just there for looks.
Now the reason for taking off the back panel is so you can push up gently on the screen
from the back side now and you don’t have to be sticking things deep inside of the phone,
like playing cards.
It gives you a little bit more leverage and room to work with.
Either way there is still adhesive all the way around the edge of the screen so I’m
going to warm it up just like we did with the back glass, and then slide my metal pry
tools around the black side of the glass, making sure that my tools do not touch the
screen where the display is because metals and displays do not go well together.
It will crack very easily.
You’ll see how thin this screen is in a second.
Once I have all of the adhesive cut away from the sides, the top and the bottom, we can
see how the screen is connected.
Definitely go slow during this part and reheat the screen as often as needed, getting the
glass just too hot to touch.
The part that you have to be careful with is down here at the bottom of the phone.
That’s where the ribbon cable is for the display.
Now if your screen is already broken, obviously you don’t need to be as careful as I am,
but I’m going to reuse my screen so I’m taking special care not to damage it.
Now this screen has the same Lego-like connections that we see on most every other phone except
Samsungs and iPhones.
So we’re going to remove the protective metal covering and unsnap the screen like
a little Lego from the motherboard.
Make sure you stay organized with all your little parts.
There are a couple more components inside that we’ll be taking out so make sure they
don’t all get mixed up.
So here is the glass screen.
It’s got the glass and the display panel fused together as one.
And this is what your replacement part will look like when you purchase it.
Although it will probably have new adhesive surrounding the top, the bottom and the sides
of the glass.
I will link replacement parts and tools in the video description below just like always.
Now let’s see what else can be replaced.
I’m going to set that metal bracket off to the side and then pull off this tape that’s
covering the battery and the motherboard.
Set this off to the side.
You can try to reuse this if you want, but it’s pretty flimsy stuff.
There are 2 screws holding the front earpiece.
They are T4 with this particular bit set.
Remove these two screws and then the earpiece can pop up and off of the phone.
It has the two little contact points that rest on the motherboard so it gets its signal.
There’s a random plastic piece right here underneath the side button cable.
This is where the power and volume button connect to the motherboard.
The battery connection is down here underneath this plastic piece.
We’ll slide this out from the bottom and then set it off to the side.
And then we will unclip the battery, snapping it off just like a little Lego, similar to
how the screen was.
Now the battery can be lifted out from the bottom of the phone.
There’s nothing underneath that can really be damaged, just the back metal plate.
Just make sure you don’t bend or puncture this battery.
Lithium ion batteries can explode as you can see from my Note 7 Battery Explosion video.
There are two more screws down at the bottom for a total of 4 screws in this entire phone.
Usually there are a lot more.
The bottom plastic piece pops up and out, and this just kind of sits around the charging
port.
There is a metal plate over the processor and the memory.
We’re going to pull that off just so we can see what it looks like.
There’s really nothing that can be repaired under here.
We can see now though that the charging port is not replaceable.
It is attached very securely to the motherboard, so unless you have micro-soldering skills,
you’re just going to have to leave it in the phone.
The rear facing camera can be swapped out pretty easily.
Just lift up the little latch and slide it out, similar to how all of the other cameras
are held into place like Samsung.
We can see it has the OIS stabilizing as well.
It’s kind of like a little gyro that sits inside of the camera unit to stabilize your
videos and your pictures.
There is one more big screw holding the motherboard into place.
And then surprisingly the motherboard does not want to come out from the back of the
frame.
I assume that it’s secured very permanently to the back.
I could be a little bit more aggressive with it, but the more you bend a motherboard, the
more you risk cracking any of the little tiny solder joints that you see around all of those
little resisters and processors.
And I don’t want to damage this phone permanently so we’re just going to leave it in the frame
because there’s pretty much nothing here that the common consumer can replace easily
without special micro-soldering tools and microscopes.
Let’s put the camera back into place.
Tuck it down and clip it in.
Reassembling the phone.
Put this screw back in as well.
The protective plate over the processors and the memory goes back into place and the little
tiny plastic bracket down at the bottom near the charging port.
Two more screws for that little plastic bracket.
And the earpiece goes into place.
It will click in.
Battery gets tucked down into place and you can plug it in once everything else is plugged
in on the board like the little side buttons for the power and volume.
I’m going to slip this little plastic bracket back into place and this just kind of puts
pressure onto that little connection so it doesn’t pop off if you ever drop your phone.
I’m going to reconnect the screen.
This is where you’ll be using your new screen if you’re doing a screen replacement.
Just plug it in; you’ll feel it snap underneath your fingers just like a little Lego.
And then the little metal bracket goes over the top of it, making sure each little clasp
goes inside of the frame so it doesn’t pop out ever if you drop your phone.
It’s important that this is secure.
Remember that your replacement screen will probably have new adhesive so you’ll want
to peel off the protective adhesive covering so that it will stick to the frame of the
phone.
I’m going to fold the screen back down into place and set it down, and push it firmly
to that the adhesive will reconnect.
Remember that bottom decorative metal piece.
We’re going to tuck that in and clip it down.
And then the back glass pieces can go into place as well, if you decided to use the route
that required the removal of the back glass.
Top glass gets pushed down into place as well.
It fits very securely back here.
We can put back in the SIM card tray and we’re good to go.
If you have any questions leave them down in the comments.
Don’t forget to “like” if this video helped you.
And remember all of the replacement parts can be found in the video description of this
video.
All my behind the scenes and future projects can be found on my Twitter and Instagram.
I’m definitely looking forward to the iPhone release this week.
The iPhone 7 should be an interesting project.
Thanks for watching.
Hope to see you around!