People love to change the color of their iPhone and the iPhone 4s is no exception. If you are going to change the color of your iPhone there are a couple things to remember.

1. The replacement parts, even if OEM, are not original parts.
2. The iPhone will need to be torn apart.
3. Your old parts, if good, still have value. Don’t throw them away.
4. You will need to follow the iPhone 4S screen repair video to get this done.

Still want to do it? Fair enough, it does look good. Here a Youtube user discusses his green iPhone 4S.

This may be the easiest DIY iPhone repair and you can save a bunch of money by watching this video. It is important to not that this will not void your warranty. One of the few repairs that can claim that.

If you go to the Apple store they will charge at least $100 but I’m not positive. The average Cell phone repair shop will charge in the $60-$100 range. It is literally a 2 minute repair if you have the correct pentalobe screwdriver.

The back cover replacement parts generally runs about $20. So you are looking at saving a minimum of $40 and even save yourself time…honestly…then take 5 minutes to learn how.

To newbie iPhone users, “DFU” mode may sound like a complicated concept to grasp. After all, abbreviations are scary and remind me of boot camp. But here ‘myjailbreaks’ does a great job breaking down how to enter DFU restore mode. Hold down the home and power button while device is plugged into computer with iTunes on. When the restore mode warning pops up continue holding the home button. Or just watch the video…they do a great job breaking it down. To get out of restore mode reverse the steps.

The iPhone 4S battery removal is a pretty easy process. Removing the back cover is super easy, so after that you just need to remove a couple more screws,then carefully lift out the battery. The iPhone 4S battery is a bit sensitive. If you puncture it in any way it will get bloated and ruined. So when unscrewing and prying be cautious.

This is a great video by iMobileDoctor. They pretty much run through everything you need to know in precise detail. Unlike most other smartphones, Apple has made the iPhone battery a bit more complicated to fix. Especially with the iPhone 3G and 3Gs. But with the iPhone 4 and 4S, it is simple as long as you have the right tools.

This is a difficult repair, unless you are skilled in SMD re-work. Water damage is a common cause for the Mic going bad, so often times an ultrasonic bath will do the trick. If your microphone does not work I assure you that the majority of repair shops in the United States are not this skilled. Just check out their site over at celmetro.com and you can see that they really mean business. Talk about professional! Compare that to the fly-by-night, sandal wearing, consumer crazed techs that exist in America…well you get the point. That is not to say that people in the States don’t have these skills, just that you should ask around to be sure.

One time I screwed up an iPod Touch 4G repair. The fix required micro-soldering so instead of experimenting on someones device, I called around and found a services that assured me they were skilled at this and had done it several times (I later learned to do it myself). Long story short, they completely screwed it up, much worse than before. I was shocked and after that day decided that if something was to be done correctly, I’d have to figure it out myself.

This may be the most badass repair shop I’ve ever seen.

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Part 2

Here is a video by BadGizmoRepair. I had never heard of them before but they now how to make an easy-to-follow tutorial. But kudos to them for that.

They outline how to replace the iPhone 4S external speaker (antenna, ect.). It is the same process as a screen repair, excpept you don’t have to take out the ridiculous amount of screws on the border, so it’s half the time as it normally would be for a screen repair, maybe less.

The iPhone 4S speaker can go bad for a number of reasons and it’s common with water damage. Often times people never actually get the phone wet, but condensation and/or dirt can still penetrate the device causing the speaker to ‘act up’.

The video below was brought to us by the good folks at United iPhone Repair. Now, obviously this iRevive spray will not repair your water damaged iPhone 4 100% of the time. The suggestion that it can is false. If corrosion is the issue, then yes it can the majority of time assuming the motherboard is the issue and not another part. iPhone repair services all over the place claim higher percentages of water damage fixing than possible, simply because 20% of water damaged phones are fried. So anything over 80% is, for lack of a better word, a lie.

Still, this spray could be good for those wanting to try at home. If you are an aspiring iPhone repair tech I would not suggest it. There are better methods and a soft brush simply cant clean everything. So a good video that shows how to expose the motherboard internals and knock off corrosion. I just don’t get why everyone has to exaggerate everything. 100%….come on at least lie by saying 95%!

Found this and it is a pretty good story of a person who took the right steps in fixing their water damaged iPhone.

He did the right thing in disassembling the iPhone and letting it air out right away. You don’t want to keep powered on or hit any buttons when wet. Power off immediately and if you can open it up. Your phone is still at risk of corrosion when powered off but corrosion can usually be fixed, but when on and wet it the motherboard can get fried, which is a very bad thing.

If you know how to open up the phone and want to do the repair yourself, then the phone should dry in 48-72 hours. Waiting a week like this kid, while on the safe side, is probably longer than needed. Also, the whole rice thing is good but if you have disassembled not needed. If you can’t open up the phone it can help. Also, rinsing the phone with distilled water (with battery removed) can help get rid of anything that will conduct electricity.

The iPhone 4 is a great phone and a good choice for those not looking to spend as much for what really are just common upgrades (iPhone 4S). Like mentioned in the iPhone 4S teardown article, I’m a big fan of the iPhone 4 repair because it’s not messy. All you need to do for the most part is remove a zillion screws and know where to put them back in.

TechRestore makes some awesome videos. But the questions is: are they useful or just cool? They tend to lean toward being more cool than anything. My videos of choice, if feeling the need to reference youtube, generally involve someone talking and moving a bit slower. But regardless, here is their trendy disassembly.

GlobalRepairSolution gives excellent commentary and not so great camera angle.

As always, DirectFix delivers a great video.

The iPhone 4S teardown is very similar to the original iPhone 4. There is some degree of difference depending on the carrier but the main thing is that you stay organized with the screws and have the right tools of course.

TechLifeMobile has made a diagram of the iPhone 4S to help place the screws. Good idea and probably a bunch of other techs do the same thing. The lack of audio is annoying but here it is:

This is a very good video by iPhoneShopUSA.

The guys at myiBroke.com give us another angle to check it out.

And last but not least, DirectFix gets busy.

Personally I really like to repair the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. They are very similar, don’t require much, if any adhesive and as long as you are organized the repair will turn out perfect. The last great thing about it is that you usually won’t have to scrape much if any broken glass if you are repaired a shattered screen.