iPhone 4 - Cracked Screen

[professorhat]

Hi all,

So my lady has dropped her phone and cracked the screen quite badly. Phone still works fine, just very hard to see with hairline cracks everywhere. I know it can go into an Apple store / dodgy fella on the street who can fix it (£50 I hear is the going rate for this), but I've also seen articles which say it's not hard to fix yourself. I'm pretty sure I can do it, but there's a wealth of kits out there ranging from £5 to £50, with Amazon reviews being very inconsistent on all of them.

Has anyone done this? If so, how difficult is it? If it's going to cost £20+ and take a few hours, then I might as well spend £50 getting it done by a professional and not have the hassle, but if it's £5 - £10 and less than an hour, then it's probably something I'm happy to do myself.

Also, do I need to be careful which kit I get? From what I can tell, the iPhone 4 and 4S are pretty much identical, but are they that identical that a 4S kit can be used on a standard iPhone 4? It's a white iPhone as well, which seems to drastically reduce the choice of kits from what I've seen.

Any advice appreciated!

 

[Paul.]

The 4 and 4S kits are not identical. The alignment tabs are in slightly different places so a 4 screen will not fit in a 4S and vice versa. Make sure you by the screen and digitiser, not just the digitiser (the front glass). You can buy the front glass alone without the LCD portion but if your LCD is in one piece it is a ball ache to remove it and fit it to a new digitiser, so avoid the £5 kits as they are a con.

I did the replacement myself, and it is straight forward. The difficulty is not from complexity, its just from fiddlyness. If you have sausage fingers I would avoid! It took me about 40 minutes, but I needed to do the home button as well. As long as you have experience taking things apart and you don't have massive hands, I would say go for it. I found it quite rewarding

Make sure you buy a kit that includes the tools, you may need the pentalobe screwdriver depending on the age of your device and the prizing tool is priceless. I would be tempted to do the home button whilst you are in there, they cost about £2 and is a known failure point for iPhones.

Something like this one will do.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Replacement-LCD-Screen-And-Digitizer-For-Apple-iPhone-4-in-White-Tools-Included-/180824814084?pt=UK_Replacement_Parts_Tools&hash=item2a19ffb204

 

[ksoundwerx]

I haven't fixed one myself, but I know my brother had a pop at fixing his after he did the same (iPhone 4) and said it was easy. He's since fixed a couple of his friends too. If I ever broke mine I'd not hesitate to DIY it.

I believe all you need is set of watchmakers (v.small) screwdriver. Get stuck in. If the kit cost you under <£20 and for what ever reason you can't manage it, it's only £20 on top of paying someone else to do it, and chances are you'll be fine.

 

[Paul.]

Here is a white home button £1.28 posted

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WHITE-IPHONE-4-4G-HOME-MENU-BUTTON-KEY-FLEX-CABLE-RIBBON-ASSEMBLY-/261223570324?pt=UK_Replacement_Parts_Tools&hash=item3cd2235b94

 

[RodhasGibson]

Hi Prof, IMO if it was me,I would use www.fixmyiphone.co.uk. They have two Branches in London.

1. 163-169 Gt Portland St London. Tel 0207-907-1553 £99 all in. They have a walkin facility,where you sit in the lounge and they do it while you wait [ roughly 1hr ]

2.Same as above but at 10,Northburgh St London EC1V 0AT, [Barbican] Tel 0207-250-0855.

This would be my hassle free Solution. Good Luck Prof. Have a couple of Nespresso Ristretto's then go.

By the way they also do home/work place visits don't know the cost though but the website will tell you. Good Luck Regards Rod

 

[ksoundwerx]

^^^If novices with no experience can fix it themselves in 30mins, then why do they keep you waiting an hour?

Probably to justify the exorbitant £99 cost for what takes the professional 10minutes.

 

[Paul.]

Hi Prof, IMO if it was me,I would use www.fixmyiphone.co.uk. They have two Branches in London.

1. 163-169 Gt Portland St London. Tel 0207-907-1553 £99 all in. They have a walkin facility,where you sit in the lounge and they do it while you wait [ roughly 1hr ]

2.Same as above but at 10,Northburgh St London EC1V 0AT, [Barbican] Tel 0207-250-0855.

This would be my hassle free Solution. Good Luck Prof. Have a couple of Nespresso Ristretto's then go.

By the way they also do home/work place visits don't know the cost though but the website will tell you. Good Luck Regards Rod

I thought Apple would give you a refurb for £120 if you ask nicely?

 

[professorhat]

Thanks everybody for your links / comments - I probably should have done this first, but I have just watched a YouTube video of someone replacing the screen. I have to say, I probably could do it if I absolutely had to, but it looks a complete faff and quite a high risk of damaging the phone. The video of the guy (who presumably does this a lot) was 31 mins and a lot of that was speeded up as he removed screw after screw after screw. He also had a nifty screw mat which kept track of where all these screws went - given how many of them there are and that they're all different sizes, this seems essential and not something that's included in any of the kits I've seen.

If someone is going to do all this for me for just £30 more than it would cost to do myself, this defintely seems the way to go, but appreciate the tips. Also good to see that replacing the battery is actually pretty easy!