So heres what happened I've had this phone since it first came out and its been kept in perfect condition. I just got a new job and left it in my pocket one day and got some dirt in there apparently. Needless to say i now have about 20 small scratches on my phone. And the reason i didnt have a screen protector on it is cause i bought a zagg one and put it on and found out that water and phones dont mix. The phones touchscreen was completely broken so I just took it to best buy and they gave me a new phone. I know i could buy a new digitizer for like 50 dollars but the scratches arnt noticeable when the screen is lit, just knowing that they are there is enough to bug me
i got 3 or 4 little ones within 2 weeks of owning the phone. similar to yours in that they could only be seen at certain angles and/or lighting situations.
I put a screen protector on to make sure to not get anymore, and it actually helped to make the other little scratches pretty much disappear.
hope that helps.
Yeah i ran to the sprint store after work today and picked up a screen protector... except i didnt realize that the protectors only cover the lcd part and not the rest of the touchscreen. It does minimize the visibly of the scratches but it just bugs me. ill just have to sell it for less when the evo 3d comes out due to the scratches.
Those Sprint branded screen protectors are terrible...truly worse than the "universal" type.
I'd check out another one of the custom-cut InvisibleShield ZAGG types. They have the textured, soft and pliable surface that may allow it to settle into the cracks and cover them up.
I'm not sure what you did when you put your first one on to make you say "Water and phones don't mix", but it sounds like you may have gone a bit crazy with the spray bottle?
TechnoBill said:
Those Sprint branded screen protectors are terrible...truly worse than the "universal" type
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+1 bought some from Sprint after putting a big scratch on my original screen protector and it's terrible.
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i used the ones from radio shack they work great
but to fix scratches if they are small you can get the scratch spray for eye glasses for a few dollars and use it with a cleaning cloththen apply the screen protector
Hey warstroke, do you have a specific glass scratch remover you can recommend. Cause after hours of searching on google i found displex for touch screen phones but i cant tell if its for plastic or glass. Thanks in advance for the help
Edit... So it looks like its gonna be a huge pain to fix the scratches, so im just gonna wait till my summer job is over and then buy a new digitizer and replace the whole screen. There only like 30 dollars on ebay. Apparently sand is the mortal enemy of cell phone screens.
Try out buying Otterbox's new Evo Shift case. Its great protection and comes with a screen protecter. Its $34 but definitely worth buying for the quality. You can find this on Otterbox's site.
Of course I found this after a shattered my Evo Shift. Now I have to deal with a refurbished one.
I cracked my glass on my screen and purchased a replacement online. I've found tutorials on how to replace the screen as a whole but I only need to replace the glass. The screen is fine. Any info in this?
Thanks beforehand.
i dont know much about this in particular but u would have to open the phone up but u gotta be careful not to damage the touch sensors if you do replace it, or u could just sell it and put maybe 100 in for a used one
If you want to replace the glass, the Super Amoled itself will have to be replaced as well. Unfortunately, the glass and the amoled screen are glued together which makes seperating the two nearly impossible without tearing/destroying the Super Amoled.
XPLANE9 said:
If you want to replace the glass, the Super Amoled itself will have to be replaced as well. Unfortunately, the glass and the amoled screen are glued together which makes seperating the two nearly impossible without tearing/destroying the Super Amoled.
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Not true. i replaced mine on the second atempt, on the first i cracked the amoled.
I really dont recomend you to do it yourself. Let a professional do this for you, but if you are really studborn.. here comes the info :
the border of the amoled is glued to the glass. the trick is that the amoled, is so fragile as an egg shell, to be honest, more fragile. since part of the amoled is glued to the back of the phone dispositives, any wrong trie to pull the glass, can crack the amoled.
So you need a hot dryer, and a lot of time and pacience to remove all the glue before trying to pull the glass. if you did not broke the glass on the borders or over the buttons (back, home, seach, settings) i recomend you to not lose your time and send for a professional, because the shattered pieces will stay over the screen and you will not be able to clean the amoled without damaging it.
Sorry for my english, hope it helped, but the best i can tell you, just send to a professional or there is a 90% you will screw it like on my first time
infestedd said:
Not true. i replaced mine on the second atempt, on the first i cracked the amoled.
I really dont recomend you to do it yourself. Let a professional do this for you, but if you are really studborn.. here comes the info :
the border of the amoled is glued to the glass. the trick is that the amoled, is so fragile as an egg shell, to be honest, more fragile. since part of the amoled is glued to the back of the phone dispositives, any wrong trie to pull the glass, can crack the amoled.
So you need a hot dryer, and a lot of time and pacience to remove all the glue before trying to pull the glass. if you did not broke the glass on the borders or over the buttons (back, home, seach, settings) i recomend you to not lose your time and send for a professional, because the shattered pieces will stay over the screen and you will not be able to clean the amoled without damaging it.
Sorry for my english, hope it helped, but the best i can tell you, just send to a professional or there is a 90% you will screw it like on my first time
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Which is exactly why I said nearly impossible. OP would be better off buying a whole new screen or a cheap unit off of Craigslist.
XPLANE9 said:
Which is exactly why I said nearly impossible. OP would be better off buying a whole new screen or a cheap unit off of Craigslist.
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Absolutely right! I remember the days I used to work as a cellphone technician repairing hardware damaged phones... a lot of people used to come to replace iphone glass.... people would buy iphone glass off ebay and have no clue how to take it off the screen...breaking the screen while doing so... and from my experience only a few!!!! a FEW!! technicians can do stuff like that.. you need BALLS and steady hands! and PATIENCE! google the topic she as much as you can find.
In other words from my experience you can try to sell your phone on craigslist for some change... and buy a used or stolen model for a low price! half of the phones on craigslist are stolen so ur not doing anything bad buying it, u just assume ur buying it for a good price while a thief tries to make a quick buck, just check the phone completely if it works... ear piece, speakers,, touch screen, internet signal,,, etc..
Good luck pal!
Unfortunate
Thats very unfortunate as a gorilla glass lens only costs 20 bucks whereas the entire display unit costs 100-140
[With pics] How to replace only the glass (not the whole "LCD") on a Galaxy S3!
You don't.
Although it is entirely possible, the chance of failure if done by people with absolutely no experience with mobile phone repairs is very high.
If you've broken the screen on your Samsung Galaxy S3 and have considered replacing the screen by yourself because your local mobile phone repair shops charge a hefty price for the repair, you should reconsider. You may have seen videos like the following that make it seem it is very easy to replace the glass only:
(skip to 3:00 in this one)
Maybe it seemed too easy. That's because it was too easy. Chances are those screens have already been replaced before by a third party who has access to professional equipment and skills. Possibly the screen has been broken more than once?
Even if you do successfully replace the glass only, it is guaranteed that you will get scratches, dust, fingerprints and adhesive marks on the Super AMOLED panel, no matter how much you clean it. That's because you won't be doing the repair with gloves on in a clean room free of dust. And that's not all - after a few weeks or months of use, dust will somehow find a way to get in between the glass and SAMOLED+ panel because you didn't use machine-cut adhesive that adheres your glass perfectly, leaving no gap for dust to get in. Your screen's touch sensitivity will drop as well, since it's not making adequate contact with the digitizer. And on top of that, the visibility will also drop.
Those problems don't show up on camera, and can easily be masked/hidden from the camera, too.
If this is only your first time breaking the screen on your S3, those tutorials won't work for you because your screen was manufactured as one whole piece by Samsung. The glass on your phone won't fall out by itself because the whole glass is optically laminated to the SAMOLED+ panel using a Liquid Optically Clear Adhesive, or LOCA for short. This kind of adhesive is a little bit sensitive to heat, but can't be completely removed because it is cured using UV light, not heat.
Optical lamination is a manufacturing process employed in more high end mobile devices that eliminate the air gap usually present between the display panel (usually either LCD or AMOLED) and the glass digitizer panel on top. Phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S3, S4, Note 2 and Note 3, iPhone 4/4S/5/5S/5C, HTC One X, One, Butterfly, Droid DNA, LG Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Sony Xperia Z, Z1, Z Ultra etc. have displays that are optically laminated. Optical lamination has a number of advantages:
Visibility is increased (especially under sunlight), since there aren't multiple layers reflecting ambient light creating optical interference
Screen clarity is increased, since optical lamination makes the display look like it is on top of the glass as opposed to being under it
It is impossible for debris like dirt and dust to get trapped in the air gap between the display and glass, because that gap is filled with LOCA
Higher contrast ratio, because there's less light reflecting off the parts of the screen that aren't emitting light
But the biggest disadvantage is the increased cost of repair. That's what you have to pay for all those aforementioned advantages. It also certainly doesn't help that the screens are getting thinner and thinner every year. The likelihood of breaking the screen increases every year too.
Here's a little photo album that I'd like to share with everyone documenting my experiences trying to remove the glass from full original Samsung screens that haven't been replaced or tampered with before. Click to enlarge.
This is a picture of the Black Samsung Galaxy S3 GT-i9300. Only the glass was broken, so I attempted to separate it from the AMOLED panel using a heat gun and some plastic pry tools. So far so good, until the AMOLED panel broke because it is optically bonded to the glass and also stuck to the frame underneath it. You can still see some LOCA on the AMOLED panel and glass.
Second is the Galaxy S4 GT-i9505. It was broken on the top half, so I started removing the glass from the bottom. Again, the LOCA wasn't very cooperative, staying quite solid throughout the removal. Eventually, the S4's AMOLED panel broke too.
It didn't look like the broken original Samsung screens wanted to be separated, so I moved on to fully intact screens.
It was a pain trying to separate this one. The adhesive was very difficult to remove, and the screen's touch digitizer circuit and polarizer started to separate from the AMOLED panel. As you can see, the glass came off intact, but the AMOLED underneath was completely destroyed.
It doesn't look like the digitizer circuit/polarizer is bonded to the AMOLED. It just gets sandwiched on top, so it is very easy to unintentionally separate it from the AMOLED instead of leaving it on and only removing the glass, especially if the glass is smashed into a thousand fragments. The glass was in one piece though, and you can see how that turned out.
This is a good representation of what the AMOLED sandwich consists of. From top to bottom:
Gorilla Glass
Touch digitizer circuit/polarizer (you can see the rest of the glass is a lot darker than the top left corner where polarizer was removed)
AMOLED panel (it looks very reflective without the polarizer on top of it)
Midframe
Some of the AMOLED panel itself came off and was still stuck to the glass!
You can see how thin and fragile the AMOLED panel is on the Samsung Galaxy S series phones. Sure, it's thin, but is it worth it? The panel has to be supported by the frame and the glass to stay intact. The panel on the S4 has a slimmed down bezel and was made thinner again, so it's a lot easier to break the AMOLED on the S4 than it is on the S3.
Ugh, don't even get me started with the iPhone 5 screen. LCDs are more robust than AMOLEDS but still...so much LOCA...so much glass...
Sure, these glass panels can be had for about $10, but is it worth all the effort to end up with a screen full of dust and fingerprints, has a warped frame and will eventually come loose and fall off, or simply just to destroy the AMOLED panel then spending extra money on a whole display assembly? Reapplying the glass leaving no gaps for dust to get in requires adhesive that is machine-cut perfectly for your frame.
Edit: Even then, you still don't have any LOCA or the necessary facilities to fill that air gap. (Thanks to @KrzychuG !)
Do you have what it takes?
Sorry for such a long post. I'm spending my time, efforts and money so you don't have to. I will occasionally add to this thread when I get more screens to experiment with.
This is a good video on how these screens can be separated and replaced with a perfect bubble-free and dust-free finish:
Most of the time its a better idea to just buy an entire replacement. I've replaced glass on nexus 7's and Galaxy Note2's a few times. it's not fun to replace glass or lamination, and it's just a whole lot easier to purchase a "parts" phone with a working display from ebay and swap out boards. Glass is one of my least favorite things to play with.
vantt1 said:
This is a good video on how these screens can be separated and replaced with a perfect bubble-free and dust-free finish:
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Awesome dude! thanks alot for the tutorial, but i dont think people have industrial size vacuums in their house, lol,
Thank you so much, this is very helpful!
Can I ask how you got the information? That would be very useful to do further research about other devices
Thanks again!
I will never, ever separate the glass and the screen. I know that it will break for sure. When I replace phone glass, I replace the entire front screen assembly which includes the glass, screen, and any frame to attach it into the phone. Even if it's just the glass that's broken and the LCD still works, still replace the entire front assembly.
Pizza_Dox said:
Awesome dude! thanks alot for the tutorial, but i dont think people have industrial size vacuums in their house, lol,
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I think the point is that unless you have all this stuff you shouldn't be even attempting to replace the glass.
i have tried this multiple times and all i can say is for anyone at home wihtout the professional equipment your not gonna get anywhere.. this isnt like and iPhone 3G/S where you take the screen off and seperate the LCD from the digitizer with a heatgun or hairdryer, ive tried all possible ways an failed every single time, either broken AMOLED or in some cases half the AMOLED comes off with the adheasive...
just save your money and buy the digitizer with the AMOLED attached..
HankChill said:
I will never, ever separate the glass and the screen. I know that it will break for sure. When I replace phone glass, I replace the entire front screen assembly which includes the glass, screen, and any frame to attach it into the phone. Even if it's just the glass that's broken and the LCD still works, still replace the entire front assembly.
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but what will you do with the old screen with the broken front glass ?
andr3wchong said:
but what will you do with the old screen with the broken front glass ?
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Chuck it
I have replaced many screens, and in my experience, you're always best buying everything as readily assembled as possible. Out of 5 attempts at separating the S3 Glass from the AMOLED panel, I have managed it twice without breaking the AMOLED, and that involves also keeping the digitser intact as well, which is between the outer glass and the AMOLED.
Back when I was doing this, you were looking at £175+ for the complete assembly, so to some people, £20 at a risk was worth it if I could manage it. Now though they're cheap enough to replace the whole lot without the worry.
There is an app on Play Store called ifixit which gives pretty detailed step-by-step instructions for most DIY teardowns and fixes for phones, tablets, consoles and even some household applicances, and they have a website too. Unfortunately, it's only experience (and expense) that make you realise that just because they make it look doable, it doesn't mean everyone can do it easily. There are many, many pitfalls that you will only discover yourself when you take on these DIY repairs, to the point where I don't do them all that often anymore, just because it's too stressful and costly if it goes wrong. My first iPhone 4 (am I allowed to say that here? ) screen replacement took me 3 hours just because of how careful I was. Now I can do it in 20 minutes, just because of experience. But even then you can be plagued with problems for no apparent reason. If you don't handle stress well, my best advice is to leave it to the experts
matmaneyre said:
I have replaced many screens, and in my experience, you're always best buying everything as readily assembled as possible. Out of 5 attempts at separating the S3 Glass from the AMOLED panel, I have managed it twice without breaking the AMOLED, and that involves also keeping the digitser intact as well, which is between the outer glass and the AMOLED.
Back when I was doing this, you were looking at £175+ for the complete assembly, so to some people, £20 at a risk was worth it if I could manage it. Now though they're cheap enough to replace the whole lot without the worry.
There is an app on Play Store called ifixit which gives pretty detailed step-by-step instructions for most DIY teardowns and fixes for phones, tablets, consoles and even some household applicances, and they have a website too. Unfortunately, it's only experience (and expense) that make you realise that just because they make it look doable, it doesn't mean everyone can do it easily. There are many, many pitfalls that you will only discover yourself when you take on these DIY repairs, to the point where I don't do them all that often anymore, just because it's too stressful and costly if it goes wrong. My first iPhone 4 (am I allowed to say that here? ) screen replacement took me 3 hours just because of how careful I was. Now I can do it in 20 minutes, just because of experience. But even then you can be plagued with problems for no apparent reason. If you don't handle stress well, my best advice is to leave it to the experts
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you musty be really good out of i think 7 possible 8, i have managed to seperate once, but still i scratched the AMOLED...
ricky310711 said:
you musty be really good out of i think 7 possible 8, i have managed to seperate once, but still i scratched the AMOLED...
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It never feels like I'm very good when I see the screen go though. Just that sick feeling :/
Saying that as well, I gave the phones back to whoever they belonged to when they were done. There's nothing to say that a couple of weeks/months down the line they faced the problems of dust under the glass, touchscreen sensitivity reduced etc. They were just happy to get them back 'looking' perfect.
Never again
matmaneyre said:
It never feels like I'm very good when I see the screen go though. Just that sick feeling :/
Saying that as well, I gave the phones back to whoever they belonged to when they were done. There's nothing to say that a couple of weeks/months down the line they faced the problems of dust under the glass, touchscreen sensitivity reduced etc. They were just happy to get them back 'looking' perfect.
Never again
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your right, quallity also plays a BIG part aswell, like you said never know what could happen, but better brands generally have better touch respones and just generally more smoothe, i knew someone who had just got the digitizer replaced by a phone repair shop, they couldnt use their phone in the wind thats how bad the replacement was..
EDIT: response**
thank you, says my sii p
you saved a sii today, i'm using my phone without screen protection so it gets scratches after long times and i said to myself that's ok, i will replace the gorilla glass. that would be open the phone replace it then close it and i will have a new sii p again but sounds it's not that easy.
Very interesting thread.
I must be lucky,as on several occasions with most phones I have owned (HTC Desire hd, HTC One X, HTC One,Nexus 5, Samsung Note 3) I have accidentally dropped my phone. I've never had a case on and have on some occasions been unlucky to have the phone land on the screen, it has happened indoors and outdoors, on concrete and tarmac, despite this I haven't ever broken the glass.
andr3wchong said:
but what will you do with the old screen with the broken front glass ?
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HankChill said:
Chuck it
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I wouldn't follow the advice to "Chuck it". We purchase these cracked glass assemblies as long as the touch screen and LCD still work fine. We can pay up to $100 PER screen, depending on the model. PM us for prices for bulk orders.
I very recently bought myself an used Galaxy S3 and to my great disappointment the glass has no scratches because it has been replaced. Now I got ****ty touchscreen response and already dust is gathering between the digitizer and the glass. I might try to sell it off and buy myself another one, this time checking very carefully that everything is in perfect working condition!
So much for thinking I had found a bargain for this fantastic phone (which, despite the problems, is a nice upgrade from my Galaxy Ace!)
MobileEMT said:
I wouldn't follow the advice to "Chuck it". We purchase these cracked glass assemblies as long as the touch screen and LCD still work fine. We can pay up to $100 PER screen, depending on the model. PM us for prices for bulk orders.
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Really? I have a crapload
ricky310711 said:
Really? I have a crapload
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Good to hear! We'll PM you. Feel free to contact us if you would like to sell or refurbish them.