How to Fix a Broken iPhone Screen

Kyle Wiens of iFixIt contributed to this story.

We’re all about recycling, but sometimes it’s better to repair instead of throwing it in the bin. In the case of electronics, it’s always a good idea to maximize your gadget’s life with tweaks and repairs that could salvage valuable materials (and save you money to boot).

For our readers who are also iPhone users, we wanted to give you a fix to a common problem: the broken screen. To get step-by-step directions, we consulted Kyle Wiens from iFixIt.com, a website that hosts repair manuals for everything from phones to lamps. Follow this guide to make the most of your iPhone now (or prep it for sale before the rumored iPhone 5 October debut).

Step 1: What Part Needs Replacement

The first thing to know to is what part you need to replace. On the original iPhone display, the glass, touchscreen digitizer and LCD display were inseparably glued together. Fortunately, Apple changed its design and the iPhone 3G front panel glass is not glued to the LCD behind it. This is great news, because most of the time when you break the glass the LCD itself is fine. The front panel is available online at iFixit for $70, a bit cheaper than the LCD itself.