Review: Nokia N8 Case Replacement (disassemble and reassemble)

After one and a half year, my N8 got some scars and scratches. It definitely didn't look like a new phone anymore.

I didn't really care about a few scratches, but after the bottom clip (or battery cover, or however you want to call the lower plastic part) broke off I had to do something to fix it.

I fixed it with some tape, it was really ugly, but it fixed the problem... the bottom clip didn't fell off anymore ;)

Thanks to Leno, a user of my CFW. I got some spare parts for my phone.
Me and Leno were talking about battery life and replacement battery's, that's where I mentioned my problem and that I was annoyed, that Nokia wants me to pay ~30.- CHF for the repair.
Even on eBay, the bottom clip only, still costs around 20.- CHF (inclusive shipment to Switzerland).

So Leno was kind enough to send me some spare parts for free!

The parts he sent me didn't match the colour of my green N8. He sent me a full body replacement in black. I decided not to use all the black parts, but to mix them up with my green N8 and I have to say I really like the results!

Here is a picture of my Nokia N8 Green/Black:

Nokia N8 Green/Black

So after showing off my new fixed N8, lets go to the "review part" of this post.

This is not going to be a tutorial about how to disassemble and reassemble the Nokia N8, there are enough guides about that on the Internet.

This Youtube-video helped me a lot going through that process, I can recommend this video to everyone who wants to fully open up his N8:
Nokia N8 Disassemble & Reassemble - Case Replacement by LE55ONS

But something that's not mentioned in this video and also not mentioned anywhere in other videos or picture-guides about disassemble the N8 is, how hard it is when doing it the first time!

In the video you can see the men loose up a few screws, giving it a push here and there and the N8 falls apart. Looking at the video-tutorials on Youtube, it seems to be as easy as playing with Lego...

Doing it yourself gives you a whole different experience.
First I had problems to get the top off the phone, it was stuck pretty good (pushing a Credit Card between the gap helped me).
My second problem was that the Antenna was stuck and a sensitive part like that shouldn't be forced to come off, you have to be very careful.

Also most plastic parts inside the phone are glued together, its not that easy to loose the glue and not breaking the small plastic parts inside.
The dust and dirt that was inside for over a year didn't help at all to make it easier...

An additional problem in my case was, that I was mixing up the original green case with the replacement parts Leno sent me. His black parts matched each other perfect, but they didn't match my green case...

The camera button didn't fit at all, but I could make the other parts (volume button, sim- & sdcard-cover, plastic part around the 3.5mm (mine was broken)) fit into my green case by cutting off the edges here an there.
The bottom clip was the only part that matched without any problem.

I am really happy with the results I got from disassemble and reassemble my N8 and I appreciate the spare parts by Leno. Thanks to him my N8 feels like a new phone again!
(I even like the new black colour highlights on my phone more than the original green-only version)

But on the other hand I have to say (and I am saying this as a professional system engineer), it is not as easy to do it, as the Internet tells you.

If you are not 100% sure that you can do it, don't even try it!!

You not only void your warranty, you can destroy every single part of your phone... so even if it boots up after that operation, single parts could be damaged.
So you should always test all hardware based functionalities of your phone after doing things like this.

If you have questions about disassemble and reassemble your N8, feel free to drop a comment with your question ;)

Other opinions of people who already did things like this on their phone are welcome too!