I really do love how Google has embraced the right to repair movement when it comes to designing their hardware. And the fact you don’t need to jump through hoops to activate the fingerprint sensor proves you can have security AND repairability. Something Apple refuses to acknowledge. Great video my friend.
@@dikoman516 The Pixel 7 Pro is a $700+ phone. Paying $250 to fix it yourself is way cheaper than buying a new one. Also you get to keep all your data if you fix it yourself. As well if you turn it in on insurance with your carrier you won't get any of your data and you'll get a refurbished phone, that may have way more issues than just a cracked screen.
Did you watch the video? Hoops were jumped through to activate the fingerprint sensor. You should not have to connect your phone to a website, that may go down at any time, to get the fingerprint sensor working. There should be no calibration needed at all. It should just be a sensor, and any security hardware stays on the motherboard. This is 100% an anti-repair move. Shame on Google for this. Not as bad as Apple but still far worse than it should be.
Agreed. Apple and some other companies should be ashamed of themselves for their lousy repair options. Seemingly though they have no shame, all they care about is money and control.
Exactly. Im not a fan of google, I actually try to avoid them as much as I can, but I really have to give props to them. This is how self repair should be done, easy with a guide and a tool to recalibrate new genuine parts. Its sad that it has to be congratulated upon but yeah.
Nokia (HMD) is also doing great. I think companies should come forward to us. Already a lot of devices have turned into e-waste though they could be used by doing repair.
The fact that it supports the Pixel 2 from way before is even perfect. Meanwhile Apple only does this self repair "program" just to avoid legislation. This is the real self repair program. Though I'm genuinely concerned about the recalibration tool that's only online. With Google having a track record for sunsetting services left and right (the infamous Killed by Google), I'm certain any future recalibration of P6 fingerprint readers onwards is totally a bust.
@@dylanmooney327 the first iphone in the Steve jobs era might be the pioneer in the smartphone world but Android has seen a much faster development and iOS has become garbage since Tim Crook took over it.
@@danteerskine7678 it's mostly the deeper layers of iOS that suck, there isn't much fun to have with an iPhone if you want to do more experimental stuff with it
The important thing about this repair program is that the prices are actually pretty fair for genuine parts, this is what you call a real self repair program.
@@CyanideLucifer From the listing (currently with the Pixel 8 Pro), you can buy a genuine display, battery, graphite sheet, millimeter wave adhesive, thermal pads, and front + rear cameras.
Wild coincidence but thank you Hugh for saving a Pixel 7 pro repair at my shop, without catching this video I wouldn't have known google provided a calibration tool for the fingerprint. Tips for others who are replacing their 7 Pro screen and run into issues: - if the screen is black on test it may not be due to the screen, try holding the power button for 30 seconds to make sure it boots fresh with a new screen, otherwise it might not work. - if you can't seem to get the pixel to connect to the tool you can follow the troubleshooting on the site, but what worked for me is to download the google usb driver zip from the link, extract it, and while the device is in fastboot manually update the pixel driver with the warning sign in device manager by navigating to the folder with the files in it, hit install and it should recognise it.
I'm so happy to see that even if I break my new phone's screen I can replace it myself with relative ease and genuine parts whilst retaining full functionality. Great video once again Hugh!
Yeah! I've got a Pixel 7, and my screen broke so I replaced it through the same program. It was kind of fun, but I didn't notice the camera film until applying the screen, so I had to take it off and reapply it. New adhesive took a week to come. I'm glad he noticed it during the process!
@@vellozz8661 eh, just extra steps, but most smaller repairs are relatively easy as long as you read the guides to make sure you know where they might've placed a hidden ribbon cable
Listen mate, you're a legend. This saved me over £200 in repairs doing it myself. The icing on the cake was the fingerprint reinstall, i copied the url on the screen and it worked. Thank you so much!
Great video! Repaired a Pixel 7 last week w/ an OEM panel from iFixit; my reaction was similar to yours: "Wait, that's it?!" I have to remove, reball, and transplant three ICs on the 13 & 14 Pro Max for a proper repair (working True Tone & auto-brightness, with no 'NOT ORIGINAL' warning), AND THAT'S WITH OEM DISPLAY ASSEMBLIES! Waiting for i2C to update their programmers for 13 & 14 Pro series devices, so it is what it is at the moment, but Google is doing it right. So thank you Google & iFixit, and thanks Hugh for spreading the word about this. 😀👍🐧🐧
Before anyone asks, I REFUSE to use Apple's repair program, and I will not be a part of their 'service provider' community. Apple's nonsense about how green they are now, while at the same time sending techs MacBook boards that have been CUT IN HALF so they can ONLY be used as IC donor platforms (the boards appear to be undamaged) is hilarious. This is on top of their gross "just buy a new one" attitude, and I won't be a part of it. If that means more work to get someone's iPhone or MacBook working again, then so be it.
This is why Google won me over. They made screen repair easy by design, and now we can easily get the genuine part so easily! No more gambling on Aliexpress replacement parts, which are usually sub-par. So excited!
For a long time I've been a big fan of Samsung phones but when I discovered that they are going the same route as Apple making self repair next to impossible I decided to get a Pixel 7 Pro. I love the phone and so glad I went with a company that is repair friendly!
I've just moved from Samsung after seven years. I'll miss the two year warranty with repair at home. I'll also miss all the freebies I had, like headphones and free subscriptions. But I absolutely love the stock android experience. It always felt like I was fighting for control of my phone with Samsung. They always pushed their own apps as default.
I imagine it's because Google primarily makes their money through software, so they don't feel the need to milk their hardware customers dry like Apple does.
Those screens are very fragile. Make sure to heat it well to loosen the screen adhesive. Then make sure you look at the new screen to see where the frame on the back side of it is. You need to get your pry tool under the black plastic frame and carefully go around it. If you touch any part of the gold foil or scratch it, you’ll damage the screen.
I’m absolutely floored to hear that even Chinese off-brand OLED replacement displays are still really expensive with only $20 difference between genuine and 3rd party… wow. The tech has been around for more than a decade and it still hasn’t gone down in price too much… that sucks for borderline impoverished people out there that are forced to stick with broken screens.
@@Fataha22Yea but it's extremely limited and older iPhones aren't even on the program. You also have to get Apple to do the calibration and as Hugh saw, it wasn't very straightforward or appeared to even work originally
Thank you for this video. My current phone is a P7P. One of the major reasons why I got it was the repairability of it compared to Apple and others. Keep up the awesome work!
I really love the repair ability of those phones. And it is understandable that the fingerprint reader needs calibration, as it is built into the display and the old calibration won't match the exact position of the new reader under the display as it needs to look through the pixels of the screen.
Hey! I would love to thank you for providing me knowledge and confidence to influence me to fix my own devices. I broke my iPhone XS in August by dropping it in water and I literally just finished replacing my Grampa’s iPad mini 2’s battery. Thank you.
Hugh, if you have a broken screen like this and a suction cup wont adhere to it, try to use Clear Package tape and tape the whole display, the suction cup should work now.
@@thedanperl the connector for the new screen, that part is a pain in the ass, he just glosses right over it, doesn't talk about it at all. Make sure if your old screen breaks of you get it all, compare the removed to the new to see what all didn't come off with it
Well done Google! No cheesy fairy tales like: recycled tin or aluminum from cans. Just: fix it yourself and don't worry - it works elegantly 👍 Very nice episode 👍 Regards 👌🙂
Just finished the process. I used a heat gun. If you are using a heat gun, do not overheat your phone. It gets hot quick. My screen was cracked really badly so the plastic frame was stuck on the phone while the rest of the screen was removed. Pause the video and look at the phone with the screen fully removed. It should be bare metal and not black. Carefully remove all the of the plastic until it looks like the phone in the video. I had to leave some black glue along the bottom and part of the sides because it could not be removed no matter how much I scraped with metal. But definitely remove the plastic frame! The glue was really tricky. I didn't have it lined up right so I had to remove the tiny strip of glue and put it down again. I wouldn't say this was difficult as much as it was really detail oriented. I pressed down all of the random metal tabs because someone said that they broke their new screen because of the tabs had been pulled up and penetrated the new screen. The Pixel reset tool did not work unless you are in the fastboot mode. The instructions on the Pixel website will make you boot into rescue mode, which will not work. Follow the instructions here and get into fastboot mode. My phone works and the fingerprint and camera works. However, I am not sure if it's as water resistant.
Google has extended their warranty on the pixel 7 and 7 Pro to cover that camera glass and the camera modules themselves. You should reach out to google to see if they can set you up to get it repaired or send out a replacement to you.
I am not a great fan of the Google phone but this is good to see! You SHOULD be able to simply repair your phone easily. Well done Google, I hope you will lead other manufacturers in the same direction.
Oh my, thank you so much I bought a used Pixel 7 with the sam fingerprint issue and I couldnt find how to fix it. And now you're showing it on a sidenote in your video. I will try that today. Thank you
Thank you for a very informative tutorial! Especially the fingerprint unlock that was genius. This might be a tip for anyone about to do a screen replacement I activated the fingerprint to make sure it worked before I closed it in the video he closed the screen first then activate the fingerprint. I did it in reverse to ensure the fingerprint would work before I close the screen.
Just a note: While doing this repair a couple of weeks ago my old screen's frame didn't completely separate and I put the adhesive film on the old frame by accident. Looking at the guide on iFixit, this seems to have happened to a couple of others. Just be sure you have the WHOLE frame removed before trying to put the adhesive film down.
I did this myself the other week! Using your other pixel 7 teardown and ifixits guide. I'm so grateful the iFixit replacement had a sensor/camera piece already installed
Here are some tips: 1 After assembly a screen, be aware, on a Google website there are two buttons Get started and under Other available update options, go with the second one. The first one will push you to erase all data. I wish I knew that ( . 2 If you have Windows 11 it will be pain to calibrate, right now there is a problem, Windows 10 is the easy way. You can just find a PC with Windows 10 and you will be done in seconds. Good luck!
Just a tip for those that attempt this repair, there are these tiny pins on the inside and they may end up facing upwards when removing the old screen. Subsequently, they can end up poking into the new screen which can damage it causing a green line to appear. Happened to me, so make sure to push them all down, before installing the new one.
Can you ID where these tiny pins are? I'm considering changing mines due to some dead pixels but I'm terrified, didn't notice any pins in the video either. EDIT: after watching his tear down video I noticed them around the edges of the phone more clearly. Thanks c:
It is great to see that this repair is so (relatively) easy, compared to other phones. The display has the greatest chance to break, and will almost always be the most involving repair. Except for this one. Well done, Google. Apple, are you watching?
that's a pretty great self repair program all things considered... i am curious how it will be applied to the new foldable they announced... it's the one thing i dislike about my galaxy fold that i will be sol if i break the display...
This video makes me feel even better about my Pixel 7 Pro purchase. I love the phone, and knowing that it's relatively easy (compared to an iPhone) to repair a cracked screen makes it that much better in my mind.
I watched this. I noted the "remove the top plastic before doing the flex cable". ......I then remembered this video while removing that plastic while my flex cable was already attached...... Great video though thank you.
Been wanting a Pixel for a while, this has just sold me on it. Hope Google sticks with this, I'm sure people will keep with pixel as they're sick to death of unrepairable phones
I'm honestly not a big fan of the "edgeless" displays. I even waited until 2022 to get my Motorola Edge because the 2021 model still had that "edgeless" screen display.
@@hezekiahwallace2412 I have a Pixel 6, I really only care about the camera and software experience. If Motorola got a better schedule I'd gladly buy an edge or Moto G Stylus
@@NoahDoane I sincerely not a fan of AMOLED screen but I hate these curved display as they look fragile (except for the new honor x9a and Huawei mate 50 pro) and a pain in the ass to repair. I sincerely prefer the old school flat panel
Now I really don't feel bad about being in the Google ecosystem with phones, I just had my pixel 6 that I had since December of 21 start acting weird, the top 20% of the screen was intermittently registering or not registering touch and phantom tapping the screen. And I had used asurion through my purchase on the Google store to replace my device for $99 US, it seems like they will most likely be swapping out the battery and display, and sending it out to someone to replace their busted phone. This is honestly really awesome to know how repairable those devices are, now I know I can order parts off of Ifixit if I need to after my extended warranty lapses on this phone in December of this year. I really love these devices, and it's great to know that in comparison to an iPhone, I can keep this for a long time and still get official parts.
That's quite amazing. It seems that Google broke from the herd and did this program properly. I'm always surprised by how little flack companies get when they make overpriced parts, and exclusively for brand new models that are unlikely to need them in the first place. Let's hope others are shamed into copying Google, just in this one area, of course!
Wow! It amazes me what google does for self-repair program. And thanks Hugh for mentioning the protective film on the selfie camera. It's an important detail a technician might miss. Love from London ❤
I wonder how many people have missed that hidden piece of protective film and have had to take the camera apart again ......... seems a bit silly not to make it far more obvious.
Please take care when replacing the screen. There are some sharp metal tabs all over the inside of the phone, idk what role they have. When removing the old adhesive I accidentally touched one of those tabs, and bent it 90 degrees upwards. They are tiny and they can be bent at the slightest touch. When I pressed the replacement screen back on the phone, that sharp pointy tab punctured the thin copper film of the display and damaged it, ruining my attempt to repair. Had to order another screen, because I had a black dot and a green line on the screen.
I have a Samsung A050 in pristine condition with a strong battery. I take good care of it and hope to keep it operating long into the future. I don't spend my life peering into it, but I do carry it in a cushioned case in my cargo pocket. Hopefully I won't have to buy a new phone for a good long time. It's easy to see how so many people walk around clutching their phones ... and occasionally dropping them. The damage on some of Hugh's project phones are simply the result of careless handling.
Also DON'T FORGET TO REMOVE THE STICKER from the front camera hole on the back of the screen otherwise your selfie camera will be totally black. It is usually a black sticker and easy to miss and you'll risk damaging your new screen by trying to remove the new screen, after you've put the device back together.
you can get a referb screen with fingerprint reader usually for cheaper at least were i am and what do you mean "somehow transfer the fingerprint reader", while it carries a slight risk it's pretty easy with a bit of heat
Great to see that Google is sticking true to its commitment to feasible self-repair, unlike a certain half-eaten fruit that only did it so it can legally say it has one. Lots of people forget that just having the option isn't enough; the option can't be a Hobson's choice. And that applies to every part of the choice to repair; relative price, availability, ease of repair, availability of repair service etc.
Its a good start to offer original parts available for anyone. But price is still very high. Sreen costs almost half a proce of the phone. With an IPS panel this might be a three times cheaper.
I have a P7 that has the top left corner coming loose but that's it... debating on spending all this money to replace it (it's $130 USD) or trying to just squeeze in some adhesive and resetting that corner.. either way, great video and thanks for pointing out some easy to miss stuff!
Thanks for the video. It gave me the confidence to fix the screen myself. The only thing that I am having issues with is getting the fingerprint sensor calibrated. Could you please do a quick video showing step by step process of using the calibration tool with a windows computer?
