1 Replacing the Gladd on a Samsung Galaxy S III
2 =============================================
3 :author: Aaron Ball
4 :email: nullspoon@iohq.net
5
6
7
8 I recently had the misfortune of shattering the glass on my phone's screen. I
9 went to put it in my pocket, I felt one corner of the phone go in, but
10 apparently that wasn't enough because my phone fell out of my pocket instead of
11 in. There's this funny thing about gorilla glass. Apparently, if you strike it
12 just right at one of its weak spots, the corners, it's enough to shatter [hopes
13 and dreams] it into many, many pieces. Thankfully though, someone produces a
14 replacement piece of gorilla glass to replace and hopefully restore said broken
15 dreams...er...glass.
16
17
18 [[finding-the-parts]]
19 == Finding the Parts
20
21 Really all you need for this is a blow drier or heat gun, a sharp and/or thin
22 knife, a credit card or a guitar pick which you don't care about, and the
23 replacement glass. If you have a infrared thermometer, you might want to use
24 that to gauge the temperature as you go, but I doubt it's necessary. If you do
25 have one though, I heated my phone's screen to about 200° F.
26
27 So with that, I went on the interwebs to find a replacement screen, which to my
28 surprise, costs about $260 on Amazon. As it turns out, screens for the Galaxy S
29 iii are incredibly costly because with this phone, screen means glass AND
30 digitizer since they are glued together. What I needed was just the glass. I
31 searched Amazon some more and stumbled upon
32 http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-GT-i9300-Display-included-Replacement/dp/B0096TUA0G/ref=pd_ys_sf_s_2335752011_a1_5_p[this
33 one]. When I bought that one week ago, it cost exactly $23.01. Today, just over
34 a week later, it costs $34.99. It looks like this guy might be drop shipping
35 because the price for
36 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Replacement-Screen-Glass-Lens-for-Samsung-Galaxy-SIII-S-3-i9300-White-TOOLS-/180936781341[the
37 screen on Ebay] also went up in the last week from about $20 to $28.99 WITH the
38 tools. Either way though, buying just the glass is still a $200 cheaper than
39 buying the entire digitizer and glass assembly.
40
41 Now, I'd like to note before going on that, yes, it is cheaper to replace just
42 the glass on your phone, but it's also more dangerous. You could scratch up
43 your digitizer pretty bad or shatter it in the process of getting the glued
44 glass off. The way I look at it though, why not try because if you fail you'll
45 have spent $260 + $30, but if you succeed you will have saved yourself over
46 $200.
47
48
49 [[some-precautions]]
50 == Some Precautions
51
52 Before you start, pull off your back cover and remove your battery, sim card
53 (if you have a gsm phone), and micro sd card.
54
55
56 [[the-instructions]]
57 == The Instructions
58
59 Now with that, the Youtube video I watched to give me an idea of what to expect
60 can be found
61 http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_515371&feature=iv&src_vid=aZuiCsAtThw&v=W4Gx5fLy0NQ[here].
62
63
64 [[some-tips]]
65 == Some Tips
66
67 I used a blow drier to heat my phone up. I found that the glue was workable at
68 about 180°F. I never got my phone above about 205°F.
69
70 Start at the top of the phone if possible. The bottom has some wires that
71 attach under the glass to the back and menu buttons and you don't want to break
72 those.
73
74 Once you get the glass up, use the credit card, guitar pick, or other flat soft
75 plastic object to keep the glass up and work the glue out.
76
77 I was surprised to find that the digitizer is actually a pretty durable layer.
78 There were a few things I did that I thought for sure were going to shatter it,
79 but it was completely fine. I ended up with only one real nick (thankfully).
80
81 Finally, it took me about two hours and thirty minutes to complete because my
82 glass was so shattered.
83
84
85 [[the-gallery]]
86 == The Gallery
87
88 ____
89 image:files/Img_2335_gsiii-no-glass-sm.jpg[height=400,link="files/Img_2335_gsiii-no-glass-sm.jpg"]
90
91 The phone with its glass pulled off in a pile next to it. I used the knife to
92 jimmy the glass up on the sides so I could get tool in.
93 ____
94
95 ____
96 image:files/Img_2337_gsiii-no-glass-dirty-sm.jpg[height=400,link="files/Img_2337_gsiii-no-glass-dirty-sm.jpg"]
97
98 A close up so you can see that tacky glue rolled up all over the place.
99 ____
100
101
102 ____
103 image:files/Img_2338_gsiii-glass-pile-sm.jpg[height=400,link="files/Img_2338_gsiii-glass-pile-sm.jpg"]
104 A pile of wondrous gorilla glass
105 ____
106
107
108 ____
109 image:files/Img_2343_gsiii-no-glass-clean-sm.jpg[height=400,link="files/Img_2343_gsiii-no-glass-clean-sm.jpg"]
110
111 A clean digitizer!
112 ____
113
114 ____
115 image:files/Img_2344_gsiii-new-glass-sm.jpg[height=400,link="files/Img_2344_gsiii-new-glass-sm.jpg"]
116
117 Finally got the glass on.
118 ____
119
120 ____
121 image:files/Img_2348_gsiii-new-glass-and-case-sm.jpg[height=400,link="files/Img_2348_gsiii-new-glass-and-case-sm.jpg"]
122
123 The new case so I don't shatter my NEW glass too.
124 ____
125
126
127 Category:Samsung
128 Category:Phones
129 Category:Sprint
130
131
132 // vim: set syntax=asciidoc:
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