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Moto Z Teardown - Screen Repair - Battery Replacement

2016-09-12
so what's inside the world's thinnest premium smartphone if you drop your phone and it cracks the glass how hard is it to replace the screen let's find out first off I'm going to move the SIM card tray since there are no visible screws on the outside of the device and then I'm going to use a heat gun to melt off the adhesive underneath the back glass panels it turns out the construction of this phone is kind of weird and technically you can remove the screen without popping off these glass panels but I'm going to show it anyway and then you can decide which method is best for you I found that the easiest way to get under the back glass panel was to start at the plastic portion of the frame and dip my metal pry tool underneath the glass and gently slide it out once the metal pry tool is in I'm going to reheat the back glass to make sure that the adhesive is good and soft so I'm not cracking anything once the back glass panel flips up I can just tear it off and set it off to the side and repeat the process for the top panel when you're heating it up you want to get it just too hot to touch they know that the adhesive is getting soft underneath now that both panels are off I can remove this gold bar on the bottom section of the phone this bar is purely aesthetics there is no structural value to it it's just there for looks now the reason for taking off the back panel is that you can push up gently on the screen from the backside now and you don't have to be sticking things deep inside of the phone like playing cards it gives you a little bit more leverage and room to work with either way there is still adhesive all the way around the edge of the screen so I'm going to warm it up just like we did with the back glass and then slide my metal pry tools around the black side of the glass making sure that my tools do not touch the screen where the display is because metal and displays do not go well together it will crack very easily you will see how thin this screen is in a second once I have all of the adhesive cut away from the sides the top and the bottom we can see how the screen is connected definitely go slow during this part and reheat the screen as often as needed getting the glass just too hot to touch the part that you have to be careful with is down here at the bottom of the phone that's where the ribbon cable is for the display now if your screen is already broken obviously you don't need to be as careful as I am but I'm going to reuse my screen so I'm taking special care not to damage it now this screen has the same Lego light connections that we see on most every other phone Samsung's and I Bonz so we're going to remove the protective metal covering and then unsnap the screen like a little Lego from the motherboard make sure you stay organized with all your little parts there's a couple more components inside they'll be taking out so make sure they don't get all mixed up so here is the glass screen it's got the glass and the display panel fused together as one and this is what your replacement part will look like when you purchase it although it will probably have new adhesive surrounding the top the bottom and the sides of the glass I will link replacement parts and tools in the video description below just like always now let's see what else can be replaced I'm going to set that metal bracket off to the side and then pull up this tape that's covering the battery and the motherboard set this off to the side you can try to reuse this if you want but it's pretty flimsy stuff there are two screws holding the front earpiece they are t4 with this particular bit set I'm going to move these two screws and then the earpiece can pop up and off of the phone it has the two little contact points that rest on the motherboard so it gets its signal there's a random plastic piece right here underneath the side button cable this is where the power and volume button connect to the motherboard the battery connection is down here underneath this plastic piece will slide this out from the bottom and then set it off to the side and then we will unclip the battery snapping it off just like a little Lego similar to how the screen was now the battery can be lifted out from the bottom of the phone there's nothing underneath that can really be damaged just the back metal plate just make sure you don't bend or puncture this battery lithium ion batteries can explode as you can see from my note seven battery explosion video there are two more screws at the bottom for a total of four screws in this entire phone usually there's a lot more the bottom plastic piece pops up and out and this just kind of sits around the charging port there is a metal plate over the processor in the memory we're going to pull that off just so we can see what it looks like there's really nothing that can be repaired under here we can see now though that the charging port is not replaceable it is attached very securely to the motherboard so unless you have micro soldering skills you're just gonna have to leave it in the phone the rear-facing camera can be swapped out pretty easily just lift up little latch and slide it out similar to how all of the other cameras are held in place like Samsung's we can see it has the OIS stabilising as well it's kind of like a little gyro that sits inside of the camera unit to stabilize your videos and your pictures there is one more big screw holding the motherboard into place and then surprisingly the motherboard does not want to come from the back of the frame I assume that it's secured very permanently to the back I could be a little more aggressive with it but the more you bend a motherboard the more you risk cracking any of the little tiny solder joints that you see around all those little resistors and the processors and I don't want to damage this phone permanently so we're just going to leave it in the frame because there's pretty much nothing here that the common consumer can replace easily without special micro soldering tools and microscopes so we'll put the camera back into place tuck it down and clip it in reassembling the phone puts this screw back in as well the protective plate over the processors and the memory goes into place and the little tiny plastic bracket down at the bottom near the charging port two more screws for that little plastic bracket and the earpiece goes into place it'll click in battery gets tucked down into place and you can plug it in once everything else is plugged in on the board like the little side buttons for the power and volume I'm going to slip this little plastic bracket back into place and this just kind of puts pressure on to that little connection so it doesn't pop off if you ever drop your phone I'm going to reconnect the screen this is where you'll be using your new screen if you're doing a screen replacement just plug it in you'll feel snap underneath your fingers like a little Lego and then the little metal bracket goes over the top of it making sure that each little clasp goes inside of the frame so it doesn't pop out ever if you drop your phone it's important that this is secure remember that your replacement screen will probably have new adhesive so you'll want to peel off the protective adhesive covering so that it will stick to the frame of the phone I'm going to fold the screen back down into place and set it down and push it firmly so that the adhesive will reconnect remember that bottom decorative metal piece we're going to tuck that in and clip it down and then the back glass pieces can go into place as well if you decided to use the route that required the removal of the back glass top glass gets pushed down in place as well it fits very securely back here we can put back in the SIM card tray and we're good to go if you have any questions leave them down in the comments don't forget to like if this video helped you and remember all the replacement parts can be found in the video description of this video all my behind-the-scenes and future projects can be found on my Twitter and Instagram I'm definitely looking forward to the iPhone released this week the iPhone 7 should be an interesting project thanks for watching hope to see you around
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