Replacing the Gladd on a Samsung Galaxy S III
=============================================
:author: Aaron Ball
:email: nullspoon@iohq.net



I recently had the misfortune of shattering the glass on my phone's screen. I
went to put it in my pocket, I felt one corner of the phone go in, but
apparently that wasn't enough because my phone fell out of my pocket instead of
in. There's this funny thing about gorilla glass.  Apparently, if you strike it
just right at one of its weak spots, the corners, it's enough to shatter [hopes
and dreams] it into many, many pieces. Thankfully though, someone produces a
replacement piece of gorilla glass to replace and hopefully restore said broken
dreams...er...glass.


[[finding-the-parts]]
== Finding the Parts

Really all you need for this is a blow drier or heat gun, a sharp and/or thin
knife, a credit card or a guitar pick which you don't care about, and the
replacement glass. If you have a infrared thermometer, you might want to use
that to gauge the temperature as you go, but I doubt it's necessary. If you do
have one though, I heated my phone's screen to about 200&deg; F.

So with that, I went on the interwebs to find a replacement screen, which to my
surprise, costs about $260 on Amazon. As it turns out, screens for the Galaxy S
iii are incredibly costly because with this phone, screen means glass AND
digitizer since they are glued together.  What I needed was just the glass. I
searched Amazon some more and stumbled upon
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-GT-i9300-Display-included-Replacement/dp/B0096TUA0G/ref=pd_ys_sf_s_2335752011_a1_5_p[this
one]. When I bought that one week ago, it cost exactly $23.01. Today, just over
a week later, it costs $34.99. It looks like this guy might be drop shipping
because the price for
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Replacement-Screen-Glass-Lens-for-Samsung-Galaxy-SIII-S-3-i9300-White-TOOLS-/180936781341[the
screen on Ebay] also went up in the last week from about $20 to $28.99 WITH the
tools. Either way though, buying just the glass is still a $200 cheaper than
buying the entire digitizer and glass assembly.

Now, I'd like to note before going on that, yes, it is cheaper to replace just
the glass on your phone, but it's also more dangerous. You could scratch up
your digitizer pretty bad or shatter it in the process of getting the glued
glass off. The way I look at it though, why not try because if you fail you'll
have spent $260 + $30, but if you succeed you will have saved yourself over
$200.


[[some-precautions]]
== Some Precautions

Before you start, pull off your back cover and remove your battery, sim card
(if you have a gsm phone), and micro sd card.


[[the-instructions]]
== The Instructions

Now with that, the Youtube video I watched to give me an idea of what to expect
can be found
http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_515371&feature=iv&src_vid=aZuiCsAtThw&v=W4Gx5fLy0NQ[here].


[[some-tips]]
== Some Tips

I used a blow drier to heat my phone up. I found that the glue was workable at
about 180&deg;F. I never got my phone above about 205&deg;F.

Start at the top of the phone if possible. The bottom has some wires that
attach under the glass to the back and menu buttons and you don't want to break
those.

Once you get the glass up, use the credit card, guitar pick, or other flat soft
plastic object to keep the glass up and work the glue out.

I was surprised to find that the digitizer is actually a pretty durable layer.
There were a few things I did that I thought for sure were going to shatter it,
but it was completely fine. I ended up with only one real nick (thankfully).

Finally, it took me about two hours and thirty minutes to complete because my
glass was so shattered.


[[the-gallery]]
== The Gallery

____
image:files/Img_2335_gsiii-no-glass-sm.jpg[height=400,link="files/Img_2335_gsiii-no-glass-sm.jpg"]

The phone with its glass pulled off in a pile next to it. I used the knife to
jimmy the glass up on the sides so I could get tool in.
____

____
image:files/Img_2337_gsiii-no-glass-dirty-sm.jpg[height=400,link="files/Img_2337_gsiii-no-glass-dirty-sm.jpg"]

A close up so you can see that tacky glue rolled up all over the place.
____


____
image:files/Img_2338_gsiii-glass-pile-sm.jpg[height=400,link="files/Img_2338_gsiii-glass-pile-sm.jpg"]
A pile of wondrous gorilla glass
____


____
image:files/Img_2343_gsiii-no-glass-clean-sm.jpg[height=400,link="files/Img_2343_gsiii-no-glass-clean-sm.jpg"]

A clean digitizer!
____

____
image:files/Img_2344_gsiii-new-glass-sm.jpg[height=400,link="files/Img_2344_gsiii-new-glass-sm.jpg"]

Finally got the glass on.
____

____
image:files/Img_2348_gsiii-new-glass-and-case-sm.jpg[height=400,link="files/Img_2348_gsiii-new-glass-and-case-sm.jpg"]

The new case so I don't shatter my NEW glass too.
____


Category:Samsung
Category:Phones
Category:Sprint


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