How I Repaired My iPhone 5 LCD Screen in 20 Minutes

Last month, I dropped my iPhone & LCD screen cracked. After staying with me for more than three years without a scratch, it slipped from my hand & face planted on the concrete floor. First it started off with a small crack in the glass and touch was fully functional. Slowly the crack started getting bigger and top part of the glass came off. In this post, I will show you how I repaired my iPhone 5 LCD screen in 20 minutes. This is a DIY post, so if you’re trying at your home proceed at your own risk.

Typically there are three alternate ways to replace broken LCD display of iPhone. (LCD& touch screen digitizer in iPhone is one piece)

1. Replace complete LCD with inbuilt home button & front camera. This replacement procedure is very straight forward & anyone can easily do it in under 10minutes. Costs approx: $22/INR 1500
2. Replace only iPhone LCD & reuse home button & front camera from old display. This procedure requires some patience & skill to remove the tiny parts from old screen & fixing in the new display. Costs approx: $20/INR1300
3. Replace only the glass & front cover & reuse the LCD screen. Arduous task & chance of display failure is very high. Not at all recommended unless you have prior repair experience. Costs approx: $6/ INR400

How I Replaced my iPhone 5 Screen

Even though I preferred the first method, I had to follow the second method due to mistake while ordering online. I ordered iPhone 5 LCD screen from Aliexpress & later came to know the model which I had selected was without home button & front camera.

Tip: Don’t make the mistake which i did buying below model. It’s without Home button & front camera assembly.

Instead buy this model of iPhone 5 LCD with home button & front camera assembly

There are many YouTube videos which clearly shows the replacement technique. So you can go through any of these videos to know the exact procedure. Also you can download this PDF file for iPhone 5 Screen Replacement & take printout to use it as reference.

I will mention here some tricks which can be useful & points where extra caution is required.

1. Power off the iPhone.

2. Unscrew the 2 screws in the bottom & lift the display using the suction cup. Place the suction cup just above the home button & pull up the display. Once there is a small gap between display use plastic pry tool to gently lift it up.

3.  Do not lift fully up as there are ribbon cables attached to top of iPhone.

4. Then remove three screws as mentioned in the video & gently lift the three connectors. Now you’re display will be separated from the phone.

5. Follow the video or PDF carefully for removing the front camera & flex cable from top of the phone. While removing the golden connectors be extra careful, it can rip off. If you rip of the front camera flex cable as I did, you can get only the front camera & flex cable from ebay for $3 or INR250.

6. Remove the home button & it’s flex cable & connect in your new display. If you failed to remove the home button or it’s flex cable then buy a new piece from ebay. Cost around INR300/ $4.

7. Once you have assembled the home button. Fix back the new display in the reverse order.

8. After you have your iPhone5 completely put back together, Power up the iPhone & check whether LCD & touch is working. Make a test call & check whether ear piece speaker is working & also test the front cam.

9. If everything is fine, Congrats! You just successfully replaced your iPhone LCD.