Overview
If you’ve read our other articles, you’ll know that we’re not fans of “copy” phone screens (i.e. unofficial replacements designed and manufactured by independent companies). The quality is almost always inferior to originals, and often downright abysmal.
A more serious problem is that badly-designed copies can- and often do- damage the phones they’re attached to.
Recently we heard about an iPhone X that had been damaged by a badly-designed copy screen- which we go into in more detail below- so we decided to ask “Are “copy” iPhone X replacement screens safe to use or not?”
Bad Design- Copy LCD Shorts Out and Burns Phone!
We were inspired to write this article after hearing of a third party iPhone X screen whose bad design had led to a short which in turn melted and burned the insides of the phone around the connector(!)
It was deduced that the issue was almost certainly due to a badly-designed screen flex that used a layer of black paint- nothing more!- to insulate the traces inside it. Couple this with the fact that the cable lacked the flexibility of the original- intended to curve smoothly at one point- and had inadvertently been folded into a sharp crease during installation. This resulted in the paint becoming fragile and then flaking off at the crease, exposing the underlying traces.
The apparent outcome was that VCC_MAIN (the main power line) shorted to ground via contact with something conductive and… yeah, we’re guessing that was when the fun started.
It was noted that this problem might have been solved with a piece of thin tape, but- as we mention below- testing and refinement of this sort is often bypassed in favour of getting a screen to market.
Mismatched Circuitry
The electrical specifications of copy screens often vary significantly from those of the originals, placing demands on the phone that it was never designed for. This is already known to be a cause of damage to many older iPhones fitted with cheap, badly-designed copy LCDs.
However, it’s arguably an even greater factor with the iPhone X. Despite being the first iPhone to use an OLED display, many cheap copy screens for this model still use the older (and cheaper) LCD technology. This is very different from the OLED display the X’s circuitry was designed to drive. In particular, LCD displays require a backlight, plus the circuitry to drive that. (Since the OLED-based phone doesn’t include the latter, this has to be included as part of the screen assembly.)
It has been noted that the connector in general was never designed with the requirements of a backlit LCD in mind and that the ground path used by the dodgy screen above- and quite probably numerous similiar models- was obviously never intended for the amount of current it now needed to handle.
Testing, What Testing?
A lot of copy screens are designed and manufactured by obscure companies in China. Competition is ruthless, and many buyers- including those in the West- treat copy LCDs as a commodity to be obtained as cheaply as possible. In general, there’s not a huge amount of brand loyalty.
On top of this, there’s a lot of pressure to get to market as soon as possible, and it’s a constant cat-and-mouse game to outwit Apple’s attempts to shut out third party screens.
It’s hardly surprising then that most of these companies don’t have the time or motivation for the long-term concern of proper safety and quality testing. Generally speaking, if a design passes basic checks- i.e. it comes on and works acceptably- it’s rushed off to be manufactured.
Conclusion
We won’t pretend to be unbiased here, but there are definite issues with copy screens and their design, and those haven’t gone away with the iPhone X. If anything, the mismatch of LCD copy screens being fitted to the OLED-based iPhone X increases the risk of damage that could prove particularly costly on those high-end models.
