Okay Geek Farm
iPhone4Parts White Glass Back Cover for AT&T iPhone 4 review
Jason Tsay
Are you tired of the black backplate on your iPhone 4? Or maybe you broke the white backplate on your iPhone? Instead of taking your phone to the Genius Bar, you can save some money by replacing the back yourself with a part from iPhone4Parts. But how’s the quality compared to the original? We put the replacement backplate through its paces for a full month to ensure we could evaluate its quality properly and observe any potential changes over time.
Features
- Brand New High Quality Glass Back Cover For iPhone 4
- Quality material, premium craftsmanship
- iPhone 4 OEM Glass Back includes lens ring and LED flash diffuser
- Features metal mounting tabs for screwing the two bottom screws
- 100% Perfect fit
Our Impressions
The white replacement back comes in a durable ziploc style bag which is well padded by a ton of bubble wrap along with another bag of tools - pentalobe screwdriver, Philips screwdriver, guitar pick, some sort of plastic wedge, and two other plastic prying tools. The disassembly tools are a nice addition that add to the value of your purchase.
Before we start the review, let’s get one thing out of the way - this is not an original replacement back from Apple. It is manufactured by iPhone4Parts and does have some differences from the original part.
Installation
The installation of the white back is easy - just like any other iPhone 4 back plate replacement - unscrew the two screws at the bottom of your device, slide the current back up, align the new back according to the clips, screw in the screws again. Of course, you should always take precautionary measures by powering off your iPhone and grounding yourself of any electrical charges to avoid short circuiting anything.
Quality
The first thing we checked on the white back was the lettering, which we did by compared to the black iPhone 4 back and the white 4S back. The iPhone4Parts plate has all the correct print in the correct location - Apple logo, model number, FCC print, etc… although the small text is a little different from the official Apple printing in the sense that the letters are slightly skinnier; they’re not as bold. Only under close comparison with a retail white iPhone will you be able to tell, so most people won’t even bother.
The surface of the glass feels good and does not seem to scratch more easily than Apple’s backs. The oleophobic coating is there, as we tested with a water droplet (the water should be able to retain its drop form rather than spread if there is a coating).
Now we did notice a couple things about the back. First of all, the plastic rim around the glass is slightly different from the original Apple part. It has a slightly grainy, rough texture as opposed to the smooth feel of the original. It also seems to be slightly more raised than it should be. iPhone4Parts does sell backs with different color plastic borders than the color of the glass, so it’s likely that they’ve made some adjustments for this. Secondly, when observed closely, the area around/under the camera seems to be slightly unpainted. You’ll only notice this if you look from an angle but it definitely is a quality control issue to loo out for. On the note of quality control, our replacement part came with a small blemish on the metal ring around the camera. It’s entirely possible that we were shipped a part used by another reviewer so hopefully this isn’t an issue with retail models.
While we didn’t have any significant issues with the camera, there is a noticeable decrease in quality, possibly due to the lack of the UV filter coating on the lens. This drop in quality isn’t as evident in daylight shots but in low light, shots can be pretty bad. While there is a silver ring around the LED flash, it appears to be just a rim of paint. The “diffuser” doesn’t seem to work as well so flash photography can have some pretty unfavorable results.
Overall
All in all, we’d recommend the iPhone4Parts white back over the $30 Genius Bar part, but only under certain circumstances. If you aren’t completely opposed to opening up your iPhone and want to save $10, the iPhone4Parts back is a good pick for people who have have cracked the back on their white iPhone. If you have a black iPhone and are unable to obtain the white replacement from Apple, then this replacement back would be fine if you aren’t highly critical of all the details being the same. For the most part, this replacement back is high quality and you won’t be able to tell the differences from the official back unless you scrutinize both side by side.
Pro’s
- glass is high quality
- correct text and logos
- comes with toolkit
Con’s
- camera lens not great
Where to buy
iPhone4Parts — MSRP: $14.97
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