Good source for OEM Replacement iPhone 5 screens?

Well as careful as I am with my electronics, I was unable to foresee the the Rube Goldberg setup that was my curtain blowing, knocking an empty coffee mug off the windowsill and landing on my iPhone 5, cracking the screen. So anyway, I now need a replacement screen assembly, do you guys have any recommendations on where I can buy a genuine OEM replacement screen for a decent price?

 

You can't get any genuine apple parts. Apple don't sell them out to any distributors. It's probably better to take it to apple or some other service centre that does warranties (even for other brands).
Stay away from any kiosk type shops as they tend to be dodgy as hell (I've seen lots of phones get written off from places like that, and here is the tickler, the people go back and the dodgy kiosk owners act as if they never touched the phone).

Minidigital in perth sell high grade displays to the public. But to be honest it's probably cheaper to take it to someone qualified. you only save like $40 doing it yourself and if you take it to a repair centre you will get a warranty on said repair..

Some tips:

If you do decide to do it yourself, you HAVE TO BE GROUNDED AT ALL TIMES, the iPhone 5 display assembly's (especially aftermarket one's) are super sensitive to ESD. Now you probably won't kill the screen but you will most likely end up with a display that will be all messed up (blocky picture) and have to remove the display and ground it out...

The iPhone 5 and 5s pick up finger prints like crazy so either use gloves or try to not touch the silver coloured back plate on the lcd. If you do get finger prints on there you can remove them just by using some hot breath to fog up the metal and wipe it off with a lint free cloth.

When removing the home key heat the old screen from the front till it's nice and hot, this will soften the adhesive on the home key membrane, then just push out the key from the front. While it's still warm, Gently peel off the black membrane and with a small brush clean all the dirt off the home key (you will see what I mean) then stick it back together.

If when you get the new screen, you find it flickers or is jittery there is nothing you can do, the LCD is faulty and will eventually die all together.

With the proximity sensor and front camera brackets (little plastic pieces stuck to the touch) just pull them off (may take a little force to break the glue) there is no need to glue them to the new screen as it's impossible to get them straight, just sit them in the same way you found them.

There are a few foam spacers and two plastic pieces of black out film (either on the display frame and on the flexes) which should be put back the same way on the new display.

The reason to do this is so if you ever need to take the phone back to apple for warranty , if the phone looks as though it's never been opened they will pass it through warranty.

If the display has only one or two cracks and is under warranty APPLE WILL REPLACE IT FOR YOU, Apples warranty terms allow for this. if it's out of warranty it's only like $120 ~ $150 for apple to replace the LCD.

I have worked in mobile phone service centers for a while so I know what I'm talking about.

 

You certainly sound like you know your stuff! I'm a but confused about the "no genuine apple parts" as I've seen a number of store claiming they sell genuine OEM parts, are they straight up lying?

Yeah, I be avoiding those repair kiosks, who knows what quality of parts they use? I had also been thinking about just replacing the glass, but the process looks time-consuming and probably not much cheaper since I need to buy a special glue that looks like will cost me near $50 to buy with shipping.

Is apple's warranty 12 months? Mine would be out of warranty in that case

 

There is a difference between OEM and Genuine, The OEM screens you see on ebay are refurbished, as in they have an LCD that has had the Glass + digitizer replaced. A genuine part is a part which comes direct from the manufacturer, For example a genuine Samsung display comes as a full front assembly (for most models) in a special service box which has the part number and product ID stamped on it.

You CAN NOT replace the glass at home, the process (The way the OEM screens are made also) involves a special air tight machine which costs about $40K. All these expert (bullshit) videos on YouTube are just that, something a 12 year old would think up, much like the towel 'trick' (also stupid).

Yeah Apple have a pretty out-dated warranty period, most manufactures in Australia are 24 months now Samsung inc. (from about june 2012).

BUT there are two scenarios which may help:

1: Most manufactures have a 1 to 2 month grace period, Apple included. So if your warranty ran out on like 30th of December than you may be able to push it through warranty.

2: No receipt/proof of purchase, the warranty goes off the S/N. Otherwise it goes off the date on your proof of purchase (This is the same for all manufacturers not just apple) so take a look.

Upload a pic of the phone screen



You can also just see about replacing the whole phone too

Call Apple and just say the phone has some intermittent power fault, like the power key stopped working (it's unrelated to the display) and just tell them you put the phone into a case and the screen cracked, but the power fault was happening before hand.
They will either say yes they can replace it (The whole phone) or no.

If yes then take the phone in person, it's much quicker.

 

Oh, I see. And there's no where that sells genuine Apple screen assemblies?

I had been thinking a little more about this, and it seems like it's not too complicated, provided I'm careful not to trap any dust or something. This is the video I watched anyway:


At the bare minimum it's going to cost me $32.55 for all the parts, not including a heatgun.

I checked my serial on the Apple website, it's out of warranty

Here you go:

I don't like my chances, as I said, it's out of warranty...

When I think about it though, we're most likely mere months away from the iPhone 6 launch, which is when my current contract expires. It seems like the best thing to do would be some kinda stop-gap solution to hold me over until then. Like, maybe I could use a very high-quality 3rd party screen assembly or something.

 

Use this screen, It's in Australia so if you have issues it maybe better

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/iPhone-5...lePhoneAccessories&hash=item2331dd8790&_uhb=1

As I said you cannot get any genuine apple phone parts unless they are pulled from new phones.

I see maybe 8 or so people come in a week with a phone thats all twisted up and pried at, saying they tried to change the glass and messed up. To be honest it's not worth trying.

Your phone seems in pretty good shape, just be sure to clean all the glass pieces off the home hey when you remove it

Oh and another tip: Make sure the sides and corners of the phone are not dented or bent, the screens are an exact fit, like I mean tight as hell for a screen Be sure to use a small brush to clean any dirt out of the groove the screen sits in to get a nice flush fit

 

Sounds good, yeah, I think changing the entire assembly would be the best way. How do you know that screen is a good one? Some kinda insider knowledge? I might also get one of those tempered glass screen protectors from the seller, I hear they're better than plastic ones. Any thoughts?

 

Just from the pictures and going off the price it seems like an A grade screen

You can try them but I think it's just a placebo really.
At the end of the day, the screen is made of glass, and the phone gets knocked around and tapped on ect. all day.. Thats why sometimes you see people who only claim to drop the phone once and it shattered. They don't take into account the other 40000000000 times they knocked it around..

Best way to make sure it won't break again would be to get a GOOD case, such as a life Proof or Otterbox (either defender or Armour [it's water proof]), when buying cases try to steer clear of Chinese sellers as most are fake.

 

Cool, I think I'll give the screen you suggested a try. He seems pretty confident in their quality based on how he tests each one and claims them to be free of dead pixels. Might as well give the glass screen protectors a try too, I'm kinda hoping they will be clearer (I.e none of that "rainbowing") and more scratch resistant than a plastic one. I'm also hoping that if something falls on it again that the protector will take the hit and save the screen, but maybe not.

I've always used a case with my phone (I picked up a cool Tetris one for $2 from EB Games recently) but as I said before, my screen got cracked thanks to a freak accident.

 

Okay, I've got the new screen and I've swapped it over. The screen doesn't work though, it's completely blank. The battery is warm so it seems like the unit is on though. I've re-seated the connectors a million times, they've clicked properly into place. I've also tried reinstalling the old screen, but it doesn't work either, but I'm not sure if that's because it's just the two connectors and all the other components are still connected to the new screen. HELP!!

*EDIT* Unplugging and replugging the battery got it working! A stuck pixel on the screen though, dammit! Also seem to be having trouble getting the top of the screen to sit into the housing, it keeps bulging out. I think maybe the camera or something isn't sitting in place or something. Also, the new screen doesn't have the wire mesh in the speaker hole like the original screen does.

 

The screen should have come with the ear mesh..

It's a very common mistake to accidentally turn the phone on whilst removing the old screen. You can't connect a screen whilst the display is active (ie: if the phone is trying to turn the lcd on)

There are small tabs at the top of the display which must go in first. The sit under a lip at the top of the mid chassis..

You can peel off the old ear mesh and stick it back to the new screen, they do tend to crease really easily butt..

 

The seller says the ear mesh is an optional thing, and looking at eBay, people do indeed sell them separately. WTF? I tried to remove the old mesh, but it just got mangled.

Ah, I didn't know about the tabs, that might be why I'm having trouble with it.

 

My iphone 5 screen cracked,. I'm out of warranty. On ebay and amazon there are hundreds of choices for screen. I want a good aftermarket screen that isn't crap. Anyone have a good recommdation for a seller or company?

 

We are now supplying oem replacement iPhone 5 screens. Here are detailed steps on how to tell oem from copy ones:
Method 1: Water Test
Maybe you know this is the most common method to distinguish OEM and copy lcd screen for iPhone 5. Just have a test. If the water focus on one place and not flow away, then it is OEM. If the water is spreading out, then the screen is fake. However, there are better high copy glass which is waterproof in China. So, the first method is not the unique method. Let's move on to next method.

The copy touch glass can be waterproof, but it can not have below feature - the front camera area can turn colorful, just like a rainbow. Only original iPhone 5 LCD Screen has this feature:

Method 2: The Plastic Frame
Some fake iPhone 5 lcd screens are using fake frame which exist many defect. For example, you can find some glitch at the edge of the frame. You can also see that the metal holding for screws is poor produced.

Method 3: Flex Cable Assembly
Maybe your supplier guaranteed you that the lcd screen is 100% Original. Yes, that is true! It is indeed original screen. But your suppliers forget to tell you that the LCD Flex Cable is assembled by secondary factory (Not OEM Factory). As we know, the LCD display should be connected with flex cable, OEM Factory assembled the flex cable with big and powerful machine. But Chinese secondary factory is lack of machine, they assembled the flex cable not very well. It may cause many problems, black or white screen after installation, lines in the display, shaking screen etc. How to see the difference between OEM Factory assembled and China secondary factory assembled? It is difficult for a not professional technical person to spot that. Here we just can not explain it because it is very complicated. You can compare the new iPhone 5 lcd screen you bought with your broken one. Just see the flex cable, maybe you can see some differences.