Two weeks back when I travelled abroad, I left my iPad 2 in my house and instead took the Samsung Windows 8 Tablet with me. Two bad decisions.
First is to leave the iPad in the house without telling my wife about it, at the reach of my 9 year old son; As any parent can guess my son broke the iPad. Second bad decision was to go to a Business Meeting where I had to present something with a “Developer” hardware, not much was wrong with Windows8 – which we will talk about in a latter post.
Broken iPad
When I called my wife from Singapore a day after I left she said you will to deal with something on your return. I didn’t expect it will be about my “loved” iPad. On my return I found a broken iPad (as seen below) and an innocent looking son with guilt written all over his face.
My first thought was how on earth my son manage to break the tough Gorilla glass of iPad. It turns out he was using it on the floor when accidentally (after much crying by him, I have to pretend that I believe it to be accidental) a timber piece fell from the bottom of a century old Burma-Teakwood chair (shown below).
I know Gorilla glass can be very tough and if cuts your skin it can seriously injure, so I was glad my son didn’t get hurt. To prevent further damage or stray pieces, I put some Cello tape over the broken area; surprisingly the iPad was working just fine, touch too was working everywhere.
I sent the iPad 2 (it was under warranty and 2 year Apple Carepack –both bought in USA) to Apple support in Chennai (India). Initially they quoted Rs.22,000 (~$500) for changing the glass alone, after nearly a week, they returned it saying they can’t do anything for physically damaged devices. I thought I will buy a new one rather than spend $500 for repairing, and it either be iPad2 entry level (16GB/WiFi model) or the new iPad (Retina display). I searched ebay.in and found iPads to be available from Rs.22,000 (iPad2 16GB WiFi) onwards, new iPad w/ 64GB & WiFi was available for Rs.43,000. Then when Apple said NO I had no choice but to buy a new one.
Solution
Luckily my friend told me of a mobile repair shop in basement of Chennai Express Mall (near Big Bazaar) where he got the back glass of his iPhone4 replaced for Rs.4000. Immediately I had my iPad sent to the shop (not authorized or affiliated w/ Apple). After 3 days and Rs.8500 (no amount of negotiation worked) my iPad2 came back fixed. They had changed the entire front-glass, other than negligible marks in 2 corners of the aluminium back plate, the iPad was looking as good as new (seen below). I was delighted.
When I sent it for repair I had “Reset” the iPad, so as I am writing this post iTunes is successfully restoring my iPad to its former glory.
As checked on multiple sites the glass cost is from 1500+ till 5900 and rest is uptill how much your pocket allows. no doubt all glass have different qualities.
Hi
I want to know contact detail of person those repaired your ipaid glass .
Thanks in advance !
Mahesh
I don’t remember the shop name, but I guess you can search them online. They are in Express Avenue Mall Chennai basement (near Big Bazaar shop).
Hello sir do u find any prob with touch functions?is it good to work?pls advice..
no problems with touch. it is over 2 years and works just fine.
I want to know contact detail of person those repaired your ipaid glass .
Thanks in advance !
Mahesh
Sir, can you please confirm if the quality of the glass and the touch is the same after the replacement. I too face the same issue but apprehensive about the quality of touch.
Though I suppose it is not a Gorilla Glass as in original, I didn’t find any problems with Display or Touch. It was as good as it was before.
Very glad to know that gorilla glass can be replaced as my motorola Photon had same problem a week back and could not get any reliable info on replacement from mobile stores visited so far. Can you please share the contact number of the store. That would be a great help.
Could you please share the contact number of the store?I’ve a motorola atrix that with a broken screen. Wanted to check with the store if they can replace with a new one.
Congratulations, you are lucky. Although quirky & broken icloud backup/restore works, it even restored old movies shot with ipad. What about win8 part of story ?