Other DIY mobile phone screen replacement.

[ch@ts]

I've got 2 Mi A2 phones, which are running Calyx OS, and I love them. They're both about 3-4 years old and are serving all my mobile computing needs.
But I dropped one of the phones about 3 years ago, and damaged the screen in the bottom left corner. It was still working perfectly, with a tempered glass on it to prevent the crack from spreading.

A few days ago I decided to get it repaired, but now the phones parts are no longer available at the Mi service centers.

So, I've decided to replace the screen myself.

I ordered a toolkit from Amazon - https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B0BCQFR182/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It arrived a few hours back, and with the help of YouTube tutorials, I managed to get the display off the phone. It's not as easy as it looks, and it took me a good 2 hours before I was able to disassemble it. Mainly because I couldn't get tools into any gaps between the screen and main body to pry it open. Indian YouYubers make the process seem so simple, they shove a plastic tool in, and 2 seconds later the phone comes apart. That didn't work for me. I kept looking at disassembly tutorials, and found one where the guy uses a suction tool to create a gap between the display frame and the phone body.
I tried that, and it worked.
Sort of.

I managed to pry the display off, but it's frame was still embedded in the main body.
But now, it was easier to get some leverage, and I managed to disassemble the phone.

I wasn't sure I could do it, so I held off ordering the replacement screen till now. The original was about Rs. 2500 on the Mi site (when it was available). I ordered a replacement from maxbhi.com for about Rs.750. Plus another Rs.250 for some superglue. I'm not confident about the quality of the display, but I'm even less confident about my ability to reassemble the phone with damaging the new screen. The screen should arrive by this weekend, and then we'll see.

Here are some images of my phone's internals.
I think that's some thermal paste on it. I've got a tube of Arctic MX4 - should I use it here?

I decided not to replace the battery, even though it was made in 2018, because it still gives me about 4hrs SOT... about the same as when it was brand new. And I'm not confident that I'll be able to put the phone back together again.

 

[ch@ts]

The display came from Maxbhi.com this morning. It was really well packed. The main box had two smaller boxes inside, both bubble wrapped. Inside one, in more bubble wrapping was the display, and in the other, with Styrofoam strips to prevent the tube from getting smashed was the glue tube.

I tested the screen, and it seemed fine, so I installed it this evening.
I wish I'd taken pictures to share, but one of my cats was sitting on the table looking at all the parts of phone, and I couldn't leave her unsupervised for a second.
When she was satisfied with my cleaning of the phones internals, and my application of fresh thermal paste, she give the go ahead, and we lined the display frame with glue, and stuck the LCD to it.
Then we proceeded to line the main body frame with glue, and attached the LCD in the frame to it.
The we cleaned the excess glue off with nail polish remover.

The phone's working fine, I've tested most of the stuff, except calling. The glue takes 24 to 48 hours to cure, so I put the phone off, and placed it under a couple of books.

Installing the display was much easier than removing the old screen. The entire process took about 3 hours of work - including removing the screen, cleaning the phone, and installing the new one. Add to that about 1-2 hours of YouTube research, another couple of hours finding the toolkit on Amazon, and the screen on Maxbhi. About 7 hours in total, but I learnt something new. And I saved a good 3 hours of travel time, plus another 2-3 hours of waiting at the service center. And another 2-3 hours that I would have spent reinstalling and customising the phone after I got it back from the service center.
I also didn't have to worry about the service center guys stealing my data.

So, all in all, I'm pretty please with my repair job and would encourage everyone to repair their out of warranty phones themselves.

The screen from Maxbhi looks about the same as the original, and the touch seems to be fine too. I've only used it for about 10-15 minutes so I'll report back on that later.

Here are some pics of the phone with the new screen installed.
The pixelation that you see in the pics isn't visible in real life.

 

[nimu]

Congrats buddy!!!
Its such a satisfactory feeling when one can manage to achieve a positive end result as yours. This has come out wonderful and also saved a few bucks and majorly as you mentioned the biggest hassle of the data part with our phones when it has to go for repairs.
Now you are giving us ideas to pick a damaged phone cheaply and try this option..
Hope the screen quality is good as you observed and lasts long enough to make your efforts worthwhile.

Good luck and cheers.

 

[rajneeshrana]

Thanks for the detailed writeup.
Also for the replacement parts website.
I have 3 old smartphones with screen and charging issues.
Will try and do a DIY operation on them in free time.

 

[rockyo27]

to make things a bit easier to remove is use hot gun, not constantly but for some seconds and then off then pry then again use it and then pry.

 

[ch@ts]

Thanks for the detailed writeup.
Also for the replacement parts website.
I have 3 old smartphones with screen and charging issues.
Will try and do a DIY operation on them in free time.

Update us on your progress once you get down to doing the repairs. We should all extend the life of our devices by a few years and cut down on electronic waste.

to make things a bit easier to remove is use hot gun, not constantly but for some seconds and then off then pry then again use it and then pry.

I did think of doing that, I also considered putting the phone on my 3D printers bed and heating it up in a more controlled way, but I was afraid I'd overheat the battery and cause it to explode. The videos I saw, of my phone, had people applying heat only after they'd separated the display frame from the main body.

 

[rockyo27]

I also considered putting the phone on my 3D printers bed and heating it up in a more controlled way,

Not there man. No direct touch heat. Just heat of hot gun is good. I did with hair dryer but hot gun is much better.

 

[ch@ts]

I've been using the phone for the past few hours, and everything works great.
The display is not as good as the original screen. The colours are a bit cooler, and the viewing angles aren't as good. Text rendering is also not as good as on the stock screen. I need to set the brightness about 20% higher than before to get colours and text to look good.
Touch response is on par though.
And it's bright enough, I haven't tested it in sunlight, but it seems at least 90% as bright as the original screen, so it should be fine.

All in all, its not perfect, but it's definitely good enough.

If I had to do another screen replacement, I'd try and source a better screen, but for my first repair job, and for less than Rs.800, this replacement display gets a big thumbs up from me.