Nokia 808 glass and touch digitizer replacement

This is my damaged Nokia 808. Bella dropped it from 1m height, on a wooden floor. Glass broke, but sceen and touch were intact. I glued screen protection sticker on it, to re-inforce screen a bit and prevent cuts while using it for couple of weeks, while figuring out my repair options.

Authorized repair quoted me 200 EUR for the job of replacing both glass and display together and said, that, according to Nokia manual, it is impossible (or prohibited) to dismantle lcd/glass assembly. There is however a separate glass part available from ebay seller “easyworldwidetrading” (also ewwt-au, ewwtnet, ewwt-oz), for mere 20 EUR (price delivered to Europe). I ordered slightly more expensive kit (25 EUR), which included 2 plastic separation tools, and 2 smallish screwdrivers (one of the Torx T5). In my case, those tools weren’t much help. Moreover, one needs Torx T6 instead, to disassemble Nokia 808. I had to buy it separately at the last moment at the local DIY hypermarket. So, if I had to do it again, I would buy a cheaper kit, without tools. NB! Screen is identical to Nokia’s orginial part, but there is small mark on the upper front lip saying “proto.nokia.com”. This will give away that you tempered with device, and will most probably void warranty.

There are 2 videos available on youtube, from LE55ONS. First, explains how to take out LCD+glass assembly out.

2nd video explains how to separate LCD from glass/digitizer.

After this, you still need to separate glass from the carrying plastic frame, and there is no video on youtube to guide you. This operation is quite messy and time consuming, but you can do it too, just don’t rush and give yourself plenty of time. I never repaired phones before, and doing this first time took about 2 hours for disassebmly and 1 hour to glue parts and put everything back together.

LAST REMINDER, this is messy, fragile, risky. You may damage underlying AMOLED display and of course, even if successful, it voids manufacturer’s warranty.

This is how I thought I would proceed.

But despite continuosly heating the screen and frame, I could not separate it from the frame. The problem was when trying to separate glass from frame, separation tools would go in-between glass and digitizer (both glued to each other as well).

After half and hour of trying around edges, I went for more aggressive approach and ran separator between glass and digitizer. (continue heating).

Notice, how this credit card goes between 2 glass surfaces. By the way, sharpened edge of the old credit card, is all the tool you will need. Well, maybe 2 cards. Be careful with the frame. Breaking glass is ok at this point, breaking the frame is not.

This is what I had after separating the upper glass from the frame. Digitizer screen is very fragile, broken easily. However, new replacement part comes with the new digitizer.

Now, I cleaned the frame from the remaining glass and glue.

Result. Frame (backside) separated from front glass, digitizer in pieces.

Frame (front).

I used simple rubbery adhesive glue, the one that needs to dry for couple of minutes before pressing both surfaces. You could use a superfast and super strong glue too, but if you ever need to repeat this procedure, only rubber glue would allow it. I had to work quickly and carefully, with a narrow screwdriver, to apply very thin layer of glue around the digitizer’s position on the frame, to avoid any glue going between glass and AMOLED display, when parts are pressed strongly to each other. Did not have time to make photos, as glue was drying rapidly. Keep protective pads on both sides of the glass.

Then, I connected all electrical parts and powered the phone up. It worked. (including touch)

Went back to AMOLED and glass. Used dry cloth on amoled, then used vacuum cleaner to suck all dust from amoled, (repeat couple of times) then removed protective film from digitizer and clicked amoled and glass together. Powered all electronics on again, checked that there is no dust between glass and display, no traces of glue, etc. Finally, assembled the phone.

Before and After. Good luck if you try this yourself.