Replacing The iPhone Glass/Digitizer & Adding A Custom Orange Back!

Okay, before you get too excited I should warn you; This is more so just a documentation of my experience doing this rather than an actual tutorial like I usually post. Before you jump in to a project like this you can save yourself a lot of headache (and avoid ruining your phone!) by doing your homework and watching videos on disassembling your model of iPhone. There are a lot more videos that just show you how to change the glass/digitizer than there are full disassembly vids (which is required to change the back), so take care of your due diligence before trying this at home kids! :)

My iPhone’s screen shattered one evening while it was changing on my desk and I received a phone call… unfortunately I wasn’t nearby and it vibrated off the table…

The good news; I ordered both the replacement glass / digitizer part and a slick new orange iPhone back for around 35 dollars on eBay. There are lots of sellers on there with these parts, so just find a reputable one with good feedback & positive comments for their iPhone parts. I had to wait two weeks to get the back part from Hong Kong, but it went smoothly and shipping was free! [FYI, the glass and touch sensor, which is called a digitizer, are one part, so you must replace them together]

Here, documented via somewhat blurry photos, is my attempt to do this without destroying my phone completely… luckily it was a success! The first thing you hear in the how-to videos for disassembling your iPhone is the importance of removing the internal connection in the proper sequence. So I carefully lifted up my digitizer panel and peaked in… yeah, the connectors just popped off all at once! haha. Thankfully the phone still worked in the end!

I apologize that I didn’t video this or put more time in to a proper tutorial, but this turned out to be more involved and time consuming than I had imagined… and to be honest I just don’t want people trying this solely on account that they saw my successful attempt here, as you will have many opportunities to ruin your while iPhone doing this!

Sorry for the blurred images, the lighting I was working in sucked!

 

At one point later in the disassembly process I did get a bit overwhelmed trying to remember where screws went and how parts were oriented, so I did miss what probably would have been some interesting photos of lots of little parts lying around on my desk!

You’ll notice in the second to last picture that my case did not completely close evenly at the top! It looks worse here than in real life and so far no one has noticed it until I pointed it out. I am not certain if this is due to a part defect or if I did not seat the battery perfectly or something.

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