Smartphones have redefined our culture and society in many ways and through many layers. It’s shaping how we live our lives, spend our time and even teach our children. Manufacturers are pushing the limits and providing new features and advances that are changing our lives.
Unfortunately a side effect of having such a device is of course wanting a bigger one. The Samsung Note II is one of those phones, and that’s the phone I’ve been using for many years now.
Bigger phones of course lead to dropped ones, and the damage that can occur to the screen. I’ve cracked my screen several times and had to replace them, so I wanted to share how to fix your cracked Samsung screen.
Keep in mind that this is to replace the glass only, if you damaged your digitizer you are pretty much out of luck. There are Youtube videos that show heating up the phone using a heatgun but I prefer a hair dryer to preventing any damage to the digitizer screen. Don’t ask me how I know.
There’s several tools you will need to perform this job. You can find these kits on many of the online retailers and it’s not expensive at all.
My particular part number is the ATT version and it’s the Samsung Galaxy Note II. My model is a XX although yours will be similar in build and assembly / disassembly. Let’s get started.
To begin learning how to fix your cracked Samsung screen, you can begin by flipping the phone over and removing the back cover.
Now unplug the SIM card and the memory card from your Note II and set them to the side. Remove your battery to begin taking your Samsung Note II apart.
Remove your S Pen from the phone and then you can begin unscrewing the screws that hold the middle plastic body to the phone.
Now using the tool shown below, carefully pry up on the inner tabs that hold the middle shell in place.
Once this is done you can carefully pry up the plastic middle casing, which will allow you to start removing the daughterboards on the phone.
Now with this casing removed you can begin removing the smaller screws that hold the daughterboards in place. Begin with the speaker, which is in white shown above.
You should now have something that looks like the image above once you have the speaker unit removed from the Samsung Note II.
Now carefully pry up the backing connectors and the antenna that snakes upward towards the top daughterboard.
Now that you’ve got this far, it’s time to carefully remove your camera lens and disconnect from the phone. Unscrew the rest of the screws that hold the upper daughterboard in place.
Circled above is the one black screw that’s shorter than the rest, make sure to save this one and put it back in it’s rightful place.
Now remove the upper daughterboard which should leave you with the digitizer and your cracked screen.
Now it’s time for the fun or not so fun part of the job, removing your old broken glass. If you are lucky the glass shards are bigger and not so small, which will make the job much easier to remove. Using the tool carefully pry around the glass of the Note II, separating it from the body while applying even and low heat using a hair dryer.
If this is your first time taking your phone apart, you will want to use fishing line or wire to remove the glue and not damage the face of the digitizer.
Once you’ve got the glue removed, clean the face of the Samsung and clean away the edges to ensure a firm positive contact with your new adhesive.
Take extra care when cleaning your Note II, if your kit came with a wipe use it now to clean the face of the digitizer.
There’s two metal brackets that must be removed from the broken glass before you discard it, and one is the home button fascia. Carefully remount the home button and set the lower home button trim to the side along with the earhole trim.
Aforementioned bracket trim and home button, along with a Hello Kitty bow to match. Clean up the back button and the menu button to either side of the home button and take care not to disconnect the LED backlight connections.
Get your replacement Samsung Note II glass ready and remove it from the cover. Clean it before installing the metal trims you removed from your old glass.
After re-inserting the metal trim, get your new Samsung Note II adhesive ready.
If your phone has been apart quite a bit like this one has, I like to use two Pro Kit adhesive sheets back to back to make sure no dust crawls under your replacement glass. Because the glue is no longer there, you will have to make extra sure you seal the outer glass.
I prefer to apply the adhesive to the replacement glass ahead of time, try to make sure that the adhesive is flat and you maximize contact with the edges of the Note.
Press evenly and firmly to make a positive seat with your adhesive, if you are doubling up on the adhesive press the edges but don’t overdo it.
Finish up the job by lightly and evenly heating the edges of your replacement glass on your Note II with a hairdryer.
Congratulations! You’ve saved yourself some money and don’t have to buy a replacement Samsung phone now that you know how to fix your cracked Samsung Note II screen.
