Broken Smartphone Display

Few years ago, my Samsung Stratosphere took an unlucky bounce on the kitchen counter and its display got smashed. I never bought a protection, never thought I’d need it. I noticed I broke both the screen and the sort of layer of glass that sits just above the screen. I found the replacement parts on eBay, looked at various vendors, decided to go for the cheapest, and then realized they could screw me up.

Disassembling the phone was tedious. I didn’t have the right tool and had to find some on Amazon, and it’s tricky not to do irreparable damage to other pieces inside the phone (ribbon cables, plastics, components, etc.). YouTube was super useful for this. I then detach the ribbon cable from the phone’s main board, and removed the board to expose the display. I got the screen and digitizer out. I went around the edges of the device and trimmed loose adhesive material that was sticking out. After that, I threaded the main cable back through the sliding mechanism, replaced the main board, connected the main ribbon to it, and managed to screw everything into place