Phone Repair

Last year I had to go to the UK and assist my parents due to their health issues.  No big deal but while my iPhone would work there, my carrier did not.  Because I was there for an extended period of time and because my phone registers as a US phone, I was not able to use some of the UK based apps I needed to use (Like the NHS app for doctor appointments, my UK banking app etc,)

I figured out that the easiest thing for me to do was get a burner phone while I was there with a cheap phone plan,  The good news here is that phone plans in the UK are cheap and I was able to get a plan for about £10 per month.  The phone I ordered from Amazon; I got myself a semi decent android phone and I was pretty happy with it.

A New Phone

It's a Xiaomi POCO M3 and and I paid about £170 for it (~$200).  It's actually a pretty amazing phone, with the following specs; " Xiaomi POCO M3 Pro 5G - Smartphone 6+128GB, 6.5" FHD+ 90Hz Dot Display, MediaTek Dimensity 700 with dual 5G, 48MP AI triple camera, 5000mAh, Cool Blue".

Manufacturers Photo

Disaster!

Fast forward to a few month back; I anm back home in the US and my step son was about to head to Europe to follow the Rolling Stones on tour.  Very exciting, but he needed a phone he could use while he was there because he had a US only iPhone.  So I lent him the Android phone and when it came back it was all scratched up and the glass over the camera assembly was smashed (not just cracked but actually in pieces).

Camera Assembly

I have no idea what he did, but off I went to the local phone repair place and had a quick chat about fixing it,  Now you may have noticed, there are no Xiaomi or Huawei phones to be had in the US. This is, I believe because there is a ban on the import of some Chinese manufacturers here, so the phone repair place was unable to get the parts to fix my phone.

To The Internet

I did a brief search of Google and found a place in the UK that could provide the appropriate kit to repair the phone. I ordered the appropriate glass for the phone and sat back and waited as it would take a while for the post to get to me.

While I was waiting I got out my Swiss Army Knife, and slowly and carefully popped the broken glass out.

With the glass removed

The Repair Process.

The repair itself is pretty simple. remove the broken glass, which I did with a small Swiss Army knife, then clean the area with the supplied wipe, apply the adhesive strip and then apply the glass. Sounds easy and it was.

The adhesive panel

Oh Dear

Except that what looked exactly like the right glass for the phone isn't quite the right glass for the phone. It's slightly too small and I am not sure why. perhaps there is a year by year variation in the phone design and what I got is not the right year. Or maybe the supplier in the UK shipped the wrong glass kit by accident. Frankly I don't know but what I do know is that glass panel is not quite the right size.

The Repaired Item.

So does it work? Well yes, sort of. The camera is ok; I have a fully working camera.  However the LED flash is partially covered and so there is no flash to speak of and the LED torch (flashlight) function is very weak.

For now, the repair will stand. This is not my primary phone; I only use this phone for the UK number and apps, so I don't really care about the camera operation.  When I go back to the UK I will most likely either replace it or have it repaired.