[X Style (Pure) General] jason2678:
Oh, I've had so much fun with this since my MXP died. Just had to vent.

I'd decided not to pick up anything new and just roll with the old galaxy S3 until some great deal came along. Then my daughter remembered she has a Moto G4 with a smashed screen (not cracked, smashed is an appropriate description). I found a screen/frame assembly on Amazon for $35 and decided to make a run at fixing it. With the new frame assembly and the replacement screen already in it, it's one of the easiest screen replacements I've ever done. There's something like 23 T4 screws to remove, but none of them are at horrible angles or hard to get at. This is going to be easy! Seems like a good quality screen when powered up, everything working well.

Except the new frame didn't come with buttons installed. I pressed the old buttons out of the broken screen/frame, but apparently that damaged them too much. Despite my best efforts, which included assembling/disassembling the phone a few more times, I couldn't get them to line up with the switches on the board. Oh well, no big deal. I'll just order some new buttons. I pop my sim out of the S3 just to give the G4 a quick calling test, mainly becuase I wanted to make sure the slightly hokey G4 speaker was transferred properly to the new frame and working right; it almost doesn't line up with the grill at all. There's this 1 inch long speaker grill like the Pure/Style, but the speaker only shoots through like 1/16 inch right at the edge of it. Also, the connector from the board to the speaker isn't an actual connector. There's just this conductive plate that touches some pins on the board and the speaker that relies on a good pinch from the phone back. Test is good. All is well, except the buttons.

Then I go to put my sim back into the S3, and the former MXP nano sim slips out of the micro adapter as I'm sliding it in. The micro adapter then proceeds to rip the pins off my S3's sim reader. GRRR! My backup phone is now officially a wifi only device. Now I'm stuck using the Moto with no buttons. Between Moto Display and Nova Launcher Prime's gestures, it's actually quite usable that way. One time it needed a reboot that required careful use of a toothpick, but other than that it all went quite well with a buttonless phone for a few days.

My buttons have since arrived. The power button installed flawlessly and is delightfully clicky. The top volume rocker, however, seems to have slipped behind the volume up key. Unfortunately the way it seems to have wedged it occasionally runs the volume up to 100%, so it's kind of pressing and stuck. Now I need to disassemble this G4 one more time to give that volume key a little pop out and hope that this isn't the time I break a ribbon cable or some other fragile connector. I'll probably never push that volume button again and just leave it in there as a dust cap.

End rant. Thanks again to the group for the advice. This G4 is a great phone. I do miss the MXP's screen sometimes in bright sunlight, but the G4 isn't bad. It beats the 2012 AMOLED tech I was using with the S3. I don't miss the SD808 at all. There's really no noticeable performance difference with the G4's SD617 in actual usage with what I use my phone for; the MXP might have scrolled a bit smoother but not enough to justify the $250 price difference when both devices were new. I'm currently using it bootloader locked (mainly because getting into the bootloader would be a little sketchy with the current button situation) and I'm not hating it. It's breaking me of that pie control habit that's kept me rooting the last few years.