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Repair information and guides for the iPhone 6 that was released on September 19, 2014. Model Numbers: A1549, A1586, and A1589

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Will a replacement screen touch work after cracks?

From my experience: a badly smashed original Apple iPhone screen still works for touch and display. A replacement, after market screen loses much of its touch capabilities once cracked, even by a very small amount. This is true of my phone and a friend’s phone. Is this always true? The replacement screens I/friend had were not from ifixit. If the ifixit screens are more robust then I would consider one but I wonder if all replacement screens lose touch when cracked? The risks of damaging a screen whilst travelling are increased and I’d rather have a cracked screen that still works than one that doesn’t! I’ve had to put my cracked Apple screen back on for now!

To be clear, the question is not whether a replacement screen is as strong in terms of smashing, but whether a replacement screen will retain it’s touch capabilities after damage.

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There are a lot of people who assume that all replacement parts are the same and they don’t understand why some are more expensive than others (and assume greed :>). While greed certainly factors in somewhere, the reality is that the replacement screen market is highly competitive so there isn’t much room for inflated prices.

There are varying qualities of screens from aftermarket screens all the way up to OEM/Premium screens. Lower cost screens will have, you guessed it, lower quality parts, including the glass but also the flex cables, backlight, LCD construction process (hot glue vs. cold glue) etc. This has a direct impact on durability, brightness, color profile among others. You are also paying for a vendor that does thorough quality control of their parts and really stands behind them if you ever have any issues.

When you see low cost stuff on Amazon or eBay (among others), you are generally seeing the bottom of the barrel parts. These are the parts that pretty much every other major vendor has refused. Vendors do random checks of available lots and if the defect rate is higher than they'd like to see, they will pass on the lot. It doesn't mean they are all bad though and it doesn't mean there aren't any good parts in those lots.

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There are several differences between OEM and aftermarket screens, but I will only explain the touch. The reason that OEM Screens’ touch still functions when the top glass cracked, is because the digitizer(touch functionality) is adhered to the actual LCD and not the top glass. So as long as the LCD isn’t cracked, the digitizer shouldn’t be damaged either.

On most aftermarket screens, the digitizer is adhered to the top glass. When this top glass breaks, typically the digitizer does too.

Some after market screens have Incell technology. This means that the digitizer is adhered to the lcd and not the top glass(similar to OEM screens). So if just the top glass breaks then the touch should still work. As Minho pointed out, there are lots of different quality aftermarket parts.

Here is a breakdown:

OEM: topglass breaks, touch should still work

Incell Aftermarket: Topglass breaks, touch should still work

Most Aftermarket screens: Topglass breaks, touch should stop working.

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