[XPERIA X1 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Fliptil:
OK guys....

I managed to revive the Xperia tonight.... It has become a hybrid with the metal (original) front and black backside. The middle part is also left original. So the only part I ended up exchanging has been the back cover.

First of all; kudo's to HTC for making the Xperia somewhat sturdy (at least the inside is...). :rolleyes: The amount of mechanical havoc tha has been put through the innards of the phone are substantial... :o And still everything functions!!

After the initial assembly attempt a few weeks ago, I was sure that I had wrecked my phone trying to assemble it with the new housing. Some parts did not fit really well, and the (original) screws did not quite fit the (new) threaded bushings. Halfway through the assembly process I ran into the new chrome buttons not fitting in the new chrome middle part and I gave up on assembly for the time being. After recharging myself for a couple of weeks I forced myself to take up the task of finishing the assembly of the phone tonight... :o

First I had to disassemble the phone (I was halfway assembling it...) again. I decided to use the original front (had some scratch damage and a very small crack) to surpass the not-fitting thread bushings in the new part. This was a problem... One of the screws had settled in the not-fitting thread bushing and decided to not unscrew, but turn the bushing in the plastic instead. After trying careful and not damaging anything for some time I decided it was time for the hobby knife and screwdriver (as crowbar...). The new front cover did not survive this operation. The screw and the innards of the phone did however!! Reassembly using the old front cover was quite easy, as was reassembly of the back using the original middle part. In the new back part was the thread bushing missing for fixation of the speaker... :mad: I used the not-fitting bushing from the front cover as bushing for the speaker fixation. Off course after I made the bushing fitting by forcing the screw in the bushing using a sturdy screwdriver and a set of pliers. This bushing was hammered (carefully...) into the location where the bushing should have been.... This sort of worked. The new back cover does not fit as neat into the original middle part as the original back cover, but it did fit (with some force). The plastic lip that fixes the SIM card was a bit to long, so I had to cut of 0,5mm to make it fit the SIM card. And last but not least only one of the two new battery covers was able to get a grip on the phone...

Then came the thrilling moment to switch on the phone.... Everything worked as if nothing had happened!! So end good all good; I have a phone that looks quite neat (part brushed metal - part black) and functions.

If it was worth the hassle... I doubt it... When you've got a phone that is in pieces and you want spare parts to repair it (as cheap as possible and you like some hobbying) then go ahead and buy this housing. If you want a phone that looks as good as new (and you don't want to risk a heart attack or nervous break down) then I guess you're better off leaving this housing as it is.... For a phone that's worth a few hundred bucks I think this housing is not OK. For a scrapheap phone that needs revitalisation for a small amount of money than it's OK.... If I had to do it all again I think I would have gone for an OEM housing.... After all, I'm happy that my phone functions again so I can leave the TYTN at home. I was to stubborn to buy another housing...

This has become quite a story, hope it will be of any help to somebody. Now I must see if I can post some images....

Grreetz,

Ronald