Considering changing N82 fascia/housing? Your own Black N82.
Changing housing used to be something top Nokia models did in their prime (3310, 7210, 7610) with ease. They were intended to be easily user replaceable with the pay off that you tend to lose some build quality due to the removable parts.
Nseries focused slightly more towards build quality thus dropped the exchangeble fascia scheme. Since they didn’t focus on build quality too much, inevitabley your phone gets scuffed, scratched or worse but unlike the 3310 and the like, you can’t just whip on a fresh new cover.
With the N95 however, it was surprisingly easy, albeit with a tool for the front cover, as the back came off with ease as if it was intended for it. On eBay, you can find a selection of colours from the original available to non standard, such as blue and gold.
You can also find N82 covers on eBay which could lead you (it did me) to think that it’s similar to the N95 in what is essentially a simple shell of a cover.
NO it isn’t.
To replace the N82 cover yourself, you must prepare yourself for some major surgery. Disassembling is not recommended unless you have done it before as it is very complicated and can easily lead to an N82 looking paper weight.
Here’s a video showing you step by step of dissasembling the N82
A couple of weeks ago I purchased a black N82 housing set just to see if they’re up to scratch (non OEM from eBay). It arrived this morning. Unless I become significantly bored (and brave), I’m not going to replace the cover myself. But here’s some thoughts and pictures of it.
Tools
Crystal casing
Actual Black N82:
Whilst not as sleek as the completely black N82, it’s a pretty good imitation, not bad for under £10 with P&P. The tools required are provided, with additional extras of the crystal case and an LCD “filter”. Micro SD card door is black as well as the opposing side keys, with just the silver shutter button.
The cover itself feels robust. The finish looking surprisingly good, matte at the sides, glossy at the front, with slightly darker brushed metal effect on the camera. The only error I can detect at the moment (apart from the obviously mismatching front keypad) is the printing of the numbers/letters as they have shifted of a couple of milimetres. The spring assisted lens cover also feels very similar but as with the whole package, only time will tell if it is fit enough for every day and prolonged use.
Please note that changing the cover yourself will void your warranty. Should you be so eager or even require a change in cover, consult a Nokia repair centre who would also provide OEM covers (at a price).
If anyone has changed the housing of their N82, I’d love to see how you got on.
P.S. If like mine, the front is scratched, this can be relatively easily removed and exchanged without touching the internals of the phones. Again, unless you’ve done this kind of thing before, DO NOT ATTEMPT CHANGING THE WHOLE COVER.
Also, the weakest thing in this package is the fake SS-93 tool. As I’ve just found out, the tip breaks easily. Do not use this as you will break your N82.
Category: 3rd edition, Accessories, Fakes, Nokia, Nseries, S60
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Hey, thanks for reading my post. My name is Jay and I'm a medical student at the University of Manchester. When I can, I blog here at mynokiablog.com and tweet now and again @jaymontano. We also have a twitter and facebook accounts @mynokiablog and facebook.com/MyNokiaBlog. Contact us at tips(@)mynokiablog.com or email me directly on jay[at]mynokiablog.comSubscribe
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Sites That Link to this Post
- Considering changing N82 fascia/housing? Your own Black N82. | Last For the end | August 2, 2008
- My Nokia Mobile - Welcome | October 3, 2008
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What type of screwdriver is required, T3 or T5?
The video is a great guide, just be very careful with the lcd screen as it is glued to the backing a bit, I already broke one trying to get it out.
its a t6 thats needed i used a flathead screwdriver to pry open stuff and it worked. can also use credit card. i too broke my lcd.
looks great, i love your aticle
cheer,
Nokia News
Does the camera switch work on your replacement cover?
Also I have a black n82 that has scratches on the camera facia. Do I need to disassemble the entire phone to change the camera facia (i.e. the silver bit with the shutter switch) or can I do it by just taking the back off?
Many Thanks
hi i need to buy the n82 full black housing ,but i want to pay using the mastercard not paybal
thanks for the info bro, after reading this i think im gonna keep my silver n82.my dad brought a black casing 4 me bt the front keypad is silver n i know its gona look stupid.is there black keypad avaliable too?
I just changed full houseing of n82 took me 2 hours as i have never done b4 but works fine
I’d like to replace the front and back covers and keep the middle housing – to keep it simple and not break anything.
I’m just not sure if I can replace the upper back cover (D-Cover as the manual calls it) without taking out the flash, capacitor etc. etc.
Can anyone help me out? TIA!
Hello there Asiak. Did you ever make this replacement? I’m interested in doing the same thing. I honostly don’t think it will do anything bad. I’m almost 99.9% sure you can replace the front keys + screen cover, and battery cover + back piece.
I’ve started a forum about it here on symbian-freak:
http://www.symbian-freak.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38235&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
and on the 2nd page I make a post very similar to what you’re about to do.
To answer you question, this back piece is not connected to the flash, cpacitor or anything, it’s just a clip on piece. That why I’m so sure it will work.
If you watch the n82 disassembly video up above, skip to 8:03 and you can see how it just clips off.
Please let me know if this ever worked for you, I see it’s been almost 9 months since you’ve posted this. I’m getting a silver n82 very soon, and I’m going to do this replacement.
thanks!
thanks alot for this info & vid it’s helped loads!
Asiak you can replace the D-Cover without major surgery,
just pop the clips on the back as shown in vid you don’t have to take anything else apart.
It took me 4 hours to replace my housing, the video was really helpful, as I too had no experience before.
When it came to the display, I was so careful that I ended up spending moren than half an hour (due to the glue at the back) to remove it.
Now there is a problem: The phone doesn’t seem to recognize opening of the camera. I can’t take normal pictures with it. However, if I use the “barcode scanner”, I get clear sight from the main camera. Also, the flash appears to work perfectly well. Anyone any suggestions?
Dude, you have to get the magnet from your original case and transplant to the new one. It is a really small magnet, you will have to detach the front part of the camera housing…
I bought black replacement from eBay for my silver version.
Was easy to replace with video instructions from youtube. The keyboard was not the same as I had. Mine hade a sensor on the central button. I don’t know how it worked but it had an extra cable for it. As I mentioned the new one was simple and didn’t have it. I can also say the new buttons looks cheap, like made at home. When the work was done I was surprised the camera didn’t work, only the front little one. Spent the whole day searching the net for the problem. I could not find any differences in both cases. The new shutter was hard to open and close. That made me nervous. After 12 hours of battle I found the little magnet missing in a new case shutter. I had to place the old shutter in place of new. I don’t know why they made a such good replica without magnet inside.
Now camera works fine but buttons are very bad especially the central one. Can’t press it like before. It always jumps to the side buttons. I would not recommend buying this case, only to replace screen covers. Don’t replace keyboard!
@ Dima
Hi Dima! Can you point where is that magnet can be located? I’m not quite sure where is it located because it isn’t showed in the video. I really need help. I also have the problem you had. If it’s ok, kindly email me @ jmerrea@gmail.com
Thank you so much.
Hi, you have just saved me lots of hours on internet. I had the same problem with the camera, so I replaced the crappy switch with no magnet, with the original with magnet (the magnet is color silver, you cannot miss i, everything is black on the back, except for the magnet).
I still cannot get a gps position, though. Anyone with gps problems?.
p.s. I also cracked the screen, had to buy a new one on ebay.
Hi Pedro! Can u point it to me where it is exactly? Im really confused. Is it inside the back housing? or just at the back outside? Kindly please email me if you have time. chickencubes@mail2cute.com
As for the GPS, just make sure that the GPS antenna is flattened on the case. It should click when successfully placed.
Thank you so much!
Dima,
Thanks to your comment, I got a N82 housing change for a customer done
Was going crazy for almost 2 weeks because the problem was that the phone was so battered (LCD smashed, Housing smashed etc), that I did not know whether the camera worked in the first place
Finally found your post and noticed the missing magnet too
Replaced the back and voila, everythings working!
Very impressed with the housing too – though the front lens is not yet on so let’s see if this remains
Thanks again!
Hi, thanks for this page and the link to the dismantling video.
I had the silver n82 and alhough pretty smart i love the look of the black one.
I bought the black housing thru ebay from someone in China.
I looked over the instruction video a couple of times to get my head around it, then set to work.
The instructions are good and easy to follow, so all went very smoothly, until..
As Hammer mentions earlier the LCD screen is glued to the section under it, and as i tried to pry it out i cracked the screen and ruined it!
i bought a replacement screen thru ebay( woo hoo) for about £20.
Once that arrived reassembly was easy again following the instruction vid (but backwards).
i havnt changed the navigation key part because i couldnt work out how to seperate it from the bit its attached to and didnt want to break it and have to wait for more replacement parts!
looks sweet!!
Just one thing, if you follow the instruction video to disassemble, just rememnber you dont have to follow ALL of the steps, because u just want to change the cover, not change internal components.
thanks again
Shaf
hello ,
i badly need 2 replace n82 front cover..does the joystick include include in the panel or is it supposed to b purchased separately./?b the way wr can i gt the n82 cover.?Pls help.
In case ne 1 noes nethng about it plz mail to karthik.heavenmaster92@gmail.com
karthik.heavenmaster@yahoo.com
hi, i changed the whole housing, but my camera doesnt work…
it may be camera switch.. i turnes the phone back to its original housing, camera still didnt work…
any help?
thx
Thanks ALOT for the tip about the magnet!!!
I also have problems with the GPS being REALLY slow. Any tips?
غيرت السكن بس ما اشتغلت الكاميرا ولدورت على المغناطيس ولقيته وبدلته كمان ما ما اشتغلت وين المشكله
عالجو لي المشكله
After dismantling your n82, seperate the camera fascia(silver thing) from the body by pressing four corners. These corners can be found after removing the flash module. It is not shown in video. At the back of shutter button there is a small magnet (silver color placed in small holder). Take it out with a sharp object, put it in your new one, assemble it and voila main camera works.
From where did u get ur black fascia mean to say from which seller,I cant find any seller who is selling black n82 fascia with complete keypad flex,plz help for purchasing the right fascia.
I got mine from eBay years ago. I highly recommend against doing this unless this is something you’re familiar with.
Managed to break the speaker of my N82. The Nokia folks were cool enough to fix it as a warranty fault.