Tech For Free!

Is the glass broke on your iPhone leaving you with shards of tiny pieces of glass in your index finger? Well don’t trash that phone yet. As long as the phone functions, you can replace glass using a repair kit from ifixit.com.

I purchased the iPhone3G Front Panel Kit from ifixit.com for $59.96 which includes all of the necessary tools and all  parts required to fix your phone. As you can see in the photo below, some of the tools are unusual, but they do the trick in a way that the butter knife from your kitchen drawer can’t. If you are on the fence about whether or not you should buy  the full kit, or just the glass, take my advice and buy the kit. It’s doesn’t cost much more, and you’ll have the right tools for the job.

ifixit.com ToolKit

The kit sells for $59.95, and despite the fact that the install difficult level was labeled “difficult,” I actually found the process to be pretty simple.  BUT, I must confess, and admit that I watched a video made by a customer repairing their iPhone using the ifixit.com kit. I highly suggest watching this video prior to starting the project on your own. I also suggest having the video available to you as you repair your phone. I found it really helpful to hit play and pause as I experienced different steps of the repair process.  In fact, not once did I need to refer to ifixit’s instructions (fyi they link to this video from their site so you can trust the video content).

Before I began the process, I watched a video made by a customer repairing their phone using the kit for the first time. I highly suggest watching this video prior to starting the project on your own.

With the new glass, my phone looks brand new, although the screen is slightly different than the original, so don’t expect an exact replica. The new glass is lighter than the original glass (see below). It’s not really an issue when inside, but when using your phone outside, the screen can appear washed out. To compensate, simply turn the brightness up in system settings.

iPhone (left) With Replacement Glass

In Short

• the ifixit.com kit is well worth the $60
• it’s not as difficult as they say
• watch the video before starting, and during the process
• the glass looks a little different