A cracked screen is one of the most common reasons people walk into a phone repair shop, and how you treat your phone in the first day or so often decides whether a screen repair is straightforward or whether more of the device gets damaged along the way.
If your screen has cracked, shattered or started showing lines, here is what is worth checking before you book anything.
First, work out what kind of damage you have
Not all cracked screens are the same, and it helps to know roughly which one you are looking at.
- Glass-only damage. The screen still shows a clear picture, touch works properly and you only see cracks in the top layer of glass.
- Display damage. You can see black patches, coloured lines, a bright or dark spot, or the image flickers or fades.
- Touch damage. The picture looks fine, but taps and swipes miss, jump around or stop working in one area.
- Liquid or impact damage underneath. The screen cracked because of a drop into water or a hard hit, and the phone also misbehaves in other ways.
What to avoid in the first 24 hours
A cracked screen is weaker than a whole one, and a few common habits make things worse.
- Don’t press or push on the cracked area to test it. Pressing flexes the glass and can push damage into the display underneath.
- Don’t peel at loose glass or lift a screen protector off while the surface is broken — small shards can catch the display or the front camera.
- Don’t put the phone in rice. Rice does nothing useful for a phone, and dust and grains can work into cracks and ports.
- Don’t keep using it normally if the glass is lifting. A case and a screen protector will hold things together temporarily, but shards can come away and cut you or catch in pockets and bags.
- Do back up what you can now, while the screen still responds. If touch is failing, do the backup sooner rather than later.
Cracks, water and everything else
If your phone was dropped into water or the beach, turn it off if you can and leave it off. Water plus a cracked screen is the combination where a phone is most likely to keep getting worse, because liquid can travel through the break. Coolangatta and Tweed Heads phones see a fair amount of salt water and sand, and both are hard on a device that is already cracked.
Is a screen repair worth it?
For most people, a screen repair is worth considering when:
- the phone otherwise works well and holds a charge;
- the model still suits what you do with it;
- and the rest of the device — battery, cameras, charging port — is in reasonable shape.
It may make more sense to look at a refurbished phone instead if the screen is broken and the device is already struggling in other ways, such as a battery that no longer gets through the day. We sell refurbished smartphones in store with a 1-year in-store warranty, free data transfer and a fast-charging cable, so it is worth comparing both options before you decide.
Getting a cracked screen looked at locally
HocoTech Queensland is in Coolangatta and repairs phones and tablets, including screen replacements, battery replacements and other common repairs for Apple iPhone, Samsung, OPPO, Google Pixel, Motorola and Nothing Phone devices where parts are available.
You can bring your phone into the store, or use our Come-to-You mobile repair service if getting to us is the hard part. Either way, we will look at the damage and talk through what is involved before any work starts.
If your screen has cracked today, the safest next step is to stop pressing on it, back up what you can, and get it assessed. Call us or drop in and we will take a look.
