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Repair and disassembly information for the Samsung Galaxy Note20 Android smartphone. Released in August of 2020.

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I dropped my phone and now the bottom 1/8 of the screen is a white bar

As context, I currently have a Spigen case on my phone, so its pretty rigid, having survived wear and tear previously, even worse drops. However today I tripped up and dropped it so that it fell, then bounced into my radiator. This now means that the screen is in one of two states, normal apart for a white bar at the bottom, presumably where the screen hit the radiator; or desaturated colors through the screen, with flickering white streaks. Attached are photos of both of them.

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I have booted my phone up in safemode, and the damage is still there, so I can rule out it being a software defect.

There appears to be no noticeable damage on the exterior of the phone apart for a few scratches on both the screen and edges from general use.

Does anyone know specifically whats broken within my phone? I assume its internal and most likely something to do with the connections to the screen. I'd just like to know so that i can decide whether its worth attempting to fix on my own; taking to a store to get fixed or replacing it entirely.

Any and all help is appreciated :)

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Hi Jeremy,

It's a fairly safe bet you're going to have to replace the screen.

It's not at all uncommon for a screen to sustain damage with no visible cracks in the glass. Underneath the glass is another layer of glass containing the circuitry for the pixels that light up, and that sheet of glass is very thin and very delicate. In addition, there are connections between the etched circuits on the glass and the flex cable that goes to the motherboard, and again, those connections are somewhat fragile as well.

As is the case with most Samsung phones, you have two options when replacing the screen yourself; you can replace the screen alone by itself, or you can replace the complete screen plus frame assembly. The latter is the usual and recommended method, as it assures you that the screen is properly glued down and sealed to the frame. so for long-term stability that's the best choice. The downside to that method is that since you're replacing the frame, you basically need to gut the phone; remove everything inside the housing and transfer it to the new screen+frame assembly. Here's a YouTube video that steps you through the whole procedure.

Galaxy Note 20 Screen Replacement

The other method is to replace only the screen. You'll save a couple of bucks (not much, really, though) and you don't need to go through the process of removing and replacing everything, but you will have to carefully glue the screen back onto the frame after cleaning it thoroughly from the glue holding the existing screen in place. Here's the iFixit guide showing you how to do that.

Samsung Galaxy Note20 Screen Replacement - iFixit Repair Guide

I note that when searching for Note 20 parts and information, there are at least three other models that have similar names, so you'll definitely want to verify the parts by using the model number; on your phone it should look something like SM-N980F.

As far as finding replacement parts, they're still a bit pricey, being a large OLED display and relatively recent. As I mentioned, you can get them with or without the frame; the price difference is usually only a couple of dollars so it's really not enough to solely base your decision on. I usually start with places like Amazon, AliExpress and eBay, depending on how much you're willing to pay vs. how fast you want it. Here's an example of one that came up on my rather cursory search.

Super AMOLED For Samsung Note 20 LCD Display Touch Screen Digitizer Assembly Note20 N980 N980F SN980F/DS Replacement Parts

So if you're going to do this yourself, you'll need to decide which repair you want to tackle. Despite having to move all the parts from one phone to another, it's actually not that bad of a job; nowhere nearly as difficult as it would be on something like an iPhone. For long-term reliability the screen plus frame repair is going to be a better choice, but that's not to say there's any reason to think you would have problems if you glue the screen back on yourself.

I'd say go through the video and the guide and decide for yourself which one is right for you. Good luck and let us know how it all turns out!

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