My Nexus One’s glass, or “digitizer”, was cracked during a bus ride. I have to say that I thought my phone was dead. But I decided to try to save it (it was only a glass after all). So I ordered a digitizer on Ebay – with some tools included – (You can find one for less than 30€) and I waited. I received it around 2 weeks later (Tuesday 23 November 2010) and I started right away my mission. First, I bought double tape, but I then – during the process – thought that super strong glue would be more durable. Then, I found a useful 40+ succession of videos showing the procedures to follow (I recommend You to take a look at the first half of those videos before to start, to know how everything works). It doesn’t show everything and most of the time You have to find yourself how to remove elements of the device. Anyway, this video was useful. Another thing, You really need to be organized: have at least 4 cups or recipients for your screws. You also need a clean place to work (and things to remove screws).

There were several critical steps during the process. For instance, removing the grey bottom part of the phone is really hard. You have to insist and try everything (I didn’t use a knife, and my N1 is intact). But I have to say that the most critical moment to me was the instant when You stick the digitizer to its frame (You need to clean very well the frame from the old glass parts and glue). You have to go fast if You use super strong glue. And this is the only moment when it went wrong for me, cause I used a glue not precise enough and it leaked a little bit around the frame… It’s okay to me, I won’t do anything about it, but it could have been avoided if I had a super precise glue. To my surprise, reassemble  the phone is quite easy (especially after having disassembled it), especially with that video (even if I have to admit that at this point I knew well how to do it and I was going super fast). But still be very careful at this point, don’t mess it up when You’re almost done. And the N1 has very fragile and small elements that can break really easily, so You have to be very careful and take your time. I spent around 3 hours to complete this operation (I went to the store to buy glue also). So You need time, tools, organization and the more important: patience.

Take a look at Our pictures, They don’t show every step of the process but it shows You how much You have to tear down your agonizing N1:

PS: I’m really happy to find my Nexus One back , even if it has some glue on its digitizer (I only see it when the phone is turned off). I don’t regret to have done that. By the way, I took those pictures with the Motorola Defy.