Apple has not released an official transparent iPhone Duo, so Phone Repair Guru set out to create his own version of the clear-back variant. With no spare parts available for the new foldable, the entire job rested on a single attempt that could leave the phone unusable if anything went wrong during disassembly or reassembly. The Duo already carries one of the cleaner internal layouts seen in a foldable, complete with a precise array of thin magnets arranged near the center that stand out once the outer layer is gone.
To lift the phone’s back glass, first remove the two Phillips screws that held the flash and rear microphone. First, the flash and microphone were removed and set aside for safekeeping, since you don’t want to end up damaging either and having to start over with the project. Applying heat to a MagSafe puck wrapped in paper gradually coaxed the wireless charging coil out, along with the majority of the surrounding magnets, all in one piece. However, there were a few stray magnets that needed to be carefully removed one at a time to get the spacing just perfect; any errors here and you’ll wind up with a sloppy phone.
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Getting the old paint off the back window was perhaps the most time-consuming aspect of the job, as it wouldn’t budge with paint thinner. So, one painful scraping at a time with a sharp blade, he was able to remove the old paint from the flat sections and around the camera platform, where it had adhered like glue. After hours of scraping, he had a glass that was clear all the way down to the Apple logo and the entire camera area, which was quite an accomplishment.
The problem is that thin glass like this is quite fragile, and even a small amount of heat caused it to flex and break. So he kept the heat to a minimum and removed silicone and metal supports one at a time. Getting the stainless steel camera surrounds off needed some heat and cautious prising, as the rear microphone mesh was eventually stored for later use.
It nearly ended in disaster when one of the magnets refused to sit properly. He was able to remove the glue and move a few other pieces around till it fit, but the pressure eventually cracked it. In the end, he simply flipped it around and inserted it where it would not be seen. With all the bottom magnets removed for the time being, the view through the rear panel was actually quite good.
Once he had cleaned out the coil and reinstalled the camera surrounds, he could replace the transparent glass and test if everything worked properly. Wireless charging began immediately, and the flash lighted up when he pressed the button. The polish is uneven, but the small magnets in the center of the glass are visible. According to the Phone Repair Guru, this is the second best clear back-glass iPhone he’s ever seen, and the entire process was well worth the effort.
