The HTC U11.
This poor guy just went through one of my smartphone durability tests.
And while most phones survive... this one didn't.
His death is not in vain though as this autopsy will show how to repair most everything inside
the device, AND how the pressure sensors for HTC touch sense work since that feature is
unique to this phone.
And maybe we'll see if a transparent back glass panel is possible at the end of the
video.
Lets get started.
(Intro)
Normally I would turn off my phone first but...
I cant.
Long pressing the home button doesn't work at this point either.
Since the back glass is not embedded into the frame like on a Samsung it is a relatively
simple process to remove.
As long as you don't slice too far into the device with your tools.
After the glass is just barely too hot to touch comfortably, Ill slip my thin metal
pry-tool between the aluminum and the glass, and work my way around the edges.
After the glass is up, I'll Stick my green prytool under the panel to keep it from re-adhering
back to the frame again.
And continue the cycle of heating the phone and slicing through the black adhesive.
The black stuff is what helps keep the phone water resistant.
So definitely don't trust your phone around water anymore after you've done any repairs.
On the top black plastic panel there are 5 little screws, I'm going to spice things up
a little during this video with some arrows I downloaded from graphicstock, they are doing
a #Creator2Creator challenge And since video is a big part of what I do, I'm animating
the .PNG images I got from their website.
There is a free 7 day trial waiting for you in the video description.
Only now after that panel is gone can i turn off the phone by disconnecting the battery.
There are no pull tabs on the battery, but at least the adhesive is pretty forgiving.
And will allow the battery to pop out of the frame without too much effort.
Under the battery we get our first glimpse of those pressure sensor ribbons on both sides
of the phone.
I'm taking special care not to puncture anything.
The battery is a 3000 Mah.
Ill link these in the video description as soon as they become available.
There is one screw holding on the motherboard in the bottom right hand corner.
Ill set that off to the side making sure to all the screws organized.
Ill pop the right pressure sensor ribbon off, it can unsnap like a little lego, Along with
the other three ribbon cables along the bottom of the board.
And the left pressure sensor, and lastly the power and volume button can also unsnap like
lego connections.
There are two signal wires, the black and white one, on the right side of the motherboard,
and... then... if for some reason your sim card trey is still installed, you can remove
it.
It has the same rubber ring around the tip to help keep water out.
And the mother board is free to pull from the phone.
The front and rear cameras snap off easy enough, Its really nice that HTC has finally organized
their cabling inside the phone.
If you watch my HTC 10 teardown, All the different unorganized connections made repairing that
phone a nightmare.
This little guy on the left is a 16 megapixel front facing camera.
And the main rear camera has a 12 megapixel sensor with optical image stabilization.
HTC opted to not include the OIS on the front facing camera this year.
Last years HTC 10 was unique in having OIS on both cameras.
Hopefully they go back to that with next years phone.
OIS is great for video..
Down here at the bottom of the HTC U11 are 7 more screws.
The adhesive around the center hole is the water proofing for one of the 4 microphones
this phone uses for its multi directional audio recording.
Removing that top plastic shield exposes one more screw, and finally the loud speaker can
be removed.
It still has the black signal wire attached to it, and interestingly enough it has the
water resistant mesh screen built into the speaker itself.
With Samsung and iPhone devices the waterproofing mesh is a separate unit usually resting on
the frame of the phone.
So that's interesting.
The charging port has 4 of the little lego style ribbon connections on the top, These
are for the front capacitive buttons.
And for the extension ribbon to the mother board.
As I was removing the charging port from the board, there was a ton of adhesive holding
it into the frame, which definitely helps with the water resistance.
The little metal circle thing you see is the vibrator motor.
There is also a clear rubber washer that rests around the USB C port to keep the seal tight
when it is all screwed in and held in place.
The screen itself is replaceable, using a lot of heat and patience it can be removed
just like we did with the back glass panel.
It Definitely wont survive the process and is not as easy to replace as the Google Pixel.
But it is still possible.
Ill toss a link in the description for replacement screens.
Ill have to get one for myself as soon as they are available.
And now for the part that is completely unique to this phone...
There is no phone manufacture that has ever attempted before.
Squeezable sensors built into the aluminum frame.
The theory here is that the metal sides of the phone can be squeezed, or flexed, and
it can act as a trigger or button for different apps, or features on the phone, like the camera.
Its not capacitive , because HTC says it can be used with gloves.
After lifting up the ribbon cable there is a plastic bracket, with groves to run the
signal wires.
This comes off easy enough.
And we get our first glimpse of the actual pressure sensor.
It has four individual joints.
And is extremely well adhered to the metal frame.
I don't imagine this can be removed without damaging it permanently.
Flexible pressure sensors aren't a new thing, This same type of technology was used inside
inside the ol' Nintendo Power gloves back in the day.
HTC is the first company to stick it inside a phone though, underneath metal.
I assume that as the metal sides of the phone flex when the device is squeezed, the resistance
changes across each of the joints, telling the phone that the grip has been triggered.
With a more ridged frame, this feature probably wouldn't work.
Huge thumbs up to HTC for trying something new.
And stepping out of the same rectangular box that most other cell phones are stuck in.
The ideal, most sensitive, squeeze points would be on the lower half of the phone right
where the sensors are located.
Getting the phone back together is easy enough, ill stick that rubber washer around the USB
C port and tuck it down into the frame, making sure no connectors are stuck underneath the
board.
Then after getting the four ribbon cables attached to the top of the board and the one
white wire cable snapped in.
Ill toss on the loud speaker.
The top right screw, and then the little plastic shield can go over the top of the whole component.
And the 7 screws that hold it all in place.
The flex sensor on the side rail goes in next with its little plastic guard.
I have zero expectations of this functioning anymore now that i've removed it.
But Ill still put it back anyway.
Mother board gets tucked down top first into the frame.
And then all of the lego like connections along the bottom get clicked in.
You'll feel them snap in onto the motherboard under your finger like a little lego.
The screen, the extension,and the pressure sensors on the side rails.
And also the white and black wire cables along that right side.
There are little metal clips guiding clips that help line the cables into the right spot.
One more screw at the bottom of the motherboard.
And lastly the battery gets plopped back into place and plugged in.
The plastic shield goes over the top of the motherboard with its five screws.
And I can do a test run with the phone by turning it on.
And look!
Its as good as new.
Now the back glass panel will definitely need its own adhesive, so Ill link some in the
video description.
But the HTC U11 back glass can indeed become clear.
There is a plastic coating, over the top of a super fine paint layer.
Its a hard substance and scrapes off into shiny pixie dust pretty easy.
It shouldn't need any paint remover like on the Galaxy S8.
I'm not going to do the whole thing, because that would be like putting a new paint job
on a wrecked Ferrari.
Ill see if I can fix the phone first before I continue any modifications.
If you creating stuff on the internet and want to try using Graphic Stocks unlimited
downloads of graphics, photos, and vectors I put a free 7 day trial for you in the video
description of this video.
Id love to see what you make, so tweet it over to me using #creator2creator hashtag.
It saved me time being able to jump on and grab some images instead of trying to create
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Take a look at their library and see if anything will work for your projects.
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Let me know If you have any questions in the comments, or if you need any specific parts
for your broken phone.
And thanks a ton for watching!
Ill see you around.