Theoretically – yes, it is possible. Practically – no, most service centers do not do this for a number of reasons. This is done by special factories with a series of extremely expensive robotic equipment with a bandwidth of thousands of displays per day, created exclusively for this task. A few years ago, due to the shortage and high cost of top-class displays, “home” workshops appeared. NOTEBOOK1 engineers at that time visited several workshops that were engaged in this type of work and even worked in one of them for some time. In general, we were dissatisfied.

Let’s look at the reasons. First, you need to separate the glass and the display, which are separated by a polarizing film and glued together with a special glue. For this purpose, automatic and manual separators heat the display to a temperature of 70-90 degrees and cut the glass with a metal string. This operation is quite complicated and dangerous, no one can guarantee that your display will not be damaged during it, even with its perfect execution. Next, you need to wash the glue from the surface of the screen with a special solution. Then use a number of non-original spare parts. Then, with the help of special equipment at the right temperature, pressure and materials, glue the module. Each speck will lead to display defects, so special rooms are needed at this stage. Non-original spare parts make mistakes that lead to a lack of quality. For example, to the light on a white background, broken pixels, problems with installation in the phone, low surface quality of non-original glass, poor resistance to mechanical damage.

Conclusion. We do not provide display glass replacement services. Having proven suppliers, we provide a service to replace Original quality displays.

Categorization. 

You can roughly divide the quality of displays into two categories: original and copy. But we love the details, so let’s take a closer look at each category.

The originals come in the following forms: 

• Service Pack – this is a module from the manufacturer. They are sold in the form in which they are used by official service centers of this brand. It happens that together with the display, the assembly contains most of the housing, sometimes even with a battery. This is the most expensive type of spare parts, but also the one of the  highest quality. This type has no differences from the initial.
• The original of other providers can be called that with a stretch, because no one provides quality certificates. Often sellers and suppliers of spare parts have no idea what do they sell – for them, it’s just a product with a name. Although the box will be proudly marked ‘Original’, ‘Genuine’, ‘Fully Compatible’, ‘Grade AAA’, ‘100% Tested’, ‘Best Quality’, etc. You need to be careful and critical of these products. Our service center works only with those suppliers whose inscriptions do not differ from reality.
• Restored original. Often (erroneously) also just the Original. The basis is the original module, in which the damage does not affect the functionality. Most often it is cracks and chips on the glass. There are both factories and garage workshops that return such displays to work. Although the display remains original, ie the color scheme and quality of the sensor remain unchanged, but the display also consists of such elements as: glass – resistance to scratches, chips and fingerprints depends on the properties of its surface, plastic frame with fasteners, polarizing film, filter grids and places for microphone, speaker, front camera, proximity sensor, light sensor, etc. It is easy to predict that the quality and accuracy of all these elements will affect the quality and durability of the display module as a whole. If all operations are performed by a factory that specializes in the restoration of displays, using quality parts and you work with a conscientious manager, you can safely buy these displays and install them. Obviously, there is no point in sending your display to the factory, they work for wholesale, where the minimum batches are measured in thousands of units. The redemption price of displays as of 2020 was negligible in most cases, even to offset the cost of delivery. As to the quality of garage (“home”) workshops, we described them in details in the answer to the previous question.

Not the original. Often known simply as Copy. Here everything is clear more or less –  business in China is tailored to the needs of the customer. As a result, there are dozens of variations on the market, some of which will be difficult for the average user to distinguish from the original, and others will differ in all possible characteristics, including color, size and type of connection to the phone.

Over the years of honest and responsible work, all “suspicious” suppliers have been eliminated from our service center, we work only with proven and conscientious partners.

The fact is that any product in the EU is automatically given a two-year warranty. However, there are a number of exceptions and rules that are unknown to the general public.

Let’s consider specifically the case of the display replacement service. Product warranty and work warranty are different things.

In most cases, service centers guarantee the work performed from 0 to 6 months. The warranty on the product, in our case a limited warranty on the display, is really 24 months. However, the display is not a stand-alone unit, but only a part of the device, the functionality of which is affected by the other components and the conditions in which it operates. In fact, most suppliers are not responsible for the operation of the display after it is installed in the phone, the reason – an unauthorized service center. Even if there are no authorized service centers in the country or the cost is many times higher. That is, a 6-month warranty is a business risk of the service center itself. After this period, we have only one way out in case of problems – to send a defective spare part to the manufacturer and wait for a solution. Of course, if the defect clearly could not be caused by use, mechanical, thermal or other influences, then we undertake this warranty case for a period exceeding 6 months.

Unfortunately, in most cases in 6-12, and even more so, in 20 months after the repair, the display bears traces of mechanical impact, for example, the falls. This is an indisputable reason for waiving the warranty.

This is the most common question to which you can hear a short answer – no. If you bought the display from an official certified representative – then okay. However, this is not so easy to do (please read FAQ 2). It is a very dubious way to save money, because when buying an LCD you need to be well-versed in the world of spare parts and repairs to distinguish a good display from a bad one.

1. The service center will not be able to give you a guarantee for the work performed, as it is not responsible for the quality of the spare part.
2. You will have to pay for the work in any case, even if the result is unsatisfactory, because see paragraph 1 
3. It is not always possible to detect a spare part defect without the process of complete disassembly of the phone. You may find yourself in a difficult situation when the old broken but semi-working display is already removed, the phone is disassembled, and it is not possible to put it back (broken glass tends to shatter and, unfortunately, no one can collect this mosaic back) or financially unprofitable due to complexity and the cost of the engineer’s time. As a result – you will have to wait for a working part, there will be double payment for the work, and attempts to return the defective part.
4. The cost of installation of low-quality spare parts ALWAYS takes more time and, as a result, will cost you more money.

No! And before the replacement, too. And brand-new only from the store – also no. Even if the box shows a working phone in water and says about water resistance, waterproof, and so on.

Unfortunately, commercials mislead users. Once on the forum we saw a comment where the author used his own logic and after purchasing a waterproof phone immediately decided to check it under the tap. In his opinion, in case the phone stops working, he returns it with his head held high, “due to warranty” and exchanges it for another. If the phone continues to work – then everything is fine. Well, let’s clarify this situation.

1. Moisture getting inside the device automatically removes all warranty obligations from the manufacturer/seller. Inside modern devices, engineers have placed special markers/sensors. A few drops in the space of the phone are enough for the moisture markers to change color and signal the end of the warranty period.
2. There are different levels of protection for phones from moisture. Unfortunately, only top-class phones can (but shouldn’t) withstand some time under the water without damage. For example, all iPhones, including the Model X, have only partial conditional resistance to water, which is not recommended.
3. Even if the official documentation contains information about this protection, it only means that the technology used to make this device allows it to survive without damage to clean impurities, under low pressure and for a short period of time.
4. If the phone works after exposure to moisture, it does not mean that it will work for a long time. The oxidizing properties of various liquids can work against you and eventually damage the device, even after it gets completely dry.
5. The stability of the used phone decreases, because over time the density of the pads of the seven trays, control buttons, power connector decreases. Water resistance is the last hope rather than a feature that can be used without fear.

If there is a risk of liquid getting inside the phone and the health of your device is important to you – we recommend that you turn it off and take it to a service center for inspection. Repairs are much more expensive than preventive inspections.

It was like that before. The technology, when the phone’s display consisted of a separate glass sensor and screen matrix, which are not glued together, is now almost non-existent.

This technology can still be found in navigators, tablets and similar devices, where the accuracy of tactile properties is not critical. In these cases, the replacement of the sensor glass makes sense and is financially justified.

In modern displays, the display itself is responsible for the touch functions. In cheaper versions, the film on the inside of the glass has sensory properties, but the display module (in engineering circles simply – “sandwich”) consists of a screen and a glass sensor already glued together during production. It is impossible to replace such a sensor within a reasonable time, financial and quality framework. We will write more about the categories of display quality later.

1. If possible, disconnect the battery. If not and the device is still working – turn it off immediately.
2. Contact the nearest service center for a troubleshooting procedure.
3. Read on the internet a meaningful article, why not to treat cancer with soda but in our guide Water getting into laptops and phones. Rice and hair dryer. Myths and reality.

Like any advertisement, fast service in 10 minutes carries only part of the truth. As an experienced straight-handed engineer, I can assure you that this is theoretically possible, but has no useful meaning. You do not have to hope for such a service without prior registration, you will still have to wait in line, the number of engineers is limited everywhere and, if things are going well at the service center, they never sit idle, not at all.

Moreover, it must be understood that all, without exception, responsible types of work performed by people shouldn’t be done in a hurry (and people are not robots). Let’s say you need to replace a microphone. That is, you think you need to replace the microphone.
An engineer can usually do this without unnecessary testing and diagnosis. If it turns out that after replacing the spare part the defect remained and the case was not in the microphone, then no one will return the money for the work done on your initiative. And the few minutes saved will bring a lot of negativity for both parties. And it turns out that the phone has 4 microphones, and they are responsible for recording in different conditions, and that the sound chip on the motherboard could fail, or it was necessary to clean the filter grids, but for the right actions to repair you need to set the right tasks , and often without diagnosis it is difficult or impossible to do that. Therefore, we are not supporters of this method.

We also don’t see any sense in competing on time, few people will agree to lose quality in exchange for speed, especially when it comes to ten minutes.

Our priority is to be sure that the client will be satisfied with our services, and for this you need to perform a number of preparatory and preventive work. If you are interested in the approximate time of a particular service – feel free to contact us by phone or using the form below. We will be happy to advise!