Pinkilicious Bold...Lens and All!
Okay, so I ordered a full pink housing from here. I received it yesterday and I couldn't wait for hubby to get home from work. I am one of those people that if you tell me I can't do something, it just makes me want to do that something even more ( I know, that is not always a great quality because there have been many times I failed!LOL!) Nevertheless, I knew changing the actual housing would be a piece of cake, it was the lens we were skeptical about. After researching crackberry and other sites it was determined that we could seriously ruin my lcd if we attempted to change the lens----but I REALLY wanted the lens to be pink. I know, I am spoiled. Plus I think my husband can do everything and I figured worse case scenario is I have to get a new lcd. So hubby carefully removed the original lens, it took at least 15 minutes to get it off, he didn't just yank it off.LOL! After successfully removing the lens there was a ton of glue residue left behind which we knew we needed to remove to apply the new lens. So off to the internet to search for a remedy for removing glue residue. Solution? Peanut Butter! Yep, we applied peanut butter to lcd with a q-tip and it worked perfectly. We did have to allow it to sit for a little while and we actually used two applications of peanut butter, but it removed all the gunk. SUCCESS! So after this was done, we put on the new lens and reassembled the phone. You would think I would be elated, right?
Well, after turning on the phone there was black spots---OH NO!! Two very tiny ones in the dead center of the screen and a small blob about the size of a pencil eraser in the lower right corner. I was mortified and thinking I should have listened to the experienced crackberry posters who warned me. In hindsight, I would not have applied any pressure at all to the lcd while cleaning off the gunk because I think this is what caused the spots. So, I found a pixel fixer (sorry best way I know to describe it) on you tube and ran it on my phone for a while last night. I woke up this morning and guess what?! No black spots in the center anymore and the blob on the lower right corner was almost gone. So I am hoping it will go away completely, if not I will be getting a new lcd. I can say though that it is not annoying enough that I will be replacing the lcd anytime soon if I do have to end up replacing it. UPDATE- All spots cleared up so no need to purchase a new lcd!YAY!!
In conclusion, I would not recommend replacing the lens. If you can live with the black lens and just change the rest of the housing then that is what I would do. However, if you are like me and want what you want when you want it, then it is POSSIBLE to change the lens. I just seriously would not recommend it!LOL! I was lucky, VERY LUCKY! There may be some experienced techs out there who can do it for you, but the price they would charge to do it would probably be a deal breaker when you consider the cost of the housing. So again, we did what everyone said was impossible by replacing the lens with a lot of patience, research, praying, and peanut butter. Was it worth it? My honest answer is..........ABSOLUTELY!! My blackberry bold is now officially---PINKILICIOUS.
*Now here are some pics, sorry for the looonng post, but hey, I don't post often so when I do I am making up for lost time.
Pic of lcd screen sans the lens
Side view pic of my new pinkilicious baby!
Pinkiliciousness at its finest!
I am pinkilicious...hear me roar!
Pic of custom vinyl applique and back of phone (I custom design and make all of my cell phone appliques and yes I sell them if interested, send me a pm)
Thanks for humoring me and thanks for everyone on this forum, my berry and I would be lost without you guys!
*Theme is the boldhearted theme by Nancy Drew*
Also, the quality of the paint job on this housing is flawless! The housing itself is lightweight and obviously the original housing seems to be of better quality, but for the price and color, it is all in all a good housing and I will keep a clear hardcase cover over the phone most of the time anyway and of course, a lens protector:) Overall, I wouldn't call it cheap, but not top of the line either, but it is certainly an acceptable replacement if you need color in your life.