Why take apart and reassemble an iPhone when you can just watch someone else do it on YouTube? Fair point. But then again—why do anything at all?
My two or three loyal readers know I enjoy taking things apart and putting them back together. Yes, mostly watches—but smartphones are fascinating too. Ever since I saw a video on the Strange Parts YouTube channel, where Scotty built an iPhone entirely from spare parts sourced in China, I’ve had the itch to try it myself. He managed to piece together a fully functioning iPhone—every screw, every metal and plastic component, every chip—in its rightful place. I found that absolutely captivating. So, the big question: could I do it too?
I once wrote that the original purpose of this blog was to document how I upgraded my old iPhone 7. Remember that? I replaced the battery, the Taptic Engine, and the screen. Thankfully, when I did the screen replacement, I didn’t use the adhesive, so removing it this time was easy. The battery was a different story—I had used adhesive there, but I managed to get it off with minimal fuss. The headphone jack, though? That thing was clamped down onto the chassis like it was never meant to be removed. I gave up and left it half-attached.
I won’t bore you with every screw I unscrewed or every cable I detached. This is a photo blog, after all. Scroll through the images below: admire the four different types of screws used in the iPhone 7, the delicate connectors linking to the motherboard, the Taptic Engine, the single-lens rear camera. And think about this—every day, thousands of phones like this are being assembled by incredibly skilled people. Like I said—fascinating.
Oh, and yes, I lost one of the two Pentalobe screws.
And in case you’re wondering: I partially disassembled and fully reassembled this phone at least seven times while preparing this post. Why only partially at first? Because during those early tries, I’d take out just a few screws and remove one or two parts, then put everything back together. It was my way of learning the layout—where each part belonged and how it all fit together.
Enjoy.
UPDATE: After a couple of hours of careful searching with my iFixit mat, I managed to find the missing screw.
Kindly,
Olaaf
