Earlier this week, my iPhone 4 slipped out of my hands and fell on the sidewalk outside of a Chipotle restaurant. Unfortunately, it was one drop too many and the screen broke. As luck would have it, the screen still works and the phone is still functional, albeit hard to read through the cracks.
My first thought after seeing the damage — OK, my second through, first being #$!@&*! — was to contact my good friend Rob Stanley over at AX Micro to see what my options were. Rob and I met back in the day when he got started in his business selling replacement glass for the original Palm Pilots. His business has exploded since then and I figured if anyone knew what my options were, it’d be him.
Thankfully, he quickly responded and explained that the iPhone 4 has the screen married to the glass, so I could just replace the glass, I had to do the whole screen. That explained why the iPhone 4 replacement screen was $99 and the iPhone 3 is $40. I ordered one along with a few accessories and everything arrived last night.
Before I began the take apart, I decided to check out Rob’s take apart video and I have to admit, I have a bit of a doubt. There are a lot of screws and small pieces! The video provides plenty of detail, so I’m going to soldier on and I’ll let you know how it turns out. 🙂
Update
Here’s a handy tip. Be sure to order a screwdriver with your replacement screen! Yeah, none of the tools I have in my office are small enough for the little phillips to even begin this project. LOL! So I just ordered the phillips, standard and pry tools from DirectFix, which should arrive next week.
Then I had another thought. We have a company here called iRestore that specializes in iPhone repair and after a quick call they explained that they could repair it in about an hour. I think the price of having them do the work is worth the time it’d take me to do.
Update 2
Two hours later and my iPhone 4 is as good as new. Only cost $40 to have the guys at iRestore replace the front screen while I went to lunch. Totally worth it and if there’s a next time, I’ll just have them supply the part(s) as well.