[proenca]

hi there,

I'm thinknig into changing my 9700 housing to a silver chrome one but have some questions :

- is it difficult ?
- does it envolve soldering ?
- I believe that is better to order a housing + new trackpad, to make thing easier ?
- what is the best place to buy ? no exactly price, dont want cheap chinese stuff. I'm looking atm at truesupplier... for example : Blackberry Bold 9700 9020 Onyx full housing faceplate cover Golden Carbon fiber :: Housing/Faceplate/Cover :: 9700/9020 Onyx :: Blackberry :: Housing/Faceplate :: Truesupplier - Blackberry Accessories & PDA Accessories wholesale Co.

- what is the difference that some housings say " The top cover and the bezels already attached and good quality " ; if the top cover and the bezels are not attached, do I have to solder them ?

Any other tips and commentaries are more than welcome !

Best regards

[Spiral_ouT]

Here is a video from ColorWare on how to replace the housing on a 9700



Without a doubt, ColorWare (colorwarepc.com) sells the Best replacement parts. Pretty steep on the pricing at $150, but you pay for quality.

[curve247]

I just replaced mine with colorware. The take apart isnt hard at all. The only problem i ran into is that my original parts are useless now. So make sure you get good quality parts.

Like I said the disassembly and the reassembly isnt bad at all. Just a couple screws and a couple clips.

I havent used truesupplier so I cant comment there.

[dLo GSR]

it's very easy if you have the long, blue tool shown in the video above. do NOT try the triangular guitar pick tool, it is a piece of ****. just follow the video steps (and there are several different ones on youtube if you need a different pespective). these tools are cheap on any of the chinese or other sites.

personally i've gone through 4 cases because i am fickle and like different colors. i went from stock to all-black (flat black) to black & orange, and last night changed out to pearl white.

i used an ebay-bought housing for the black one, which i had to solder (really you're just melting the tabs of the two pieces into each other) the top cover on myself and it was a little more involved. i don't recommend doing that. since this one was flat black, there were no issues with the paint chipping, etc. $18 for bezel + top cover.

i used cnn.cn for my orange & black one; the first one came with the top cover slightly misaligned and they replaced it for me for free, and this one was perfect. however after a month the paint started to chip. $10 for the whole piece (they no longer sell this one though)

for the pearl white, i used dealsishop.com cuz they have the actual OEM top cover & keyboard, and they ship from the US. the bezel itself is aftermarket as is the battery cover, and this came with the top cover pre-attached as well. the quality on the top-cover and keyboard are top-notch (since they are OEM, or as close to OEM as you'll ever see), and the bezel so far is perfectly fine. $35 for bezel, top cover, keyboard and battery cover.

although colorware is the best quality, i wouldn't spend the money on them because for less than half of that $150, i was able to go through 3 other colors for when i got bored. in addition, some of the tabs on the bezel and bottom cover are very thin and breakable; when taking the bezel and bottom cover back off they can break, and on a $10 bezel it's hardly a big deal, but on a $150 piece i'd be pretty upset. the OEM (your original) bezel seems to be made of pretty quality plastic, so if you're semi-careful you won't have to worry so much about snapping anything off.

[Rootbrian]

I'm staying with my bb's stock parts unless I really want to change it. There's a place in dufferin mall in toronto that does all the below/above said in replies, for those that don't feel comfortable doing it themselves.

There's probably a number of places in your hometown/city too.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[ride1210]

pretty easy, 2 bolts on the bottum, use ur finger nails to pull it out the bottum housing, then pull the sides out from the side, slide out the housing upwards, and done.

[illgodson]

One goofy but relevant tip I can add from experience, make sure the actual screen is debris free before you start putting the pieces together. In my haste I guess caused from nerves, I bought the colorware, that I didn't realize a hair fell on the screen, I close it all up and looks good I thought, as soon as an all white screen displayed bam there was a long hair all snaked on my screen. Long hair must of been on my shirt or something from my girl so it was really a nuisance, I tried to let it ride for like an hour but couldn't take it. Luckily the colorware was pretty quality and I was able to get it off without breaking anything and remove the hair.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[dLo GSR]

One goofy but relevant tip I can add from experience, make sure the actual screen is debris free before you start putting the pieces together. In my haste I guess caused from nerves, I bought the colorware, that I didn't realize a hair fell on the screen, I close it all up and looks good I thought, as soon as an all white screen displayed bam there was a long hair all snaked on my screen. Long hair must of been on my shirt or something from my girl so it was really a nuisance, I tried to let it ride for like an hour but couldn't take it. Luckily the colorware was pretty quality and I was able to get it off without breaking anything and remove the hair.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

wait.. how did you get a hair stuck on the screen? the screen is a separate piece.

[Spiral_ouT]

wait.. how did you get a hair stuck on the screen? the screen is a separate piece.

That's what I was thinking. I did run into the above mentioned problem with dust/hair on the screen when replacing pieces of my old 8320. Don't think it will happen with the 9700 though