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  • Before I start showing how I made my clear Galaxy Note 8, it's important to note that

  • I highly recommend not attempting this project yourself.

  • So many things can go wrong during this project.

  • I'll try to mention most of them, but still, it's an expensive phone so don't try this

  • unless you have nothing to lose.

  • Alright, now that we have that out of the way, let's get started.

  • [Intro]

  • The Galaxy Note 8 is a beast of a device, and just like how most high-end gaming PCs

  • are see-through, I think Samsung should offer a clear version to show off their top of the

  • line components.

  • It would be cool if Apple did it too - mediocre hardware is still interesting to look at.

  • I just like clear gadgets.

  • The Note 8 has Gorilla Glass 5 on the back that is glued to the frame of the phone.

  • I'm pretty sure they use some new kind of adhesive this year because I had an extraordinarily

  • hard time removing this back panel.

  • The phone is turned off at this point and I'm warming up the phone until it's too hot

  • to touch comfortably with my hands.

  • Then I'll slip a thin metal pry tool along the side edge of the glass panel since that's

  • the only entry point I could find.

  • Then gently cut away the adhesive under the glass with that metal edge.

  • Remember, we are working with glass, so any pressure in the wrong spot and the whole panel

  • shatters.

  • It's a delicate process.

  • I'll try and link the replacement back glass panels in the description as soon as they

  • are available, in case yours gets broken or is already broken and you just need to swap

  • it out.

  • As the phone cools, the adhesive hardens back up again.

  • I'll be reheating the phone with my heat gun about every 30 seconds or so.

  • Tucking a sturdy piece of paper or business card under the glass also helps it keep from

  • re-adhering to the phone again.

  • I told you, this is a very painstaking process - Samsung doesn't mess around with their water-proofing.

  • Finally my back panel lifts up and away from the phone exposing some of the plastic shrouds

  • protecting the internal components.

  • I'll do a full tear down of this phone, talking about the components and the OIS and the cameras

  • in a future video.

  • One thing I did mess up though was the fingerprint scanner ribbon cable.

  • I managed to slice through that with one of my pry tools.

  • I wasn't planning on using it anyway, but still, I'll try to avoid doing that in the

  • future.

  • The bottom of the phone, over the charging port, has 6 regular Philips head screws holding

  • down the plastic.

  • I'll just set those off to the side to keep them organized.

  • And I'll have a tool kit linked in the description that fits these screws.

  • The top plastics and wireless charging have 10 more screwsthe same Philips head screws

  • we saw at the bottom.

  • It's good practice to lay these out in a way that they go back in the same hole they came

  • from.

  • The wireless charging panel unclips from the metal frame of the phone at this point and

  • we can see the golden contact pads on the back that transfer the power from the copper

  • coiled inductor to the battery.

  • I'm going to leave my wireless charging intact this time around and I'll explain more how

  • I do that in a second.

  • The bottom plastics of the phone snap off exposing the charging port and headphone jack.

  • Things are starting to look how we want at this point.

  • The loudspeaker's built into the bottom plastics.

  • It's got that water-damage indicator on it.

  • I do want a speaker in my finished phone so I'll cut off the un-mandetory part of the

  • plastic, leaving the speaker and golden contact pads intact with a few of the screw holes

  • so it can reattach.

  • Perfect.

  • The battery has some separation foam on the back that I'm going to remove.

  • And now we look at the wireless charging itself.

  • The wireless charging has one little niblet up at the top that is a battery temperature

  • sensor.

  • This is excruciatingly important.

  • Without this niblet, your phone will not charge.

  • So this needs to be left intact.

  • Personally, I'm just going to cut around the golden contact pads leaving everything intact

  • but the plastic.

  • I want all the features to remain functional in this build.

  • I left one screw hole next to the contact pads to hold everything in place.

  • But, if you look closely, you can see the leads under the black stuff that go from the

  • battery temperature sensor niblet to the motherboard.

  • So if you are anti-wireless charging you can just cut around those leads, leaving them

  • intact like I did with my clear Galaxy S8.

  • But, if you mess up that niblet, your phone will never charge again.

  • My phone is turning on at this point and still functional.

  • So, so far so good.

  • Plus it can still charge, which means I didn't damage that battery temperature sensor.

  • Now for the back panel itself.

  • The super strong adhesive that Samsung placed around the outside edge needs to come off.

  • The glass is curved along both sides and it's glass, so I'm being super careful with it.

  • Once all the sticky adhesive is gone I can start removing the color.

  • Using the metal pry tool scrapes off the color, but it leaves a slightly cloudy laminate layer

  • underneath, above the glass.

  • This would still look cool since it's kind of like that frosted effect that the older

  • Game Boy colors had, but I want my phone to end up completely clear.

  • The laminate layer is extremely adhered to the phone and does not want to come off on

  • it's own.

  • I'll use some heat to remove the camera lens, it has a metal frame, so as long as I don't

  • put any pressure on the glass part of the lens it will come out in one piece.

  • This premium stripper will hopefully help soften the bond between the laminate layer

  • and the glass.

  • I'll spray the foam over the back panel and let it sit for about 15 minutes.

  • It really helps if you have chemically resistant gloves at this point.

  • You can tell that the stripper started eating through my fingertips on my gloves, so I just

  • rinsed it off and kept going.

  • Once I got a large enough piece of the laminate lifted up, it just peeled away from the glass

  • back entirely.

  • But now, if the glass breaks in the future, it'll fall away in large chunks instead of

  • being held together by that laminate.

  • You win some and you lose some.

  • I'm going to de-brand my phone at this point by removing the logos from the underside of

  • the glass.

  • They just scrape off.

  • I'll get my clear double-sided tape around every edge of the phone.

  • This is probably a good time to mention that any time you open up a water-resistant phone,

  • it will 100% not be water-resistant anymore when you put it back together.

  • So this project definitely has it's own pros and cons.

  • The tape all around the edge should keep dust out, but I wouldn't trust it around water.

  • My back glass panel is clean at this point.

  • A bit of glass cleaner got rid of all the fingerprints, and then the camera lens with

  • it's sliced fingerprint scanner ribbon, gets put back into place.

  • And the whole back panel can get set on the phone.

  • Now, I might be a bit biased, but I think this looks awesome, and this is without Samsung

  • even trying.

  • They could take 2 seconds and design the internals to be viewed from the outside and it would

  • probably look even cooler.

  • Like the black insulation over the copper wireless charging coils.

  • It can be scraped away like I showed in the video I did with What's Inside.

  • If Samsung used clear insulation around those copper coils, it would take the aesthetics

  • to a whole new level.

  • I did put my SIM card into the phone and got 4G signals, texts and phone calls all worked.

  • And even WiFi and Bluetooth were still functioning.

  • So everything's working as it should.

  • You can see both camera units, the iris scanner and front cameras, the s-pen holster, the

  • loudspeaker, circular vibrator motor, and wireless charging pad itself, with, of course,

  • the charging port down south next to the headphone jack.

  • So what do you think?

  • Should Samsung give us a clear phone option?

  • Maybe if there are enough comments asking for it below this video, Samsung will consider

  • it.

  • Share this video with someone you could see rocking a clear phone like this one.

  • Thanks a ton for watching, and I'll see you around.

Before I start showing how I made my clear Galaxy Note 8, it's important to note that

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