[HTC Flyer, EVO View 4G] WickeR:
Beware! Learn from my adventures.

So, I took apart my wife's HTC Flyer this past week to replace the screen. While the Techrepublic teardown shots are helpful, it's missing about ten steps at the end that involve actually removing the screen. I've messed around with tabletpc's and laptops before but not cell phones so wasn't really prepared for the fact that you have to pretty much take the whole Flyer apart in order to be able to get the screen off. As far as I can tell, no one else has documented taking one of these apart to replace the screen. I will write up something more involved when I get a chance but here's a couple things that I found out about the screen.

1. The part of the screen that you touch with your finger and stylus is not glass! It is a heavy plastic layer that is adhered to the glass digitizer. It is clear with the black around the edge and cutout for the HTC logo. This was the part of my screen that had chips in it. I tried to use a screen repair kit to repair the chips (which I did) but it took off the outer, darker finish in the process. So I moved to the next step, replacing the screen. I didn't know about the outer layer, otherwise that would have been much easier to replace. But, I don't think you can get that part unless you have connections with HTC.

2. The outer layer/digitizer glass comes as one part (along with the n-trig connector). I ordered mine for around $50 on ebay.

3. You will need to take the back off and much of the motherboard to be able to disconnect the n-trig connector.

4. Taking the screen off will take heat. I used a hair dryer but more heat could be better although you have to be careful of the lcd underneath. My digitizer broke while removing and ending up putting a small gouge in the lcd. I was able to fix the lcd well enough, just be careful.

5. HTC used a buttload of sticky tape to secure the glass to the lcd and case. My cheap blue pry tool quickly broke so I ended up using a plastic butter knife to separate digitizer from the case. Once off, I used Goo Be Gone to get rid of all the sticky tape from it. I'm ready to put new tape on but I'm not sure exactly what they used. Anyone have any ideas? It's a black, closed cell sticky tape that is really stringy when it comes to taking off. Most of the stuff I see for sale online seems to be really thin stuff. I picked up some Scotch Outdoor Mounting Tape by 3M that looks to be similar that I am going to experiment with. Anyone know for sure what they used?

6. I put the new digitizer on temporarily to check to see if it worked and it did (yay)! But I still need need to cut all of the tape and put it in the right spot. There are also these little plastic tabs that go on the backside of the screen. They are used to refract light from the led's to light up the outside navigation buttons. Be careful not to lose these. I did, and had to make one. We'll see how I did once I get it back together.

7. I found that there's not a lot of parts out there for these things. At least not compared to cell phones. Now that they're being discontinued, I don't know if that is going to help.

Anyway, I took a few pics along the way and will try to write something up when I get more time. I just wanted to give folks a heads-up on the screen and how it's put together. I can't imagine the View's screen is any different. So whatever they're using for the outer layer isn't Gorilla Glass. Or is it?

UPDATE:

Here are the promised photos of this disaster. :-) I'll add the commentary tomorrow (I'm tired).