Don't Break the Back Glass - and Other Tips When Repairing an iPhone 8

Apple has been creating a bit of a firestorm in recent years with radical design changes, and this year is no different. Whether it’s LCD vs OLED or difficulties with biometric repairs, repairing next-gen Apple devices over the holiday season is shaping up to be game-changing.

Last week, we performed a live teardown on the new iPhone 8. We had a goal to compare it to the iPhone 7 and eventually tear it down to its bare-bones and found some interesting things that may affect your store.

Naturally, the first step in our tear down was to take the display out of the phone. Many people were curious if the phone would come apart similar to previous models. After removing the usual pentalobe screws, we were relieved to find that screen repair on the iPhone 8 was not very different than the iPhone 7. The entire screen assembly is adhered into the aluminum unibody frame with adhesive alongside its IP67-rated water, splash, and dust resistance. Once you’re able to lift the screen, you’ll see the same flex cable locations in the bottom right side and under the top of the screen near the right side.

Inside the phone, we see a similar battery size to the iPhone 7, however the flex cable is much smaller than previous models and looks almost identical to Qi charging flex cables. The iPhone 8 battery has a lower capacity when compared to the iPhone 7. This is interesting because Apple advertised similar battery life between both devices. It is likely that Apple expects improved power management and/or component efficiency to negate the reduction in battery capacity.

We were curious if an iPhone 7 LCD and digitizer would work on the iPhone 8, and found that although the display works, the device itself will not function correctly. The Apple logo loaded, but the phone would not boot up. After plugging in small parts and the home button (which, keep in mind, is just as fragile as the iPhone 7 home button), the screen still didn’t move past this stage, most likely due to incompatibility.

The back of this phone is where we started to see some stark differences. Apple decided to put a piece of back glass on their new iPhone, something we haven’t seen since the iPhone 4 and 4s. While this is surely still sensitive to breaks, it seemed to hold up extremely well to scratches and bending. When approaching the removal of this, we found no trace of pressure-sensitive adhesive, but rather a strong glue adhering it to the aluminium frame.

First, we sat it on a heat pad to loosen the adhesive on the back glass. Keep in mind that the camera lens protrudes from the frame. Although the hot plate can be useful in heating the frame and glass to help remove it, we placed the phone strategically so the camera glass wouldn’t be in direct contact with the hot plate.

We spent about an hour attempting to remove the back glass, first with a heat pad, then with a heat gun, with almost no luck. Eventually, we accidentally broke the back glass. One method we did not try during the live stream is to insulate the device on a hot plate at the highest temperature. An option our audience suggested was to freeze it, but this is not a proper technique for the type of adhesive used on the back glass. The adhesive was softened after a high amount of heat was used with a heat gun. This softening allowed our techs to cut through the adhesive, unfortunately after the back glass had already been broken.

We hope this helped and gives you tips for when you open your first iPhone 8! If you haven’t already, like our Facebook page for more live unboxings and don’t forget to keep up-to-date with teardowns on our YouTube channel.