A broken phone screen is an inevitable disaster and leaves a broken heart in its trail. The cost of fixing broken gadgets at official stores is rather extortionate. While third parties screen replacement though a little cheaper soars as high as $100 to $200 in most parts of the world depending on your phone brand.
Unfortunately, even the most careful ones among us tend to swallow this bitter pill more than once. Therefore, It is only wise to consider learning to fix your dropped phone yourself, and this piece is intended to provide you a swift guide to successfully achieving that.
Phones have evolved and are no longer as rugged as the Nokia tanks of old that effortlessly bears anything and everything thrown at it. They now come in slimmer and more fragile builds. Screen or digitizer damage is almost certain upon taking a fall, but this shouldn’t spell the end of the world.
The severity of damage to your phone determines the route of repair. If it’s just a few shallow cracks or scratches, then you can try one or more of these smart DIY tips.
TOOTHPASTE: Toothpaste doesn’t only keep your teeth healthy it comes in handy in its ability to eliminate nasty scratches on the gadget screens. Even keys and kids can leave scratches on your screen making your brand new phone look miserable, just apply toothpaste on a cotton swab and rub those scratches away in circular movements.
VEGETABLE OIL: vegetable oil is a great “vanisher” for scratches on your screen. Just add a little vegetable oil to a piece of cloth and wipe the scratch away. Most newly released phones now come with an oleophobic coat with the aim of keeping finger prints away from your screen. Scratches on such phones should not be wiped with oil or other cleaning substances as this would make matters worse. So for iphone 6 and phones released around the same time, use just a gentle clean rag to wipe the oleophobic screen.
BAKING SODA: Baking soda doesn’t only serve to make your bread and other things we bake rise. A sticky mixture of this white powder and very little water wipes scratches off phone screens upon gentle circular wipes.
These are easy and very effective, and you should consider trying them out to get your rough phone screen a brand new look.
Now comes the hard part. What do you do when your phone screen broke upon taking the fall? The answer to the above question depends on the kind of damage done to your screen. Most times the screen still comes up indicating damage to just the digitizer, a simple digitizer replacement should get your phone back in shape. A digitizer is a thin glass in front of the Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screen. Just as the name implies, it converts physical actions like taps, presses, and swipes into digital signals the mobile phone understands. Alternatively, if the front glass is damaged, and the LCD screen doesn’t display anything at all, then the LCD screen is probably damaged and must be changed. Both processes can be very difficult for some brands but relatively easy for others. This article aims at putting you through the simple steps of replacing a broken or cracked iphone screen.
The screen set up of iPhones consists of three components: the LCD screen, the glass digitizer, and a frame. Damage to either the screen or digitizer requires you to replace the whole screen set up. It currently costs $129 to fix an iPhone 6 screen at the apple store while a replacement screen on Amazon costs $65, so you really should consider saving that extra cash by fixing it yourself. You don’t need any super human abilities to do this. Just get some ice in your veins and carefully follow these simple steps
TOOLS NEEDED: a plastic pick, a suction cup, a new replacement screen, a small flat screw driver and a small Philip screw driver.
Before you begin, ensure you turn off the iphone by pressing down the power button and then confirming power off on the phone screen.
STEP 1: Loosen the screws at the base of the phone using the small Philip screw driver. Press the suction cup against the iPhone screen near the home button, pull the suction cup gently and slide in the plastic pick. Using the plastic pick tool as a wedge between the aluminum body and the glass, carefully detach the front assembly from the main body.
STEP 2: Open the iphone maintaining a right angled orientation by gently lifting the screen setup till it is vertically upright against the horizontal main body.
STEP 3: Disconnect the battery connector cable which is protected by a metal protector fastened by two Philip screws.
STEP 4: Locate the other metal protector is present at the top right corner which is held in place by five Philip screws. Undo the screws to disconnect the four cables attaching the screen to the logic board.
STEP 5: Now carefully detach the broken screen assembly and place it on your work bench. Attached to the detached piece are; the home button, the secondary (front) camera, the proximity sensor, the LCD metal protector and the speaker box. All these are not on the replacement screen. Using the old screen as a reference, transfer all these components to the new screen making sure you properly attach all connectors and fasten all screens firmly in place.
STEP 6: Attach the new screen assembly to the main body of the iphone by firstly placing the screen at right angle to the main body, attach the four connectors back onto the logic board, and then fasten metal protector back in place using five Philip screws.
STEP 7: Reattach the battery connector and fasten back its metal protector using two Philip screws.
STEP 8: Snap back the new screen onto the aluminum frame, ensure it fits perfectly then gently press the edges and fasten back the two pentalobe screws at the base of the iphone.
Put the iphone back on, and you are good to go.
These wonderful DIY tips fortify you with the necessary information to keep those nasty cracks and scratches off the face of your phone. Have fun while at it.