Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • The HTC U11.

  • This poor guy just went through one of my smartphone durability tests.

  • And while most phones survive... this one didn't.

  • His death is not in vain though as this autopsy will show how to repair most everything inside

  • the device, AND how the pressure sensors for HTC touch sense work since that feature is

  • unique to this phone.

  • And maybe we'll see if a transparent back glass panel is possible at the end of the

  • video.

  • Lets get started.

  • (Intro)

  • Normally I would turn off my phone first but...

  • I cant.

  • Long pressing the home button doesn't work at this point either.

  • Since the back glass is not embedded into the frame like on a Samsung it is a relatively

  • simple process to remove.

  • As long as you don't slice too far into the device with your tools.

  • After the glass is just barely too hot to touch comfortably, Ill slip my thin metal

  • pry-tool between the aluminum and the glass, and work my way around the edges.

  • After the glass is up, I'll Stick my green prytool under the panel to keep it from re-adhering

  • back to the frame again.

  • And continue the cycle of heating the phone and slicing through the black adhesive.

  • The black stuff is what helps keep the phone water resistant.

  • So definitely don't trust your phone around water anymore after you've done any repairs.

  • On the top black plastic panel there are 5 little screws, I'm going to spice things up

  • a little during this video with some arrows I downloaded from graphicstock, they are doing

  • a #Creator2Creator challenge And since video is a big part of what I do, I'm animating

  • the .PNG images I got from their website.

  • There is a free 7 day trial waiting for you in the video description.

  • Only now after that panel is gone can i turn off the phone by disconnecting the battery.

  • There are no pull tabs on the battery, but at least the adhesive is pretty forgiving.

  • And will allow the battery to pop out of the frame without too much effort.

  • Under the battery we get our first glimpse of those pressure sensor ribbons on both sides

  • of the phone.

  • I'm taking special care not to puncture anything.

  • The battery is a 3000 Mah.

  • Ill link these in the video description as soon as they become available.

  • There is one screw holding on the motherboard in the bottom right hand corner.

  • Ill set that off to the side making sure to all the screws organized.

  • Ill pop the right pressure sensor ribbon off, it can unsnap like a little lego, Along with

  • the other three ribbon cables along the bottom of the board.

  • And the left pressure sensor, and lastly the power and volume button can also unsnap like

  • lego connections.

  • There are two signal wires, the black and white one, on the right side of the motherboard,

  • and... then... if for some reason your sim card trey is still installed, you can remove

  • it.

  • It has the same rubber ring around the tip to help keep water out.

  • And the mother board is free to pull from the phone.

  • The front and rear cameras snap off easy enough, Its really nice that HTC has finally organized

  • their cabling inside the phone.

  • If you watch my HTC 10 teardown, All the different unorganized connections made repairing that

  • phone a nightmare.

  • This little guy on the left is a 16 megapixel front facing camera.

  • And the main rear camera has a 12 megapixel sensor with optical image stabilization.

  • HTC opted to not include the OIS on the front facing camera this year.

  • Last years HTC 10 was unique in having OIS on both cameras.

  • Hopefully they go back to that with next years phone.

  • OIS is great for video..

  • Down here at the bottom of the HTC U11 are 7 more screws.

  • The adhesive around the center hole is the water proofing for one of the 4 microphones

  • this phone uses for its multi directional audio recording.

  • Removing that top plastic shield exposes one more screw, and finally the loud speaker can

  • be removed.

  • It still has the black signal wire attached to it, and interestingly enough it has the

  • water resistant mesh screen built into the speaker itself.

  • With Samsung and iPhone devices the waterproofing mesh is a separate unit usually resting on

  • the frame of the phone.

  • So that's interesting.

  • The charging port has 4 of the little lego style ribbon connections on the top, These

  • are for the front capacitive buttons.

  • And for the extension ribbon to the mother board.

  • As I was removing the charging port from the board, there was a ton of adhesive holding

  • it into the frame, which definitely helps with the water resistance.

  • The little metal circle thing you see is the vibrator motor.

  • There is also a clear rubber washer that rests around the USB C port to keep the seal tight

  • when it is all screwed in and held in place.

  • The screen itself is replaceable, using a lot of heat and patience it can be removed

  • just like we did with the back glass panel.

  • It Definitely wont survive the process and is not as easy to replace as the Google Pixel.

  • But it is still possible.

  • Ill toss a link in the description for replacement screens.

  • Ill have to get one for myself as soon as they are available.

  • And now for the part that is completely unique to this phone...

  • There is no phone manufacture that has ever attempted before.

  • Squeezable sensors built into the aluminum frame.

  • The theory here is that the metal sides of the phone can be squeezed, or flexed, and

  • it can act as a trigger or button for different apps, or features on the phone, like the camera.

  • Its not capacitive , because HTC says it can be used with gloves.

  • After lifting up the ribbon cable there is a plastic bracket, with groves to run the

  • signal wires.

  • This comes off easy enough.

  • And we get our first glimpse of the actual pressure sensor.

  • It has four individual joints.

  • And is extremely well adhered to the metal frame.

  • I don't imagine this can be removed without damaging it permanently.

  • Flexible pressure sensors aren't a new thing, This same type of technology was used inside

  • inside the ol' Nintendo Power gloves back in the day.

  • HTC is the first company to stick it inside a phone though, underneath metal.

  • I assume that as the metal sides of the phone flex when the device is squeezed, the resistance

  • changes across each of the joints, telling the phone that the grip has been triggered.

  • With a more ridged frame, this feature probably wouldn't work.

  • Huge thumbs up to HTC for trying something new.

  • And stepping out of the same rectangular box that most other cell phones are stuck in.

  • The ideal, most sensitive, squeeze points would be on the lower half of the phone right

  • where the sensors are located.

  • Getting the phone back together is easy enough, ill stick that rubber washer around the USB

  • C port and tuck it down into the frame, making sure no connectors are stuck underneath the

  • board.

  • Then after getting the four ribbon cables attached to the top of the board and the one

  • white wire cable snapped in.

  • Ill toss on the loud speaker.

  • The top right screw, and then the little plastic shield can go over the top of the whole component.

  • And the 7 screws that hold it all in place.

  • The flex sensor on the side rail goes in next with its little plastic guard.

  • I have zero expectations of this functioning anymore now that i've removed it.

  • But Ill still put it back anyway.

  • Mother board gets tucked down top first into the frame.

  • And then all of the lego like connections along the bottom get clicked in.

  • You'll feel them snap in onto the motherboard under your finger like a little lego.

  • The screen, the extension,and the pressure sensors on the side rails.

  • And also the white and black wire cables along that right side.

  • There are little metal clips guiding clips that help line the cables into the right spot.

  • One more screw at the bottom of the motherboard.

  • And lastly the battery gets plopped back into place and plugged in.

  • The plastic shield goes over the top of the motherboard with its five screws.

  • And I can do a test run with the phone by turning it on.

  • And look!

  • Its as good as new.

  • Now the back glass panel will definitely need its own adhesive, so Ill link some in the

  • video description.

  • But the HTC U11 back glass can indeed become clear.

  • There is a plastic coating, over the top of a super fine paint layer.

  • Its a hard substance and scrapes off into shiny pixie dust pretty easy.

  • It shouldn't need any paint remover like on the Galaxy S8.

  • I'm not going to do the whole thing, because that would be like putting a new paint job

  • on a wrecked Ferrari.

  • Ill see if I can fix the phone first before I continue any modifications.

  • If you creating stuff on the internet and want to try using Graphic Stocks unlimited

  • downloads of graphics, photos, and vectors I put a free 7 day trial for you in the video

  • description of this video.

  • Id love to see what you make, so tweet it over to me using #creator2creator hashtag.

  • It saved me time being able to jump on and grab some images instead of trying to create

  • my own from scratch.

  • Take a look at their library and see if anything will work for your projects.

  • The link is in the description.

  • Let me know If you have any questions in the comments, or if you need any specific parts

  • for your broken phone.

  • And thanks a ton for watching!

  • Ill see you around.

The HTC U11.

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it